Belgian Police Have Arrested Two People Suspected of New Year's Eve Plot; "Affluenza" Teen Caught in Mexico
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I am Rosemary Church. Thanks for joining our second hour of CNN NEWSROOM. And we have this just in to CNN, a Belgian federal prosecutor says police have arrested two people suspected of plotting militant attacks in Brussels on New Year's Eve. Reuter's news agency reports the arrests came in different parts of the country on Sunday and Monday. Police say they found military clothing and ISIS propaganda, but no weapons or explosives during their searches. Prosecutors say those searches were not linked to last month's Paris attack. Well, Iraqi forces are declaring a victory in a major blow against ISIS. The Iraq army says it has pushed ISIS out of the strategic city of Ramadi. On Monday, Iraqi soldiers raised their flag in the city's center. Even as they celebrated, the sounds of gunfire could still be heard. There are pockets of ISIS fighters still in Ramadi. A top general says it may take up to three weeks to push them all out. CNN's Nima Elbagir has the details.</s>NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Declaring victory in Ramadi. Video broadcasts by Iraqi state TV shows soldiers raising their national flag over the city's government compound, celebrating the Iraqi military's first major victory over the so-called Islamic state.</s>YAHYA RASOUL, IRAQI MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Ramadi has been freed and the armed forces and the antiterrorist group, and also we've raised our flag on the government's building in Anbar.</s>ELBAGIR: In May, ISIS fighters seized Ramadi's capitol from the Anbar province west of Baghdad, as the government troops fled in defeat. U.S.-trained Iraqi forces returned launching an assault in the city last week, making their final push to seize the century located government complex on Sunday. It showed Iraqi troops advancing through Ramadi, street by street amid piles of rubble and collapsed houses. Even amid the celebrations, Iraqi officials say government troops still need to clear some remaining pockets of insurgents in the city. Once secured, Ramadi will be handed over to local police, and the Sunni tribal force and they'll win support in the local community. After that, Iraq's government has said their next target will be the northern city of Mosul. With an estimated pre-war population of 2 million, Mosul is the largest population center controlled by ISIS, and either Iraq or Syria, and a crucial source of tax revenue, if it's retaken it will take down much of the infrastructure underpinning ISIS' claim to state hood.</s>CHURCH: And Nima joins us now on the line from Baghdad. So Nima, how significant is this given there are many challenges ahead in the effort to deliberate all of Ramadi with these pockets of resistance that you talked about there in your report?</s>ELBAGIR: Well of course, we all remember those images of the Iraqis fleeing Ramadi back in May of this year in humiliation. The sense that it was as much about the failures of the U.S.-led coalition and their strategies in Iraq as it was about their failures. The Iraqi government is prematurely, if they are, calling this liberation. This is as much about them as it is about Ramadi. This is a break from that. This will be the first major city taken by the Iraqi army without those mobilized Shia groups. We've seen them fully liberating it very quick and claiming credit for that -- the training that they've been giving the Iraqi forces. Those we're speaking to say the similarities here are tough to beat. The security campaign as they're calling it. The sources in the Iraqi military are calling it. That will take a little bit of time to clear to out the remaining pockets of ISIS. They are seeing an extraordinary victory going towards the end of the year and what their hopes are in the city in the coming next year, Rosemary?</s>CHURCH: Yeah, and Mosul is very much in their sights. We'll continue to watch this story, Nima Elbagir joining us on the line there from Baghdad, many thanks to you. Well, Mexican authorities say they have detained a Texas teenager known as the Affluenza teen wanted in the U.S. for allegedly violating his probation. Ethan Couch and his mother were taken into custody near the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. Couch was sentenced two years ago to probation in a drunken driving crash that killed four people. He's attorney's argued Couch suffered from what they called Affluenza because his parents never taught him right from wrong. Police say Couch missed an appointment with his probation officer earlier this month, and he and his mother disappeared. Couch and his mother are expected to be turned over to U.S. marshals. Well, at least 43 people have been killed in severe weather across the U.S. in the past week, and it's not over yet. Flash floods in Missouri are blamed for several of those deaths. The state's governor has declared a state of emergency. Farther west, blizzard warnings are in effect. In Dallas, Texas, people are trying to recover from deadly tornadoes. Nick Valencia reports.</s>JOSH WHITE, HOME DESTROYED BY TORNADO: I thought I was dead, you know? I was waiting for the tornado to suck me out, but it didn't. Life gave me a second chance.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For Josh White, the chance to walk away from a deadly e-4 tornado in Garland, Texas almost didn't come.</s>WHITE: I was running towards my closet. The doors and everything started caving in. Stuff started flying through the windows. Things were hitting us.</s>VALENCIA: He hid with his wife and 5-year-old son with just a mattress to protect them from winds up to 200 miles per hour.</s>WHITE: This has made me realize how fragile life is.