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Dhaka Attackers all Bangladeshi; Erdogan Visits Makeshift Memorial for Victims; Remembering Elie Wiesel. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired July 3, 2016 - 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): One day after a deadly siege at a cafe in Bangladesh, police release new details about the attackers.

Honoring the messenger to mankind: leaders around the world pay their respects to author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

Plus: too close to call, results of Australia's election may not be known until Tuesday. But that's not stopping the prime minister from smiling.

All ahead here in on CNN, thanks for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: Details are emerging about the gunman responsible for the Bangladesh terror attack. A police officials tells CNN the men who stormed a Dhaka cafe Friday killing 20 hostages and two police officers were all Bangladeshi citizens.

Bangladeshi troops ended the siege Saturday and 13 hostages were rescued. A new video is believed to show commandos moving in to end the siege. CNN cannot independently confirm its authenticity. But it appears to be recorded from an apartment adjacent to the restaurant.

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ALLEN (voice-over): The gunshots there that ended it all. Our Sumnima Udas joins us now from New Delhi live.

And certainly, Sumnima, many in Bangladesh taken aback by this brazen massacre.

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Natalie. It's a day of national morning in Bangladesh, a day when Bangladeshis will be wearing black badges and heading to sites of worship, churches, mosques, temples as well.

It's been a horrific 38 hours or so for Bangladeshis. This is a country where people have gotten used to Islamic attacks against individuals. We've been talking about it for months.

In the past two years, more than 40 individuals have been killed. These are bloggers, these are atheists, these are writers, people from minority groups. But what happened yesterday, on Friday, is something Bangladeshis had never seen before.

The fact that it happened on the last Friday of Ramadan, as people were really having their meals, looking to end their fast for the day and beginning their evening prayers, the fact it happened at this restaurant in one of the poshest parts of Bangladesh, a restaurant that so many expats and locals would frequent, that's really shocked a lot of people in Dhaka.

And yesterday in her speech, in her address to the nation, the prime minister of the country mentioned this, saying, "What kind of Muslims kill Muslims during Ramadan?"

And she called for an end for this kind of thing and an end to killing innocent people in the name of Islam. And as we know now, Natalie, all of the attackers were Bangladeshi citizens and at least five of them were people that the police, the authorities had been tracking for quite some time and had been wanting to arrest for quite some time -- Natalie.

ALLEN: The prime minister spoke about that these Muslims don't have a true religion that killed these people. But it's been reported, has it not, that the government has been in denial that it has a problem with extremism that's been growing across the country?

UDAS: That's right because for all the attacks that have happened in the past, against these individuals, every time the government has always said that -- and a lot of times ISIS or Al Qaeda has taken credit for those attacks. At that time, the Bangladesh government has always said that these forces, these Al Qaeda and ISIS, they're not present in the country.

And they always attributed these attacks to homegrown militants and they've always sort of downplayed the events.

They were almost in denial. So this is the first time really that we're seeing the prime minister of the country coming out and speaking so forcefully against these kinds of attacks, saying that Islam is a religion of peace and these sorts of youth who are misguided by certain forces, that they're maligning the religion -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Sumnima Udas for us in New Delhi, thank you.

Turkey is honoring the lives of the 44 people killed in last week's terror attacks as authorities continue --

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ALLEN: -- their investigation there. On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a makeshift shrine for the dead at Ataturk Airport. Three suicide bombers attacked the airport Tuesday. Officials believe a well-known Russian jihadist and ISIS lieutenant coordinated the assault. They don't know where he is right now.

Two car bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital on Saturday killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens of others. The blast happened in separate, mostly Shiite neighborhoods in Central and Southeastern Baghdad. ISIS claimed responsibility for one of the attacks. The group said on social media it was targeting Shiites.

Extremely heavy rain has led to dangerous flooding and landslides in Central China and Derek's on top of that one.

There's some incredible video coming out --

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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is and I think we should just roll it so people can see what people are dealing with in Southwestern China as we speak.

