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IDESK

Trump on His Troubles; Train Controller Arrested, Blamed for Deadly Crash; Al Qaeda Resurging in Afghanistan; Bono Pushes for Middle East Refugee Plan; China Strikes Down Same-Sex Marriage Lawsuit; Painting Listed as French National Treasure; The Fight against Boko Haram; Royals Welcomed in Tribal Indian Village. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired April 13, 2016 - 10:00:00   ET

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


[10:00:00]

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Ahead at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, Donald Trump says the rules are stacked against him.

A German train dispatcher is accused of playing video games before a deadly crash.

And from an aquarium to freedom: the great escape of Inky the octopus.

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CURNOW: Hi, there, everyone, welcome. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center.

The candidate who says winning is everything claims the system is rigged to make him lose. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump hurled

accusations at his own party during a CNN town hall. That was just part of the conversation in an appearance that turned into a family affair.

Michelle Kosinski has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You don't think the RNC wants you to get the nomination?

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I don't think so.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republican front-runner Donald Trump calling out the Republican National Committee

during CNN's town hall Tuesday night, accusing them of conspiring to keep him from clinching the GOP nomination by denying him delegates.

DONALD TRUMP: I won Louisiana. I won it easily.

COOPER: He got the popular vote.

(CROSSTALK)

DONALD TRUMP: -- and because of the shenanigans that goes on and --

COOPER: You call them shenanigans but those are the rules.

(CROSSTALK)

DONALD TRUMP: I know the rules very well. But I know that it's stacked against me by the establishment.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Trump alleging the Republican Party is, quote, "100 percent controlled by the RNC," and that rules were changed to stop him.

DONALD TRUMP: And they changed the rules a number of months ago. The people --

COOPER: About eight months ago.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, that's not very long ago.

COOPER: But you had a lot of time to prepare a better organization.

DONALD TRUMP: -- they saw how I was doing and they didn't like it.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): The Trump family later joining the candidate on stage. Trump's daughters taking on critics who say their father is

disrespectful to women.

IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD'S DAUGHTER: He always taught me that there wasn't anything that I couldn't do. And I don't think that's the message a father

would relay to a daughter who he didn't believe had the potential to accomplish exactly what her brothers could.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Both pointing to their upbringing as evidence of an equal opportunity father and business mogul.

TIFFANY TRUMP, DONALD'S DAUGHTER: My father, since I have been a little girl, has always inspired me and had so much faith in me to just be the

best person I can be, the best woman I can be.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Trump admitting that, when it comes to debates, his family sometimes wishes he would lighten up.

DONALD TRUMP: They are always saying be nicer on the debates. I said, wait a minute, they are coming at me from all these different angles.

Well, how can I be nice?

But Melania in particular would say be nicer in the debates.

I said I can't do that. I have to win first.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Donald Trump Jr. agrees.

DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD'S SON: Everyone talks about that, a tone but there also comes a time where you actually have to put the hammer down,

right. There comes a time where being nice and trying to do all this stuff, when people are laughing at your face, you have to actually fight

back. And that's what's so important about what he does.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Trump's wife, Melania, pushing her husband to act more presidential.

COOPER: How would you like him to be different?

MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD'S WIFE: Just to use nice language.

COOPER: Better language?

MELANIA TRUMP: Better language --

(CROSSTALK)

MELANIA TRUMP: -- not all the time.

COOPER: You were upset --

MELANIA TRUMP: Sometimes I agree with it.

COOPER: Somebody yelled out something at one of his rallies and I know you were upset with that.

(CROSSTALK)

MELANIA TRUMP: -- repeat it.

COOPER: You were upset with that.

MELANIA TRUMP: Yes. And I was thinking just don't repeat it because next day the press, they will talk. It's about the word, an appropriate word.

And that was correct.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): And on changing his tone, Trump says he can switch it up any time.

DONALD TRUMP: It's easy to do it. I mean, it's easier to do it than the way I behave right now.

COOPER: So why not?

DONALD TRUMP: Because I have two more people I have to take out.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSINSKI (voice-over): But when it comes to the retweeting that sparked Trump's recent war of wives last month with Ted Cruz, Trump says, yes, it's

the retweets that usually get him in hot water and that it's all his own doing.

