things that i won't do ♪ >> right. well, adele is up for six grammys, including album of the year, song of the year and record of the year. just about the top of the hour here on cnn. thanks for joining us. i'm in for brooke baldwin. scores of people have died today in syria. today's dead include an unknown number of soldiers and police killed by explosions in the major syrian city, aleppo, separate blasts occurring near a merchant military post and a police headquarters building. 28 people were killed and 235 wounded. this is significant. this is the first time bloodshed has reached aleppo. the syrian state television is blaming this all on terrorists. the opposition in syria, though, is saying the government is

killing its people, and that 52 individuals died today, including 16 in the besieged city of homs. cnn's ivan watson has more on the crisis in syria from neighboring turkey. let's first hear ivan talk about aleppo and why this is significant. so many analysts over the last few months, ivan, said once bloodshed hits the city of damascus, that means things have changed. have they? >> reporter: we have not seen violence this that town which is not the stronghold of the opposition. most of the violence has been focused on those towns and cities where people have dared to say no to the regime of assad. believe it or not, aleppo has not been one of those centers. aleppo had this violence while homs is still facing siege-like

conditions where hundreds of people were killed last week. in hundreds of cities across the state, we saw waves of protest. the theme of these protests, holla, were the russians are killing our children. why are syrian opposition activists saying that? well, they are accusing russia of providing the syrian government with the diplomatic cover of intensifying its attacks against the syrian opposition just over the course of the last week. and an important american voice is added to that. the u.s. ambassador to damascus, robert ford, just closed the doors to the u.s. embassy to damascus a few days ago, holla, and he posted a satellite photo of the besieged city of homs highlighting damage of the relentless shelling of that city and tanks in that city and went

one step further to criticize russia and china which vetoed a resolution to put more pressure on the syrian government. he said, quote, it's odd to me that anyone would try to equate the action of the syrian army and armed groups after tattempt on the areas and it's using its biggest weapon. you have to treat the opposition and the syrian government as equal players in this struggle when it's very evident that the syrian army has attack jets, helicopters and tanks and has not been afraid to use them against its own citizens. >> let me tell you what the options are, including turkey where you are. many people in the united states are watching this image out of homs, and they are shocked by what they're seeing. what are the options now that russia has blocked this resolution at the u.n. to try to put a stop to this bloodshed? >> i've been asking diplomats that and trying to get a

straight answer, and very few of them have one. the turks who are very clearly the most powerful neighbor are calling for a new international grouping, perhaps the friends of syria, to further isolate the syrian regime politically, economically, democratically, to send a message that the syrian people are not alone. and a critical foreign policy adviser to the government here wrote, in an off-ed piece here, that it's time to step up support to the syrian opposition. many are asking here, what exactly does that mean? does that mean weapons? does that mean more financing? does that mean opening up more humanitarian corridors or some kind of buffing zone, and perhaps we'll see that as different world powers meet on this crisis in the days and weeks to come. >> all right, and the world is certainly watching what's unfolding in syria. thank you very much. ivan watson is live in istanbul.

the elder assad was a giant of the middle east. but as jim clancy shows us, bashar is cut from perhaps a more modest mold. >> reporter: the gangly, smiling man who has defied the west, the urban street and the odds with his ferocious grip on power. bashar assad is syria's accidental president. a car crash killed reckless older brother and heir apparent, bosil. assad was always considered too weak to carry the weight. his brother bullied him as a child, and his father never gave him the attention of bosil. after the car crash, it pushed

assad into the leader role. his uncle says bashar was never cut out for the top job. >> translator: he's very different than his father. assad was a leader, the head of the entire regime while bashar never came close to that. he may be seen as the leader, he says, but really he just decides what the regime decides for him. pundits in the public thought assad was telling blatant lies when he denied he had control of the military in a recent interview. it was worse than that. he was telling the truth. >> they are forces that belong to the government. i don't own them. i'm president. >> reporter: the real basha bashar assad is now standing up. the relentless crackdown on opponents of the assad family dynasty isn't only being steered