</s>VALENCIA: Eleven people were killed in Texas alone this weekend when tornadoes ripped through the state, tearing apart buildings, leaving skeleton structures and shattered wood behind. The destructive winds are a part of a massive storm system wreaking havoc across the nation with a deadly mix of tornadoes, ice, blizzards, and flooding stretching from New Mexico to Maine. At least two dozen people have died and more than 100 million more could be affected by severe storms, flooding and snow from this same system. White gathers his belongings and just a sweatshirt, while others in the lone star state are digging out of frigid blizzard conditions, just part of the bizarre and brutal weather here. Texas is among the hardest hit states along with Illinois and Missouri, each reporting multiple deaths. At least four international soldiers stationed at Fort Wood perished in Missouri this weekend when their car was overtaken by rising water.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found two men in the car and two men outside the vehicle in a creek.</s>VALENCIA: Now as hundreds of Americans are beginning to see the destruction left in the storm's path, millions more are bracing for what's next. Josh White says he'll be there to help anyone who needs it.</s>WHITE: Everybody never expects this. Once you go through it, it changes your life. You want to help people now, you know?</s>VALENCIA: The recovery efforts in Garland, Texas, continue. Residents at this apartment complex have slowly started to trickle back to see if they can salvage any of their belongings. The structural damage is so severe that many of them have yet to be let back inside, Nick Valencia, CNN, Garland, Texas.</s>CHURCH: And northern England is also dealing with severe weather. The region has been rocked by extensive flooding with a month's worth of rain coming in just a day in some areas. British Prime Minister David Cameron toured the flood zones in York on Monday, seeing the widespread damage firsthand. He pledged he would help with whatever was needed.</s>DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Here in Yorkshire, for instance, we've spent 100 million pounds on flood defenses since be I became Prime Minister. We're planning to spend another 280 million, almost three times as much. That's of no comfort, obviously, to the people who have been flooded in York. To be flooded is a terrible experience anyway, and it's even more terrible when it happens at Christmas or New Year, a time when people are meant to be home with their families and celebrating.</s>CHURCH: Prime Minister David Cameron there. And Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with the latest on the conditions there. So Pedram, talk to us about when people in that region can expect the water level to subside and the weather to improve.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's of course, across that area, Rosemary, a couple of days before we begin to see some improvement. It seems to be a seesaw battle. Conditions improve, go back downhill, and we improve again. This pattern persisted across the southern U.S. -- Midwestern United States where nearly 70 tornadoes spawned in the past seven days, the most number of tornadoes in the month of December. When we take a look, six consecutive days of tornado reports in the month of December, the last time this happened in 1982. The only other time we had six straight days of tornadoes in December was in 1953. Both years were by the way, El Nino years. Of course, there's a flooding concern across the United States as well, 430 reported rivers reporting flooding at this hour. High risk of flooding that was in place on Monday. Improves a little bit come Tuesday. Look what happens when we come into Wednesday -- flood warnings still in place across this portion of the world. The images look something like this. Of course, when you tie in this on a global scale we know, take a look at the floor perspective, the graphics here. El Nino pattern that's displaced the jet stream, we have a wet weather pattern across the U.S., Seattle and Portland, Oregon have 28 straight days in the month of December.</s>CHURCH: Understood. Also received a tweet from someone in Ireland saying there are problems in terms of flooding as well, many thanks to you, Pedram, for covering that. Appreciate it. Well, severe flooding is also affecting large parts of South America. More than 160,000 people have been displaced by torrential rains. Argentina's vital tourism industry is suffering because of it. Many people are beginning to worry about lasting damage. CNN's Diego Laje reports.</s>DIEGO LAJE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation in Concordia in northeastern Argentina is concerning. There are more than 10,000 evacuees only in this town. Add to the figure of 160,000 evacuees in the region combining Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. In this town, one in ten has lost their homes. That's probably not the biggest part of the drama here. The biggest part is that many businesses are gone. The water already above roof levels in many -- in many businesses. Together with that, this is the beginning of the summer season, the beginning of the travel season. This town depends heavily on tourism. Here, many people are very worried they will not make enough cash flow for the rest of the year. They depend on the summer travel season to make money to live through the year, through 2016. That is exactly what most people are concerned with right now. In the meantime, authorities are mobilizing police, army, and rescue personnel to try and bring shelter to those that have been displaced. The crisis is expected to last for many, many months to come, Diego Laje, CNN, Concordia.</s>CHURCH: Iran has shipped more than 25,000 pounds of low enriched uranium to Russia. The U.S. calls it a significant step in Iran honoring the nuclear deal reached with major world powers earlier this year. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from a number of economic sanctions. Tehran committed to reducing its supply of low enriched uranium to below 660 pounds. Well, there will be no indictments for two police officers in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, coming up, why his family is accusing prosecutors of sabotaging the case. Also ahead, U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has more harsh words for the Clintons, back in a moment.