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Turkey Vows To Retaliate After Minister Barred from Campaigning in The Netherlands; Ousted South Korean President Park Guen-hye Leaves Blue House; President Trump Fires High Profile U.S. Attorney. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired March 12, 2017 - 11:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:00:13] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The manager of this location

has higher orders to ask you to leave Holland today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Diplomatic row. Turkey vows to retaliate after ministers are barred from campaigning in The Netherlands.

Up next, the latest in what is this escalating dispute.

Also this hour, ousted: ex-President Park Guen-hye leaves the Blue House for her house. But the corruption scandal isn't over. Coming up, what's

next for South Korea?

And you are fired: a tagline from TV to real life. President Trump sacks a high profile U.S. attorney. Ahead, why that is causing such an uproar.

Hello, and welcome. This is Connect the World on CNN. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. Just after 7:00 in the evening here.

Two of NATO's most powerful members are at each other's diplomatic throats right now. Angry protests breaking out on the streets in Turkey and in The

Netherlands. Here's why. It all started on Saturday when Dutch officials stopped two Turkish ministers from going to a rally because they thought

the crowds may get out of control.

Well, they didn't even let the Turkish foreign minister's plane land. And let me show you the moment police told the Turkish family minister that she

had to get out of the country immediately just after she had driven in.

Well, both were heading to an event for their boss, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just weeks before a public vote on expanding his powers.

Well, then Mr. Erdogan weighed in personally, comparing the Dutch government to Nazis and sealing of their embassy in Turkey's capital.

CNN's Atika Shubert is outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam for us, the city both ministers were stopped from going to the rally. Atika, this

is all showing no signs of slowing down. What's going on?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly not at a diplomatic level. But here on the streets of Rotterdam. Things have quieted down considerably. Last night, of course, we saw hundreds of

people gathered outside the Turkish consulate here. They were eventually dispersed by riot police. A number of people were injured and arrested.

But this afternoon here, you can see it's quiet. People out at the cafes. So, at a street level, it has calmed down. At a diplomatic level, however,

harsh words continue to fly. The Netherlands Prime Minister got on Sunday morning talk shows today, and said that while he wanted to deescalate the

situation, that The Netherlands would not be, quote, blackmailed.

Now the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, has responded to that saying that the prime minister

is playing a dangerous game of electoral politics at Turkey's expense. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): If you sacrifice

Turkish/Dutch relations to the Wednesday, you will pay the price. You will be pay the price. We haven't started to take the necessary steps yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUBERT: Now, what he's referring to there of course, is the fact that The Netherlands

holds it's elections on Wednesday. And there has been an increasing move to the right here with increasingly strong commentary about Muslim

communities here and taking a tougher line on things exactly like this controversy over the protests here in Rotterdam.

So, it'll be interesting to see what happens next in the days ahead. How they try and deescalate the situation, but at a diplomatic level. There

doesn't seem to be any backing down on either side yet, Becky.

ANDERSON: And let's just be absolutely clear, these rallies, this Turkish diaspora rally, which was canceled, a rally to support the Turkish

president at home in his efforts to win this referendum to get increased executive powers.

Of course it is a particularly difficult time, given that there is a domestic Dutch election going on as you rightly pointed out.

Now these rallies, not just canceled in Holland, of course, in Germany, as well and according to media reports in Sweden as well. And we will be live

in Turkey, shortly viewers, to get the perspective from their end and what Erdogan's playbook might be in all of this, this inflammatory anti-European

rhetoric.

But ahead of that, Atika, is there an indication of what those words mean, what that price Mr. Erdogan talked about, might be?

SHUBERT: Well, it could mean a number of things. Turkey is of course a very important member of NATO. But perhaps more importantly to the EU,

Turkey is the gateway to Europe for many refugees fleeing the Syrian war. And there is now, of course, this deal between the EU and Turkey

to basically prevent many refugees from fleeing into Europe.

So, that deal certainly is one the things at stake, in addition to a number of other bilateral trade and security agreements.

So there's a number of things that Turkey could do. The question is whether or not they want to escalate this further or if the diplomats are

going to find a way to take it down a notch.

ANDERSON: And the president of Turkey, as we speak, speaking at a huge rally and more from that as and when the news lines dictate. For the time

being, Atika, thank you. Atika is in Rotterdam for you this evening.

