rescuers prepare to resume the search for victims and answers in the crash of a germanwings flight as many ask what happened during those final eight minutes. amanda knox braces for a ruling on her murder conviction in italy. the first declared republican to run for the white house makes a surprising admission about obamacare. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. this is noourm. -- this is "cnn newsroom." it is daylight in the french alps where search and recovery efforts are set to resume in the crash of germanwings flight 9525. rain snow and fog in the

forecast could complicate things. the flight from barcelona, spain, to dusseldorf germany, crashed tuesday less than an hour after takeoff. >> french officials say all 150 people on board were killed. the wreckage mostly in small pieces is strewn across a wide area high up in the rugged mountains. we've just learned from reuters that the french interior minister says one of the plane's black boxes is damaged, but it can still be used to find information. we've got live torchlgeam coverage for you.clachlan with the latest. rosie tompkins is in dusseldorf germany. family have gathered waiting for word about their loved ones. first, erin recovery team have set up a staging area not tar from the crash site. now that we have daylight, what are you expecting? >> reporter: it appears as

though the recovery force have resumed. just a short while ago, we saw four helicopters land in the field just behind me. now this was the staging area yesterday for those air efforts. this morning, the spokesperson for france's interior ministry telling cnn affiliate bfm that the recovery effort will commence again today after it had been suspended in the overnight hours due to difficult conditions. now the location of the crash site is proving to be problematic for officials. it's in a remote area. the terrain described as difficult, accessible mainly by air. the site of the crash, local officials say, is in an area that is near a steep mountainside. so causing plenty of problems for the hundreds of police

officers and firefighters from france that are participating in this effort as well as those in germany and france, though france is taking the lead on the investigation as well as airbus technicians. whether a complicating factor hindering the air access as well as the icy conditions on the ground at the crash site requiring specialized equipment as well. this is looking like it will be a slow and painstaking process. >> the footage is stunning when you consider that the officials will literally need to hike the alps in order to piece together some of the evidence and on of course identify the remains of the victims. the weather conditions are said to be expected to get worse. are officials saying anything about a possible timeline other how long it will take to get the

answers we need? >> reporter: not at the moment. it's unclear how long the process will take.- local officials expect it town as long as a week for them to just search this entire area. they say the plane whether it crashed was pretty much obliterated. no piece of wreckage they say bigger than the size of a small car. human remains strewn some 100 mears away from the -- 100 mears away meters away from the wreckage. a long complicated process. there's 150 people on board from all over the world, germany, france spain colombia, belgium. the focus being on the family and getting victims identified and repatriated as quickly as possible. so far, not a single body has

been removed as far we know from the crash site. as you mentioned earlier, there's been the recovery of at least one of the black boxes. we are waiting on the analysis of the black box. >> we understand it is damaged but they can it's believed get information out of it. live from the french alps thanks. >> it goes without saying that this is an agonizing time for the families of the 150 people on board the plane. the flight rain identitied in barcelona. weeping relatives arrived at the airport throughout the day. barcelona is the capital of catalonia. the president of the region is providing support to the teams at the site and organizing help for the victims' families. >> perfectly understandable we are very sad. we are very upset thm has. this has been the worst accident

in the last years in our country. and in europe since the accident of the concorde in 2000. we are shocked by this accident. as i said before our first and only priority now is to be close to the families of the victims. this is what we have to do now. >> and germanwings employee held a vigil for the victims. there were at least 67 germans on board. 16 were traveling students with their teachers. two opera singers were passengers. germany's chancellor expressed her sorrow. >> translator: this suffering is incredible of the families. we will do everything to get them the help they need in these difficult hours. shock and unimagination grief for all the family --

unimaginable grief for all the family members on board. the plane was scheduled to land in dusseldorf where many families have traveled to wait for word on their loved ones. that is where we find our rosie tompkins. we can only imagine the anguish of these family members right now. what support mechanisms have been put in place to help them deal with this tragedy, and how much information are they getting from the airline at this time? >> reporter: as you say, here where the flight was intended at dusseldorf airport is where so many of those family members headed when they heard news of the crash yesterday, in search of answers only to have their worst fears confirmed that their loved ones were on board. the airplane set up a crisis center to provide them the support they could in the form of counseling and psychologists to help deal with the trauma. they also offered to fly family to the region in the french alps

