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CNN NEWSROOM

Russia Slaps Turkey with Economic Sanctions; Prominent Kurdish Human Rights Lawyer Killed; Colorado Gunman in Custody; Pontiff Concludes Trip to Uganda; Weather Highlights. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired November 23, 2015 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An economic strike back: Russia hits Turkey with sanctions for the downing of a fighter jet. Turkey also has a potential assassination on its hands, a well-known Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist, shot dead in the country's south.

Hello, everyone. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: And thank you for joining us.

Our top story: Russia is slapping Turkey with economic sanctions. It is in response to the shootdown of one of its warplanes last week by Turkey. Among the measures, a ban on certain imported goods from Turkey. And Turkish citizens will not be allowed to travel to Russia without a visa.

Russians wanting to visit Turkey will no longer be able to buy travel packages from Russian tour operators and travel agents. A Kremlin spokesman explained why Russian president Vladimir Putin imposed the sanctions.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The president is mobilized, fully mobilized, mobilized to the extent that circumstances demand. The circumstances are unprecedented. The gauntlet throwdown to Russia is unprecedented. So naturally the reaction is in line with this threat.

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ALLEN: In Southeastern Turkey, a prominent pro-Kurdish lawyer was killed in a gun battle caught on video. CNN's Ian Lee is in Turkey. He has more on the potential assassination and who may be behind it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dramatic footage showing the moments surround the killing of Tahir Elci in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey. Now the moment, though, that isn't shown is the moment where he's actually killed and who killed him.

Elci is a prominent Kurdish human rights lawyer. He's been calling for peace between the Turkish government and Kurdish PKK fighters. Now this is a battle that's been going on ever since the cease-fire broke after June's parliamentary elections.

Hundreds of people have been killed. He had just given a press conference at a prominent historical site that has been damaged. He was calling for peace when this gunfight broke out.

The prime minister says it could be either one of two things, either, A, he was assassinated or, B, he was just an innocent bystander caught up in a shoot-out. They say that an investigation will determine that.

The president of Turkey has also expressed his grief but it's important to note that last month, while on CNN Turk, Elci said that the PKK, which is declared a terrorist organization not only by Turkey but the United States, he says that it is not a terrorist organization, that there should be some political dialogue between them and the Turkish government.

Well, right after that he was arrested. He was interrogated. He was released. But he received a number of death threats.

Well, tonight there was protests on the street of Istanbul. There are wider protests in Southeastern Turkey. The area of Diyarbakir where he was killed right now is under curfew -- Ian Lee, CNN, Istanbul.

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ALLEN: Two Turkish police officers were also killed in that shooting.

Well, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson calls the Syrian refugee crisis a great human tragedy but still does not support allowing Syrians into the U.S.

Carson visited refugees in Jordan Saturday. He also met with medical personnel and government officials. In a campaign e-mail, Carson praised the Jordanian government for taking in so many refugees but went on to say bringing thousands of Syrians to the U.S. will do nothing to solve the crisis.

We turn now to the latest in a shooting at a women's health clinic in the U.S. Three people died in the attack in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Friday. A vigil was held Saturday for Officer Garrett Swasey, the 44-year-old rushed to the scene Friday to help. Swasey was a father of two.

Police say Robert Dear, this man, is the gunman from Friday's nearly six-hour siege. A law enforcement official tells CNN Dear expressed anti-abortion and anti-government views. CNN's Dan Simon spoke with a woman held hostage inside the clinic.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you immediately recognize those as gunshots?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I didn't. It took someone to tell me to get down, that there is a gunshot. Even with then I couldn't register because it felt so surreal. You could clearly tell it was in the building. It was near, it was close.

One of the ladies beside me started screaming. I had to tell her remain calm and everything's fine because, like I said, the gunshots were there, clear as day. You can hear it.

We actually had a gun bullet go through our wall, it came through one and went through the other and you could see the --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- gunpowder and smell it. And it was just frightening at that point. We all just wanted to get out.

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ALLEN: Dear surrendered after the shootout. He's in jail and expected in court Monday.

Pope Francis is on the move again after concluding his visit to Uganda. He thanked Ugandans for their generosity in welcoming refugees but notably he did not criticize the country's anti- homosexual laws.

Pope Francis held an open-air mass in one of the country's most famous cathedrals, where he preached tolerance and underlined the importance of uplifting people in poverty.

The pope will now visit the Central African Republic, a country fraught with violence and poverty. CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen says that, while this marks the first time a pope has visited an active war zone, Francis believes he can make a difference.

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JOHN ALLEN, CNN SR. VATICAN ANALYST: What difference can he make?