Well, South Korea's impeached ex-president has finally vacated the presidential palaceopening the door to a new political reality in Seoul.

Park Guen-hye had been in the Blue House since a court upheld her impeachment on Friday. A crowd of supporters greeted her as she arrived at

her private residence.

CNN's Ivan Watson has for you now from Seoul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: South Korea's disgraced president in public for the first time since her impeachment on Friday,

breaking her silence with a statement that offered very little remorse.

"I'm sorry I could not fulfill my duty as president until the end," she said, "via a spokesperson." I will accept all the results. It will take

time, but I believe that truth will definitely come out.

On Sunday, Park emerged from the presidential residence known as the Blue House, under cover of darkness and a cloud of disgrace.

At this moment, the impeached president Park Guen-hye and her convoy appear to be leaving the official presidential residence. And with that, her

symbolic position now comes to an end.

It is an historic period for this country, and the end of a political career and a political

dynasty.

South Korea's first woman elected to the post of president was the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the dictator whose 18-year reign was brought to an end

by an assassin's bullet.

A corruption scandal last year led to months of huge street protests that culminated in a

unanimous ruling by eight judges removing her from office.

Now, as private citizen, Park can no longer invoke the presidential privilege to avoid appearing in court. She's likely to face criminal

charges.

The country is now governed by an acting administration, a new presidential election expected to be held within 60 days. And for now, South Korea's

presidential residence stands empty.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Seoul.

WATSON: Well, to a remarkable development now in U.S. President Donald Trump's shake-up at the U.S. Justice Department. On Saturday, he fired the

federal anti-corruption prosecutor many called the sheriff of Wall Street. He was one of 46 U.S. attorneys that Mr. Trump had asked to resign

on Friday.

CNN's Laura Jarrett explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA JARRETT, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Well after a stunning standoff with the White

House on Saturday, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan Preep Bharara is out. But we're also learning what exactly he was told and by whom. The

president did not call him, the Department of Justice did. The acting deputy deputy attorney Dana Boente called him and asked him if he was true

that he was refusing to resign.

Bharara said that it was and then Dana Boente later called him back and said if that's true, then the president says that you are fired.

Now the question is, what exactly has changed since November when Bharara says that he was told that he could stay on and continue through Trump's

presidency? So that is the real question here is what's changed since November?

Now the White House is not saying much and referred us to the Justice Department. The Justice Department is also not saying anything other than

Bharara has been asked tos step aside.

And so the question is what will we see in these coming days about why exactly we have seen a

difference from November until now. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:10:09] ANDERSON: Right. Well, new president's routinely appoint their own U.S. attorneys, but there's nothing routine about this case, or the

sudden way that the Trump administration sacked more than 40 other prosecutors.

Joining me now for some analysis, Larry Sabato, who is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

I say there's nothing - there's nothing that seems normal about this case. Am I right in saying that?

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Absolutely. We would be surprised if we weren't surprised. This is the mercurial President Donald Trump

we're talking about. And the fact that he changed his mind since he talked with that U.S. attorney in November, after he was elected and apparently

asked him to stay on, and now, we're in March, is really not surprising at all.

Plus, they fired over 40 U.S. attorneys all at one time. So it's not just the U.S. attorney in New York.

ANDERSON: Earlier, CNN spoke with the Republican senator, Larry, John McCain. He's been a fierce critic of President Trump, but in this case, he

defended the president's decision to ask these attorneys to resign. Have a quick listen, if you will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Other administrations have done the same thing, perhaps not in this abrupt a fashion, but that's, that's what

elections have consequences. And so, for people to complain about it, they're ignoring the history of new presidencies and I think the president

had every right to ask for their resignations.

(END VIDEO CLPI)

ANDERSON: John McCain says, new presidencies have abrupt consequences.

SABATO: Well, he's correct. And he's also right to say that other presidents, both Democrats

and Republicans, have done precisely the same thing. They ask the old U.S. attorneys to resign for the most part, some of them have a clean sweep.

The real question so me, Becky, is why now? Why did this just happen?

One thing we know about Donald Trump is that he's a master media manipulator. He often produces news to cover up bad news that he knows is

coming. And it just so happens, tomorrow, congress has sat an effective deadline demanding that Trump and the Justice Department, his Justice

Department, produce evidence of the outrageous charges that Trump made by Twitter against his predecessor, President Obama, in claiming that Obama

had tapped,wiretapped Trump Tower and Donald Trump during the campaign or maybe even as president-elect.