if they would like to go to be closer to the site and closer to their loved ones and lost ones. the airline doing what they can to keep family updated and to provide the support they can through this trauma and tragedy. >> passengers from all over the world were on this flight including 7 germans -- 67 germans, 16 high school students with teachers ii teachers. how are people dealing with the loss and particularly those high school students? >> reporter: yes. with the stories, the numbers are so shocking from the crash. then when these names and faces come out, details, it brings to focus the personal tragedies. as you mentioned, 16 school students from a town just 80 kilometers north of the airport here. they were on a foreign exchange language exchange trip for a week in spain. they were tramping on their way home from it.

the mayor spoke yesterday in public. he was visibly shaken incredibly emotional talking about how the whole town was in shock. he said you could feel it every. where the town grief stricken. the opera singers, another detail emerging. these were a much loved duo. the female singer she was traveling with her husband and baby. one of the two babies we heard were on board and died in the crash. the details emerging giving face to that number 67 german nationals. a number which the germanwings ceo said could potentially change today as more details emerge. >> it is too tragic to bear. what is the latest on flight crews? we're hearing small numbers of crews with germanwings refusing to fly after this crash. what reasons are they given -- what are their concerns particularly here? is it more about grieving for their colleagues or is there something more to this?

>> reporter: the airline won't be any more specific than that with us. the statement does say that on receiving the news of the crash, some crew members did not want to travel. the airline has respected that wish. they wouldn't confirm how many crew or flights were affected. we know there were some cancelations and we were able to speak to passengers who were affected at the airport. let's have a listen. >> translator: it was not relaxing to come here and take plane. now we just heard that the flight is canceled. all the german flights are canceled now. >> translator: waiting to find out what's going to happenment not going to fly anymore. >> translator: it's terrible. when i heard, it's a shock. you can't believe it. >> reporter: passengers shocked. joining a nation in mourning. rosemary? >> indeed. rosie tompkins bringing us the latest from dusseldorf in germany. many thanks. it is still not clear what

caused germanwings flight 9525 to come down. coming up, we will look at what we know and what is revealed in the flight's final moments. i'm only in my 60's. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you.

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flight 9525 expect rough weather to hamper the work over the course of the day. french president hollande german chancellor merkel and the spanish prime minister are expected to visit the site later. meanwhile, the head of germanwings airline has described the plane's final moments. >> by ten.10:45 it had the height of 10,000 feet to reach that him at that time. the airliner then left this height after one minute and went straight down. this souris our knowledge at this point in time that the coming down lasted eight minutes altogether. >> we are learning new details

about the 150 people aboard the flightment we know there were at least 67 germans. among them 16 teenage students and two teachers. they were returning from a week studying in barcelona. at least one person from belgium and one from the netherlands were also on that plane. also on board, two passengers from colombia an architect and an economist. and a nurse from australia was traveling with her adult son who was an engineer. >> a former commercial pilot and cnn analyst writes planes don't just fall out of the sky. you can read the column and much more on our website at cnn.com. we have our pedram javaheri here to talk about the situation there. the terrain is incredibly steep, and then you're looking at the worsening weather conditions and the combination making this recovery effort just intolerable really. >> on the best of days this would be a challenging place to

be with a 60 to 70-degree slope. you would need rappelling equipment to hold your ground. of course there's ice coming down, freezing rain snow in the forecast. really want to make the situation very challenging over the next really 24 or so hours. that's the concernment the wednesday forecast looks rough as we head into thursday. a little bit in the way of improvement in the forecast. look at the steep terrain. when you look at this the verticality strewn about and fuselage very much challenging as far as footing is concerned. ice has been an issue leading up to this. fascinating depiction here. showing you the plane as it taxied across the runway in barcelona. s vertical profile as it took off. a 45-minute span going from sea level up to 38,000 feet cruising altitude the safest place to be. unfortunately it only spent one minute at cruising altitude right over the skies near marseilles. then within an eight-minute