DONALD TRUMP: During the evenings after 7 o'clock or so, I will always do it by myself.

COOPER: Do you ever want to say to him, put the mobile device down? That like --

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: -- it's 2:00 am and you're still tweeting.

MELANIA TRUMP: If he would only listen, I did many times. And I just say, OK, do whatever you want. He's an adult. He knows the consequences.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): But it's the special bond they say they all have with their father that trumps it all.

DONALD TRUMP JR.: He's just always had so much love for us and this whole family. He's an amazing guy, one of my best friends in the entire world,

maybe my best friend in the entire world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Michelle Kosinski reporting there.

Well, we're learning more about what may have caused a deadly train collision in Germany. Prosecutors have arrested a signal controller and

accused him of playing games on his mobile phone until shortly before the crash in February. Our Fred Pleitgen --

[10:05:00]

CURNOW: -- joins me now from London.

Hi, there, Fred.

This is really disturbing information.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. It is quite disturbing. It's also quite shocking to

many people, obviously who had loved ones lost or loved ones injured in that region in Germany, have been across the German media and also with

people there.

And right after this accident happened, many people actually had a lot of sympathy for this dispatcher, saying that he might have been in a situation

where it was difficult for him to see what was going on. They thought that there was no wrongdoing.

Now this man has been arrested. And essentially what the public prosecutor is saying in this case, they said after the investigation of course this

train crash happened in February. And as the investigation went on, it was clear that he -- while he was at work, switched on his phone.

He then turned on this mobile video game and was playing it while these two trains were coming toward each other. And they said that that led to two

key mistakes: it led to him putting the trains on the wrong track and then also, apparently, led to him giving the wrong emergency signal or pressing

the wrong buttons for the emergency signal, meaning that the actual train drivers never got those emergency signals and they believe that was

certainly very much a factor in all of this.

Now what we're hearing from the public prosecutor's office is they say that the dispatcher himself has admitted to having been on an online video game

but also claims that that is not something that distracted him from his duty.

Of course, it's going to be the criminal investigation that's going to have to find out more, see whether or not he's criminally culpable. At this

point, he is being charged with manslaughter due to negligence and various other crimes. So certainly this has really taken very much a shocking

twist to many people.

One other thing that also was announced today, Robyn, and that really makes all this all the more worse is that an additional person has died of the

injuries sustained in that train crash so that now the number of deaths has been revised to 12 -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Yes, that in itself also a stark reminder of just the human tragedy here.

So what happens next?

And what kind of jail time will this man face for looking at video games while he was at work?

PLEITGEN: Well, it could be several years in jail if, in fact, he is found guilty of all this. Of course, there is still going to be more of an

investigation that will go on at some point there will be a trial. It's unclear how long that trial will take.

Certainly the big question is how much evidence is going to be involved. I mean, on the face of it, it really is quite a simple matter. It wasn't a

long chain of events that led to this. However, of course, there's going to be a lot more evidence gathering to be done.

Now of course the other thing that is going to happen is that there could very well be political ramifications to this as well as Germany debates

whether or not the safety on railroads is something that needs to be revised. There certainly are other questions that are being asked as well.

Should there have been some sort of automated system in place that would have made sure that these trains could never be on the same track heading

towards each other?

Do there need to be collision warning systems inside the trains to make sure that something like this can't happen in the future?

So there is a wider debate that's going on. The actual trial is something that certainly is going to be monitored very closely as well. But in many

cases, this was also very much a wake-up call to I wouldn't say the rail industry but certainly to many people overseeing all of that to say we have

to take more control of that.

There are already rules in place for workers of Deutsche Bahn, of the German railway company, that say when you are at work, it is absolutely not

permissible to have any of these devices on and to be looking at them, not just cellphones; computers as well, anything that has to do with any sort

of electronics.

And so certainly the rules in this case apparently were breached. But now really what the train company's looking at is whether those rules need to

be enforced even more.

CURNOW: Yes. He said he wasn't distracted but clearly the facts will be laid bare for that judge.

Thank you so much, Fred Pleitgen, as always.

Authorities in Panama are combing through the offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal. They're hunting

for any evidence of illegal activities.