You might remember that he also by Twitter at the same time called President Obama a bad guy

or a sick guy.

It's embarrassing. Even Republicans tell you privately there is there isn't a shred of proof. And Donald Trump is trying to avoid the subject.

ANDERSON: So, what you're saying effectively is there is method, method in what many people would see as the madness here?

SABATO: Well, in a way I'd like to think so because it would all make more sense.

ANDERSON: But it doesn't, is that what you're saying?

SABATO: A lot of it doesn't. A lot of it is just Donald Trump. When he sent those tweets out

about President Obama, he was steaming mad about a very difficult week when most things went wrong for him. And he had berated the staff and

apparently been volcanic. His temper was volcanic on that Friday. He flew to Florida, get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, was still angry and

decided to lash out. And we've seen this so many times...

ANDERSON: Right.

SABATO: And we have most of four years to go.

ANDERSON: You are a man who loves a poll. We have two. Those show as divided as the

U.S. is right now. Most people want to see compromise. 72 percent say they want President Trump to at least attempt to compromise with Democratic

lawmakers on his proposals. Similarly, another poll shows most people want Democrats to try to compromise with the president.

Is this just wishful thinking, Larry? Or is there any chance of these two sides working together?

SABATO: I'd vote for wishful thinking. I don't think there's any reasonable chance that Democrats and Republicans will compromise on any of

the big issues facing us, certainly health care, much of the foreign policy that Donald Trump has adopted, just about everything I can think of.

Democrats and Republicans are very polarized. And it isn't just the members of congress, it's actually average Americans. They may say they

want compromise, but what they're really saying is they want compromise in their direction.

[11:15:07] ANDERSON: So you're not sitting on the fence on this one at all. So, if I threw at you, you reckon when it comes down to jobs and

infrastructure, for example, two things that this new president speaks about a lot. You still don't think he's going get compromise across the

floor?

SABATO: I don't. Because they're buzz words. Everybody's for jobs. Everybody wants to see our infrastructure improve, but then you get down to

the nitty-gritty. Who pays for it? How much is added to the national debt? These are not details, these are big things, and the two parties

simply don't agree on any of it.

ANDERSON: Larry, Mr. Sabato, and I apologize for, I think I may have mispronounced your name, but if I did, sir, sincere apologies from my side.

Pleasure having you on, as ever. Thank you.

SABATO: Thank you, Becky.

ANDERSON: Right, some of the other stories on our radar today for you folks. And North Korea lashing out at a top U.S. diplomat, calling her a

quote, political prostitute. Well, state media released reports slamming Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN seen in the middle here. It's a

reaction to Haley's criticism of North Korea's leader on Wednesday. She told reporters that he wasn't a rational person and wasn't, quote, thinking

clearly.

An intruder arrested just outside the White House late on Friday has already been to court

and will appear again on Monday. The Secretar Service says Jonathan Tran was carrying mace and a letter for President Donald Trump who was there at

the time. Tran jumped the security fence and was caught near the south entrance to the executive residence.

Police and protesters clashed in Naples in Italy on Saturday over a visit by the Northern League leader, Matteo Salvini. He and the party have been

known for criticizing the south, but Salvini apologized for that and now plans to run for prime minister next year.

You are watching Connect the world with me Becky Anderson out of Abu Dhabi. Still to come, this evening, the Turkish President Mr. Erdogan says Europe

is showing the Turkish president, says Europe is showing the real face. We'll talk about what is this deepening

rift with a journalist in Turkey for you. And in Iraq, forces fighting to retake Mosul get a view of just how much ISIS has destroyed. And we're

going to get you inside a museum to show what is lost.

Taking a very short break. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:20:04] ANDERSON: Well, you are looking at pictures out of northern Turkey where the

country's president is holding a rally right now. Thousands of people have turned out to see Recep Tayyip Erdogan and listen to him double down on

criticizing the Netherlands for acting like a, quote, Banana Republic.

Well, no sign, then, of Mr. Erdogan backing down earlier. Turkey's flag was briefly raised over the Dutch consulate in Istanbul.

Now, it is not clear who put it there.

The two countries in a dispute over Ankara's political campaigning in The Netherlands.

