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Lion Kills Intern Inside A Cage; North Korea: U.S. Igniting Nuclear War; White House Lunch Date; Paul Stalls Senate Vote On Brennan; Police: No Laws Broken In CPR Refusal; Graphic Testimony In Jodi Arias Trial; Jobless Claims Fall To 6-Week Low; Final Cardinal Elector Due To Arrive; Berlusconi Sentenced To One Year; Judge: Cheerleading Not A Sport; Helping Women Succeed At Work; Facebook Launches New Timeline

Aired March 07, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM -- how did this happen? A 24-year-old woman mauled to death by a lion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just loved -- this was her dream come true, working with big cats all day long nothing but big cats.

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LEMON: Her father wants to know why she was inside the lion's cage.

Violence on the field, the NFL is trying to improve players' safety, but the commissioner reportedly makes a shocking statement about the future of America's most popular sport.

And a woman on trial accused of slaughtering her ex-boyfriend and the jury's asking her questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I turned and I just wanted him to stop, so I pointed the gun at help hoping it would make him halt and it didn't. Instead he lunged at me right around the time that the gun went off.

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LEMON: The NEWSROOM starts right now.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Carol is off today. We begin this hour in Central California where police are investigating a deadly attack by a lion. The 24-year-old Diana Hanson was an intern at the Cat Haven Sanctuary and was inside the cage with a 350-pound lion when it turned on her. This morning her family is struggling to make sense of it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAUL HANSON, VICTIM'S FATHER (via telephone): Apparently, the other intern was outside of the cage. I don't know why in the world she would ever be inside the lion's cage. I can't think of any reason why she would do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wildlife experts familiar with the facility describe it as professional and well run. But this morning there are a lot of questions about exactly what happened and why. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Dunlap, California. Ted, first question I had, why was she inside the cage with a 350-pound lion?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's the question everybody has, Don. Not only her father, but also the founder here at Cat Haven has the same question, why was she in there? Was she ever in by herself with this lion previously? Was this the first time?

You said she was with another person. She was with another intern and apparently that person was outside of the cage and tried to distract the 5-year-old lion that would ultimately kill Diana but was unsuccessful.

In fact, when deputies arrived on scene, the lion was still next to Diana. They shot and killed Cous Cous, but were unable to revive Diana. We talked to Jeff Corwin, from "Animal Planet."

He's actually met this lion and he says that despite the fact Cous Cous, this lion, was basically brought up in captivity, spending his whole life here at Cat Haven and had no signs of aggression ever in his past. He says you cannot let your guard down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF CORWIN, "ANIMAL PLANET": We can't forget how powerful these animals are and it does strike me as potentially dangerous for someone to be alone with a cat like this. And you can see a tragic drought come when one potentially loses sight on the absolute predatory ability of these incredible cats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And today Cat Haven has not opened and will likely not open to the public. Normally it is a cat sanctuary that is open to the public. And as you mentioned, it has a stellar reputation within the community nationwide and as we started the report, Don, the question is what was this young woman doing in that cage with a lion?

LEMON: We'll find out more as the investigation plays out. Thank you very much, Ted Rowlands.

Now let's shift gears to North Korea, new warnings that stir chilling memories of the cold war. This morning, the communist nation is rationing up its usual fiery rhetoric and even invoking the threat of nuclear war. North Korea is enraged by the likelihood of tougher U.N. sanctions and as usual the U.S. seems to be its target of its latest aggression.

CNN's Anna Coren is in Seoul, South Korea. Hello, Anna.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Don. Well, the U.N. Security Council is meeting as we speak to vote on those tough sanctions. They are likely to be passed unanimously, which would mean that the tough sanctions that would specifically target international financing would be enforced on North Korea.

Now this, of course, is in response to that nuclear test, which was held last month and in the past few days, Don, we've heard everything from North Korea threatening to scrap the armistice agreement, which was signed back in 1953 which effectively ended the Korean War.

And then just hours ago it said that it would launch a pre-emptive strike on the United States and South Korea. Now as you've mentioned, we've heard the angry rhetoric coming out of Pyongyang, but nothing quite like this, they never actually said that they would conduct a pre-emptive nuclear strike before. So this is certainly new language -- Don.

LEMON: Anna Coren, thank you very much.

The White House keeps singing a new tune with a focus on peace. Today, President Obama's new charm offensive continues with a sit down meeting with Representatives Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

It's a dollars and cents lunch date with the ranking members of the House Budget Committee. It comes after a dinner last night with a dozen Republican senators at a Washington hotel and the dinner was at President Obama's request, lasting over two hours. And Republicans left happy.

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SENATOR JOHN HOEVEN (R), NORTH DAKOTA: It was a good dialogue. I want to thank the president for engaging with us. Particularly also want to thank both Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator McCain for coordinating the meeting. Good, very candid discussion.