Meanwhile, the British prime minister, David Cameron, is trying to stay ahead of his own personal fallout amid a cloud of criticism. He

acknowledged last week that he used to have an investment in his father's offshore fund, which was revealed in the leaked documents.

He's been pushing new legislation to crack down on tax evasion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: We need to make sure that all the evidence coming out of Panama is properly investigated. That is

why we have set up a special cross-agency team, including the National Crime Agency, the HMRC and other relevant bodies, to make sure we get to

the bottom of what happened.

But she is right to reference the fact these organizations are operationally independent. It will be quite wrong for a minister or a

prime minister to order an investigator into a particular building into -- in a particular way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:10:00]

CURNOW: Well, that was Mr. Cameron speaking to Parliament just a short time ago.

Coming up here at the IDESK, the U.S. entered Afghanistan to stop these fighters. But 15 years later, their base appears to be growing. We'll go

to Kabul for more on the threat from Al Qaeda.

Plus: a masterpiece discovered in a French attic.

Who created this painting and why experts insist it's authentic. We're live with Jim Bittermann in Paris.

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CURNOW: You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. Thanks for joining me.

War in Afghanistan is ramping up. The Taliban are in a new offensive. ISIS is on the ground and now a top official says Al Qaeda is advancing

again. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember why the United States came to Afghanistan?

Well, Al Qaeda are back and thriving, a big threat, finding safe haven here, according to Afghanistan's defense chief. Even U.S. officials here

admit there's a lot they don't know and there could be hundreds of Al Qaeda core members here.

ACTING AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER: They are really very active. They are working in quiet and deal organizing themselves and preparing themselves

for more bigger things.

They are working behind other networks again, giving them the support, giving them the experience they had in different places.

They are not talking too much. They are not making too many press statements.

(CROSSTALK)

MINISTER: Yes. It is a big threat.

WALSH (voice-over): A big threat, they say, because the Taliban, who was said to have regretted harboring bin Laden, have again decided to get close

to Al Qaeda.

MINISTER: The big cover is Taliban because they are enabling the Al Qaeda and the ISIL and the --

WALSH: The phrase "renewed partnership" is what John Campbell (ph) used, the former U.S. commander here.

MINISTER: And because as you know, they need the fighters. They need the support and the experience and they need recruitment from other places.

This is why that they impressed them.

WALSH (voice-over): Alarms were raised by a 30-square mile camp found and obliterated by Afghan and U.S. forces in a remote part of Kandahar late

last year, revealing Al Qaeda's true strength to Afghan and U.S. officials.

MAJ. GEN. JEFF BUCHANAN, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, U.S. FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: Very sophisticated ties back into Al Qaeda and a subset, which is called

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.

To find them in Afghanistan also caused us quite a bit of concern.

If you go back to last year, there were a lot of intel estimates that said that, within Afghanistan, Al Qaeda probably has 50-100 operators or 50-100

actual Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. Well, at this --

[10:15:00]

BUCHANAN: -- one camp, we found more than 150.

So I think that --

(CROSSTALK)

WALSH: -- gap in your knowledge as to --

BUCHANAN: I think there is. I think that, you know, there's not thousands of them but clearly in remote parts of Afghanistan there are Al Qaeda

leaders that we're concerned about and what they are capable of doing.

WALSH: And they are plotting still attacks against the West?

BUCHANAN: Absolutely.

WALSH: That's their core concern?

BUCHANAN: That is their core concern. They have made those announcements and they've never backed off of it.

WALSH: Well, clearly attacks the West, one matter of concern about Al Qaeda's resurgence here. But there is another spinoff and that has

potentially an enormous impact on what is the key tenet of U.S. and Afghan policy here with the Taliban and that's to find some sort of diplomatic or

negotiated settlement with them.

Now they're clear; the U.S. and Afghanistan, that that can't happen until the Taliban renounce, quote, "international terrorism," but it seems quite

the opposite is happening with this renewed partnership they have with Al Qaeda.

They have, in fact, made the new deputy of the new Taliban leader is a man called Siraj Haqqani, who U.S. considered to be the leading facilitator of

Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

It does seem the Taliban and Al Qaeda are getting closer together rather than further apart although some officials insist they're a moderate

Taliban who still want to see some kind of peaceful settlement.