Turkey's president, then, said, quote, "I thought Naziism was over, but I was wrong." And he accused the Dutch government of being Islamophobic.

Mr. Erdogan has made similar remarks about Germany.

So is this just about political rallies or is there something else at play here? For more, I want to bring in Asli Aydintasbas, who is a senior

policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations joining us out of Istanbul via Skype this evening.

And thank you for that. From your perspective, what's the playbook here? What's the brief that Erdogan is working on?

ASLI AYDINTASBAS, EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Hi, Becky.. There are two aspects to what's happening. This is a storm, almost a

perfect storm, for both the Dutch and Turkish government who are both facing elections. Erdogan is going for a referendum, it's a very

significant referendum for him, because it's essentially about him on April 16th. And I think in order to galvanize the base, the votes, he doesn't

have a comfortable lead at all. The referendum is about switching the country into a presidential system, giving him sweeping

powers, but you know, the boat seems to be evenly split. So, it seems like the perfect opportunity to Galvanize nationalist sentiment around this.

And the Dutch are going for an election campaign. So this is -- on the one hand, this is a perfect storm.

On the other hand, it almost seems to be the end of an era. More than 10 years ago, European Union accepted Turkey as a candidate for EU membership.

On paper, we still are in negotiations with EU for membership, but it is the end of our European adventure by all

accounts. Whether we stay on paper or not as a candidate, this is pretty much the end of the road for Turkey and Europe.

ANDERSON: Well, this is fascinating. And just to add to the sort of, you know, the optics here, of course you've got a candidate in Geert Wilders in

The Netherlands, of course, who is deemed to be anti-Muslim, Islamophobic himself. Perhaps he wouldn't specifically characterize himself as that,

but that's how people see him.

So it is easy to see then why Mr. Erdogan wants to be heard in Europe, isn't it. In Germany alone, there are more than 3 million Turks, that's

the largest population of Turks outside of Turkey itself, and clearly, many of these are able to vote in what is a domestic election.

And next door in The Netherlands, there are around 400,000 more. So you've got this diaspora, which is a big constituency for Mr. Erdogan if he hasn't

yet nailed this referendum. Not all of them, of course, will be eligible to vote in the Turkish elections, but between then, and I'm talking about

this diaspora, that's about 5 percent of Turkey's population. Does calling Europeans Nazis win over this Turkish thing abroad?

AYDINTASBAS: It's hard to say, Becky. This is a very polarized country at the moment. It has been for the last couple of years. And you've

mentioned the number of Turkish voters in Germany and Netherlands, and it's certainly significant numbers in terms of the voting bloc. But they're not

all AKP supporters, they're not all Erdogan supporters.

Turkey has in some sense exported it's political neurosis and polarization onto the streets of Germany, and The Netherlands. Yes, you did see last

night an anti-government demonstrations by Turks that are in support of the Turkish government on the streets of not

Rotterdam, but there also are Turkish citizens who have a right to vote in Turkish elections and elections over there who are anti-Erdogan.

So you actually have a very strange situation and polarization. And in some sense, it's not easy for Europeans to just walk away from Turkey, just say

you know what, we're closing the door, we're done be Turkey because of the significant numbers of Turks and the polarizations that is now a domestic

issue in Germany.

[11:25:10] ANDERSON: So a short while ago, and we know that the president is speaking

at what looks like a well-attended event. Those will, of course, be very organized and those are his supporters out there. But I mean, here are the

live pictures coming us to from Turkey. The president says that The Netherlands will quote, pay the price, and his foreign minister is echoing

that. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU, TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): There will be consequences. We will not leave this unanswered. Apologies will

not be enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: So what do you believe these -- what some might call threats, actually amount to in the real world?

AYDINTASBAS: Well, I've seen Turkish officials threaten other countries in the past. For

example, last year, this time, it was Russia, you might remember, and that was a huge crisis. And in the end, there was a kiss and make-up with

Putin. In other words, it's no so easy. Turkish economy is integrated to European economy. Your EU is a top investor in Turkey, and our exports

largely go to European countries. So, I think once the election are over, people will

think twice, and particularly The Netherlands is a huge ambassador in Turkey. There are many Dutch companies And investors and banks and sort

of you name it.

So, Turkey is going through a tough economic times. It's going to get even more dire I think after the elections, because they've been sort of certain

amount of beefing up the economy for the referendum.

