>> he is a rockstar. i can't wait to hear what he has to say. john zarella i envy you. thank you so much. thank you for joining me cnn "newsroom" john boehner right now. >> hello, everyone, i'm ash leak banfield. we want to begin in north texas where daybreak revealed a tiny town utterly devastated. we have the dramatic scene when ten tornadoes, ten, ripped through the area leveling much of the small town of granbury, texas. take a look at the images. some are saying it is virtually like a war zone. you can see why. reports of entire homes being flattened, wiped off their foundations. people still inside. cars flying through the air. at least six people at this count are confirmed dead. more than 100 are hurt and seven people are still on the missing list. and those who have lost

everything this morning are reeling. >> the only place in our house that was safe enough was our hallway. i grabbed a mattress, you know. there's just nothing left. i'm sorry. there's nothing left. >> a habitat for humanity neighborhood was apong those neighborhoods hit worst. 110 homes there, most of them now gone. that's where officials say the six people who were killed actually did die. the rescue workers are on the ground this morning searching for those who are missing and also surveying the damage and school buses are being sent to affected neighborhoods to help with the evacuation. if you want to help, can you go to cnn.com/impact and find out how you can make a difference. we are also live this morning in phoenix, arizona, where a murder defendant, jodi arias could face

the death penalty in the final stage of her prosecution. those prosecutors argued her victim travis alexander suffered greatly, cruelly, in the minutes before he died and his murder was especially cruel. the jury agreed to it. they captured this-of-picture of jodi arias shackled in what is her temporary jail. the video was taken after 45 minutes after a highly emotional day in court. here's cnn. >> we the jury upon our oaths do find the aggravating factor especially cruel has been proven. >> reporter: jodi arias sat solemnly as the jury decided she is eligible for a death svenlts that as thing a dpra rate issing factor phase of the process that will ultimately determine arias' sentence. even before prosecutor juan mart fez called his first witness, the county medical examiner,

family and friends of victim travis alexander fought back tears in anticipation of what was to come. they displayed giant screams of his body enveloping the courtroom. they showed dozens of stab wounds, one so deep it punk cured a vein going into his heart and several to the head that dented his skull. >> she made sure she killed him by stabbing him over and over and over again and then finishing him off. >> reporter: then came the most horrific image, a gaping wound to alexander's tloerkts sliced opened for nearly ear-to-ear. it remained on the screen for what seemed like an eternity, some jurors even averted their eyes. martinez argued alexander's murder was especially cruel, a requirement for the death penalty in arizona. >> you can imagine the absolute terror as he's sitting there

defenses will, water coming down, that is extreme emotional anguish. let's just sit for two minutes. he also asked the jury to sit in silence for two full minutes. the time he contends it took alexander to die t. arias defense team said that was an exaggeration, adrenaline and rapid blood loss could have reduced his suffering. >> dr. horn told you moments ago the adrenaline does, in fact, prevent the body from experiencing the pain. >> reporter: jurors rejected that argument and now will decide whether there are enough mitigating factors to spare jodi arias' life. >> it took an hour and 33 minutes for the jury to reach that decision yesterday. casey, some breaking news coming out this morning as well. really extraordinary news,

jody's defense team moved to quit to get off the case. what more do we know about this? >> reporter: it really was strange, ashleigh. it was a decision reached by a judge at a closed door hearing on tuchlts the lawyers requested to be withdrawn from this case. the judge denied that request. this is the same defense attorney who not that long ago during the guilt or innocence phase of this trial was talking to the jury about how they shouldn't decide tear verdict on whether they like or dislike jodi arias. he said, i don't like her nine out of ten days. very strange to hear that from a defense attorney and hear that attorney try to withdraw from the case. we don't know, as i said, exactly what the reason for that is. we can only speculate perhaps it has something to do with that interview jodi arias gave to a local fox television state

reporter here in phoenix. it clearly speaks to the fact that there must be some kind of conflict or tension between jodi arias and her defense attorneys, ashleigh. >> yeah, but as you mentioned, the judge made the decision and said, no, keep at i. we spent a lot of money on her defence, more than $1.7 million. that's not going to happen. casey wian thank you for that. you just heard it. jodi arias' defense attorneys moving to withdraw and to walk away from her. that motion denied. hln's legal correspondent and former prosecutor beth karas is with me in new york and in new york, jeffrey toobin. this is not the first time we heard her defense attorneys ask to get off a case. i'm not sure i ever heard it at this 11th hour. but it is a very unusual move. programs not a surprising decision by the judge. >> no, not a surprising decision