But as the Taliban expand in the territory they control here, there are fears that buys more space for Al Qaeda to potentially plot attacks outside

of Afghanistan and again find themselves safe havens here, 15 years after the U.S. intervened to try and catch bin Laden -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN,

Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Now to the ongoing investigation into the attacks in Brussels and last year in Paris and the suspected terrorist who hid in plain sight.

Mohamed Abrini has eluded authorities for months before he was arrested last week. CNN's Kellie Morgan has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLIE MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the building where Mohamed Abrini spent his last night of freedom. The next day, as he walked

along this busy little street, just 20 meters away, police pounced on him.

Later that night they raided the apartment he'd just slept in. The front door was also dusted for fingerprints. The woman who lives here arrested

but later released without charge.

We were invited into the building by the man who filmed the raid, her neighbor, Joseph. We go to a park away from his home where he feels more

comfortable talking to us.

And he explains how he saw Abrini in his neighborhood, though he didn't recognize him.

JOSEPH, NEIGHBOR (through translator): He shaved his beard, cut his hair real short. Now that I have seen his picture all over the media, it's

like a flashback. I saw him last week, a few days before his arrest, but I didn't recognize him. It was very brief. I saw him when I was going back

home. I wish I had recognized him.

MORGAN (voice-over): As for the woman Abrini stayed with, she told CNN's French affiliate she didn't know he was a wanted man but wouldn't speak to

us to confirm her story.

MORGAN: The woman told Joseph that she met Abrini at a local cafe here near the fresh food market and they got talking. She'd just bought a new

TV and he acted the Good Samaritan and offered to help her carry it home.

JOSEPH (through translator): I think Abrini was trying to hide himself. He found a naive women. He tried to be friendly to her and tried to

pretend he didn't have a place to go.

MORGAN (voice-over): It illustrates how one of the most wanted fugitives in Europe evaded authorities by hiding in plain sight, moving around in

regular neighborhoods, living amidst unassuming residents.

JOSEPH (through translator): I live alone but all the other apartments are couples. We are all in shock. The situation is so complicated. We are

all collateral damage.

MORGAN (voice-over): Joseph wants people to know his neighborhood is not a hotbed for alleged terrorists.

JOSEPH (through translator): Since Friday, my life has become a nightmare. My girlfriend doesn't want to see me anymore because she says I live in a

neighborhood where there could potentially be terrorists.

"You live with terrorists," she said.

It's unfair.

MORGAN (voice-over): Yet another way Abrini has left trauma in his wake -- Kellie Morgan, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Meanwhile, U2 singer Bono has been lobbying the U.S. Congress for an aid plan for refugees in the Middle East as a way to fight extremism.

He testified on Tuesday in front of a Senate committee. Now he's pushing for a relief package fashioned after the Marshall Plan, which helped to

rebuild Europe after World War II. He had one other untraditional idea for countering groups like ISIS. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, U2: Don't laugh. But I think comedy should be deployed because if you look at national socialism -- and daish and ISIL, this is the same

thing. It's like you speak violence, you speak their language. But you laugh at them --

[10:20:00]

BONO: -- when they're goose-stepping down the street and it takes away their power.

So I'm suggesting that the Senate send in Amy Schumer and Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D), N.H.: Actually, that's not the first time I've heard experts on how we counter violent extremism talk about --

BONO: I'm actually serious.

SHAHEEN: -- no, it -- and it is one of the things that I know we're looking at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: U2 has long championed the benefits of foreign aid.

CNN has learned Russian fighter jets got extremely close to a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea twice this week. A source says a third

overflight at a more acceptable distance happened on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (voice-over): Take a look at this map. Earlier, a Russian intelligence gathering ship had been shadowing the destroyer. Pentagon

correspondent Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Late yesterday, when a Russian Su-24 fighter jet and military helicopter flew too close to the U.S.S.

Donald Cook operating in that area, U.S. officials describing the U.S. Navy encounter with the Russians as "unsafe, provocative and potentially very

dangerous," could have caused an incident.

Thankfully, it did not. But what did happen is on these two overflights, one of them was so close to the deck of the Donald Cook that the Navy had

to halt flight operations on the deck because of this Russian flyover.

