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American Dead Found in Train Tunnel; Racism at Ole Miss; Turmoil in Ukraine; El Chapo Captured; Facebook Gets WhatsApp for $19 Billion; Inside the Mind of A Psychopath; How to Build an Olympian

Aired February 22, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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


DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon. We're following a huge arrest affecting the U.S. drug trade. A major player was captured in Mexico just a few hours ago. We're going to take you there in a just a few minutes.

But first we want to tell you about a desperate search. It ends in tragedy in Rome. An American student has been found dead inside a railroad tunnel two days after he disappeared. His name is John Durkin. He was taking part in a semester long study abroad program and had only been in Rome just a little more than a month, as a matter of fact. I want to bring in CNN's Alexandra Field.

So Alexandra, what do we know about, if anything, about what happened to him?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A devastating end for this family, Don. What we know right now is from police in Rome. They found a body in a railroad tunnel in central Rome on Friday morning. The body had been hit by a train. This morning John Durkin's family was able to identify their son. Durkin's father had actually flown from New Hampshire to Rome in order to help in the search for his son. Durkin was last seen on Wednesday night. He had been at a bar in Rome with a group of students.

His uncle tells CNN that some of his friends left. He stayed on. He wasn't seen after that. He's 21 years old from New Hampshire. He was a student at Bates College in Maine studying abroad at Trinity College. So the family hoping for good news has just now heard really the worst.

LEMON: Are we hearing anything more from friends and family? What are they saying? Have they released any statements? Are they talking?

FIELD: They are not speaking publicly, but the family has put out a statement thanking people for their support because there was a huge campaign on social media trying to find John Durkin. We are hearing some very thoughtful words from Durkin's football coach. He was a linebacker on the Bates football team. Here's what his coach had to say. I want to read this for you. "John's commitment to excellence in all phases of his life was inspirational to the other members of the squad and a major factor in the team's success over the past three years." So just one expression there of the grief that a lot of people are feeling right now. LEMON: Very sad, thank you for your reporting. Alexandra Field today.

Three fraternity brothers at the University of Mississippi are accused of vandalizing a civil rights monument on campus and now the FBI is getting involved. Sigma Phi Epsilon is suspending its entire chapter over this. The statue honors James Meredith, the first African- American student to be allowed at the school. The three white students are accused of wrapping a noose around the neck and putting a confederate emblem covering his face. And now we're learning about another racial incident that happened off campus. But alumni say this is not the Ole Miss they remember. Our Nick Valencia has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First, it was a noose hung from the neck of a civil rights icon statue. Then a day later, an African-American student was called the "n" word and doused with alcohol from a moving car.

KIESHA REEVES, OLE MISS STUDENT: When I heard it, I popped my head up and that's when - that's when he threw (INAUDIBLE).

VALENCIA: Police and university officials are investigating if the two incidents are connected. But the race-related episodes around campus has jogged painful memories of what was once a campus where racism thrived. Today, despite the incidents, the university's chancellor tells CNN the climate at Ole Miss is one of tolerance and acceptance.

DANIEL W. JONES, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI: We do have systemic racism in our country. We have it in this state. And we have it in this university. Much less so than in years past, but there's systemic racism everywhere in the world. I wish that it weren't so.

VALENCIA (on camera): Why is it such a bigger deal here when it happens at Ole Miss?

APRIL GRAYSON, THE WINTER INSTITUTE: Because this university was founded on the principles of upholding slavery.

VALENCIA (voice-over): April Grayson works with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation based at Ole Miss. They work to support racial equality and help communities heal from decades old wounds.

GRAYSON: I think quite a bit has changed here. That's not to say that we still don't have a lot of work to do, but it's not the same university that it was in 1962 when James Meredith desegregated the university.

VALENCIA: All of the students CNN spoke with say the alleged actions of the three freshmen students is being investigated for desecrating James Meredith's statue are not indicative or reflect everyday life on campus. Though others do acknowledge there are some here who still carry the values of Jim Crow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't say (INAUDIBLE) is completely gone because it's not. It's not like these events show (INAUDIBLE) what's not said. Sometimes it's still in people. But it's not everybody. It's not an overwhelming majority.