period going down 32,000 feet. that's what officials are looking atment if. if something happened, why didn't the pilot try to go down. also of there smoke potentially in the -- in the cabin. of it on auto pilot? it is a gradual descent. we know the air speed stayed constant, but the altitude dropped sharply. this area across the western portion of the alps we know the snow line at the region 2,000 meters or 6,500 feet shy where it went down. altitudes go up over 9,000 feet at the top of this. what's interesting to note, the snow point to come down over the region but you go up to 9,000 feet, snow becomes on the order of feet as opposed to a couple of inches which is what they're experiencing over the next few hours. but here you go. this is kind of the profile as far as the aircraft's altitude. going up to 38,000 feet shortly after 9ment. 20 in the morning. measure the air speed in knots

at 400 knots or 500 miles per hour per hour. there's a rapid decline in the altitude. but the air speed remains constant. the last point of contact out there with the aircraft. notice the weather does improve with the date stamp thursday in the clearing. wednesday looks wet when it comes to snow showers and sleet. certainly fog into the early morning hours as of right now. and again, the 6,500-foot line is what we're looking at with the wintry mix with organizers and officials, of course sending the ten helicopters up in the air. they'll be down here in the rain with the low clouds. the weather pattern will be challenging monday for the region. >> thank you very much. it may be months before we know exactly what caused the airliner to crash. we know that the airbus appears to have lost altitude over an eight-minute period. pedam walking us through that also saying weather may have been a factor. peter ben is an aviation expert

and former pilot. joins us now via web cam. peter, what in your opinion might explain this eight-minute -- gradual descent? it seems unusual considering the speed didn't lessen at all during that time. >> reporter: good morning. it's tented as to why this has happened. there's no way of knowing. they'll look at the flight data recorder later today. there are a number of things that could have caused it. to know definitively we should let investigators do their work today. there will be an expert team led by the french investigating authority. i would think they will have answers quickly. >> it does suggest a few things if we compound it with what we know. according to reuters, officials are ruling out terrorism as a main theory here. we know that one of the black boxes although damaged has been

recovered. we expect to get answers soon. what would is suggest, that it was a gradual descent? to some degree you would argue that the plane was in some kind of control as it descended. >> beginning to second guess what going on the flight deck at an incredibly busy time without access to data is nearly impossible. why this happened could it have been a fall within the aircraft itself which i consider unlikely begin that the maintenance regime for the airplanes keeps them in as near to perfect condition as possible. could it be some external event? people have mentioned the weather. it doesn't look likely. the range of possibilities is so great that it would be very very hard to pick one. what you can say is that it underscores the vital importance of aviation safety and of a

regulatory environment that maintains that incredibly high standard. the airbus a320 and family of airliners is unbelievably safe. one did use the phrase. flying is the safest form of transport invented by man. >> in fact 2014 was one of the safest years on record over the past decade. generally speaking air travel is becoming more safe. would you say that there are some trouble areas as far as low-cost carriers or is this one of those few tragedies that might be unavoidable? >> when you look at the pattern of accidents that's affected the airbus range of airliners, there is no discernible common theme in it. and i have a ghastly feeling because this is such a terrible tragedy that this may yet be one of those incidents or accidents that you can't attribute a pattern to. there is no doubt that the low-cost sector in europe faces

enormous price pressure. and that to deliver a safe operation within those constraints is a challenge. but so far we've maintained a strong regulatory regime here in europe. and it just shows the rarity of this ghastly event, shows how effective that's been. >> it's very early days in the first 24 hours of all of this. we just don't have the answers we need yesterday. our aviation expert joining us to provide insight. we appreciate that. thank you. still to come for you on cnn, we take a closer look at the history and safety record of the airbus a320. the same type of plane that crashed into the java sea last year. also known for the miracle on the hudson. hmm... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that parker. well... did you know auctioneers make bad grocery store clerks? that'll be $23.50. now .75, 23.75, hold 'em.

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welcome back. yemen's president is appealing to the united nations to support military action by "willing countries to fight the advance of houthi rebels." >> army volunteers loyal to the president gathered tuesday near adan to defend the southern port city. the president fled to aden after the shia rebels took over the capital, sanaa in january. iran backs the houthis while sunni gulf arab states support the president. a rebel offensive is reportedly underway in the syrian city of idlib. the capital of idlib province.