at all. maybe the defense is just preserving the record. who know what is will happen, if she is going to get the death sentence. maybe she'll have an issue on appeal, ineffective assistance of counsel and they're preser preserving the record. i am not surprised the judge did not let him out. there are a handful of days left. >> is it a stretch? it comes on the heels of this extremely unor to docked interview she gave saying, you know what, i'm done, i don't want to live the rest of my life in prison. i prefer, kill me now. is it a stretch to do tease two moves? >> i don't think it's a stretch at all. coming out of the same hearing, we know the judge ordered the sheriffs department not to allow any more media interviews, but the portion of the hearing is sealed that deals with this motion the defense filed to withdraw. so i think all of it regarding the timing is suspicious and it's probably related. >> jeffrey toobin, i don't even.

i can't for a moment physical out what it's like to be her attorney. the mitigation specialist worked valiantly for months and months, if not years visiting her to put together a case to why she should live. then you have this. what do you do when you have a rogue client who may be doing things against your advice what is your alternative if are you that attorney? >> well, this is a really difficult situation for an attorney and these kind of issues come up fairly often. clients drive tear lawyers crazy under many different circumstances. it rarely comes to the point where the defendants, where the lawyers say, i can't deal with this, i have to leave the case, but it just underlines the nature of the conflict between the two and i agree with beth, there is no way any judge is going to let defense attorneys off the case after months and

months of trial with just a few days to go. but it present presents some complexitys how it will proceed in the penalty phase. >> today we move into this penalty phase. this is the time people stand up on both sides of this case and beg for what they want on travis alexander's side, his siblings will hef testify how life has changed for them. this is victim impact. on her side, a friend and an ex-boyfriend. jeff toobin, what can they possibly say? what do they need to say, if she doesn't want to save her life, how can they save her life? >> well, i think, actually, the defense has a lot of tunts opportunity to make a case here. she is not the classic death penalty recipient she doesn't have any criminal record. she is not someone who has a history of terminal behavior.

there is the possibility that she could serve some sort of purpose in terms of life in prison. she could contribute in some way. there are only three pim women on death row in arizona. most women convicted do not get the death penalty. remember, she only needs one juror to veto the death penalty. it does not need to be i nam for a fawn death penalty sentence. it has to be unanimous for death. but 11-1 in favor of the death penalty means no death penalty. so she does have some advantages going into this process. >> beth, karas, i have to wrap up, i need you to clarify on the technical next phase, if jodi takes the stand, is is this testimony where they can go after her? >> she will not be examined by the attorneys.

so there is no direct and cross examination. it's simply a statement. i have been told she will actually stand at a podium in front of the jury. i'll believe it when i see it. maybe she'll be on the witness stand. she will simply make a statement. maybe she'll express remorse. maybe she'll say i have been a good inmate in the jail for 94.5 years. i have a good record there. she may say i can do good in prison. i can teach other women not to make the mistakes that i made that landed me in prison for the rest of my life. >> if that's what she plans to say, who knows. beth karas, jeffrey toobin, thank you both for that input. we appreciate it. we have other big stories we are following as well, the irs targeting conservatives has the white house on the defensive. one of several big scandals that has the white house and washington all aflutter. we are all over these latest developments. they're coming at you next. nom, nom, nom.

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damage control big time. that's the mod us operandi as the white house struggles to get out not from one but three scandals. the irs targeting the tea party and the other conservative groups, the killing of four americans in benghazi, libya last year and the justice department seizing the phone records of the associated press in an investigation. the obama investigation in clearly on the offensive, trying to limit this fallout, including accepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the irs steven mill early. that happened last night and then this morning, we are just learning that the president will appoint a few acting irs commissioner sometime this week. but none of this is muting the outrage of congress woman michelle bachman and others in the tea party movement. she held a news conference earlier this morning. we'll have more on that in just

a moment. and also in about 15 minutes time the speaker of the house, john boehner, is going to hold his weekly news conference and i think it's safe to say there could be some fireworks. dana baschuck and jim acosta join me live now on capitol hill and our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin stand by in new york. first to you, the speaker of the house set to hold the news conference. i can only imagine that the damage control has just begun. that this is almost all out war. >> that's right. you know, just so you know, there is another issue going on here on capitol hill today. that is that the house, once again, for the 30 something time is going to vote to repeal obamacare. that is probably going to be the thrust of what the speaker will talk about. he will probably do a little gloating of when it comes to the irs and other issues. i ashleigh just had a chance to speak to the chairman of the house ways and means committee

