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Blackberry Vying for a Comeback; People Trapped by Tornado; Jodi Arias Says She Acted in Self Defense; Child Held Hostage in Alabama; Ray Lewis Responds to Doping Allegations.

Aired January 30, 2013 - 11:30   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: David, it's great reading in "Sports Illustrated." I have to reiterate again that CNN hasn't done independent confirmation yet. We haven't been able to confirm the allegations that you make in the magazine but it is very interesting reading. He's a very interesting character regardless. I know you'll be watching this Sunday.

DAVID EPSTEIN, SENIOR WRITER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Thanks for having me.

BANFIELD: All right, David. Thanks.

A reminder to kickoff for Sunday's Super Bowl 6:30 p.m. eastern time. And that's not all. On the eve of Super Bowl XLVII, CNN will be live in New Orleans with our take on the biggest sporting event in the country. What it means to the city, how it became a cultural phenomenon and more. "Kickoff in New Orleans, a CNN Bleacher Report" special on Saturday afternoon, 4:00 p.m. eastern. Break out chicken wings early.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So I am addicted to this. I will admit it. I have two of them. This was considered the smartest of the Smartphones just five years ago. Blackberry was huge representing 20 percent of all Smartphones. Not so much today. The number has tumbled to 6 percent. The company's stock has tumbled down 80 percent. That, my friends, is what you call triage. So in an effort to stop the bleeding, Blackberry's maker, a company called RIM, just unveiled Blackberry 10. I can't wait. It's going up against the Android and the iPhone and every other phone whipping its butt. They are buying a platinum Super Bowl ads that are 4 million bucks for 30 seconds.

Ali Velshi got his hands on the new Blackberry 10 and been test driving it for a week. This is what he thinks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GADWAY, SENIOR MANAGER, PRODUCT MARKETING, RESEARCH IN MOTION: There's no buttons on the Blackberry 10.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No buttons may not be news to you but big news for Blackberry users, many of whom won't know what to make of the Z-10. Canada's Research in Motion is counting on this virtual phone to allow it to live to fight another day.

After a year long delay and years of neglecting the onslaught by Apple and Android-based phones, RIM unveiled the new operating system and the first phone to run it.

As a longtime Blackberry user and hard keyboard lover, I've been evaluating the new phone in real world conditions. I'm a heavy user and a champion thumb typist. Being new to the virtual keyboard world, my e-mail output has been cut in half while I got used to it.

But the company says the keyboard is easier to use and more intuitive than its virtual competitors.

GADWAY: Select it by flicking it.

VELSHI: The keyboard grabs words from your device and names from your contacts and predicts in a very customized way what you're likely to type allowing you to compose entire sentences just by flicking the complete words which appear on the keyboard up toward the screen. All of it can be done with one hand.

For those users who whom a virtual keyboard is still a nonstarter, you'll have to wait until April for a model with a hard keyboard.

Built on a brand new operating system, not a single line of code is copied from Blackberry's existing platform. Battery life isn't great, but unlike iPhone and Android phones, you can change a Blackberry battery.

(on camera): Here's an interesting feature for those who use a corporate Blackberry with strict company rules but who also carry a separate phone for personal use, the Blackberry 10 uses something called Balance. It allows the device to be strictly split so that the corporate side of it can adhere to company's rules, saying no photos or personal e-mails, while on the other side of the split personality you can do all of your personal business.

GADWAY: These are secure. Information in them is secure. I can't take anything out of the work space into my personal side. Similarly when I'm on the personal side as an end user, I can remain confident that none of the tweets that I'm sending, pictures that I'm sharing are things that my employer can have access to. It's really and truly a dual persona device.

VELSHI (voice-over): Two sides of the device, if you will, never cross each other. Keep in mind your company has to authorize and enable this feature.

(on camera): Research in Motion's ultra-secure functions allowed them to dominate the corporate world. Back in 2009, 20 percent of all Smartphones globally were Blackberries. Today it's just 6 percent. The stock is down more than 80 percent in five years. The question is whether this phone can change all of that.

It will be released in the U.K. this week, in Canada in February, and in the United States by the end of March. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: So then, Ali, I just get this quick note that Blackberry has just announced a new creative director. I'm shocked by this. Alicia Keys is the new creative director for Blackberry. Go figure.