VALENCIA (on camera): The university said it will seek justice for what happened. That means expulsion for the students allegedly involved or arrest. Now the FBI has also taken an interest in this case and are deciding whether or not to level federal hate crime charges against the students in question.

CNN reached out to the attorneys for those students allegedly involved in the James Meredith statue desecration. One attorney got back to us saying his client did nothing wrong. The others still haven't returned our calls.

Nick Valencia, Oxford, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Nick, thank you very much.

An American family is trapped near the violent chaos in Kiev, Ukraine. The family appears to be safe and in a few moments we'll tell you about efforts to bring them home.

But first, huge developments in the bitter power struggle for Ukraine. A nation that was once part of the old Soviet Union. Ukraine's defiant president says he is now resigning even after the nation's parliament voted unanimously today to boot the president and hold new elections in May. We're not even sure where Ukraine's president is staying at this moment.

Also today, the nation's revolutionary hero, a former prime minister was released from prison. She got a warm welcome in Ukraine's Independent Square and she told the crowd of 500,000 people "You are heroes, you are the best of Ukraine."

Let's go to senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev. Nick, break it down for us. What do you know about the president's whereabouts?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know he's in the east of the country. We know he released a video statement calling what happened a coup and saying the laws being passed by Parliament very much take him out of power on legal. We don't actually have a personal guarantee as to where he physically is. There are suggestions in Ukrainian media that he may have tried to leave the country. That could be possible.

I have to say, Don, he looks out of the picture now really. There are no signs of security forces here in Central Kiev. We drove around a lot today. We saw one police car. They seem to have moved back. Protesters are now running the streets here with sticks and helmets and running their own kind of local militia here and parliament is moving full steam ahead to introduce their new series of leaders here.

They have just called for new elections in May for a new president and said that Yanukovych isn't doing his job and therefore is out of a job. So he's no longer president in the mind of the parliament. We don't know how legal that is. That's what they have done. Plus appointing a whole series of new ministers and saying that the speaker will now fill the duties of the president until those elections.

So it seems like the opposition has swept in and used their new powers on the deal that was signed yesterday with European diplomats that Yanukovych agreed to to make a whole host of changes here and effectively render Viktor Yanukovych irrelevant. It's going to be pretty tough for him to come back from this. Now the yes is where do we go from here?

We've had Yulia Tymoshenko as you mentioned, the former prime minister was in jail for corruption and litigation that America thinks was politically motivated. She was abused in jail, went on hunger strike. She emerged looking frail, in a wheelchair. Gave a very emotional speech here and I have to say a lot of people in the crowd remember her long history in Ukrainian politics. Remember the checkered past, corruption allegations against her.

She's not a saint at all to many of these people, but she did cast herself as someone looking for forgiveness for all of Ukraine's politicians trying to suggest that a new future could be ahead and perhaps staking a claim for herself in that future as well saying you people in the crowd will get no Ukraine but the Ukraine that you want and I'm the guarantor of that new Ukraine.

So an interesting speech where she was very emotional. Talked about the blood of those who died. Tried to suggest that she herself was repentant for the decade plus that she's been in politics here. And the way that Ukrainian political leaders function has been the fuel of so much protests behind me, corruption in the sense of (INAUDIBLE) looking out for themselves rather than the people.

And then trying to say she might be the person who could take the country forward. Two other things she mentioned, suggested the country might head in the European direction and that's been the real thrust, the real crux of the issue here. Is this country going to face Europe or Russia? And also Viktor Yanukovych should face justice. So she also appealed for the crowd to not go anywhere saying they brought the change at this point and they should see it through to the end. A real roller coaster of a day here Don, where Ukraine has simply it seems swept the old order away. Don.

LEMON: Nick, I just want to reiterate, I may have said now resigning. The president is not resigning. Not resigning, correct?

WALSH: That's right. He said he will not resign. The issue is parliament have said that doesn't matter. You're out of a job. They have effectively sacked him by passing a whole new load of laws today which say it doesn't really matter whether or not you say you're president. We are the newly empowered parliament because he agreed to change the constitution when he signed a deal yesterday with European diplomats. We're newly empowered. You're out of a job. We're moving ahead without you whatever you say. Don.

