call 1-800-fight ms. sealing the deal. mitt romney secures the republican presidential nomination after a big win in the texas primary. mounting pressure. more than a dozen nations expel syria diplomats following the mass car in houla, but the united states maintains it will not use force to end the blood shed. and severe storms. big time hailstorm. this is the "cbs morning news" for wednesday, may 30, 2012. good morning, everybody. so good to be with you. i'm terrell brown. it was a prize mitt romney has been chasing for five years.

he clinched the republican nomination with a win in yesterday's primary, calling did an honor and privilege. he'll be nominate add the republican ron convention in august. cbs news estimates romney has 1,198 after picking up 90 in the texas vote and romney has already ramped up his attacks on president obama. susan mcginnis in washington with details. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. yeah, romney all about endurance has finally paid off. look for romney to enter a critical phase of the campaign. watch for him to step up his attacks on the obama administration and to defend himself from their attacks, including most recently, his association with donald trump. mitt romney campaigned in the swing state of nevada, while voters in the texas primary handed him enough delegates to become the republican gop for president. in a statement romney says he's honored and humbled, adding we will settle for nothing less

than to get america back on track. . the former massachusetts governor will raise money and try to convince voters president obama doesn't deserve a second term. >> we need to have presidents who understand how this economy works, day to day, small business, middle-size business, big business, i do, i want to use that experience to get us to work again. >> reporter: but romney is also dealing with controversy. real estate tycoon donald trump keeps questioning president obama's birth certificate, even though most people accept the president was born in hawaii. >> why are you going through all of this? >> a lot of people don't agree with that birth certificate. >> if the state of hawaii authorizes it, if the state of hawaii says this is official, he was born in hawaii on this date, here it is, why do you deny that? >> a lot of people did not think it was an authentic certificate. >> reporter: the president supporters put out an internet video criticizing romney for not

distancing himself from trump. it shows john mccain defending the president's citizenship. >> i've read about him. he's an arab. >> no ma'am. >> reporter: the obama campaign issued a statement saying romney lacks the backbone to stand up to trump because, quote, he's so concerned about lining his campaign pockets. look for the calls to increase about him getting very specific now about the claims he's been making about how he would fix the economy, reduce the debt, get folks back to work, very specific on his plans and his policies, what he would -- what he would do. terrell? >> all right. susan mcginnis, thank you. mitt romney and president obama are split on how the united states should handle the deepening crisis in syria. romney says he supports arming opponents of syria's dictator bashar al assad but the white house says a military intervention in syria is not likely. they kicked syrian diplomats out

of the country in response to a mass car over the weekend. the attention of the world was focused on the city of houla this weekend. united nations observers say 20 people were killed by government artillery fire but the massacre happened after the shelling stopped. eyewitnesss say pro-assad gunmen moved into the city and slaughtered entire families at close range. >> the result of house to house summary executions. armed men getting into houses and killing men, women and children inside. >> the razzle truce brokered by the u.n. six week ago appears broken. the international condemnation came tuesday when more than a dozen nations joined the u.s. in expelling syrian diplomats. in washington, the white house said it would continue its strategy of isolating assad's regime. >> more than ten countries have now expelled syrian diplomats.

how would this stop another massacre? >> obviously, no single action like that, diplomatic action, stops the regime from its brutal behavior but it's a cumulative effort. >> chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the u.s. could respond with force if atrocities continue but u.s. officials maintain a military intervention in syria would do more harm than good. >> the concern is that further militarization of the situation in syria could lead to greater chaos. the member of the opposition is still something we and our partners are assessing. that is another consideration that has to be acknowledged. >> the u.s. is providing what it calls nonlethal assistance to the rebels. this morning russia and china, to countries that supported the assad regime. the u.n. estimates more than 13,000 people have been killed

during the 15-month uprising. the blind chinese activists says china has laws but they're not followed. cheng guangcheng called for an investigation into what he called a seven-year punishment. in an op-ed piece in the new york times says he urge the government and people of the united states and other democratic countries. . he was given diplomatic sanctua sanctuary. he arrived in the u.s. earlier this month to study law. recovery efforts are under way in northern italy after yesterday's deadly earthquake. this reporter was on the air and a strong aftershock hit. the quake was the second to hit the region in nine days. at least 16 people were killed and some 350 were injured.