mr. kevin him. he will chair a meeting tomorrow with steven miller, the very man who was fired yesterday as acting chair, acting commissioner, rather, of the irs. i asked what he wants to know from stephen miller. listen to what kevin said. >> i want to know what he knew, when he found out. and why he didn't disclose any of this to the congress knowing that we were inquiring about this, because we had been hearing that people had been targeted and we were trying to get answers. i want to know what he knew. i want to know when he knew it and i want to know from his standpoint what they've done to make sure this doesn't happen again. >> reporter: this is kind of a rare thing and unusual. a man who was just fired a couple days later will now be testifying on capitol hill. we were wondering whether or not he was going to show up. dave kevin said, yes, he will show up, his lawyer told him so, one of the reasons is stephen miller is there for the irs. even though he was asked to

leave, he is still the floor per congress when they do tear oversight into what exactly happened at the irs. >> stand by on that. still with the same topic. the irs in that scandal. jim acosta, congress woman michelle bachman for many people has been the face of the tea party. this morning, jim, he was out in full force with her concerns and her supporters. can you give me the feel essentially for what the case is and the take-away she made? >> reporter: that's right, actually. she is the chair of the tea party caucus. it was interesting to hear dana's reporting there about dave kevin saying what did stephen miller know and when did he know it? because michelle bachman was here surrounded with tea party members and the house and senate. she was asking the question, what does the president know and when did he know it? so there were shades of those kind of watergate-nixon questions being asked here. i asked the congress woman, what

did she mean by this? does she feel the president may be subject for impeachment if this thing keeps going? here's a little of what she had to say. >> it goes all the way to the white house. we need to know what the white house knew and when they knew i. as i have been home in my district and the 6th district in minnesota, there isn't a weekend that goes by, that someone says, michelle, what are you waiting for in congress? why aren't you impeaching the president? he has been making unconstitutional action sense he came in congress. i will tell you what i am hearing from people back home. >> reporter: now, she did go on to say she wants to make sure the facts are laid out. she doesn't want to jump to conclusions and she wants to see whether or not there is proof that anybody at the white house was involved in this irs scandal. having said all that ashleigh, there were a lot of skeptical tea party leaders here at the news conference, many offered their own personal stories of how they went through years of trying to get the tax exempt

status for their groups. one woman i talked to, a home school mom she called herself said that her organization receives really no donations, but yet she had to go through question after question from the irs in order to get her tax exempt status. they feel all of that is unfair, ashleigh. >> all right. jim acosta, thank you. don't go away. i want to bring in jeffrey toobin on this very issue. you are hearing jim acosta's reporting and da michelle bachman's concerns and dana baschuck and it stems from what it means to be a 501(c)(4). who goes for this keen of status. how many on either side of the this equation may have come up against road blocks from the irs. so far we are hearing a lot from conservative groups. with rehearing more of the progressive liberal groups as well. do we all need to take a big step back and wait for the numbers before the accusation continue to fly so fast?

>> right. i think, you know, this is a washingtonbug washington phenomenon at the moment. the notion this is some earth shaking scandal and that responsible people should be talking about impeachment seems, frankly, ridiculous, at this point. remember, no one is entitled to be a 501(c)(4) organization. you have to be involved in a public welfare organization. that's what 501(c)(4) means under the law, a public welfare organization. you can't be a purely political operation and be a 501(c)(4). so the irs is required by law to investigate these organizations and say, what do you do? and ask, you know, are you political or are you public welfare? that's the irs' job. now, it is inappropriate and wrong and possibly even illegal if you only scrutinize conservatives but not liberals. but it's not clear that there were liberal organizations

applying, certainly, in the numbers that the tea party were. so i think everybody needs to take a big breath:find out how they get approved. so what are theirge das? again, we need to know a lot more, but we feed perhaps a little less hysteria, too. >> well, without question, i think the facts are critical and hopefully those will start coming out, starting with maybe tomorrow's hearing. who know, dana baschuck, jim toobin, thank you for that. also making news, an 8-year-old girl stabbed to death, murder charges against the suspect who is not even old enough yet to drive and happens to be her big brother. coming up after this.

a california boy stood before a judge yesterday wearing a green jumpsuit and not appearing very nervous, at times even smiling in a courtroom, which is really not what you'd expect for someone who is facing down a second-degree murder charge. and someone who is accused of

repeatedly stabbing an 8-year-old sister until she died. i did say he's a boy, because he's just 12-years-old. here's cnn's dan simon. >> reporter: it was a relatively brief court appearance for a 12-year-old boy accused of killing his sister. wearing a green jumpsuit, he did not appear nervous as the judge explained the charge and the process going forward. holding hands, appearing shell shocked by the allegations, the 12-year-old's brother, father and the father's fiancee emerged from the courthouse, unwilling to talk about the boy or the murder charge. it was the fiancee krystle waters who placed the call to 911, she describes an intruder, apparently based on second-hand information. >> how old are you kids? >> 12 and 9. >> on our way. >> so you had a prak-in. >> yeah. >> did they see the man? >> they did see him, yes.