syrian vs. controlled the countryside. but bashar al assad's forces have held on to the city. >> the offensive was launched by the al nusra front, an affiliate of al qaeda. another big story amanda knox's future hangs in the balance. in the coming hours, italy's supreme court will rule on whether to uphold her conviction in the 2007 killing of her roommate merritt digital kercher. >> the fate of her former boyfriend, raffaele sollecito, will also be decided. we look at the possible outcomes. >> reporter: after more than seven years of legal wrangling, italy will again decide the fate of amanda knox. experts say the odds are not in knox's favor. >> i did not kill my friend. i did not wield a knife. i had no reason to. >> reporter: the supreme court can either uphold last year's conviction or overturn the decision. it's a decision that for a

second time found knox and her then-boyfriend raffaele sollecito, guilty of murdering 21-year-old british student meredith kercher. a third suspect, rudy guedet was sentenced to 13 years in jail. knox and sollecito have long claimed innocence. say believe guede acted alone. >> as the case progressed, the evidence that the prosecution has claimed exist against me has been -- been proven less and less and less. >> reporter: the florence apple at court -- appellate court found the ruling to be less of rigor, sentencing knox in absentia to 28.5 years behind bars. even that ruling is not final unless italy's high court signs off. >> from a statistical point of view frequently supreme court confirm the decision of the court of appeals. so in this case, it should mean

the confirmation of the sentence. >> reporter: a confirmed sentence means police will immediately arrest sollecito, an italian citizen. he'll begin to serve his 25-year jail term. amanda knox remains in the united states. italy could request her extradition. experts say politics would be a likely factor. >> italians will have to determine whether or not they want to ask for extradition under the current obama administration or wait and see who's elected. she'd be better off fighting extradition trial, an extradition process in the united states than wondering if some bounty hunter will try to get her on an international arrest warrant. it would be a very unsettling time. >> reporter: under italian law, the statute of limitations on extradition is double the sentence. the court would have over 50 years to make that decision. the high court may also overturn the latest guilty verdict in which case there will likely be another appeal trial. while the handling of his case sparked outrage in the u.s. this kind of legal ping pong is

normal in italy. experts say the system is meant to ensure the rights of the accused. cnn. we'll take a short break now. still to come people with loved ones on that doomed flight, the germanwings flight, still looking for answers. ahead, the agonizing wait amid the search for answers. when it comes to medicare, everyone talks about what happens when you turn sixty-five. but, really, it's what you do before that counts. see, medicare doesn't cover everything. only about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is on you. [ male announcer ] consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans it could really save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. so, call now and request this free decision guide. discover how an aarp

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hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. it's your last half-hour of the day with us. this is "cnn newsroom." i'm errol barnett. >> i'm rosemary church. we want to update you on our top story now. rain and snow complicating search efforts now underway in the french alps. investigators are trying to find out why a germanwings airbus a320 crashed there tuesday killing all 150 people on board. the french interior minister now says the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage on tuesday is damaged. but repairs are expected to make it operable again in the coming hours. we are learning more about the 150 people on board that flight including two acclaimed opera singers. >> yeah. oleg bryak and maria radner had just wrapped up a series of performances in barcelona. the bass baritone has been filmed with the dusseldorf opera

house since 60s1996. he's performed on stages all over the world. earlier, bryak's colleague and friend spoke with our anderson cooper. >> we are so sorry for your life. >> dusseldorf -- we know sometimes going to happen to all of us. but the sadness with which it happens -- i can only describe it as staggering. >> what kind of guy was oleg? tell us about him. >> the oleg i knew is a very sensitive person. it's very easygoing professional

and very nice and caring friend. he used to take all situations -- all situations with certain calm that's actually eradiated conflict for everybody around him. that's the way he was. very very easygoing and sensitive with people. >> at airports in barcelona and dusseldorf, people loved ones on the ill-fated flight have baseball clamoring for more information which is understandable. >> yeah. and that information has been coming in slowly. fred pleitgen had more on the family members' agonizing wait for answers. >> reporter: devastated family members are gathering here at dusseldorf airport where the doomed flight was headed. also at barcelona airport where the flight originated. a crisis center has been set up with a team of psychologists for those who need care. relatives, many crying, were

escorted by police and airport staff as they made their way through the airports. officials believe there were no survivors after the airbus a320 crashed tuesday in the foothills of the french alps. >> translator: on board there were 144 passengers including two babies on board, as well as six crew members. two were in the cockpit and four in the cabin. >> reporter: 16 students and two teachers from this high school in northwest germany are among the 150 presumed dead. the students had spent a week as exchange students in spain and were returning when the flight crashed. >> translator: the whole city is shocked, and we can feel it everywhere. this is the worst, what happened. >> reporter: the students are among the 7 german the airline believes -- 67 germans the airline believes were on the flight. angela merkel is expected to travel to the site on wednesday. official in spain said 45 passengers had spanish names. >> translator: there are flow known survivors.

