>> axelrod: a bold stroke of humanity. pope francis invites three families of muslim refugees to live at the vatican. >> reporter: can you believe that you're here? >> no, no, i can't believe. >> axelrod: also tonight snow buries all signs of spring in the rockies. hail hammers the plains. the search for answers after a beloved zookeeper is killed by a tiger. what triggered the attack? and a personal story from a member of the cbs news family with a lesson about healing that deifies science. >> i'll never forget one of the neurologists said to me, "people only wake up from these kind of comas in the movies." captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news."

>> axelrod: good evening. i'm jim axelrod. pope francis opened more than his heart to refugees trapped in greece today. he opened his home inviting three muslim families fleeing the war in syria to come live at the vatican. they immediately boarded the papal plane and returned to rome with francis as nearly five million syrians are now refugees, pope francis called this gesture a drop of water in the sea of europe's migrant crisis. but he said he hopes it will lead to more refugees being welcomed in europe and beyond. more now from seth doane at the have the. have the. >> reporter: the 12 syrian refugees appeared stunned they arrived to a warm welcome in a lively part of rome tonight. hasan zaheda and nour essa had crossed through isis territory while fleeing. you can believe that you're here? >> no, i can't believe. >> reporter: their two-year-old made the journey

rubber raft on the dangerous passage from turk tow greece. >> it seems like a dream. >> reporter: it seems like a dream. >> yeah, yeah, because yesterday, in the same time yesterday, there was nothing. >> reporter: nothing until pope francis took the three syrian families, all muslims, on his plane back to italy. on the flight he explained he was inspired to do this just a week ago and did not choose between christians and muslims. he called the refugees all children of god. upon landing, he greeted refugees, including nour essa. what did you say to the pope? >> thank you, thank you, thank you. and pray for us. >> reporter: the vatican called the pope's visit today humanitarian. he visited the greek island of lesbos as some of europe's borders have been closed to migrant. in some cases, migrants have even been deported back to turkey. the pope's message was as simple "y it was warm.

"do not give up hope." >> axelrod: seth a very busy day for the pope. even before he got on the plane to go to greece he ran into senator bernie sanders. >> reporter: absolutely. senator bernie sanders took part in an academic conference at the vatican, and the vatican can distanced itself leading up to that trip. but senator sanders was staying in the same hotel where the pope lives and greeted the pope on his way out this morning. we caught up with the senator on a terrace overlooking the vatican just after that meeting. are there pictures of this meeting with the pope or was it behind closed doors? >> well, it was neither, but we chose not to do pictures. we didn't want anyone to think it was political. >> reporter: but it is political, isn't it? >> no, it is-- if i was really being political i'd be in new york city right now and not here in rome. >> reporter: and later, the pope went on to also say that that was not a political meeting. he said it was just politeness. and the pope said that anyone who saw it

"see a psychiatrist." jim. >> axelrod: seth doane reporting for us tonight from the vatican. thank you, seth. after meeting with the pope, sanders returned to campaigning in new york today with the new york primaries coming up on tuesday. in the republican race, donald trump is still about 200 delegates ahead of ted cruz, but cruz is creeping up on him and grabbed 14 more delegates today at the republican convention in wyoming. here's julianna goldman. >> we have a movement going on. >> reporter: another day, another warning from donald trump to party leaders: >> the republican national committee, they better get going because i'll tell you what. you're going to have a rough july at that convention. you better get going, and you better straighten out the system because the people want their vote. the people want to vote. and they want to be represented properly. >> reporter: r.n.c. chairman reince priebus says trump just doesn't like the rules.

pushing back on this fair couple of days. >> that's the guy. >> reporter: with the increased likelihood of a contested convention, 2016 has become a year when the arcane procedures of setting convention rules and selecting delegates may ultimately decide the republican nominee. >> i just can't imagine how many people are actually interested in this. >> reporter: but as priebus tries to downplay the feud and to set the record straight, he's also aware that the nom naight process could look like it's going against the will of republican voters. he's reportedly encouraging r.n.c. members who are meeting next week not to change convention rules to avoid appearing like party elite are trying to block the g.o.p. front-runner. >> we've got a slate of delegates who are committed to supporting me in cleveland-- we're in all likelihood going to have a battle in cleveland to determine who the nominee is. >> reporter: even though many establish republicans have decided to stop trump ted cruz is their best hope. >> if we come together and unite

and if we come together and unite, we will win the general election. we will beat hillary clinton. >> reporter: trump may be railing against party bosses but a big reason the july convention is so unpredictable right now is because the republican party is completely splintered, and, jim, some strategists say there's no one in its leadership ranks who could actually broker a convention. >> axelrod: julianna, thank you very much. this weekend, japan is recovering from not one but two major earthquakes, both centered near the southern island of kyushu. as charlie d'agata reports, at least 41 people are known dead. >> reporter: this is the moment the second quake struck. the terrifying roar of back-to-back earthquakes barely 24 hours apart. today, rescuers pulled a 93-year-old woman out from the ruins of her home. she was unresponsive. her son-in-law said he tried to warn her to get to a shelter after the first quake. "i should have taken her with