And the discussion included not only sequester, the budget, but really where we focused is how do we bring people together in a bipartisan way to address the debt and deficit. And that means tax reform and that means entitlement reform the way we preserve Social Security and Medicare but truly addresses the debt and deficit.

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LEMON: So forgive Kentucky Senator Rand Paul if he doesn't have much to say today. He did a lot of talking yesterday nearly 13 hours worth.

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SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan's nomination for the CIA. I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes.

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LEMON: And speak he did, from 11:47 Wednesday morning until well past midnight. The senator's attack focused squarely on the president's drone program and its use on American citizens overseas and possibly here on U.S. soil.

Paul wasn't alone. He got some help. A couple fellow senators took over for a brief time asking questions or reading tweets. But it was a Tea Party senator who did the heavy lifting, grabbing a bite to eat while still making his point or pausing to grab a much needed drink of water, something he did plenty of times. But in the end, he grew tired and it was time to wrap up.

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PAUL: I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurman's record, but I've discovered that there are some limits to filibustering and I'll have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here. But I thank you very much for the forbearance and I yield the floor.

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LEMON: Our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins us now. Nature called and he had to, you know, finish what he had to do. But he's getting a lot of praise today for what he did.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, he did something that is one of the most traditional tools that a senator has. And the irony here is that he was helped by one of the newest technologies that we have. And that is the internet and more specifically Twitter.

What we witnessed watching him as the day went on was really fascinating, Don. He started out really surprising both parties I believe going out there and saying that he was going to filibuster and then keeping at it at the beginning as you said first three hours we watched him, he was by himself.

Then he got help from a couple of his fellow Tea Party backed senators. But what was really interesting is that as this started to sort of take on a life of its own, you saw the conservative blogosphere raise questions saying where is everybody else to help him.

I'll read a tweet that the RNC chair, Reince Priebus, sent out and he said this, "Attention all Republican U.S. senators, please go to the floor and help out at Senator Rand Paul. Hashtag, stand with rand.

That was fascinating for a couple reasons. One is by midnight, I was watching, by midnight, you saw the leadership of the Republican Party come and support him. One of those is the Senate minority leader, the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who is from Kentucky, up for re-election, and wants to make sure he doesn't get attacked or primaried from the right.

So he went up there and he said that he was proud of Senator Paul's courage. But the reason why it was -- maybe he didn't jump up there hours before is because the politics of there are not clear cut.

You also have some Republicans, "Wall Street Journal" editorial page, saying that he's wrong on the fundamental issue that he was filibustering, which is questioning the U.S.' right to use drones on U.S. soil against U.S. citizens.

LEMON: Dana Bash, thank you very much. We appreciate it that.

No charges will be filed against the California retirement home worker who refused to give CPR to a dying resident. The 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless died last month after collapsing in the Glenwood Gardens' dining room. Local police say the worker who refused a 911 operator's request to start CPR did not break any laws. The facility bars employees from providing medical care.

Now to the trial that has captivated the nation's attention, 32-year- old Jodi Arias is facing the death penalty in Arizona. She's accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in June of 2008.

Arias initially told police Alexander was killed by masked intruders, but later changed her story saying she stabbed Alexander 29 times, shot him in the face and slit him throat all in self-defense.

Arias is now answering more questions from the jury, something we rarely see a defendant do. And we warn you, testimony has been extremely graphic. CNN's Miguel Marquez has more now.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you have time it on get the gun? Why did you confront Travis after seeing him with another woman if it was not due to jealousy?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Questions delivered by the judge written by the jurors. They indicated people who either didn't understand Jodi Arias' explanations for how she killed Travis Alexander or were skeptical of her claims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you mad at Travis while you were stabbing him?

JODI ARIAS, ON TRIAL FOR MURDERING EX-BOYFRIEND: I don't remember being angry that day. I remember being terrified.

MARQUEZ: Arias was respectful, quiet and calm as she went through some 150 questions from the jurors asked by Superior Court Judge Sheri Stevens. Top of the list, explain how Alexander died on June 4th, 2008. Shot, stabbed and cut dozens of times moments after she was taking pictures of him in the shower and dropped the camera, which she said threw Alexander into a rage.

ARIAS: I had run out of the bathroom and I turned and I just wanted him to stop, so I pointed the gun at him hoping that that would just make him halt. And it didn't. Instead, he lunged at me right around the time that the gun went off.

MARQUEZ: Many questions asked about her adopted Mormon faith and how she reconciled that with a very racy and adventurous sex life with Alexander.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does the Book of Mormon go into detail regarding the vow of chastity?

ARIAS: It uses verbiage such as hoar dams, things like that being unclean and that's all in reference to sexual sins.