So I wouldn't necessarily think of harsh, measures. There will be something for sure, but the problem is, I mean, the rhetoric is escalating

so much that a soft landing in the end, once this is all over, a soft landing is becoming a difficult situation.

We will need a soft landing with Europe because of the refugee agreement, because of the economic integration, and because of the Turks living over

there. Well this whole episode is very difficult for the other half of Turkey, in other words, Turkish democrats, liberals, secularists, and you

name it, who actually wanted to see Turkey integrated more and more with Europe.

ANDRESON: With that, swe're going to leave it there. We have lost your short and so I certainly don't want viewers to think that that the voice

that you have been hearing is a translation of what have you are seeing on the screen, just to avoid any confusion.

You have been listening to Asli Aydintasbas, who is a senior policy fellow at European Council on Foreign Relations with analysis on what she sees,

her perspective on what is going on as we listen to the ratcheting up of this rhetoric from the Turkish president about what is this rift with

Germany and with Holland.

Fascinating story.

All right, the latest world news headlines are just ahead for you. Plus, more on the questions

about a Russian bank's computer server and the Trump organization. The details from Moscow are just ahead.

It's just before half past 7:00 in the UAE. Stay with us. This is a very short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[11:32:10] ANDERSON: Well across the border, ISIS appears to be losing it's grip on western Mosul.

A U.S.-backed coalition is helping to push the militants their last Iraqi stronghold. And an Iraqi general says they are now showing signs of

weakness. But as the Iraqi forces reclaim parts of western Mosul, civilians are fleeing. Iraq says 100,000 people have fled their homes

since the offensive began. And as our Ben Wedeman reports, many of their city's most valuable relics are now rubble.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're in the Mosul museum, very close to an active front line. It was here that in February

2015, ISIS came and vandalized many of the artifacts here. Fortunately, many of the real ones had been moved to Baghdad

before ISIS invaded the city in June of 2014.

Now this is what's known as a Lamazu (ph), a winged bull, a symbol of the might of the

great Assyrian empire. ISIS not only went through the trouble of knocking them to pieces, they also chipped off it's face.

Now over here is the vault of the museum, what ISIS did was use some sort of explosives to make a hole, go down, and one of the soldiers here has

been briefed on this museum, was telling me that went in there to take away the antiquities that were inside, not to destroy them, but rather to sell

them on the black market.

There's no clear idea when this museum will be in operation again. The battle is still far from

over.

But Iraqi authorities are eager to start to try to put all of this stuff together some day.

Ben Weedman, CNN, Mosul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Yeah, and Ben's just traveled from Mosul to Irbil where he is joining us live this evening. When you see images like that, you realize

how destructive this group has been not just to the civilians, but also to Iraq's heritage.

What else did you see, Ben? And what's going on with this fight because it is perhaps, people will tell us, quicker than expected.

WEDEMAN: It's quicker than expected, Becky, but it's also bloodier than expected. It seems that the level of civilian casualties is much higher

than what happened in the eastern part of the city.

And also, the number of people fleeing western Mosul really has been quite dramatic as you mentioned earlier, numbers almost reaching 100,000. Today

is just three weeks that the operation is going on.

As far as the museum goes, there's -- it's not as bad as it would seem, because the museum

was set for renovation in 2014. So in the early part of the year, 1,700 out of the 2,200 pieces, antiquities in the museum were moved to Baghdad

for safekeeping. Obviously, the lamasu (ph), those big winged bulls could not be transported, those were destroyed by ISIS, but ISIS at the time put

out a video showing them destroying some of the statues. It turns out many of the statues they've destroyed were actually gypsum copies of

originals.

So there is a silver lining to all of this. But just going in there and seeing some of these statues, that really they survived the ravages of

time, centuries of time, but it was the folly of man that destroyed them - Becky.

ANDERSON: Remarkable.

Ben Wedman is -- or has been, of course, very, very close to the action back in Irbil reporting for you live this evening.

Ben, excuse me, always a pleasure.

Excuse me.

Anonymous sources, anonymous leaks and a drip feed of allegations. The relationship between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump has been in the

spotlight, hasn't it, since before he won the election in November.

President Trump and Moscow deny any improper or illegal activity, but sources tell CNN investigators are still looking into a possible connection

between a Russian bank's computer service and the Trump organization.