If you want an in-depth look at Blackberry and try for a comeback and this morning's long awaited unveiling, you can go to CNN.com/tech.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Just moments ago we brought you severe weather reporting. Chad Myers live in the Severe Weather Center, told people in Adairsville, Georgia, to take cover.

From your lips to our ears. That tornado touched and caused problems.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Multiple injuries. Cars crushed. Buildings damaged. People trapped in homes in Adairsville, Georgia. The tornado went over the interstate including tractor-trailers that are turned over near mile marker 306. I'll take you to the cell right there. We knew it was on the ground. We knew it was headed to that town. Many times these storms hit farmland and away from cities. When they make a run at a town or city, that's when obviously everything just goes out the door. You have to take care of yourself and those people in that town. Go ahead.

BANFIELD: I've got a report that people are trapped in Adairsville. Does it mean they can't expect to have someone come to help them any time soon because the danger is on the ground?

MYERS: That first storm was the discrete super-cell ahead of the line and now the line is coming with winds of 60 miles per hour. The police scanner reports that I'm hearing now, the town is in complete shambles. Trees down everywhere. Power is down everywhere. The policemen can't get to the homes that are damaged and destroyed because there is so many debris in the roadways there.

BANFIELD: Just help me out here. There could be people watching us right now who want to help their neighbors. Should they get out to help neighbors or stay covered?

MYERS: From what I can hear on the scanner and highway patrol saying that you can't get anywhere. There are so many trees down in the roadways, don't try to drive into that town. You need to take care of the people that are in the town if you are already there. It's neighbors helping neighbors at this point in time with that direct hit.

BANFIELD: And OK to leave your home at this point in Adairsville to help your neighbors.

MYERS: There are a lot of power lines don't. They don't necessarily go dead. They can still be alive. That's one of the things that happens in a hurricane when I go cover them as well. When you have debris from shingles and things flying off other roadways and roofways, you can be stepping on nails and do more damage to yourself after the storm than what the storm did to you. Literally, wait for the police to help you. Get outside. Let them know you are OK. Other than that, this is going to be a search and rescue for a while there.

BANFIELD: OK. Keep an eye on the cells for us and let us know if anything else starts to develop.

MYERS: Will do.

BANFIELD: We appreciate it.

Chad Myers live for us.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It is a case of love, sex, lies and murder and it's riveting people across this country. In Arizona, a beautiful young woman named Jodi Arias sits behind the defense table day after day as prosecutors lay out this case of her viciously killing her ex- boyfriend, Travis Alexander, by stabbing him 27 times and slitting his throat from ear to ear and shooting him. A guy nearly twice her size.

There are shades of Casey Anthony in this courtroom as a steady stream of lies that she told police and anyone else that would listen have been tightening like a noose around her neck. Jodi Arias says it was self-defense. But her lawyers won't have an easy time trying to prove this thing as a bullet casing, a bloody print and a camera points it at her.

What is her best strategy to prove her self-defense strategy? Our CNN legal contributor, Former New York City prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, Paul Callan, is here.

Here's the thing. Whenever I get into a courtroom and I hear a murder case with somebody who lied not once, not twice, not three times but a whole lot of times and then when confronted with evidence that is basically irrefutable, your bloody hand print on the wall, they tell a different story like self-defense. What shot does she have?

PAUL CALLAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Doesn't look like she has much of a shot. You started talking about Casey Anthony. There's a case where everyone thought she had no shot ever and she was acquitted. Often in battered women cases, real battered women cases, they tell a story different at the beginning of the investigation than is often the story in front of the jury out of fear or out of other reasons and sometimes juries accept that. This is not uncommon this defense but it's not often successful.

BANFIELD: You brought up Casey Anthony after I brought up Casey Anthony and here I go with Casey Anthony. Pretty girl, sitting in a courtroom facing death penalty. Jodi Arias pretty girl sitting if a courtroom facing the death penalty. We talked about this yesterday. Jurors have a tough time looking at pretty girls and saying I'm good with death.

CALLAN: They do. They have a real tough time with it. The thing in this case is the why. Prosecutors are talking about maybe she was upset because of another woman or broken relationship. He was shot in the face, stabbed 27 times, and his throat was slit from ear to ear. It sounds like a rage killing and I'm not seeing enough motive from her or enough strange things in her background that would suggest this sort of brutality.

BANFIELD: For anyone that hasn't heard the evidence in this case, a lot of his friends say she was stalking him. They had this long relationship that had a lot to do with sex and not a lot else and that she had allegedly slashed his tires not once but twice and sent really volatile e-mails to potential love interests of his. They were the first ones to direct police to Jodi Arias saying he had an ex- girlfriend who was a bit out of it.