there's a high number of spaniards, germans, and turks. >> reporter: a high-level official briefed on the search operation says human remains are strewn for several hundred meters. authorities said it could take days to recover the bodies because the mountainous terrain and bad weather are making it difficult to reach the crash site. >> translator: we express our deep test sympathy for the passengers killed and crew members. we think about the victims. at the same time we will do suppose possible with the authorities to find out the reason for this crash. >> reporter: cnn, dusseldorf germany. as we've been telling you, flight 9525 crashed in a remote and sparsely populated part of the french alps. >> while no one seem to have seen the actual impact some say they did see it coming. >> translator: i saw the plane at low altitude for two or three seconds. as soon as i saw that i sensed it was going crash. >> translator: i was doing some

odd jobs behind my house. i saw a plane passing by. i said "it's a bit low." the when i discovered a plane had crashed, i thought of this right away. >> of course we've heard from those witnesses on the ground. just imagine what the horrified passengers must have seen. >> our tom foreman looks at that and what may have caused the plane to crash. >> reporter: this descent of somewhat rapid but not so fast that anybody in the cabin would necessarily have noticed it until they were actually able to see the mountains outside the windows. that sort of dispenses one of the theories about what happened. that it was a catastrophic failure in the air. that the tail fell off or wing tore off familiar that happened the plane would have come down more quickly in less controlled fashion. the debris would have been scattered over much wider area on the ground. so if that's not what happened what are some other possibilities? every analyst we've talked to has said look at the flight pattern of this plane. it is a direct descent that

seems very controlled. 400 to 500 miles per hour the whole time. a straight line, no sign of anything unusual happening. that they say would be consistent with the crew trying to simply get to a lower altitude and deal with some sort of problem. but we still don't know what the problem would have been. and frankly, if they had this kind of control, why wouldn't they have veered away from the mountains and gallon some of the -- and gone to some of the airplanes that they might have been able to reach safely? that brings up another possibility here. what if they just didn't know that they were crashing? this happens. sometimes pilots have false readings from instrumentation. they don't know how fast their plane is traveling. they don't know where it is in relationship to the ground or simply become so distracted by some other issue that they just lose what's called situational awareness. by the time they would have realized they were in deep trouble, they had no time left to do anything about it. >> tom foreman there.

now the doomed germanwings flight was an airbus a320. that is well known by aviation analysts for its strong safety record. >> it is. and there are several thousand of these planes in operation around the world. miguel marquez take a closer look now at the history of this type of aircraft. >> reporter: worldwide more than 3,600 airbus a320s are flown by more than 400 airlines charter companies, and private entities. eight american carriers combined have more than 450 a 20s in n fleets. among the biggest, jetblue with 130. united has 97. daley and u.s. airways -- delta and u.s. airways 9 each. in the short to medium range world, the a320 is second only to the boeing 737 which has delivered more than 1,000 of their medium sized planes. airbus says every 2.5 seconds, a plane from one of its 320 family is taking off or land somewhere in the world. the plane identified as germanwings flight 9525 had been

in service since 1991 when it took off from barcelona. airbus says it had approximately 58,300 flight hours and some 46,700 flights. >> this plane was 24 years old but it was being maintained on a very strict schedule even an enhanced schedule for older planes -- >> reporter: three months ago, it was a similar story with asia flight 8501. that plane was just six years old and had logged about 23,000 hours in the air. shortly after taking off from indonesia, the pilot asked air traffic control if he could ascend to 38,000 feet. that request was denied. the a320 is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet. its absolute limit, 42,000 feet! its history, there have been 12 a320 crashes that were deadly, resulting in 0 deaths on the planes or on the ground. the first crash shortly after the plane started service in