by the one who studied in the west. >> it is under him and ultimately drives policy and ultimately is responsible for a lot of the murder and mayhem we're seeing now on the streets of syria. >> while that may be true, bashar assad was still a lynch pin at the top. >> your days are numbered, and it is time and past time for you to transfer power responsibly and peacefully. the longer you hang on, the more damage you do yourself, your family, your interests, and indeed, your country. >> regime change means not just an end to the as sarks d di srat to that regime. they are most certainly holding onto that power at all costs. for years western diplomats and syrians themselves have heard b ara bashar assad speak of dissidence

and form. those actions fell far short of expectations. as the battle rages on the streets, syria's accidental president is unquestionably d f driven by those around him. but just as clear, he has chosen a side and it is his own. jim clancy, cnn, atlanta. >> when we come back, republicans are calling it a war on religion. catholic groups say president obama has crossed the line. now the heated fight over birth control. the president is offering a solution. not everyone is happy about it. jessica yellin is standing by live. she's next. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

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welcome back. here's what else is interesting this hour. a man once jailed for stalking madonna is back in custody after escaping from a california mental hospital. police say they found robert dewey hoskins in long beach. when hoskins turned up missing this morning, police warned that he could become violent if not taking his medications. he started stalking madonna in 2006 and served a ten-year prison sentence. huguely breaks down in court as the jury in a video trial watched him. he is accused of beating and

murdering yeardley love. prosecutors say huguely shook love and banged her head against the wall. huguely a pleading not guilty in this case. just how cold is it in europe? it's been so frigid, the black sea is squeaking. this youtube video shows the black sea in the ukraine frozen over reportedly for the first time since 2007. the noise is from ice floes rubbing together and against stones. also among the stories, a huge raid in mexico may put a big dent in the supply of methamphetamines in the united states. mexican police seized 15 tons of pure meth at a ranch near guadalajara. experts say it could have supplied 13 million doses worth more than $13 billion. it is believed to be the largest ever drug bust in mexico.

opponents will say they caved but the white house prefers the term "accommodation." call it whatever you like, but the obama administration is changing its mandate requiring religiously affiliated institutions to provide birth control under employee insurance plans. >> women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraception services no matter where they work. so that core principle remains. but if the woman's employer is a charity or hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraception services as part of their health plan, the insurance company -- not the hospital, not the charity -- will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraception care free of charge. >> i want to bring in correspondent jessica yellin. who ends up paying for this

change in the end? >> insurance companies, bottom line, holla. it's designed so that it takes the employer out of the equation so that the objecting religious institutions don't actually have to pay for birth control. the way it's designed now, it will allow women to still get their birth control, but the insurance companies will be required to provide it to the women free of charge so that neither the woman nor the religious institution is paying. this isn't still making all catholics happy? religious catholics are okay with it, but some conservative catholics are still outraged. >> let's talk then, politicalically, what kind of impact that might have. because if the change is being offered what the white house is calling an accommodation and still you have religiously affiliated groups saying it's not enough, could the white house go further, or is this it? >> i don't predict the white house will go further. to be clear, again, the concern was that the liberal catholics

who were often with the white house on many issues were against them on this one. and so they had to make an accommodation politically to win those groups back. they don't expect to win over catholic groups that are consistently objecting to the white house's position. that's where they stand now. so the people who are usually against the white house are now against the white house, and what are they going to do to win them over. but they have now won back many of the liberal catholics who were with the white house and that was their main goal here. >> so it seems like that goal, politically speaking, has been achieved, jessica? >> so far. it's early, and also, holla, they still bostched this one an have to wait to see if they can quiet this down. it was really a bad pull-out and a bad issue. >> we'll see if it turns out to be a blip in the grand scheme of things. thanks, jessica yellin.

