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on that note, good morning to you. welcome to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> just hate when that happens. just ruins your morning, doesn't it? good morning, everybody. zoraida and i are here to bring you the news from "a" to "z." it's 5:00 in the a.m. let's get started. first, donald trump sucking the air out of the whole evening, stealing mitt romney's thunder after last night's texas primary victory. romney now has more than enough delegates to clinch the republican nomination, but not everyone is talking about that this morning. instead, it seems to be all about the trump and barack obama's birth certificate again. the donald campaigning with romney in las vegas yesterday, reviving that old debate over whether the president has born in this country. let's just say he was. it's been proven. but it's triggered this spirited exchange with wolf blitzer in the situation room yesterday. >> a lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate. >> how can you say that -- >> many people do not think it was authentic. his mother was not in the hospital. there are many other things that came out. and frankly, if you would report it accurately, i think you'd probably get better ratings than you're getting, which are pretty small. >> donald, have you seen the actual newspaper announcements within days of his birth in honolulu? the honolulu star bulletin. we'll put it up there. you've seen the birth announcement in 1961. listen to me, donald -- can i ask -- >> can i talk while you stop defending obama? >> donald, you're beginning to sound a little ridiculous, i have to tell you. >> no, i think you are, wolf. >> cnn's political editor paul steinhauser is in washington this morning. paul, you thought this whole clinching the nomination thing and reaching the magic number of 1,144 would kind of go over with a whimper, and it turns out it kind of did. >> and blame donald trump for a lot of it. this is a huge distraction. you mentioned right off the bat. mitt romney just made history last night. he's become the first mormon to clinch the nomination of a major party. that is a very big deal. we're not talking about that. we're talking about donald trump and the birther issue. that is a huge distraction for mitt romney. his whole theme this week was going after president obama, saying he's bad for job creators, wasting taxpayer dollars. we're not talking about that either. we're talking about donald trump and the birther issue. thanks to wolf bliter for that interview. he did a strong, strong job of pointing out to donald trump that, yes, barack obama was born in the united states, and you're not looking at the facts. this is what we're talking about. newt gingrich, former house speaker who was romney's rival, came out last night. he spoke to cameras and said this is not a distraction for republicans. take a look at what gingrich said. >> i think donald trump said what he said because he thinks it's the right thing for him to say? >> do you think it's racist? >> no. i think that obama creates very powerful emotions about him, largely because of the radicalism of his views. >> you know, i was looking at the full report, ashleigh, from the fund-raiser, and donald trump did not mention the birther issue at all. he attacked dopresident obama f a lot of other things, but the issue of the birth certificate did not come up at that closed fund-raiser last night. >> it's interesting that on his plane mitt romney disavowed the issues and said, i believe obama was born in this country, and it's not an issue for me. last night something else happened, and it looked like he started to wave into this issue and not disavow it entirely. can you touch on that? >> a little bit of a bizarre moment. it was a couple hours before the fund-raiser. mitt romney had a campaign event at a furniture store in las vegas. he talked about a supporter that said something else should be added to the constitution when it comes to requirements for being president. take a listen. >> i was speaking with one of these business owners who owns a couple of restaurants in town, and he said, you know, i'd like to change the constitution. i'm not sure i can do it, he said, but i'd like to have a provision in the constitution that, in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birth place of the president being set by the constitution, i'd like it also to say that the president has to spend three years working in business before he can become president of the united states. >> ashleigh, as you mentioned, a little bizarre, especially on a day that there was so much attention to the birther issue that romney would bring it up publicly and talk about it in front of cameras. i don't think he was talking about the birther issue. it didn't sound great, but his big theme has been, listen, i'm a businessman. that makes me qualified to be president. i think that's what he was trying to highlight there. again, maybe a little tone deaf. ashleigh? >> you're right. that should have been what the issue is. that is a legitimate campaign issue. it's what most people think this election is all about. the fact that he said it twice, the citizenship and the place where the president is born, made it feel as though, hey, hold on a second. you're really stepping into this little business. anyway, lots more to talk about. and 1,144, we have the nominee. how exciting is that? >> but unofficial. hate to say