It was pretty interesting because, at the time, there was a Polish helicopter on the deck of the U.S. Navy ship, conducting routine training

operations. Those training operations involving the Polish helicopter had to be halted. A lot of questions.

Was Moscow trying to send a message?

Use the U.S. Navy to send a message to Poland?

These encounters have happened before; most of them are safe. But this time the U.S. Navy very unhappy, potentially pressing, we are told, for a

formal complaint to Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: OK. And CNN has also learned the Pentagon is discussing whether to release images of the encounter to illustrate the danger faced by the

ship.

In China, a court has dealt a blow to a growing social movement. A judge struck down a lawsuit from a same-sex couple who wanted to marry. Now it's

the first of its kind to be heard in China. CNN's Matt Rivers has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang were hoping to make history, to become the first same-sex couple in China to be legally

allowed to marry. So last summer, they submitted an application to do so at their local marriage registry in their hometown in the Central Chinese

province of Hunan.

But it was rejected. So they sued. And earlier this year, to their surprise, a district court in the provisional capital, Changsha, agreed to

hear the case.

But on Wednesday the court ruled against the couple. It said, even though there is not a law that explicitly forbids same-sex marriage in China,

there are several provisions that specify genders of licensed applications in the country's marriage law.

The court's decision is being seen as a blow to LGBT equality in China.

RIVERS (voice-over): Same-sex relations were outlawed until 1997. And until 2001, homosexuality was on the official list of mental illnesses for

clinical treatment. And despite advances in recent years, a survey by the Pew Research Center last year showed 61 percent of China's population still

viewed homosexuality as unacceptable.

But for Sun and Hu, they say this isn't over. Sun told CNN on Wednesday that the couple plans to appeal this decision and continue to fight for the

right to be married -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks to Matt for that report.

Now imagine this: you head to the attic to locate the source of a leaky roof and find a national treasure instead.

It happened in Southwest France. A family discovered an original work believed painted by Caravaggio. It could be worth a fortune. Jim

Bittermann joins me from Paris.

Tell us more about this discovery. Hi, there, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Robyn. It's every homeowner's dream, right?

You go up in the attic and you find a fortune. Fact is, it is -- the jury's still out on this painting. There are some experts -- quite a few,

in fact -- who think it might be authentic. Caravaggio, a painting that the (INAUDIBLE) of the heading of an Assyrian general by the Biblical

figure, Judas, and was painted -- if the story is correct -- in the early 17th century, 1610, something like that.

And according to the people who own it, and they have not yet been identified, they went up in the attic. They opened a door that hadn't

previously been opened and inside they found a painting. They looked at the painting, they dusted it off. They took it to a local antiques dealer.

He cleaned it up.

[10:25:00]

BITTERMANN: And he took it to experts and they said, oh, my gosh, it's a Caravaggio. It could be worth a fortune, maybe more than $130,000, they

are saying -- $130 million, excuse me -- got three zeroes there.

So of course, there's a lot of people interested in making this an authentic painting. There are some naysayers, however, who say it could be

of the era. It could be someone in his school. But it may not necessarily be a Caravaggio, from the master himself -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Those critics who are quite vocal in saying, uh-uh, this is a fake. It's all too good to be true.

BITTERMANN: Exactly. And I mean, one of the things that sort of stands it up as authentic is what the French government has done. The French

government has slapped an export ban on this painting. So it can't leave the country for the next 30 months while more experts look it over. It's

at The Louvre right now. And they're taking, going over it again, just to see what their opinion might be.

If it turns out to be authentic, they'll declare it a national treasure that can't leave the country -- or they could, at least. It's already

declared a national treasure. So it is -- there's -- that gives it some credibility, at least as far as some of the experts are concerned -- Robyn.

CURNOW: This painting, of course, stoking a lot of conversation, Caravaggio very sought-after for the sort of brutal realm of his art. But

the issue of fakes and even stolen paintings has become a real problem in Europe.

And there are even investigators, I think, detectives who try and find many of these paintings that perhaps have been missing over the decades and

centuries.

BITTERMANN: Well, it is a problem. One of the things that has happened over the years is that people, particularly artists, have gotten so expert

at duplicating the great masters and there's been enough written and there's enough studies out there that they can look into the kind of

subject matter that the great masters took on to duplicate things in a way that's very, very difficult to detect a fraud or a counterfeit.