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welcome back, everyone. it could be about to get harder to smuggle drugs in america. also, jerry sandusky talks to

the media before walking into court. let's play reporter roulette. we begin with a new crackdown on drug smugglers in the ultra-light planes they use. lizzie is live in washington. lizzie, president obama just signed this bill which is actually gabby giffords' last piece of legislation of the tell us about it and how it might make it a whole lot harder to smuggle drugs in the u.s. >> this is a problem that was taking place in gabby giffords' home state of arizona where essentially you're thinking of ultra-light aircraft. think of a super light hand glider. what is happening here is they closed a loophole. those really weren't classified as planes, so the laws that applied to smuggling drugs in them weren't as tight. now you can get up to 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine for smuggling drugs across the border in one of these planes.

you can see they're very small and it's something that customs and border patrol officials san increasing problem in places like arizona, holla. >> so how were smugglers reported reportedi ining reportedingly using these small planes. >> all they have to do is fly a krols tacross the border and ju them off. it's happened at least 250 times in the past year. sometimes they crash. that's the way folks have been arrested. there have been some fatalities and drug runners get paid 1,000 to $2,000 to do this. it's certainly not an international part of the drug trade, but it's a small place where the cdc thinks they can make some head way. let's talk about jerry sandusky, former penn state assistant coach. he spoke to reporters today in

pennsylvania. sandusky charged with 52 offenses against children. now, sandusky is saying essentially that his treatment is unfair, that he wants to ease the restrictions of his house arrest. tell us more. >> that's correct, holla, and here's the reason why. under the conditions of his house arrest, jerry sandusky is not permitted to have any contact with anyone under the age of 18 which effectively means he cannot have contact with his grandchildren. he wants that changed. and in a surprise move at the very end of the hearing, holla, he came right down the steps behind me, spoke to reporters for the first time and addressed that issue. >> friends who call me and who want to be with me, who want to see me, and i have to say no, i can't, and they ask why, so i asked joe why. that's why he brought it up. or when i had a wife who came home after visiting with

grandchildren or sitting there when grandchildren call on my birthday and they ask to talk to me and she has to tell them that they can't, i'm sensitive to that. or when she comes home from visiting with grandchildren and tells me that one of them said that the only thing i want for my birthday is to be able to see pop, i'm sensitive to that. and that's why i came today. >> and holla, you heard jerry sandusky refer to joe. that would be joe amandola, his attorney, and amandola says even if jerry sandusky was incarcerated, he still would be able to have visits, albeit supervised visits, and that's what he's asking for now. prosecutors said house arrest is a privilege, it is not a house party. a man charged with serious allegations should not have access to children under any circumstances, so that is what the argument is here today, at

least one of the arguments. the judge is expected to rule on this and other legal issues on monday. holla? >> okay, jason carroll, thank you very much. that's today's reporter roulette. >> a conservative, a liberal and a moderate walked into the bar. the bartender says, hi, mitt. >> that's a rick santorum reporter getting mixed reaction after a joke about mitt romney. both candidates making their cases to conservatives today, but did romney say enough to convince voters still on the fence? we'll take you like to cpac next. plus, newt gingrich is expected to address the crowd soon, and introducing him, his wife cta, who we rely hear from. we'll be right back. ing is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean. fortunately, you've got listerine.

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welcome back. mitt romney had a tough job this afternoon, proving to a massive crowd of conservative base that he should be president, even though some of them haven't been buying it. >> this election really is a battle of the soul of america. and it's going to come down to a choice, a choice of whether we want a nation to be of and by washington or a nation of and by a free people. and we conservatives believe in free people, free labor and free enterpris enterprises. >> our jimmy a costa was in the room when he spoke. we heard from three candidates, rick santorum, newt gingrich, mitt romney a few minutes ago. >> this is basically the conservative wing of the republican party in force, and

that is why this conference is so important year after year. it seems to become more of a spectacle as every year goes by, and this year is no exception. to have all three of the top republican contenders at this conference on the same day, you can't really underscore enough the importance of what we're seeing today, and you were just talking about mitt romney's task at hand today. it was a difficult job that he had to really take on today because he has been really under assault by rick santorum all week. and to be fair, mitt romney has been giving rick santorum all he can give all week, going after the four pennsylvania senators' record on earmarks and congress when he was in the senate. and we heard rick santorum give a very tough speech earlier. santorum got to go first. he described mitt romney's health care plan when he was governor of massachusetts, what's known as romneycare, as the stepchild of obamacare. and mitt romney did not talk about rick santorum that much in his speech, but there was no