"i have nothing but regret." more than 1500 people have been injured, dozens more missing, hundreds of thousands are without electricity and water. japan has deployed 20,000 troops to assist in the rescue efforts, but they're running out of time and hope in the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble and the mud. the 7.3-magnitude earthquake, 30 times more powerful than the first, triggered massive land slides that swept away entire bridges and buried highways, cutting off rescue teams. nobody knew then that thursday's earthquake was a foreshock of the much bigger one on the way. seismologists warn the bigger tremor could also be a foresmoke shock the 9.0 earthquake in 2011 that killed more than 18,000 people followed a smaller one, too. it also triggered the meltdown at the fukushima power plant but this time japanese fors reported

no irregularities at any of the facilities in the area. heavy rains are in the forecast overnight in japan, raising concerns of more landslides. once again, japanese residents are spending the night out in the open, too terrified to go home, rattled by both aftershocks and the fear of worse to come. charlie d'agata, cbs news, london. >> axelrod: there is plenty of severe weather in the u.s. this weekend with hail, heavy rains, and possibly tornadoes hitting the southern plains, as well as blizzard conditions in the rocky mountains. barry petersen is in denver. >> reporter: hardest hit were areas in the mountains and foothills, traffic going from a crawl to a stop. and the unlucky ended up off the road. >> oh, we were just out driving around, just making sure people from california don't get stuck. >> reporter: news reports talked about how the snow is weighing down trees. >> look at these trees i'm standing around. they are just plastered with a very heavy, heavy wet s

crews are working around the clock. fortunately for denver and most surrounding areas, the precipitation didn't match the predictions. some weather models called for up to 18 inches, but now say it will end up closer to eight. little solace for united airlines passengers. united yesterday canceled all of its saturday flights. outside of colorado, the same supercell of severe weather hit the southwest with multiple tornadoes in the oklahoma panhandle. in texas, it was hail pelting some areas, and in kansas, hail was the size of golf balls. back in colorado, and these kids were more than glad for the white stuff. joe riley is 12. everybody says it's a bad storm, but you seem to be enjoying it. >> yeah, it's really fun. >> reporter: fun in this see saw weather-- sledding today, golfing next weekend. people will be out and

and temperatures are expected to hit in the 80s. jim. >> axelrod: barry petersen in the springtime snow of denver, thank you. let's bring in ed curran of our chicago station wbbm. gfs, ed. >> well, good evening. and we're look at a large and a slow-moving storm that has dumped a lot of snow in denver, in colorado, in wyoming here, and a lot of rain as well, soaking rains out here. we have a winter storm warning that's up for colorado, and into wyoming until 6:00 tomorrow morning with an additional 3-6 inches possible in that area. then to the south, in texas and oklahoma, looking at a marginal chance for severe in the green, a slight chance for severe, that's a higher chance in the yellow, large hail, and some tornadoes are possible outside of this. east thereof, the weather is beautiful. it will improve tomorrow as we go through the day in colorado. jim. >> axelrod: ed curran, thank you very much. in florida, the palm beach zoo is now closed

of mauled to death yesterday by a tiger the keeper had been working with for years. here's david begnaud. david beg. . >> reporter: lead zookeeper 38-year-old stacey konwiser was an expert. she was working in the house where the animals eat and sleep. that's when something went wrong. palm beach zoo's nicki carter says officials are reviewing surveillance video inside the enclosure. >> this is an area stacey was very familiar with, and we are investigating exactly what happened that caused the this tragic occurrence. >> reporter: zoo officials say konwiser suffered a severe bite and they called 911. rescue crews could only reach her after the 13-year-old male tiger had been traeled. con wiser died shortly afterwards. >> stacy understood the danger

that come with this job. . >> reporter: the zoo says its guests were never in danger. this is the first time a person has been killed in an animal incident in the zoo's 60-year history. mark mccarthy runs a wildlife sanctuary in the area and has worked with tigers for more than 40 years. >> that's a powerful animal, and they get a hold of you, they're not-- there's nothing you can do to let them go. i don't care how strong you are, how big you are. >> reporter: there are less than 250 malayan tigers in the wild. it is unclear christmas zoo's four tigers was involved. conwayser and her husband, jeremie, were both zookeepers at the palm beach zoo. she had just send a position with the f.d.a. with the ultimate goal to work with the u.s. fish and wildlife service. david beg nowd, cbs news, miami. >> axelrod: is baseball's new rule on takeout slides off base? and a safety net fails to protect a fan when the cbs evening news continues.