On the other hand, something like this, it does seem to be, according to all the people who've seen this painting, they say that the workmanship is

superb. It's just a question of who really did the work.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much from Paris, Jim Bittermann, as always, appreciate it.

Well, still ahead here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, fighting back against the world's deadliest terror group. We'll take you to the front lines in the

campaign against Boko Haram.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: Hi, there. Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow.

This just in: Spanish police have detained a French man with possible links to recent terror attacks. Police say the man supplied weapons for

the attack at a Jewish supermarket in January of last year; 17 people died in that series of attacks over the course of three days.

Spanish police say he's believed to be at the center of an armed trafficking ring. He was arrested in Malaga, along with two other

suspected arms traffickers.

(HEADLINES)

CURNOW: And we turn now to the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon. Young girls, they are often feared as the terror group

increasingly uses kidnapped girls as child bombers. Our David McKenzie has been following all of this for us. He joins me now from Johannesburg.

You have just returned from an assignment. Tell us what you saw.

What did people say to you?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, what they said to us is that they are living in fear of attacks by Boko Haram; often the terrorist

group is using young girls in those attacks.

Now there are four nations involved in the fight, the military fight against the ISIS-linked group in that region. And those fights have

exactly squeezed the group into a smaller territory. But with that squeeze has come even more deadly attacks in the border regions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Crossing into Nigeria on foot with Cameroonian soldiers, headed to remote outposts overlooking the fight against ISIS-

affiliated Boko Haram, the world's deadliest terrorist group.

The soldiers say their forward operating positions on the mountain come under frequent attack.

MCKENZIE: Boko Haram fighters are based in these villages in the valley. But the trouble is that positions like this can be ineffective against an

increasingly unconventional fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language)

MCKENZIE (voice-over): So Boko Haram still slips past the soldiers into villages like this one, where they burnt out the pastor's house, destroyed

the church, kidnapped scores of girls.

And further from the front, in cities like Maroua, they use abducted girls to kill.

MCKENZIE: Young women came into this market, pretending to sell wares to these vendors, the explosion so extreme it blew off the roof. Ten people

were killed. A new report says that increasingly girls and young women are being used in these attacks.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): The UNICEF numbers show that the attacks have increased tenfold with Cameroon targeted the most. Now the market is often

empty. Abdulrahman (ph) witnessed the last attack.

ABDULRAHMAN (PH), ATTACK WITNESS: (Speaking foreign language).

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Even if it they escape abduction, young girls like Matawasa (ph) suffer. Both her parents were shot by Boko Haram.

MATAWASA (PH), BOKO HARAM SURVIVOR: (Speaking foreign language).

MCKENZIE (voice-over): More than a million children like her have been displaced by this war.

To protect their school on the edge of the red zone, vigilante teams patrol, setting up checkpoints armed with rudimentary weapons. They check

every stranger to stop terror attack, especially girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

MCKENZIE (voice-over): It's a society turned on its head. Girls should be protected; here in the far north of Cameroon, they are feared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:35:00]

MCKENZIE: Really, the people who are displaced by this fight, Robyn, are often housed by host families. This is one of the poorest regions in the

world. It's under so much strain.

And yet the United Nations says their appeals for assistance from around the world are only a tiny bit funded because the attention of the world is

elsewhere and not on the millions of people affected by Boko Haram.

CURNOW: Yes. You make some good points there. Let's talk though also about these human bombs and obviously UNICEF's warning that so much

children, in particular, girls, are being used as suicide bombers.

But it's not suicide because they often don't want to die. Just tell us about how these young kids are sent out there.

Are they strapped with these explosives?

And are they detonated remotely, I understand?

MCKENZIE: That's right. Often they are detonated remotely. There was a case recently in Cameroon very close to that area where we were reporting,

where two young girls were accompanied by older men, presumably Boko Haram fighters, who had a trigger device.

And those girls, when they approached a town, they kind of sought out a security official or a soldier to sort of alert them that they had bombs

strapped to them and they were stopped before they could blow up.