mi mistaking who he was talking about at one point in his speech when he was talking about claiming to hate washington but still profiting off washington. >> let me tell you, any politician who tries to convince you that they hated washington so much that they just couldn't leave, well, that's the same politician who will try to sell you a bridge to nowhere. >> so make no mistake, that was a jab at rick santorum who supported that bridge to nowhere project, who supported a lot of earmarks as congressional pet projects when he was in congress, but it was interesting, holla, to see mitt romney really not talk about rick santorum by name, he also didn't talk about newt gingrich by name. much of his speep was about obama. >> mitt romney needs to expand his conservative base. now he's a true conservative and it's a contest among all these presidential hopefuls. who is the most conservative of all? is he going to be able to

convince them of that? >> i don't think one speech will take care of it for mitt romney. i think at the end of the day, his argument is he is the best candidate. ann coulter among them. she is a very conservative politician, as you know, and she said if we don't nominate chr chris christy, that will be better than someone who can't hit or run the country, referring to president obama. i think he's beginning to win over some conservatives, but there are still some misgivings about mitt romney, his record back in massachusetts. they haven't been won over just yet, so they've got some work to do. >> jimmy acosta, thank you very much. a new twist in the case of

the millionaire who adopted his girlfriend as he faces a drunken, deadly lawsuit. his real kids aren't too happy about this, and wait until you hear what they're doing about it. joey jackson is on the case next.

welcome back. we're hearing fror the first tie from the social worker who was supposed to supervise the visit of josh powell with his young sons. she watched in horror as he burned down the house containing him and his two little kids. she told chris cuomo she never saw this tragedy coming. >> there were no indicators. i never saw any suicidal indicators from him. i never saw anything other than tender loving care towards the boys. he didn't look like a monster, he didn't look like somebody who was going to kill his children.

>> criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor joey jackson is on the case. joey, the social worker also disclosed new details about what she heard going on inside the powell home. what did we learn from that? >> awful situation. now, you know there is a couple things we can learn from this. there were a number of breakdowns in the system, of course. should they be allowed to see the father in the first place? should the father be in jail based upon the suspicion of being involved in the killing of his wife? in terms of what she actually heard, it was bad. the door closes, she hears noises, she's trying to convince a 911 operator to take it seriously. they don't, and what do you know, the children are dead and he's dead, too. it's a horrific matter. it really comes down to whether it could be prevented. we don't know. we know that josh powell was of the mindset to inflict harm upon the children, and if it wasn't that day, it certainly would have been another day. >> if it would have been a supervised visit somewhere else, some argue, yes, it could have

been prevented. you mention the 911 call. there was a lot of response when griffin hall called 911 services to report she'd been locked out. let's listen to part of that call. >> how long will it be? >> i don't know. they have to respond to life-threatening situations first. >> this could be life threatening. he went to court on wednesday and he didn't get his kids back. i'm afraid for their lives. >> i'm getting, who is your supervisor? who are you? where are you? i'm not getting an emergency response. they're not responding to me at the level that i'm telling them that this is a life-threatening emergency. >> well, joey, of course, with hindsight now, it appears that perhaps there should have been

more urgency there. the call lasted seven minutes. the sheriff said he is not happy with the etiquette manner, unquote, but he said the response time to the emergency was not affected. now, do the response times in this case sound typical to you in your professional experience? >> i mean, you know, it takes a while to get to any scenario, but i think ultimately any 911 operator has to handle a matter with care and has to handle it under the presumption that the call is valid and that this is, indeed, a life-saving situation you're sending people to. so the response times we could look at. i think they're within the norms of when the police could respond. would it have made a difference? presumably it could have, and certainly the 911 operator -- don't mean to bash them too much -- but should be disciplined and should be made to know that everything is serious. >> it's always the case in hindsight, you look at something and you're able to judge what happened before the tragedy,