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into the bawblg season, and there is already controversy over a new rule designed to protect infielders. as jericka duncan reports, some players say they liked it just fine the old way. >> reporter: during game two of the play-offs last year, chase utley of the l.a. dodgers slammed into mets shortstop ruben tejada and broke his leg, ultimately preventing tejada from playing in the world series. because of collisions like this, major league baseball beefed up existing rules in february on interference, ostruction, and catcher collisions. the new rule changes how a player is allowed to slide into second base during a potential double play. jonah keri is a senior writer for cbssports.com. does this soften the game in any way? >> rte

you're not allowed to go way outside the base path. you're not allowed to take a running leap at the person. there's a difference between hard-nosed baseball and borderline dirty baseball. we're trying to get rid of the dirty stuff not the hard stuff. >> reporter: last week, umpires ruled this slide into a shortstop by houston astros' left fielder colby rasmus illegal. they cited interference because he didn't maintain contact with the base after the slide. the astros lost the game. their manager, a.j. hinch, says the new rule may have cost his team a win. >> i understand you're not supposed to grab guys, you're to the supposed to collide with them anywhere on the field. what's got me irritated most is to lose by a technicality on something that potentially is going to happen in our game. >> reporter: major league baseball e-mailed this statement to cbs news which resident in part:

right now, there are no plans to change the new rule. among the six plays called into question because of the new slide rule, four have gone to replay and, jim, two of those plays were deemed violations. >> axelrod: jericka, thank you. a frightening scene at the rays-white sox game last night at tropicana field. a fan was hit in the head by a foul ball. the woman was taken off in a stretcher but is expected to be okay. the ball off the bat of a deeply concerned steven souza jr., shot through a gap in the park's newly installed protective netting. the rays say they are fixing the net so it does not happen again. up next, a taj mahal photo-op stirs up a royal flashback. osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture... i n tell you prolia® is proven to help protect bones from fracture. but the real proof? my doctor said prolia® helped my bones

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well, let's have marlie pick up the story. >> reporter: as i'm getting ready to go to work, i get a phone call from haiti, fromw=zy dad's partner, and she says his heart had stopped. and that he went into respiratory and cardiac arrest, and he was out for about 20 minutes. there was no ventilator at the hospital in haiti, and so two nurses took turns of turns literally pumping his oxygen that was keeping him alive. and they did that for more than six hours. so we got a private plane that was outfitted like an ambulance. that flew from south florida to haiti to basically rescue him. >> when i saw him in the e.r. that night, he was in a very dire situation. >> not only did he suffer a cardiac arrest with injury to the brain from lack of oxygen, but his kidneys were also failing. his liver was failing. >> reporter: and i'll never

said to me, "people only wake up from these kinds of comas in the movies." we should start to make arrangements and gather our family together. >> he was dying. he was dying. >> reporter: that was really hard to hear. it was the worst possible thing. my heart was just shattered in a million pieces. we would spend days and nights at his bedside talking to him, and one of the things they would do is i would get right in his ear and say, "daddy, daddy, daddy, can you hear me?" well, about a week later, after he got to miami, then he fully opened his eyes, not for very long, you know, for moments at a time. i would tell the doctors and the neurologist in particular, "listen, this man is not a vegetable. he's responding." and they said, "well, that's just involuntary movements." anen

probably one of the first words he said was my name. we called the hospital and said, "listen, we need another evaluation." and sure enough, they sent another neurologist, and i'll never forget this, one of the neurologists said, "what i said previously is no longer appropriate." >> the opinion were after can thing two or three doctors were the same, i wouldn't make it. but it happened that they were wrong. i made it. >> it is a miracle. it is a miracle. >> there you go! >> reporter: there's no explanation for it. i believe there is a higher authority who did not agree with that diagnosis. >> take a deep breath, deep breath. >> he just deified all the odds. he deified science and he's just meant to be here for a reason. >> reporter: i'm sure that's some fancy doctor way of s

that. when you first got sick i had a lot of regret because i felt like i didn't spend enough time with you and didn't call you enough. and now that you're here with me, now that i have you back, i will never let that happen again. i love you. >> i love you, too. >> axelrod: marlie hall and her father, edward. thank you both for that story. and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. later on cbs, "48 hours." i'm jim axelrod in new york and for all of us here at cbs news, thanks for joining us. and good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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