CALLAN: Sure.

BANFIELD: That's got to say a lot.

CALLAN: What prosecutors are going to say in the end is she had a dark, evil side to her that just hadn't been publicly revealed in the past and, unfortunately, for Mr. Alexander, he is the person who got the brunt of it. Now they have other evidence too. A gun used in the killing was reported stolen from her grandmother's house in California a week before. Premeditation there, if she reports the gun stolen and she uses it. Also, she called an ex-boyfriend to the stand as her first defense witness yesterday and his story blew up on the defense.

BANFIELD: What might be a little different here than in Casey Anthony is if she wants to assert this kind of affirmative defense, she's going to have to take the stand because nothing else helps her prove her case.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm flat out of time. Otherwise, I could talk to you about this for 10 days.

CALLAN: At least.

BANFIELD: Paul, thank you.

By the way, if Jodi Arias is convicted in this case, she could become the fourth woman on Arizona's death row.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: As we speak there is a 6-year-old boy being held hostage in an underground bunker in Alabama. The man holding him hostage, clearly deranged. The stand-off with the police is active. Authorities desperately trying to free the child. Police say it started violently yesterday when a gunman boarded the bus and in front of the kids shot and killed the bus driver who tried to save this child. The boy is OK but needs medication. That's compounding worries.

Martin Savidge is following the story.

Martin, this is so unbelievable. Where do things stand now?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's heartbreaking, Ashleigh. It is now in the hands of the FBI. They took the lead in the investigation overnight. They are experts at dealing with hostage negotiations. That is what's happening now.

You pointed out that this man identified as 67-year-old Jimmy Lee Dikes. Neighbors say he has a history of causing altercations in the neighborhood. In fact, even using and firing a gun at people. He's supposedly in this homemade bunker and is communicating with authorities. Normally, we hear of communication over a telephone or bull horn. This is happening over a PVC pipe that leads into the bunker where the man is with the 6-year-old boy. They have been able to ascertain that the boy is all right. Presumably, they are doing it by looking down the pipe or hearing the boy.

There are affiliates at CNN reporting the boy needs medication. That's been delivered. So positive signs that we are hearing. But, of course, the horror of the young boy being taken on a school bus where a bus driver is shot dead, other children fleeing for their lives. Many people in that part of the state are praying for the boy's release.

BANFIELD: Is this random? Does this little boy know the man or did he just steal a child?

SAVIDGE: We don't know specifically at this point. It appears he was known in the neighborhood. Some say he had mental problems. Whether or not he was targeting this bus or that child we don't know.

He went on board, supposedly asked for two children. The bus driver protested. He grabbed a child and shot the bus driver four times, killing him.

BANFIELD: Marty, keep your eyes on this and update us as things change. Unbelievable.

We'll keep on top of the story as well. We'll bring you updates as soon as CNN gets them.

We'll take a quick break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The Senate seat vacated by John Kerry has a new occupant -- at least for now anyway. Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick is naming William Cowan, Kerry's former chief of staff, to take that post and serve until a special election in June. Senator Kerry, who was confirmed as the next secretary of state, officially submitted his resignation last night. I have more now on allegations we have been reporting on during the program that Baltimore Ravens Linebacker, Ray Lewis, has been using performance-enhancing substances that were banned by the National Football League. Mr. Lewis spoke out about the allegations a short time ago in New Orleans where he's getting ready to play Sunday's Super Bowl. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY LEWIS, BALTIMORE RAVENS LINEBACKER: I think honestly -- I'm going to say it very clearly again. I think it is probably one of the most embarrassing things that we can do on this type of oh stage. When you let cowards come in and do things like that, to try to disturb something, I have said it before. I said a million times. The reason I'm smiling is because it's so funny of a story. I have never, ever took whatever he said I was supposed to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: This was an allegation made by "Sports Illustrated" involving a substance derived from deer antlers. Mr. Lewis denies using any kind of performance-enhancing drugs. First reported by "Sports Illustrated." CNN not yet able to confirm that report. Independently, we are bringing it to you because Ray Lewis has addressed the allegation two times.

Thank you for watching this very busy edition of NEWSROOM.

NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL with Suzanne Malveaux starts now.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. We are taking you around the world in 60 minutes. Here's what's going on now.