That remains to be seen but this is a country, as you say, that's been locked in a bloody civil war for the last couple of years. It's a place where the violence basically breaks Christian Muslims and where 80 percent of the population is Christian.

And so I think Pope Francis believes that if he hits the ground and he calls on those organized Christian militias, the anti-balaka militias, if not to lay down their arms, at least to observe a cease-fire to allow peaceful elections to unfold, he could make a real difference.

Now we'll see if that happens. But I think this is another indication of how committed Francis is to trying to be a peace pope.

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ALLEN: The Central African Republic will be the pope's last stop in Africa.

Protests have sprung up around the world ahead of Monday's COP 21 conference in Paris. COP 21 will host 40,000 visitors and delegates trying to come to an agreement on how to stabilize the environment and keep the world from warming, from Australia and New Zealand to Geneva and the Philippines thousands of people have marched to bring awareness to climate change and this conference.

Meantime, 24 Greenpeace activists were placed under house arrest in Paris. The interior minister says they were suspected of planning what he called violent protests; demonstrations of any kind have been banned in the French capital following the recent terror attacks.

These climate talks are taking place at a crucial time. United Nations figures show a staggering 90 percent of all major disasters since 1995 have been weather-related. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis has more about that for us. She's here from the Weather Center.

Hey, Karen.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And, Natalie, as you take a look at the weather-related natural disasters, there are two, two that top the list. You can talk about heat waves, it takes hundreds if not thousands of lives, landslides, also fires and drought, but take a look at this. It is floods and also tropical storms that impact the weather around the world and claim the most lives.

What we do see, though, is primarily five countries that are impacted the most as we look around the world. The United States takes the top spot with about 472 natural disasters that have occurred over the last 30 years. And these have been huge events.

But what rounds out the top five -- China, India, Philippines and Indonesia. But it's Myanmar that sees the most fatalities. A lot has to do with its geography, the tropical systems, the tidal basin, the warning system used to let the people know who live around those coastal areas that they could be greatly impacted, like we saw in 2008, with Cyclone Negar (ph).

And what we did see, that people were not adequately given enough warning to evacuate these densely populated areas. And about 40 percent of these natural -- national weather disasters, 40 percent of the people that are killed, about a quarter of a million people, that occurs during tropical cyclones or tropical systems. The others don't even come close, Natalie. So there will be a lot of talk about this over the next week or so.

ALLEN: Yes, and CNN will cover this COP 21 summit there in Paris.

Thank you, Karen.

A team of experts in Japan is expected to weigh in soon on whether there is a hidden chamber behind King Tut's tomb.

How about that one?

They're analyzing radar images from the tomb. Experts said Saturday that chances are high there is such a chamber, which could be the resting place of the lost queen, Nefertiti. She died in the 14th century BC and is thought to be King Tut's stepmother.

ALLEN: Well, Cleo Rocos had a long career on television as the sidekick to British comedy star, Kenny Everett, that is until she went --

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ALLEN: -- on a life-changing trip to Mexico.

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CLEO ROCOS, ACTOR (voice-over): As a child we lived all over the world. I was lucky enough to travel to many, many countries. With every year that passes I realize what a crucial education travel is.

My name is Cleo Rocos and I'm creator and brand owner of AquiRiva Tequila. So far we've sold 100,000 bottles of tequila and next year we're on target to sell a quarter of a million.

It tastes like your first-ever holiday.

My past life has been spent in comedy, primarily on television; I worked with the most fantastic man ever, Kenny Everett, on a throbbingly fabulous comedy show. It was just the best and biggest show in the '80s here in the U.K.

Fifteen years ago, I went to Mexico for the first time and I was staying in a little boutique hotel. And I saw this rather fabulous and glamorous lady. She was in her 60s and she was drinking from a long, fluted glass.

And I asked the waiter, "What that lady drinking?"

And he said, "She's drinking tequila."

And I said, "Please, could you bring me a glass of what she is drinking?"

As soon as I tasted it, I realized at that point I'd never had a real tequila in my life.

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ROCOS (voice-over): And this tequila has 100 percent agave written on the label. I don't recommend you drink it because that's the sort of tequila which is called a mixed tequila and what ends up making you feel like you're on a bobsled to hell.

That was my eureka moment. And I started to develop a passion for tequila. I went on many trips to Mexico. I went to many master classes. I spoke to many other tequila creators. I went to distilleries. I went to the fields where the agave plants are grown. I learned everything I could.

If it had not been for that life-changing trip, I would not have been so inspired to go and make my own brand. So I have everything to thank Mexico for.

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ALLEN: From a job on television to tequila. There's hope for us all.

Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen. CNN "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next.