MARQUEZ: Jurors wanted to know how she could stick with Alexander even after she claims she caught him looking at child pornography. There were many questions on her relationships and when and why she chooses to tell the truth and why her memory seems so selective.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Miguel Marquez joins us now from Phoenix. Miguel, is she still answering the jury's questions?

MARQUEZ: She is indeed. The judge cut it off last night. We expect many more questions today, perhaps 50 to 100 more questions from the jurors today. And then both sides, both defense and the prosecution, get to go back at her to sort of talk about all of these questions that have been asked the last couple of days -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Miguel Marquez, thank you very much.

For women to get ahead in the workplace, does it all boil down to ambition and being more visible? This woman says yes, she is Facebook CEO Cheryl Sandburg, but some say the tech exec may have it wrong.

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LEMON: Checking top stories now, first time jobless claims dipped to 340,000, the lowest level in six weeks. That is according to government figures just out this morning. Latest total is 7,000 fewer than the previous week. And latest four-week average of unemployment claims is at its lowest level since 2008.

The last of the 115 cardinals who will elect the next pope is due to arrive in Rome today. But the official start of the secret vote known as the conclave has not been set. Cardinals have been meeting behind closed doors discussing church business and sizing up competition.

An Italian court slaps former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a year in prison, but the 76-year-old billionaire isn't likely to see bars anytime soon. He denies publishing an illegally obtained wiretap and can remain free on appeal. Berlusconi already is appealing a four-year sentence for tax evasion and he is in the middle of several other trials.

Cheerleading is not a sport at least not according to federal judge in Connecticut. The issue was raised by the women's volleyball team at Quinnipiac University. Several members sued after the school said it would kill the volleyball program in lieu of a cheerleading squad. The judge ruled the change would violate federal laws that bar sex discrimination in education. That includes the quality of sports available to men and women.

In an industry dominated by men, Sheryl Sandberg stands out for blazing a trial for women. The Facebook COO is being called Mark Zuckerberg's right hand and was once described in a company filing as so critical that her departure could actually hurt the company.

Now Sandberg is sharing her experiences in a new book titled "Lean In, Women Work In A Will To Lead." But some critics say Sandberg's advice is a little short sighted.

So joining me now is Belinda Luscombe, the editor-at-large for "Time," which features Cheryl Sandberg on the cover of the upcoming issue and Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of the consultant firm 20-First, which focuses on gender in the workplace.

The book is out next week, we should say, but she gave a hint about what she calls leaning in, in the PBS interview last year. Take a look.

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SHERYL SANDBERG, COO, FACEBOOK: The biggest thing I wanted the women to hear was one, be ambitious, start out with big dream, big goals. The world is still run by men and if those women don't walk across that stage more ambitious, they're never going to get there.

And the second thing was how to be ambitious and my answer is lean into your career. When you need the balance, think about it then. When you need to think about what you're doing with children. But don't make sacrifices now for children you don't even have yet. Because that almost guarantees that you won't have a job worth staying for once you get to that place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I want to start with Belinda. Your headline is, don't hate her because she's successful. Facebook's Sherly Sandberg and her mission to reboot feminism. Does what we just heard sum up her mission?

BELINDA LUSCOMBE, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "TIME": I think you did. I think what is causing all the controversy with Sheryl is that she wants women to step up and she wants to say although there are institutional barriers, and although there is sexism, she wants women to say I'm going to put up my hand, I'm going to pursue my career with more vigor, more aggression.

And that's controversial because a lot of people think that what is holding women back is that the men aren't giving us a break, we have too much to do at home, obviously if you have children, the maternity laws in America are incredibly primitive. So there is this argument among women about why we haven't got to the top. And I think Sheryl's emphasis is on what women can do.

LEMON: There are different expectations of women, though, in the workplace and at home. And you say Sandberg is blaming other women for not trying hard enough. Why do you think Sandberg's perspective is wrong?

AVIVAH WITTENBERG-COX, CEO, 20-FIRST: I just think it's not new. I think it's been 20 or 30 years that American business women have been telling other ambitious young business women to lean in, work harder, adapt to the rules of the game, learn the codes, and become a little bit more masculine in their leadership styles.

I think that's precisely not what companies need in 2013 when 60 percent of university graduates are now female, the majority of M.A.s and Ph.D.s and majority of many company's customers are now women.

LEMON: So what do women need?

COX: Actually I think that's the wrong question for Sandberg to be asking as the COO of Facebook. It's not what do women need, it's what do companies need. And do companies need to be able to attract, retain and promote a majority of the educated population today?

Yes. Does Facebook need to do that? Yes. Why is she the only woman on that executive team? Why does she need to lobby to get on to that all male board at Facebook?

LEMON: Belinda, how realistic --

COX: Not a sign of a healthy leadership pulpit.

LEMON: How realistic is Sandberg's advice for the majority of working women? She has two Harvard degrees, has been a top executive and both Google and Facebook. How realistic is it?