>> reporter: but as it turns out, walters wasn't at the home at the time of the 911 call and couldn't have been more wrong when she told the operator the two children were okay. 8-year-old leila fowler was dying from multiple stab wounds. can you clarify why she said the little girl was okay? >> there could be many reasons. we have done no investigation. sze we haven't spoke to the da's office how they are making their case. there is no way i could intelligently give an answer to that. >> reporter: one of the puzzlings questions in this case. the sheriff's office hasn't led them to explain whatted to the brother. >> we have a lost same questions you do and the community does and those questions are, why do the police think the minor did it? what forensic evidence is out there? how solid is it? how is it possible for a 12-year-old to commit an offense like this? >> reporter: counsellors have

been on hand at the 12-year-old's school. while no one told us they saw signs of overt violence, this student told us how the boy was suspended earlier the school year for bringing a knife. >> did you see the knife? >> yeah. >> did he show it to friends and classmates? >> he showed it to kids. >> it was a little swiss army knife, a pocket knife? >> yeah. >> and what happened? >> he was like showing it to people and so then he gave it to him. someone told on him. he went to the office. >> reporter: he will have a court hearing later this month. this one is public because it's a murder charge. dan simon, cnn, san andreas, california. >> dan, thank you. it is going to be another extremely emotional day here in phoenix, for the final phase that the jodi arias murder trial. people who both love her and hate her fighting to save her or see her die. the evidence from the medical examiner was so graphic yesterday, it caused the family

of the victim to break down. . we're going to play key moments from that testimony for you so you can determine for yourself point by point if what the jury decide that this murder was especially cruel was right on the mark. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin

>> the death penalty phase

starts for jodi if i arias, this after they were expected to hear explicit testimony. what they decided was the murder she committed was especially cruel. listen as he laid out his case and see if you agree. >> what is it on the body that causes it to experience pain? >> well, it would be largely due to nerve innings or severing of nerves in the body. >> what are we looking at here? >> several stabbed or incised shallow sharp injuries at the torso. >> is one actually the one that pierced the heart or not? >> yes, as the blood began to leak out of that vessel and the heart began to fail, he probably experienced shortness of breath and also pain to the area, itself. it's the heart is starved for oxygen in a heart attack, that pain is similar. it's the same nerve endings stimulated. multiple stab wounds to his

upper back. they actually go to the level ovl of the skull. triangular portions of the skull goujd out by the end of the knife. >> what is a defensive wound? >> in the setting of the stabbing, it's the individual struggling, attempting to grab the knife or hold the knife or fend off blows with the knife. several attempts to cut the throat in the same area. >> what part of the throat did it go lieu? >> it goes through the tissues in the front of the throat, the stap muscles the airway and also the major vessels on i believe it's the right side of the throat t. jugular vein and the carotid artery. >> was he alive when he was stabbed in the heart? >> yes. >> was he alive when he was stabbed in the back of the head? >> was he alive when he was stabbed in the back of the head? >> yes. >> there are three wooundz wounds which were fatal? >> yes. >> which were those? >> the stab wound to the heart and the cut to the throat with the vessels severed would have been fatal in and of itself and the gunshot wound taken in

itself would have been fatal, he would collapse and become unresponsive. >> well the jury agreed it was especially cruel and voted so. i want to bring in hln legal analyst joey jackson and if phoenix hln legal correspondent jean ka sar res. -- owe casarez. with the breaking news, the defense attorneys have an uphill battle. it turns out they don't want the fight. they want off the case. they can't get off the case. so what do they have to do today, jean? >> reporter: they have to zealously represent their client here. this is the critical day. i pine, life or death for jodi arias. so when you are looking at mitigating factors, they need to bring in as much as they can everything. she's never been convicted of anything before. she led a life in many respects a normal life and there are a lot of good things that can show her worth and the standard here is, you know the defense has the burden in this case to show that