some were returning to work for the first time since the last earthquake. an apology from the former rutgers university student who used a web cam to spy on his roommate. ravi used a web cam to spy on a romantic encounter between tyler clementi and another man and blogged about it. ravi said, my behavior and actions which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry were nonetheless the wrong choices nd decisions. i apologize to everyone affected by those choices. the sister of the man who confessed to killing etan patz says she went to police years ago. pedro hernandez was accused of second-degree murder after he confessed to killing patz. his sister said she went to police in the 19 80s when she

heard her brother confess in church. >> he put him in trash. as soon as i heard that i went to police. >> norma hernandez said she gave her license as identification and never heard back. up next, run for cover, you wouldn't want to get caught in this severe hailstorm in oklahoma city. this is the morning news. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... [ cheering ] in true london fashion. [ male announcer ] now citi thankyou visa card holders can combine the thankyou points they've earned and get even greater rewards. ♪ and these come together,

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ocean spray cranberry, white cranberry, and blueberry juice cocktails. [ coughs ] okay, i believe this one is yours? [ clears throat ] i've never been in one of those but i can only imagine. severe thunderstorms delivered damaging hail to the oklahoma city area overnight. hailstones more than 4 inches in diameter were reported northwest of city and downed power lines left 63,000 customers in the dark. more strong storms with hail and possible tornadoes are expected in oklahoma and western arkansas today. "cbs moneywatch" on a

wednesday morning. wall street posts one of it's best days in may and how low will facebook stock go. ashley morrison in new york. >> good morning to you. concern over spain's economy and a report that china would not take major steps to stimulate its economy sent overseas stocks -- markets lower. nikkei lost 0.5% while hang seng fell 2%. the worries about europe didn't seem to trouble investors on wall street. the dow rose 125 points while the nasdaq was up 33. but europe's slump is contributing to deet klein in the cost of oil. prices are close to $90 a barrel, that's down 15% from a month ago, but that also means drivers will end up paying less at the pump. analysts say gas prices could be as low as $3.50 a gallon by the fourth of july. the u.s. housing market is showing some signs of life. a report out tuesday shows home prices in most major cities kicked up in march. it's the first time that's happened in seven months. and facebook's stock is

sliding once again. shares of the social media company closed below $30 for the first time since the may 18th ipo. facebook stock is down 24% from its opening price. terrell, somebody is forgetting to hit the "like" button. >> i never would have imagined this. >> i don't think a lot of people did. >> see what happens here today. >> ashley morrison here in new york. guitarists and singer doc watson, an american original, has died. ♪ blind from infancy watson's flat-picking style transformed the guitar to a lead instrument, inspired folks musicians in the 19d 6 0z and won his seven grammy awards. he died yesterday in a north carolina hospital a few days after suffering a fall at home. he was 89. throughout our entire lives.

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severe thunderstorms are likely in oklahoma and western arkansas with damaging wind, gusts, hail and isolated tornadoes. rain is also likely in parts of the northern and central plains and most of the west will be dry. in sports, san santonio wins again. playing at home, the spurs dominated the visiting thunder with shots like tony parker's spin to the hoop in the second quarter. tim country dan, flipped through the oklahoma city defense for an overhead jam. spurs' 20th straight victory, 120-111. an antonio with a 2-0 lead. baseball, phillies at mets. hours after learning roy halle da would be out six to eight weeks, david wright drove in a run in the first. rookie with his first career home run and then came the rain. but after a delay, the mets won it 6-3. on the other coast, ryan braun led brewers against the

dodgers to right in the first and that's all milwaukee needed. mike fiers allows one run on five hits in seven innings. for a 2-1 victory in his first major league start. down the santa ana freeway from dodger stadium, an angel in the outfield, second inning leap robbed the yankees' nick swisher of a home run. in the third, albert pujols hits a 443, 443-foot two-run homer, his eighth round-tripper in may after none in april. the angels win it 5-3. finally, a stunner in women's tennis. at the french open serena william lost a first round match in a grand slam tournament for the first time in her career. a match lasting more than three hours 4-6, 7-3, williams led in the third and then dropped 13

points in a row. straight ahead on the morning news, hack attack. powerful new computer virus hits the middle east but it's who might be behind it that's making news.

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here's a look at the forecast in some cities around the country. d.c., partly sunny, 86. partly sunny, st. louis, 80. partly cloudy and 67 in seattle. computers in the middle east and especially iran are under attack from a newly discovered cyber virus. like another virus set loose on the internet a few years ago, the main target of this one called flame appears to be

iran's nuclear program. david martin has more. >> reporter: remember stuxnet, the isn't fudges iran uses to spin out of control? now flame, another you virus apparently targeted at iran, a cyber security company which first discovered the virus, it dwarfs stuxnet. >> it's 20 times the size of stuxnet which again shows the kind of man power and man hours that have been put into this project. >> reporter: flame essentially turns a person's computer into spy, stealing everything that comes in contact with. >> flame can any get information it wants really from logging key strokes to taking screen shot of your machine. it can enable the microphone and listen to conversations. >> reporter: it was discovered just a couple weeks ago but has been worming through hundreds of computers in iran and elsewhere in the middle east for at least two years.