LEMON: Nick Paton Walsh, appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Right now, an American couple from Kansas is holed up in a hotel about a mile from the violence in Ukraine. Don and Lisa Jenkins, that's their names. They just adopted four children in that turbulent nation. Three teenage girls and a nine-year-old boy. Don Jenkins talked about the ordeal via Skype to CNN's Kansas affiliate, KFNT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON JENKINS, AMERICAN TRAPPED IN KIEVE, UKRAINE: Really don't have a means of protecting them other than keeping them off the streets and depending on facilitators to relocate us if necessary. We have to be careful around them. We can't act as if we are really worried because they will see that in us. I don't want them to get concerned about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The adoption process is complete, but the children need new passports before they can leave Ukraine. Many government offices are closed due to the violence. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts' office is trying to help the Jenkins' children get new passports so they can leave.

A major bust in the U.S. drug trade years after escaping prison. From prison, the world's largest drug kingpin is back in police custody in Mexico. A live report is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: He's been named public enemy number one by one U.S. crime fighting group. But now El Chapo is in police custody. Joaquin Guzman is the legendary boss of Mexico's biggest drug cartel and he has been on the run for years. This photo was taken by Mexican police when he was arrested early today. This joint operation took weeks of planning involving agencies in both the U.S. and Mexico. Chapo, by the way, means shorty. Guzman is only 5'6" tall.

Our Nick Parker joins me now from Mexico City. How big of an arrest is this, Nick?

NICK PARKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, this is a hugely significant event. As you say, he's probably arguably the world's most notorious and elusive drug lord and just appeared just in the last hour at a navy hangar right here in Mexico City being paraded in front of the cameras. That's his first public appearance in something like 20 years.

So an extremely important symbolic moment for Mexico to see the man who has been wanted for so long finally in custody. They gave us one or two new details on what exactly happened. They said that this morning at 6:40 a.m., Mexican Marines supported by the D.E.A. were able to apprehend him without a single shot fired. And what they told us about where they found him is actually quite extraordinary.

He was found on a massive development of luxury condos. This development had 16 condos, something like four ranches. They discovered more than a hundred guns and 43 cars, a fleet of 43 cars including 19 armored cars. So a huge, huge bust by any stretch. Don.

LEMON: Nick, El Chapo is also wanted in the U.S.. Will he will extradited here? Will he be brought back to the U.S.?

PARKER: Well, that's one of the big aching questions for sure. When he originally escaped in a laundry van from prison in 2001, he was expected to be extradited to the United States. So there is this outstanding warrant for him. What we do know is that the Mexican marines led this operation and that he has obviously committed a number of crimes against the Mexican people as well.

If you just take a look at last year's arrest of the leader of Los (INAUDIBLE), another major kingpin that was wanted in the United States, he is still here in Mexico City awaiting trial. So it's difficult to say for sure. I think if he does ever go to United States, it might be long after the judicial process runs its course here. Don.

LEMON: Hey, just real quick, how is this going to affect the operation?

PARKER: In terms of the drug operation, again another open question. One could say this about the cartel that he ran. It was a similar cartel and it was particularly known for being semiautonomous. It had a number of highly powerful lieutenants. Some have been arrested in the last few weeks. Some of which are still at large. So one can assume with this kind of federal approach to a cartel that a lot of the operations for smuggling will still be intact.

LEMON: Nick, thank you, I appreciate your reporting. Just to give you an idea of how big these cartels are and why this is such an important thing for us. Ninety percent of the cocaine that comes to the U.S. goes through Mexico. It's also the main supplier of marijuana and met and those are U.S. drug sales put anywhere from $19 to $29 billion in the cartel's pockets. We'll be right back.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, did you know a simple hello could potentially save someone's life?

My new campaign with Oprah. We got that.

Plus how to talk to your kids about sex. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Facebook buying the mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stocks. Yes, $19 billion. The app has more than 450 million users but is it truly worth that much. CNN money tech correspondent Laurie Segall joins me now.

So, how can this app be worth $19 billion.

Before we get to that, lets talk about the breaking news - the app is - there's an outage now. We don't know what's going on. LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: They say that WhatsApp is down. I just tried it. Not working. It's been down just for a little bit. I'm assuming that a lot of folks are very interested in the fact that facebook paid $19 billion for this app and a lot of people want to download it. So we have calls out. We'll see. You know, $19 billion for an app, pretty unreal.