1988. air france flight 29 skimmed the top of trees during an air show demonstration flights. the cause -- the fly-by wire system and pile error. in 2007 flight 3054 crashed on landing in sao paolo, brazil. a reverse thruster had been deactivated. the plane unable to stop crashed into a cargo terminal. 187 passengers and crew died plus 12 on the ground. the deadliest crash for an a320. cause -- likely pilot error or mechanical failure. who could forget the 2009 ditching of the u.s. airways flight 1549. on takeoff from new york's laguardia airport, the plane collided with a flock of geese. both engines failed. captain sully sullenberger successfully landed the plane on the hudson river. all 155 aboard survived. miguel marquez, cnn. let's bring in our meteorologist pedram javaheri

with more on this. as you see there, the plane, this type of plane, flies these types of routes all the time. that's why we're wondering if maybe it was really the weather that played a role. we just don't know yet. >> we don't know yet. you know what's interesting about the a320 and we heard as far as the rarity of planes going down .14 accidents for every one million takeoffs. .14 deadly accidents. puts it in perspective. 46,000 flights under its belt. that's about 5.3 flights every single day. this particular aircraft had over the past 24 years. so again, it's seen all sorts of elements in the way of weather and flights across this region. certainly the history remains on what occurred. you see how the crow flies from barcelona to dusseldorf. that's the track this plane every day takes a track over the western med. portions of the alps. we saw this occur with the same aircraft there on a monday flight track. of course on tuesday, the deadly accident occurring there across portions of the alps. want to show you the weather pattern as this transpired.

storm system certainly there. well to the east and to the south of the actual track, notice to the north where it was headed generally clear, partly cloudy at the most. and fog moved in. the storm system doesn't look like it was the reason why -- any reason why this transpired. want to show you the severity of the terrain we're talking about. some of the search efforts taking place where helicopters drop down the crew next to the tree line. elevation takes up sharply over a few-meter period and goes up rapidly. the concern now, the storm system that typically we see storms go west to east. this particular storm has more of a south-to-north sort of trajectory. around morocco, northern africa,al, that's where the storm -- aljeeria that's where the storm will move. with the altitudes, a lot coming down in the way of winter weather. clearing on floodsthursday. more clouds on friday. sitting at the rain/snow line. freezing rain possible.

not to mention gusty winds. the mountains and of course we know mountains can really help increase the wind speeds. that is a possible at times could get to 40 to 50 miles per hour heading into wednesday and thursday. watch this here the next couple of days. >> all right. we'll be watching that closely. thank you very much pedram. appreciate it. thousands of protesters took to the streets of kabul demanding justice for an afghan woman brusdsy killed by a mob of men. coming up what the woman was accused of doing.

recovery efforts have resumed this morning at the site of the plane crash in the french alps. rain and snow may soon complicate an even difficult task. the airbus killed all 150 on board after going down wednesday. >> the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage on tuesday is damaged. but they do expect to be age to get information from it. protests growing in the afghan capital the site of a gruesome killing last week. 2,000 gathered outside the supreme court in accountable demanding justice for an afghan woman accused of burning the koran. >> witnesses say a mob of men brutally beat the 27-year-old, set her on fire then threw her body into a river. investigators say she was

wrongly accused. 26 people have been arrested in connection with that killing. meanwhile, u.s. president barack obama says nearly 10,000 u.s. troops will remain in afghanistan through the end of this year. that announcement came as he met with afghan president ghani in washington. mr. ghani pushed for a slower troop withdrawal. >> this flexibility reflects our reinvigorated partnership with afghanistan, which is aimed at the making afghanistan secure and preventing it from being used to launch terrorist attacks. >> the flexibility that's been provided for 2015 will be used to exhilarate reforms and ensure that national security forces are much better led, equipped trained, and are focused on their fundamental mission. >> the united states originally planned to cut the number of troops down by more than 4,000

by the end of this year. we turn now to senior international correspondent nick paton walsh. he is following this story from kabul. nick how much does this decision change the situation on the ground? or is this more about symbolism? >> reporter: well 4,300 will be here for a milwaukee of 12 months -- for a maximum of 12 months longer. proportionately that is roughly 50% of the number currently here. longer so yes, in terms of that it has some practical weight that will provide more trainer on the ground to assist afghan national security forces in trying to hold back a resurgent taliban. those afghan soldiers facing a tough fight. losing many on the battlefield. also many through atrick to desertion, for -- attrition to desertion, for lack of a better word. initially reluctant to release 10% in the last year or so. potentially more ahead of that. that's a key issue. barack obama yesterday, i think