the stuxnet virus which hit iran's centrifuges was widely believed to be the work of the u.s. and israel. and flame uses some of the same cyber technology. >> it has all the likelihood that basically two different teams, one team responsible for the stuxnet virus and one team responsible for flame had access to some technologies that were unknown to the rest of the world. >> reporter: if the u.s. was involved, flame would have been the work of the national security agency whose mission was to eavesdrop on communications. depending on which computers it infected, flame could have provided the u.s. with inside knowledge of the iran government. researchers say it's possible flame can conduct sabotage as well as espionage. in other words, first it steals your data and then it wipes it out. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. britain's supreme court is expected to rule this morning on

the extradition of wikileaks founder julian assange. he's been fighting extradition for two years. assange is best known for releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents in a wikileaks website. at the white house yesterday president obama presented the medal of freedom to 13 accomplished individuals. among those receiving the nation's high oiest civilian honor were madeleine albright, john glenn, first american to orbit earth. novelist toni morrison, winner of pul it's zero and noble prize in literature, retired supreme court justice john paul stevens, and singer/songwriter and voice of a generation, bob dylan. coming up after your local news on "cbs this morning," wynton marsalis sits down with paul simon for a musician to musician chat. i'm terrell brown. today's workout is hardcore...

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. good morning. welcome to 9news now. today is wednesday. i thought it was thursday. >> i thought she was going to say tuesday. >> may 30, 2012. good morning. i'm andrea roane.

welcome to wednesday. welcome to wednesday. i'm mike hydeck. here's monika santami. >> good morning. welcome back, howard. >> thank you. i was trying to figure out if we put out the recyclables. with the holiday, things get pushed back. that was the big dilemma at my house. still power outages from yesterday's storms, the hail, the winds. a quieter day ahead. here's a look at the day planner. we have temperatures this morning which are still on the mild side, 60s and 70s. cloudy skies. there are a few showers out there. some sunshine midday 80 degrees. highs today low to mid-80s. there will also be a chance for an isolated shower this afternoon as the front finally comes through bringing the drier air here. showers and storms, boy, were they big last night. they moved off south and east. we still have a few showers to the north and west. six hours ago still rocking and rolling south of town. here come the showers still back almost to the virginia-

west virginia line. some isolated showers will have to come through and then a threat for one or two this afternoon. cumberland 59. they're much more comfortable than ap nays liss at 73. -- than annapolis at 73. we're 72. later this afternoon with the mix of clouds and sun and an isolated shower, should be about 86 in manassas,85 winchester. cooler 81 on the bay. let's go to monika with time saver traffic. we did have construction overnight but luckily it's in its clearing stages. good morning, everybody. if you're planning to head around the beltway you'll be generally okay. i'll get to the construction in a minute. let's start with 270 this time around. coming out of frederick on i-70 or 270 fine into clarksburg. a live look at the beltway north of town at university boulevard, all is quiet on the north side of town. on the outer loop as you head westbound leave the 95 interchange into silver spring. let's go over to virginia. on the west side things are fine on the dulles toll road.

there had been construction eastbound at the beltway. that exit ramp to the outer loop was blocked. also on 66 westbound between the beltway and nutley street, two right lanes blocked. we'll end with a live look on the northbound side of 95 here in newington. all is quiet here as well heading to springfield. in my next report, we'll go over to the bw parkway at 4:41. an unjust killing at the hands of a virginia police officer. that's the finding made by a grand jury in culpeper county. you may recall back in february the town of culpeper officer daniel harman wright shot and killed a woman sitting inside her jeep. >> he claimed that day he was being dragged by her because his arm was stuck in the vehicle. now investigators say that was not the case. the officer's mother is now being indicted in this case as well. ken molestina sorts it all out. >> reporter: we've learned of a new bombshell in this investigation.

the suspect's very own mother is also being charged, also being indicted as it relates to this case. jim fisher, the commonwealth's attorney for fauquier county served as a special prosecutor for the case. he said the grand jury found enough evidence to indict 32- year-old daniel harmon-wright on several charges. >> count number one murder. count number two v.a. lishes shooting into an okay -- malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in death and use of a firearm. >> reporter: wright acting in his role as a police officer shot and killed 54-year-old patricia cook while she sat inside her jeep. he claims she caught his arm in the window dragged him given no choice but to shooter. now evidence suggests he wasn't giving an accurate account of what happened. the announcement of charges