Well, senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen covering this story from Moscow, joining us now. Fred, what do we know at this point?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNAITONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's between Trump servers or servers of the Trump Enterprises and Alpha Bank, which is

a bank that is here in Moscow, and indeed is one of the biggest banks in all of Russia. And it appears as though all

of this happened at some point last year when all of a sudden, the servers of this bank, the Alpha Bank did what's called a DNS look-up, which is

basically sort of like looking someone up on the internet.

Now, they believe that all of this was triggered by some sort of interaction between a Trump

server. And it seems as though the bank itself really wasn't able to explain why this was going on, neither was the Trump enterprises. The

working hypothesis, the bank says, is they believe that some of their executives may have stayed at one of the Trump Hotels and that there may

have been some sort of advertising email or spammed email coming from the Trump server that then set off some of the cyber security measures at Alpha Bank, which then led

to that look-up. They say that would have been a fairly normal process.

However, the bank also says that it actually hired a U.S. cyber security firm to look into what exactly happened. And it's not exactly clear

whether or not they came to a final conclusion.

The bank also says that none of it's executives or any other employees ever had any sort of ties to Donald Trump or any of the Trump businesses. We

got it in touch with a bank once again when it was clear that this investigation is still ongoing by the U.S. authorities, and they said that

at this point in time, they have nothing further to add to what they were saying before.

But at this point in time, really, Becky, still is unclear why that server from Alpha Bank, why it decided to try and communicate with the Trump

Enterprises, with the Trump Hotel Group, really unclear at this point time.

Certainly, it doesn't seem as though there's any answers that either the bank has given or the Trump Enterprises, the Trump company, has given until

now, Becky.

ANDERSON: Fred Pletitgen is in Moscow this evening.

Look on my works, you mighty and despair, so goes the line by poet Percy Shelley on Ramses II, arguably ancient Egypt's most formidable pharaoh.

Well, now some 3,000 years after he was worshiped as a living god, a colossal new statue thought to be him has been dug up from beneath a Cairo

slum.

For your Parting Shots then, our very own Indiana Jones CNN's Jonathan Mann digs into

the story for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A discovery of colossal proportions. Archaeologists have uncovered a colossus, a massive eight meter statue of

what they believe Ramses II, one of Egypt's most powerful and celebrated fellows. Ramses the Great ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. But the

quartzsite statue was unearthed from this mighty hole in a Cairo slum just days ago. A crowd looked on as experts used an earth mover to pull the

statue's huge head out of the muck.

Egypt's antiquities ministry, calls the found Phaoroh, one of its most important discoveries ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found the bust or the statue. And the lower part of the head

and now we move to the head, we found the crown and the right ear and a fragment of the right eye.

MANN: The joint Egyptian-German expedition also found part of a life-sized limestone statue of Ramses grandson. The discoveries were made in

Matariyah (ph), a working class part of eastern Cairo with unfinished buildings and mud roads. Experts say this area was

once home to an ancient city of the Sun God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to the Phaoronic (ph) belief, the world was created in Matariyah (ph). And that means that every king had to build

here - make statues, temples, obelisks, everything.

MANN: Archaeologists are now working to recover and restore the remaining pieces of

the Ramses colossus, hopefully in time for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum next year.

Jonathan Mann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, for more on any of the stories that we've been bringing you this hour, including two big ones that you'll be hearing a lot more of

in the week ahead, head to our Facebook page. That is Facebook.com/CNNconnect. I'm sure you are a regular viewer and therefore

you are well aware how you can stay up to date with the twists and turns in Europe as election season gets heated. And be sure to watch out there for

updates on our our hashtag #myfreedomdayproject. The big day March 14th, that is two days from now.

CNN will be live in schools around the world and here in Abu Dhabi for a day of action and awareness about modern day slavery.

And here's what you have already been telling it us about what freedom means to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom to me is going to bed at night with both eyes closed and not a single worry. And waking up in the morning with hopes for

a better day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom is breathing. I learned that the (inaudible) is your right and that no man on Earth, no woman on Earth, will just come

and take that away from you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Freedom is to me we can go everywhere, we can do everything free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well there's still time left to tell what you say freedom means to you. Post a photo or video using that hashtag. Hashtag #myfreedomday.

I'm Becky Anderson. That was Connect the World from the team here, it was a very good evening. Thank you for watching. CNN continues after this

short break.

END