And im george howlell. Thank you for joining us. Militant fighters attacking from three difference have overrun the town and now theyre threatening a Strategic Air because. Hundreds of military advisers are stationed there and have been training iraqi troops. On friday u. S. Helicopters had to be deployed. After the dust settled, as many as 25 militants were killed by iraqi ground forces. The pentagon says the base is secure but also admits that they are close to danger. Hes go live to phil black in the Northern City of iraq. Can you tell us what youre seeing there on the ground . Reporter well george the situation here in Northern Iraq is somewhat different to that situation in the west of iraq. Here in the north the situation is more stable, the battle zone more secure in that the Kurdish Forces have forced the isis forces back from a lot of their territory. Theyve dug in lines and theyre now holding them. Isis is still very much on the offensive, on if front foot moving forward capa
Sports could be causing brain disease. More on the alarming new stud his ahead. Welcome to have you as viewers. Im Linda Kinkade and this is cnn newsroom. The pope had a strong message for its government. Open up the world and give people the freedom and space to practice religion. It was a very windy day in havana when the proep arrived at the start of the visit. His warm greeting was including a salute, a marching band and bolts of lightning the cuban capital is the first stoch on the popes tenday visit to cuba and then to the u. S. Hes accredited with helping to restore diplomatic ties between the nations and hes urging them to stay on that course. The world needs reconciliation in this environment that we are experiencing. Our political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentiality thats proof of high service. On behalf of peace and wellbeing of all america and the free world. The vatican correspondent Judy Gallagher is in rome and now joins us. We know its
Im George Howell. Good day to you. We start with the crash of metro jet flight the 268. Recovery crews are still in the peninsula searching for bodies in the wreckage. There were 224 people on that flight. No survivors. Most on board were russians. They were flying to st. Petersburg from a resort town. Its not exactly clear what caused the plane to crash. Egypts Civil Aviation minister says there were no warning signs. Translator if the pilot doesnt report any faults on the plane, all that will be carried out is routine maintenance checks. There were no reports that the airplane had faults. The checks done before takeoff did not reveal anything. Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any s. O. S. Calls. Both flight recorders have been recovered and are being analyzed in cairo. They believe some sort of mechanical problem cautioned the crash. They dont believe terrorism was a factor, that despite a claim of responsibility from
Of the attack Abdelhamid Abaaoud is dead. He was one of two People Killed in the predawn rate of saintdenis on wednesday. The other has been identified as hasna aitboulahcen. You can hear Police Confront her just before the raid. Neighbors say police have taken the womans mother and brother in for questioning and theyre searching the mothers home in a northern paris suburb. The French Senate is expected to vote today to expand the state of energy for three month bs. The lower house of parliament be comes as a new isis video threatens attacks on france, italy and the United States. Lets bring in our National Correspondent. And, you know, fred, tracking Abdelhamid Abaaoud is a massive win for the french, but theres a question, how was this expected terrorist able to make it into france in the first place . Yeah, and how was it possible for him to go around large parts of europe. He went to the airport to possibly try to get a flight to turkey at that point in time. We know in the meantim
Im Natalie Allen and this is cnn newsroom. Our top story, new details about hush money paid by u. S. President Donald Trumps lawyer to silence porn star Stormy Daniels. The New York Times reports the president actually knew about the payment several months before telling reporters aboard air force one he knew nothing about it. And the wall street journal is now reporting in the midst of the 2016 president ial election, trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen took out lines of credit on two properties totalling some 774,000. Cohen now under criminal investigation because of his business dealings and that could include hush money payments to daniels, possibly others. Cohen said he made the payment to daniels out of his home equity line. Cohen is not the only trump attorney under scrutiny. Many legal analysts say Rudy Giulianis blizzard of statements over the past few days may have done the president more harm than good. For more on that, cnns brian todd is in washington. Dont you think a lo