mitigating circumstances substantially signify that she should live and so that's their burden. >> and if jodi if i, herself, decides to get up on the stand and ultimately, joey jackson, are you a defense attorney, you are ultimately not the boss, the client is the boss, se can say whatever she wants up there, including what she said to the tv reporter, "i want to die," isn't that right? >> that is absolutely true. at this point, ash leak, the only one that can help the defendant is jodi if i arias. forget about surro gaits, forget about her mother testifying, the nature of her experiences. jodi arias in testifying and trashing this victim and talking about stories and saying she was abused and putting him in the mud and in effect killing him again, she has to come and confront that jury, admit who what she did. accept responsibility,

apologize, beck for her life and maybe, just maybe they would accept that and spare her life. in my view, ashleigh, the only one that can save jodi arias is jodi arias. >> ashleigh, go ahead, jean. >> let's fair clarify for a minute. normally in a penalty phase like this there can be an alocushion. -- alocution. the other aspect. i've never seen it before, jodi arias testifying in the penalty phase, which would be very different. she would be sworn under oath and be able to cross-examined. if she testifies to the worth of her life and the passivist activities and her demeanor. then she could be cross-examined on that and we could see brand-new evidence about her anger and the intense, the intensity of anger that she's portrayed through her life. >> and we could see that video

of last week's interview brought in to refute everything she says, if she begs for her life. she can show a video that says, i'm done with it. listen, this trial is so bizarre. i have to move on, thank you both. i do appreciate your insight. we'll see more of you throughout the coverage today. in the eyes of the law, he's a robber and a kidnapper, sentenced to prison for decades, but o.j. simpson says, that's not true. he says he's a victim and he wants out. we are live in vegas after this.

we are in between star witnesses in the latest spectacle regarding oj simpson, 30 years into a 334-year sentencing for robbery, assault and kidnapping. o.j. is hoping to convince a

judge he is a victim of all of this, a victim of legal malpractice. he claims his trial lawyer yale galanter gave him bad information, bad advice and refused to let him testify or suggested he shouldn't. yesterday with some brand-new lawyers on his case, o.j. decided he would take the stand. >> yale and i had spoke all along. i thought i was the only one, i to the we both would testify because we were there, yale kept saying, we'll deal with that. late in the trial, he said that he didn't think i should testify. and he felt that there was no way i could be convicted. >> did you believe him? >> yeah. i trusted him. yeah, i trusted his judgment on. so the gabe that o.j. was mentioning on the stand was his other laws, co-counsel, now in support of his bid, gabriel

grasso testified the lead galanter took most of the money while he did most of the work. more to the point. he says grasso listened to nobody but galanter. this is co-counsel in that courtroom. tomorrow, though, yale galanter will have his own moment to answer to all of this. he will answer in his own defense and again, his former client. what a dynamic. cnn's palm vercammen is live for us. break it down for me, paul, i understand we lost our signal with paul vercammen. if you can make one quick observation of this case versus the case i covered extensively years ago in 2008, this was a american who stood in front of journal jackie glass, put his hand up and said, i'm okay with not testifying. he did so under either, he did so with his lawyer beside him. every grownup has that opportunity to do so. to come back and make that claim

that i wasn't allowed to testify, i think a lot of people, including this judge, who knows the drill might question that. but there are other claims you heard that may have more merit. it remains to be seen. our paul vercammen with back with us, outline the o.j. in that court compared to the o.j. of trials past. who has he become now? >> reporter: well, he's still inessence the same o.j. who looks to be the storyteller the smiling guy who has had a lot of hollywood training. he was in some of the movies we talked about, "the naked gun." we saw him harken back to that, being jovial, as he told that tale of how he thought he got such a raw deal from yale galanter. by the way the judge, copiously taking notes on her laptop, paying close attention, not like jackie glass who was constantly seemingly at yale galanter's

throat in that 2008 trial and one thing that can't be lost on anybody here. don't forget, these judges are elected officials, ashleigh, we always hear that judges one on that platform of tough on crime, not, you know, lenient, forgiving and the one that sprung of j. >> yeah, that's clark county. let's say, that's one of the toughest places. i'm in maricopa county. that's a lot. paul vercammen, thank you, sir, i present you getting up very early on that west coast time frame. listen, if you were thinking what dzhokhar tsarnaev was thinking the night he was captured in the boston bombing. you can wonder no more. that accused bomber left what he to the was going to be a final message to the world. it all will be revealed when we come back.