It's not always the case, though. There are instances when young girls have been drugged by the terrorist group. They are kind of in a stupor,

maybe don't even know exactly what is going on.

And this sort of level of use of these girls as pawns in terror is quite extraordinary. And Boko Haram really has stopped at nothing to attempt to

destabilize that region -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Thank you so much, David McKenzie, there in Johannesburg, great reporting, appreciate it.

You're watching CNN. Much more news after the break.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.

The British royals have been keeping busy during their tour of India. One of their latest visits was to a national park to feed orphaned elephants.

Prince William and his wife, Katherine, also visited with locals, playing with children and speaking with farmers in a tribal village of Northeast

India.

Joining me from London is our favorite royal watcher, Richard Fitzwilliams.

Hi, there, Richard.

The concept of a royal tour in a former colony is like a throwback from the past.

But still, this has gone well, hasn't it?

RICHARD FITZWILLIAMS, ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, because it's been very impressively planned. For example, the diplomatic side of it, they had

lunch with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and they raised the matter of steel, which is very, very important --

[10:00:00]

FITZWILLIAMS: -- for withdrawal of Indian backing, the Tata Steel crisis here. This was significant.

Also in Bhutan, where they will be going shortly, they will be meeting King Jigme Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema. They are the most glamorous royals

in the East. And that will be absolutely fascinating.

Also there's been a charitable aspect, meeting slum children and also the Bollywood gala, which was so tremendously spectacular. That was for

children's charities.

And today at the Kaziranga National Park, William, of course, being so involved in the United for Wildlife, which is his charity against the

illegal wildlife trade. There's the fashionable aspect to the trip and there's the hum of the homage to the Indian soldiers who died in World War

I, fighting for Britain, also to the 2008 victims of the terrorist atrocity and also to Mahatma Gandhi.

CURNOW: Indeed. So a lot of diplomacy, a lot of celebrity, a lot of environmental causes, a lot of diplomacy. But still, there has been some

backlash, quite a lot towards Kate from the very snippy London media. The "Daily Mail" had us all agog because -- take a look at that article.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (voice-over): It was dedicated to Kate's feet. She had to take her shoes off at the Gandhi memorial. And it criticized her for a lack of a

pedicure and also wrote about her corns and her toes and her bunions and her fallen arches. It was a very mean-spirited article. And this

criticism is coming fast and thick, isn't it.

Why?

FITZWILLIAMS: Yes, indeed. Now this is actually for a reason that occurred quite recently. They've decided to dump Prince William. This is

the British press as a whole, "Work-Shy Wills." The reason for this in brief is the Duke of Edinburgh at 94 did 215 engagements last year;

William, at 33, did only 122. Now he's got his job as a pilot 20 hours a week plus rest. He's also got his charity, which I mentioned, United for

Wildlife and other charitable activities. He's got his family, for goodness sake.

But nonetheless, the image has been perpetuated. And I will say one thing that the British media were very cruel to print lots of photographs of

this. But equally when paying homage to the Indian ward at an India gate, Kate did have a Marilyn Monroe moment and she should put weights, as I

understand it the queen does, in her dresses because we had wardrobe malfunctions in the Canada visit and also in the visit to the antiquities.

CURNOW: Indeed. A lot of criticism, saying they are not working hard enough but I understand the queen has perhaps given them a pass slightly

because she spent so much time away from her kids that she kind of wants them to spend more time with theirs.

So Richard Fitzwilliams --

(CROSSTALK)

FITZWILLIAMS: Oh, yes, well, this is --

CURNOW: We're going to have to move on, Richard, sorry, because I have an extraordinary tale of escape to tell our viewers about -- it's about an

octopus. And you just have to hear this. An octopus that wants to be free.

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CURNOW: Meet Inky; the octopus saw his opportunity at a New Zealand aquarium and he took it. No witnesses, though. This octopus squeezed out

from a gap at the top of his tank and made his way to the floor.

If you thought a hardwood floor would stop him, think again. Inky slithered several meters until encountering a tiny drainpipe, we

understand, like a master contortionist, he shimmied down it, never to be heard from again. He's presumed to be freely roaming in the sea.

Officials say they will not pursue him.

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CURNOW: Good for Inky.

Well, that does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. "WORLD SPORT" is next.

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