LUSCOMBE: I think, you know, only among women is the fact that she's super successful a strike against her in how to become successful. Would we ask Jack Welsh, how realistic is it for you to give us advice when you've been the CEO of all those big companies?

Obviously Sheryl has had will a huge number of advantages. Her father was a doctor. She had a great education. She obviously had mentors and sponsors. But I think the fact that she is so successful probably puts her in a better position than lots of women to explain how you actually get to the very tippy top of some company.

A lot of women can't do what Sheryl's done. A lot of women have, you know, one of the things she says is that you have to marry the right guy, which is a fine thing to say except, you know, how do you know he's the right guy.

LEMON: The difference is I think when you talk about Jack Welsh, people aren't asking Jack Welsh for advice on how to be a man and be at the top. They're just asking for advice on success and how to operate within a company. And I think there is a distinction because they're asking Sheryl how to be a woman and then also how to remain on top. There is a distinction there.

LUSCOMBE: I'm not sure there is a distinction. I think they're asking Sheryl Sandberg how do you get to the top when you have the sort of challenges that she has or that maybe Sheryl has less because she has so much child care and a lot of help, but that women have.

The reason we don't ask Jack Welsh how do you get a man to be on top is because we expect men to not have to be at home with the kids or to organize the play dates, to make sure the home runs on time. And I think Sheryl's viewpoint is worth listening to. Avivah is totally right. There is an institutional stuff to change here, but that doesn't mean we should ignore her.

LEMON: We have to run because of time. There are different expectations of women in the workplace and at home. And that was the caveat. Thanks to both of you. Belinda Luscombe and Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, thank you again.

Speaking of Facebook, it is rolling out a brand new look. We'll bring you the latest on the site's time line redesign, another change.

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LEMON: Next time you logon to Facebook, you might notice a few changes. The site is announcing its new look today, which could include bigger photos and retooled ads. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

So Alison, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the ads are more engaging. Are these changes more user friendly? Is it going to add dollars to the ads? People don't like changes on Facebook. You know that. They hate it. They're already tweeting me about it.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know. I've gotten plenty of tweets, as well, of outrage. It's a good question whether this is really for the user, for more ad dollars. I can tell you this Facebook can definitely use all the ad money that it can get especially when you try to access Facebook for your mobile devices.

It's one of the areas where Facebook has been struggling, but Mark Zuckerberg, he has always been very clear that Facebook's mission is all about the user and their experience. Now we did look to tech crunch to get some of the details on what can be expected to come for Facebook.

And it says that the new news feed will be broken down into categories like music and photos. So that means you'd be able to filter your news feed and just see what your friends maybe are listening to.

This would be the first major change to Facebook's news feed since 2006. The announcement is going to be made in about three hours. That's the expectation. Now, Facebook itself is not commenting on this roll out, Don. Meantime we are keeping an eye on the shares. Shares of Facebook are up about 1.5 percent sitting at $27.85 a share, still below that IPO price -- Don.

LEMON: Yes. And let's talk more about the big freak out. Are we expecting one?

KOSIK: Yes. You know, Facebook users don't take well to change, do they. Most of the anger that we've often seen is directed at the privacy and security updates. People don't tend to like it when the physical look of Facebook changes either. Who can forget the big uproar when time line went into effect for individual profiles a couple of years ago?

Everybody freaked out about that. But this new look, it could be a good thing though. It's apparently making it easier for users to kind of sort lieu all the information hitting all their streams at once without seeing too much repetition and makes it easier to stalk everybody, kidding.

LEMON: I'm accused of not looking at anyone's time line but my own, and it's true.

KOSIK: I'm sure you are.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Alison.

We'll check your top stories right now on CNN. In just about a half hour, federal officials are expected to reveal details of their investigation into problems with Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The latest probe keys in on a January fire aboard a plane at Boston's Logan Airport. It was traced to the plane's lithium ion battery. That incident and others prompted the FAA to ground all Dreamliners. Other countries have done the same.

Then at 2:00, President Obama is scheduled to sign the latest version of the violence against women act. It includes new protections for gays and lesbians and gives new authority to tribal court in domestic violence cases. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to be on hand. He drafted the original law in 1994.

About 40 miles of South Florida beach front is off limits to swimmers and you can see why, because tens of thousands of sharks have been spotted just offshore. Imagine you're swimming and there is your buddy in the next lane right there. Marine biologists say they migrating back up north after heading south for the winter.

The commissioner of the NFL reportedly makes a startling admission about the most popular league in the country. Roger Goodell has taken several steps to try to keep players safe, but he fears a player could die on the field. That's according to an article in the ESPN, the magazine, written by Dan Venada Jr. The article quotes, "An NFL hall of famer who speaks regularly with Goodell who says the --