very much trying to have both parts of the argument he'd like here. on one side part of the key tenets to his foreign policy will be i will end the wars in iraq and afghanistan. also he's facing an issue with the precipitous withdrawal from iraq not necessarily washington's fault there, the iraqi government wouldn't give the troops immunity they wanted. that swift departure allowed a foothold for isis. the taliban is far on the back foot here in many ways resurgent. perhaps there may be a desire in the white house to be seen as able to provide some sort of assistance to hold that tide back. at the same time yes, there is a feeling of extra troops here may not necessarily turn the tide. rosemary? >> nick how different will this relationship between the united states and afghanistan be with mr. ghani at the helm? >> reporter: according to the nato commander, he described it as night and day compared to the administration of hamid karzai.

so much that mr. karzai's administration was spent chiding for the casualties but expanding differences between his approach and the american approach. and that hobbled so much of american policy here certainly in washington's eyes. ghani spent much time during the speech talking about the time spent in washington. a creature of the jungle. but also somebody who very open to the u.s. presence here is very keen. he was yesterday certainly to emphasize the sacrifice american troops have made here, talking about how he met veterans and spoken to the families of those who lost their lives here. keen to assure american that their sacrifice will not be in vain. i think also facing phenomenal difficulties domestically here. he doesn't have a minister of defense at this stage. he's sharing the government with a man he fought an election against. that's far from an ideal information when they're trying to manage the myriad of problems afghanistan has now. one small victory yesterday in the white house -- that's the extra troops. still, the problems here mounting rather than receiving.

rosemary? >> mr. begany to speak before congress -- ghani to speak before congress soon. we'll have that for our viewers. nick paton walsh with the latest from kabul. many thanks to you. actress angelina jolie says she's taken action once again to protect her health. coming up details on another major surgery. technology gives you control and now technology gives you home security and control in a new and revolutionary way. introducing plug & protect from livewatch security,

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and fallopian tubes to reduce her cancer risk. the actress underwent a double mastectomy two years ago for the very same reason. >> jolie's grandmother, aunt and mother all died of cancer. jolie carries a mutation of the brac gene that increases her rick of cancer. testing is essential, her doctor says. >> it could be the most important thing that a woman ever does in her entire life in order to preserve her life. if you think about it, in these families generation after generation of women and men will die from cancers. and until recently no one understood it. now we get. it there's a gene. you can test for it pretty easily and save your life. >> cancer experts say jolie made the right call to have that surgery. of course she said and insisted in her op-ed it's not everyone's solution. so people have to make their own

decisions. >> yeah. the newly announced u.s. presidential candidate who led a crusade against obamacare will be signing up for it. republican senator ted cruz says he'll get health insurance coverage through the affordable care act even though he's vowing to repeal it. he says he's following the law as written with his wife on leave. cruz won't get insurance through her employer. now for a lucky escape for passengers on a bus in brazil. really stunning video that is going viral for obvious reasons. take a look at this. >> during a flood, their bus got stuck in the mud. no sooner did the travelers make it to safety than a large sinkhole opened up in the road. look at that. it swallowed the bus hole. floodwater then washed the bus clean away. everyone was okay. so what happens when an 18 wheeler hauling circus elephants gets stuck in the mud? this amazing scene. the elephants actually held the

truck up to keep it from flipping over. >> as if we couldn't love elephants even more. it was traveling to a circus in dallas when it got stranded on the side of the road. thanks to the elephants and local wrecker service, the trucks got back to their journey. they're known to be wild in the first place, don't want to be going circus to circus. previous they've got a big heart. >> they're clever. thanks for joining us. this is "cnn newsroom." i'm errol barnett. >> i'm rosemary church. "early start" is next for viewers in the u.s. for everybody else, stay tuned for max foster in london. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

happening now, an intense search to recover remains much those on board german wing's flight 9525 crashing into the french alps. 150 people on board. investigators now examining the plane's cockpit voice recording, trying to figure out just what went wrong. live team coverage breaking down the search the mourning begins for those killed. good morning, i'm christine romans. welcome, everybody, this morning. this morning the cockpit voice recording