his brother was dead, his time on the run was quickly running out. he was cornered, he was wounded, he was expecting to die and through it all, we now foe that fugitive boston bomb suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev was writing. final thoughts to the world or so he thought would be final. he was writing on a trailered

boat where he was actually cap cured alive almost a month ago. cnn's deborah feyerick is live. when i say he was writing on the boat, he was writing his message on the boat, literally, correct? >> reporter: yeah, it appears on allths dzhokhar tsarnaev did not believe he was going to live throughout the night. he had taken shelter in this boat where he spent much of the day on friday until he was discovered late into the evening. we are being told by a single source, a law enforcement official, is that tsarnaev left a couple of details behind, first, he fully expected like his brother who was killed hours earlier, he, too, was going to die. he said he did not miss his brother because he fully planned to join his brother. also, he says the motive was retribution, retribution for the wars in iraq and aphganistan.

he also says that the victims in boston were quote collateral damage unquote. this is according to that single source. we are learning he seemed to adopt this mantra that terrorists are known to adopt. for example, those responsible for the london bombings, he writes allegedly in this note, an attack against one muslim is an attack against all muslims. that would have been while he was in the boat, while he was bleeding and before he was captured. ashleigh. >> again, deb, writing on the physical boat, itself, with some kind of utensil? >> it appears that way. he was using what was in the boat. there were reports that maybe there was a gup. that proved to be incorrect. they recovered something. that may have been because it was in the boat already. so whatever he found, whatever thoughts he was putting down, it certainly goes to his state of mind that if he wrote that down, it was because he expected like his brother, he too, would be

killed. >> sure. deborah feyerick. thank you for that. they were scene in cleveland at the house of horrors to rescue three women held captive for decade. you are going to hear emotional words at the rescuers made it inside. ♪ pop goes the world [ female announcer ] pop in a whole new kind of clean with tide pods. just one pac has the stain removal power of 6 caps of the bargain brand. pop in. stand out.

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and launch your dreams. ó? we are hearing from first responders now about what they saw in cleveland last week when they arrived at the proverbial house of horrors, ariel castro's

home. those first responders describe the emotional moment that they first came in contact with the women who he allegedly kidnapped, held captive and raped there for a decade. have a listen. >> see posters on the poles here and there, and i think all of us in the second district on the west side have seen those fliers, we've all gone to houses where there's a tip. we still follow them up and take those serious. so it was just amazing to see her there standing peering through the window. >> michelle hugged me first. and, boy, you can't describe the feelings. when someone's clutching you and saying please don't let me go, it just rips your heart out of your chest. >> thank god for those first responders. thank god for their heroism too. we're back right after this.

live from phoenix, arizona, at the courthouse where jodi arias will once again finish up another day of exhausting testimony. and it gets tougher and tougher as now it is all about her life or her death. breaking news, her lawyers want to quit. they've had it. they gave a motion to this judge to leave her and to actually get off of this case. that judge denied that motion

after about, oh, $1.7 million or $1.8 million of her defense, not a surprise. but the reasons are shrouded as to why her attorneys want out. but that's the big breaking news from this courthouse today. but the proceedings continue. jodi arias on her way if not already in that courthouse behind me. thank you for watching, everyone. "around the world" starts after this quick break.

welcome to "around the world." i'm suzanne malveaux. >> and i'm michael holmes. thanks for your company today. right now we are waiting to hear from president obama as he tries to contain the damage from controversies on several fronts. >> so in washington a news conference set to get underway any moment now. it's going to be a joint appearance by the president as well as turkish prime minister. now, turkey is pushing for more u.s. involvement in syria's civil war. on the domestic front, the president almost certain to be asked about the current fury surrounding his administration. oh, my god! >> oh, my, goodness. >> this was the scene in north texas yesterday. at least ten tornadoes touching down during the night. let's have a look at the scene today as the sun came up.

of course then you got to see the damage and there was a lot of it. at least six people killed, more than 100 injured. several still missing. president obama and turkey's prime minister will go before the cameras shortly. and the meeting with the turkish prime minister also has major implications overseas as well. >> absolutely. turkey has been a key u.s. ally in the middle east now and in the muslim world in general. the borders it shares with iraq, iran and syria, well, the prime minister is pushing for the u.s. to step up its efforts to end syria's bloody civil war including establishing a no-fly zone and also arming syrian rebels. >> so we are likely to hear about that in the statements that the two leaders are going to make. but of course there are going to be a lot of questions to both these leaders. the president taking questions surely on the scandals he is struggling with. we are talking about the irs