This is flooding across the Punjab province and you can see cars getting washed down the roads. Notice how the water is mixed in with this brown silt. That's coming down from the mountainsides over this particular region. So steep terrain, heavy rain.

You know what that means: We have landslides and mudslides to talk about as well. Take a look at this video. You can see just how extreme some of the landslides have been over this particular region. You're watching a crane that was blocking a roadway for some of the rescue efforts, quite dramatic video there as well.

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VAN DAM: We're staying over this part of the world just to give you an idea of record that has been broken, almost an ominous, kind of eerie type record. We have gone the longest stretch of time over the northwestern Pacific Ocean without a named tropical storm.

Kind of eerie because this part of the world is typically bubbling with tropical activity right now. We've gone 199 days. And, remember, in 2015, we were coming off a record year for tropical storms, 26 category 4 or category 5 storms. The old record was at 18.

So you can see how active 2015 actually was. Now we compare it to now 2016, where we have had no named storms as of yet. But things are starting to change. Look what's developing just south of Guam and as we head to the Eastern Pacific, we have a new tropical storm, Agatha, that is forming over this area. Something that we do anticipate to just fizzle out across the Pacific. But nonetheless, it's a sign of things to come -- Natalie.

ALLEN: It's an eerie calm this comes --

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VAN DAM: Calm before the storm, I guess.

ALLEN: All right, Derek, thank you. Well, the world is remembering one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel died Saturday at the age of 87. He was a human rights activist, author, teacher and Nobel Peace laureate. Wiesel wrote a great deal about his imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War II. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more on his extraordinary life and legacy.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor, an author a Nobel laureate and a firm believer in the goodness of humanity, even with all he'd been through.

Condolences already pouring in here; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "The state of Israel and the Jewish people deeply mourn the death of Elie Wiesel. Elie, a master of words, gave expression through his exceptional personality and fascinating books about the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil.

"In the darkness of the Holocaust in which our brothers and sisters, 6 million, were murdered, Elie Wiesel was a ray of light and greatness of humanity, who believed in the good of man."

And yet this isn't just an Israeli story or a Jewish story. Wiesel touched millions with his writings and his message, a deeply personal, honest message and one that was, in the end, inherently positive. He believed in the goodness of humanity, even after being at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Nazi concentration camps, and losing his father at Auschwitz.

He wrote more than 50 books in English and French mostly, but his most well-known book is "Night," where he talked openly, honestly, personally about his time at Auschwitz.

"Night" was part of a trilogy that led to "Dawn" and "Day," and --

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LIEBERMANN: -- chronicled his journey from the darkness of the Holocaust to his belief in people. And it is that positive message that resonated with so many of his readers and so many that saw him speak.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1986; the Nobel committee wrote that, "Elie Wiesel is one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world. Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace, atonement and human dignity" -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

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ALLEN: Alan Dershowitz is a professor emeritus at Harvard and worked with Wiesel for nearly 50 years. Listen to how he described the impact of Wiesel's work.

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ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: He gave human rights the meaning that it never had before, truly human rights. He fought for every group that was subject to genocide or discriminated against.

Whether they were groups he approved of or disproved of, he was there. He was never, ever silent.

I had the privilege of being one of those who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize and in my letter of nomination, I talked about how he was a voice of humanity, unparalleled in history. He was one of the most important people to live in the last 70 years.

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ALLEN: Elie Wiesel, dead at 87; funeral services will be private but a public memorial will be announced soon.

Australia's national election remains too close to call. Saturday's voting shows the opposition Labor Party and the Liberal/National Coalition in a dead heat so far. Final results expected no sooner than Tuesday. Despite the uncertainty, Australia's prime minister remains optimistic.

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MALCOLM TURNBULL, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Tonight, my friends I can report that, based on the advice I have from the party officials, we can have every confidence that we will form a coalition majority government in the new parliament. It is -- it is a very, very close count. It is a very close count, as you know.

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ALLEN: The prime minister is leading a caretaker government for now. We'll let you know what happens Tuesday.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next.