If you look at it, it's really a numbers game. 450 million monthly active users. And Don, they are signing on a million users every day. So, you know, this kind of growth - a lot of us here in the United States we haven't even heard of Whatsapp. But around the world, people have completely SMS with this App. So obviously Mark Zuckerberg is saying my goal is to connect the world. This is a good way to do this. And let me add Google was also trying to buy WhatsApp.

You know, so that probably lit a fire under facebook. I will say that. It's really an investment in the future. It's saying, hey, this company is going to reach a billion users soon and I want them to be a part of us and not against us.

LEMON: OK. So the buy was maybe about maybe who else would purchase it rather than -

SEGALL: Defensive buy.

LEMON: Defensive buy. As we work to figure out why this is down, but apps do go down from time to time.

SEGALL: Sure. A lot of (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: So who are the co-founders here besides being very wealthy people?

SEGALL: Right. Aside from being very wealthy people, one of the interesting parts is one of the co-founders was dirt poor. He emigrated from Ukraine to the United States when he was a teenager. He came over here, he could barely speak English. He was actually on food stamps. He spent a lot of time at a welfare center with his mother. I had sources tell me when they went to go sign the Facebook deal, I believe we have pictures of it, he actually went to the same welfare center - you're seeing him there where he went with his mom to get food stamps as a kid. For him it was very much symbolizing, you know, the American dream and the fact he had been able to build a company with such success.

Now his co-founder Brian, he met at Yahoo. Brian actually left Yahoo went to go apply for a job at Facebook and was rejected. I want to read you a tweet that Brian tweeted in 2009. He said "Facebook turned me down. It's a great opportunity to connect with fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure." Looks like he found it. But let's take that a step further. He was also denied by Twitter. Let me read you this tweet. He got denied. "I got denied by Twitter HQ. That's OK. It would have been a long commute." Well, I don't feel too bad for him. It looked like it paid off for both of those guys.

LEMON: See what happens if you hold out. SEGALL: Right. Maybe we're in the wrong business.

LEMON: I held out. This is what I really wanted. You work to find out what's happening. It's not a good thing that this thing went down with so many users.

SEGALL: Especially with so much interest right now. $19 billion deal, you want the app to work.

LEMON: Thank you very much. Laurie Segall, we'll figure out what's up with Whatsapp on the outage.

Let's talk about Bruno Mars, rocked the crowd at the SuperBowl. Now he is the headliner behind a new law in Hawaii that could put an end to ticket scalping. Laurie's got the details on that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON: That's Bruno Mars. He's a Grammy winner and Super Bowl sensation and now the man who could change the way we buy concert tickets. This has been scandalous. CNN money tech correspondent Laurie Segall is back to talk about it. They are trying to end scalping. I heard someone say they should do like an ATM machine where you register your credit card and you can't buy more than a certain amount if you want to buy tickets. I don't know.

SEGALL: The one thing this is doing is bringing to light some of the issues that we have with scalping. Essentially, let me give you a back story. There's a new resolution - it was introduced by the Hawaii senate president. It's called the Bruno Mars Act. What happened was there was a Bruno Mars concert that sold out - it was in Hawaii, it sold out in two hours. Only six percent of the tickets were sold at the box office. All the rest were sold online.

And not from folks in Hawaii wanting to go to the concert, from people in mainland, in Canada who wanted to buy those tickets, up the price up to four times and then resell them. So people at the box office actually had to leave and go home. So obviously, some people are upset about that. The resolution would say hey let's limit all the ticket purchases at the box office for at least the next, for 48 hours. Give those people priority.

Now will that happen? That's the big question. You know could that really work in a place like New York where a scalper could literally drive a couple hours and go buy a gazillion tickets. I mean, you know, we talk about internet disrupting things for the better. When you look at how many folks weren't able to get tickets, it looks like the internet interrupted things in this case for the worse.

LEMON: And also, speaking of the internet and disrupting things people were talking about the "Anchor Man" movie. They weren't happy with it. Did you hear that they are recutting it and adding more jokes in the movie. So 763 new jokes will be added to this movie that's already been released. So there you go. We'll see. Thank you.

We'll be back at the top of the hour with live news.