which is a luxury you don't have when you're in the heat of the moment. so as you say, we sometimes need tie a deep breath. let's talk about case number two, an update on the millionaire polo club member who adopted his 22-year-old girlfriend. some look at it as a sham to shelter his wealth from a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit. it turns out his children are not too happy about their new 42-year-old sister. what are they doing about it? >> well, what they're doing is the guard an ad litem to protect the children is saying, look, this needs to go to court. the overshadowing thing is he's trying to take money, when the reality is by not letting him have money, they're keeping money for themselves. it comes down to when a court evaluates it whether you look at the statute iflts tself or whet you look at the public policy

statutes. it's lawful, you can adopt people around the country. however, can you do it for this reason? the argument could be people take advantage of the tax codes all the time. there are loopholes in them, and if they're favorable to you, why not use them? the argument here is if it's lawful and if it's proper, you know what, i followed the law. but courts does not like when you act in a way repug anatonan repugnant policy, and the court may say, we're not going to let it happen. >> so they have that kind of leeway in terms of whether or not he can go ahead, in terms of whether or not this will be thrown out. >> they do. there's been searches by these lawyers across the country, and apparently there are five other cases where a person attempted to adopt their lover or their girlfriend, and those cases have been thrown out. but every case is a distinction.

were those cases similar here? perhaps they were, perhaps they were not. it will be deemed a fraud and courts don't like frauds. >> joey jackson, thanks very much. sometimes you can see rare qualities in adults and children like courage and determination. here's dr. sanjay gupta with today's "human factor." >> he can hit, field the ball, and slide into home plate. >> all the way around the bases. >> six-year-old reese holloway wants to play in the big leagues someday, just like his favorite player, chipper jones of the atlanta braives. when reese was born, his parents were shocked to discover he didn't have a left hand. and baseball was furthest from

their minds. >> we were thinking, how is he going to do this? how did he going to do everything? >> it was a hard thing. >> they weren't sure he would be able to crawl without a seco second hand so they got a prosthesis. little reese didn't want it. >> he cried and cried and cried. it was not a good thing. >> he did learn to crawl. and walk. and then something remarkable happened. reese taught himself how to hit a ball when he was just two years old. >> he got plastic balls and he would hold it under his chin and drop it and swing the bat. and he would hit the ball, no problem. >> reese is a fan of all sports, but baseball is still his favorite. >> he loves playing baseball. that's all he does 24/7. >> use your other hand, too. >> on or off the field, reese doesn't get any special treatment. >> we make him make his bed or pick this up or hold this. we make it a fun thing. >> we don't hold anything back. >> as far as the holloways are concerned, reese doesn't have a

disability. >> i was born like that. >> like other boys his age, he can do lots of things. he does flips on the family trampoline. he can break dance. and even though snaps are a bit of a challenge, he gets dressed by himself. >> the only thing he can't do is tie his shoe. >> nothing stands in the way of baseball for reese. he's a natural talent. and his parents believe children like their son should never be held back. >> let them do everything. >> if they want to try it, let them try it. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting. it got so bad in one of america's biggest cities, it's being called killadelphia. >> if you want to be an idiot, if you want to be a low life in this town, we will track you down like the dog that you are. >> murders this year? through the roof. and even the mayor is getting frustrated. we've got an inside look. stay with us. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol

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. the city of brotherly love is earning an ugly and unwanted title killadelphia. the murder rate has gotten so bad in philadelphia the city is offering up to $25,000 in reward money for homicide cases.

here's more on frustration and also the fear in this city. >> reporter: stuffed teddy bears, balloons and flowers mark the spot where a store clerk was gunned down. rosemary fernandez rivera was murdered because police say she witnessed a murder in philadelphia at the same spot a couple months earlier. the curbside memorial is a stark reminder of her execution style murder that sent fear through kensington, one of the city's toughest neighborhoods. >> i'm afraid of becoming a neighbor to becoming a victim. >> in one month, philadelphia has already been hit with a series of killings. a man opened fire positive a car full of teens, killing three of them. another man was beaten to death hailing a cab on a busy downtown street. then she was shot multiple times behind a store counter. dr. chuck williams, an education

professor at university, says what set this january apart is how heinous the killings are. >> i think people are desperate and learn that the way to handle it is with a gun. >> they say it's going to be a tough year with many more like it if fephiladelphians don't std up strthe violence. >> it's consistent. they know where they stand. >> they had 324 homicides last year with blacks making up 84 of the victims. the linking motive for murder was arguments. city officials says it's too early to predict the death toll for the year, but it didn't stop mayor nutter from expressing his frustration. >> if you want to be an idiot, if you want to be a low life in this town, we will track you down like the dog that you

are -- >> to help track the violence, they unveiled new crime fighting measures from crime tips to more police presence. >> prevention a key portion of what we're doing, but also just getting the community to act as one and come forward and say, enough is enough, this stuff has got to stop. >> back in north philadelphia, the gifts left behind in memory of rena join the collection of memorials honoring shooting victims around the neighborhood. despite the city's call for change, the victim advocate says something has got to give. >> where do we go from here? how do we help curb some of this violence? >> i don't know. i don't know the answer. i have been here for 13 years and i have watched the crime escalate, i have watched the neighborhood deteriorate. i have watched the police presence decline here. i don't know what the answer is. >> sara hoy, cnn, philadelphia. we are just getting in some disturbing new video showing the

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welcome back. we have some new video out of syria, and it's extremely graphic, so i'd like to warn you of that. you might want to look away, but we do think that seeing the images of some of the shelling that's going on in homs and the siege of that city is important to tell the story. take a look. this video shows what appears to be a teenager, bloody and lifeless. we never see him move in the clip, so we can assume perhaps

he has lost his life. blood is covering his sweater and jeans. we have blurred his face, because we don't know of his condition and we have fwho confirmation of the authenticity of the video, but based on our knowledge of what is going on, it apes to be authentic. this is in the southern part of the country where all protests began. we also don't know how the young man was hurt or if he was survived. more and more of these graphic videos are surfacing just as the community asks itself, what can be done? should arming the opposition be an option? wolf blitzer is coming up in "the situation room" at the top of the hour. wolf, you have two big interviews. one of your bests might be able to answer that question. ambassador robert ford. >> he's the u.s. ambassador to syria who just the other today, together with the entire embassy

staff, they evacuated. he's a courageous u.s. foreign service officer, a career diplomat. i spoke to him a little while ago. he's in paris right now, has very strong views of what's going on, just posted some satellite imagery of homs and the syrian artillery that's pouring in, going after civilians, hundreds of people the last few days he says have been killed. a revealing interview. that's coming up. also our interview with rick santorum. we have a separate interview with him. that's coming up. we're going to listen to both of the gingrichs, cal lista did introduce her husband, we're going to hear both of them at the top of the hour as well. so hala, lots of political news, international news coming up. >> very much looking forward to

it, wolf. thanks. >> he's killing entire cities. he's trying to banish these cities and to destroy it into the ground. >> he goes on to say for the people still alive inside the city of homs, hunger is starting to spread. there are entire neighborhoods that have been closed off, sealed off. how do you even get bread. as the killing gets worse, the state has released declassified pictures from on the ground. don't miss this. ♪

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the u.s. government seems to be taking an incremental step to stop attacks against its people. jill dougherty has more on that development from the state department. hi, jill. >> hey, hala. these are the photographs we heard about this morning at the briefings at the state department. they are declassified reconnaissance photos taken over syria, and the state department is making a pretty big deal about it, saying that they were taken and they show major military operations in civilian areas.

have i toria nuland in fact used the word "gruesome." they're appearing on a couple sites. one is the facebook page for the embassy in damascus, which is now shuttered. on that site which i checked a few minutes ago, he does talk about the equipment that's being used, the military equipment and arms, including mortars artillery. he went out of his way to say i've never seen the opposition using anything look artillery. so we can tell you a senior u.s. official is telling cnn indeed the u.s. is stepping up sir vailian and reconnaissance over syria. then it may be interesting why they would want to release it now. >> that would be my next question. presumably they've had this

material for months, so why now are they releasing them to the world? >> there are some and newer ones will be coming out. one reason could be over and over again they're pointing out military action against civilians. you could real that. in fact a senior official is telling krj they're showing those who might have doubt who indeed is carrying these out. who has doubts? russia and china. this is they would say the syrian government against its own people, and showing russian weaponry is being used in the shells. >> i think there are a lot of