that. we have to wait until the convention in august. >> steinhauser, oh. always good to see you, no matter what time of day. and there's a lot of buzz, wolf blitzer's interview with donald trump. guess what? we're going to get the blitz on early. i'm going to talk with wolf live at 6:30 eastern. we'll get his thoughts about what went down live on tv with the donald. it is six minutes past the hour. here an embarrassing slip-up by president obama has polish political leaders outraged this morning. the white house says the president misspoke during the medal of freedom ceremonies when he referred to a polish death camp instead of a german death camp while honoring the memory of a polish resistance fighter during world war ii. here's the comment that is causing all the controversy. >> before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that jews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him -- warsaw ghetto in a polish death camp to see for himself. >> poland's prime minister calls that comment a matter of ignorance. the prime minister is expected to address the issue publicly a little later today. they're asking the u.s. justice department to step in after a tennessee judge stopped the construction of a mosque in murfreesboro. the islamic center was the focus on cnn last year. the judge claimed they failed to give notice about the mosque. county officials say they're now reviewing that ruling. coming up at 7:30 this morning, we're going to be talking live with the spokesman of that move mosque on "starting point." the united states is asking canada to investigate a deadly plane crash that happened in virginia. they're asking canada because both planes were owned by u.s. federal employees, one from the faa and one from the ntsb. the planes crashed into each other in midair on monday about 50 miles from washington, d.c. one pilot and a passenger were killed. the other pilot is injured. u.s. officials say an ntsb investigator will assist the canadian investigation. for the first time, we are hearing an apology from the former rutgers university student convicted of bias intimidation after using a web cam to spy on his roommate, who later killed himself. dharun ravi is due in court today before he begins serving his 30-day sentence in the death of tyler clemente, related to the death of tyler clemente. in a written statement issued yesterday, ravi said, "i accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid, and childish choices that i made." jurors in the john edwards corruption trial will begin their eighth day of deliberations this morning, and there are signs they're not even close to reaching a verdict. several of them sending notes to a judge about scheduling conflicts this week and next week of the the judge also scolding jurors, warning them not to discuss the case outside the deliberation room. just ahead, international outrage is really growing after that horrifying massacre of civilians, many of them children in syria. now another country is telling the syrian ambassador, get out and get out fast. a live report on this crisis coming up next. announcer ] this is genco services -- mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next. ♪ this is the bell on the cat. 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[ male announcer ] now citi thankyou visa card holders can combine the thankyou points they've earned and get even greater rewards. ♪ welcome back. it is 12 minutes past the hour. the crisis in syria will be front and center when the united nations security council meets later this morning. japan is now joining the u.s. and other western nations expelling its syrian ambassador in tokyo. in response to last week's massacre of more than 100 civilians in the town of houla, including many, many children. cnn's ivan watson is monitoring developments from istanbul, turkey. he joins us live. what is the latest there? >> reporter: zoraida, we have the japanese foreign minister accusing syria of inhuman acts of violence, of killing children in houla last friday and declaring syria's ambassador persona non grata. that's at least 11 countries that have expelled syrian diplomats in the last 24 hours. take a look at what the united nations spokesman says about the grisly details of that massacre on friday, which he's blaming on pro-government syrian militias called shabiha. take a listen. >> a small number appears to be killed by artillery shelling and tank fire, which took place over a period of 12 hours. but the majority appear to have been the result of house to house summary executions of armed men getting into houses and killing men, women, and children inside. what is clear is government forces were involved. they were shelling, using tanks and artillery, and it appears to be shabiha militia entering the houses and slaughtering people in what is really an abominable crime that took place throughout the day on friday. >> reporter: zoraida, we just spoke with an 11-year-old boy, a resident of houla, who survived that attack. he said that men armed with guns and knives broke into his house, took away his father, and shot his mother and siblings in front of his eyes. listen to what he had to say to us. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: his last words to us were please do not tell them where i am, what my name is. i don't want them to kill me. the syrian government has denied any links whatsoever to this violence. it insists it's fighting armed terrorists like al qaeda. zoraida? >> ivan, we keep on hearing that all of these syrian ambassadors are being kicked out. will that have any impact on the violence in syria? or is it just a symbolic move? >> reporter: simple answer is no. this violence has been going on for nearly 16 months. there has been a chorus of international criticism. the united nations has repeatedly accused the syrian government of crimes against humanity. there has been no sign, even after syria signed on to a peace plan with the united nations and pledged to pull its forces back from syrian cities, there has been no sign that it is willing to stop doing things like shelling syrian cities and torturing prisoners or massacres like this one that the u.n. has directly accused the syrian government of carrying out. so the simple answer is no. as long as russia and china and iran are backing up the syrian government and as long as western governments are unwilling to escalate pressure and risk a bigger conflict in syria, it looks like this awful cycle of violence will just continue. >> ivan watson reporting live for us from istanbul, turkey. we appreciate that. >> for not disavowing the donald's comments. at least 16 people are now reported dead after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit northern italy yesterday. this is the second earthquake to hit the region this month. just nine days ago seven people were killed in a 6.0 magnitude quake. officials say 14,000 people now without homes. former penn state coach jerry sandusky is not expected to attend a pretrial hearing in his case later today, but the accused child molester was in a pennsylvania judge's chambers tuesday afternoon for a closed door hearing. sandusky has pleaded not guilty to charges he sexually abused at least ten boys over the course of 14 years. the pilot of a small plane escaped from an emergency landing without injury after his propellor fell off. investigators on the scene believe engine belts on the cessna blew, causing serious damage to the front of the plane. the propellor landed on a roof of a home near the airport in monteca, california. other debris ended up in the pool. there were no injuries. many have wanted to hurt chef gordon ramsey. only one person got the chance. ramsey was taken down during a soccer match on sunday. also hurt during the game, funny man will ferrell. they were joined by gerard butler, mike myers, and edward norton. at the end of the day, the charity event raised over $6 million for unicef, so the injuries, i guess, were worth it. >> that's about $1 million an injury by my count. good pictures. >> we're getting an early read on your local news that is making national headlines. and moms making a mad dash to libraries in brevard county, florida? why? the county lifts its ban on the book "50 shades of grey." >> have you read it? >> i just started it. have you? >> i read the first, i'm on the second. >> thousands of eager readers took a stand against censorship and pushed librarians to return their 19 copies of the steamy, semipornographic novel to shelves after pulling the book earlier this month. >> i used to read some ken follett books back in the day that i thought were pretty steamy. maybe it's just me. it didn't live up to all that billing. >> are you kidding me? i think it does. >> it's steamy. don't get me wrong. there's some serious smut in there. nothing like i haven't seen in other books. >> maybe the hype. you were expecting a heck of a lot more. >> and also the sales, just the sheer number of people buying this thing. >> we're reading because we have in the know for you. >> and i never read fiction. this is like the first fictional book i've read in a long type. >> i don't think it's fiction. >> there's a headline. so we've got this one for you too. brand new study. this is really odd. it claims that patients who need a lung transplant are better off getting a smoker's lung. >> oh. >> than no lung at all. kind of stands to reason. but the "toronto star" has the details on this one. the researchers are admitting that patients who receive the lung of a smoker are likely not to live as long as a patient who gets a nonsmoker's lung, but the study goes on to say that a person who does get a lung from a smoker has a 21% lower chance of dying than a person who just sits on the waiting list and doesn't get a healthy or nonhealthy lung. it's kind of a sad thing. you think you go through the lung transplant and get a bum lung. but you've got at least a few more years anyway. >> surprising there. toyota prius is now the third best selling car in the entire world. bloomberg says prius sales have more than doubled as it introduced more vehicles to its line, like the prius hatchback, the wagon, and the subcompact. the prius was the first car released back in 1997. it was the top-selling green car, trailing the number one toyota corolla and the number two, which is the ford focus. >> i would say it's leo dicaprio. if you have any questions, go to our blog cnn.com/earlystart. a first for facebook this morning, but it's not something to brag about. christine romans with the new low coming up.e to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? 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[ male announcer ] with wells fargo advisor's envision plan, you always know where you stand. in fact, 93 percent of envision plan holders say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. it's 24 minutes past the hour. that would be 5:00 on the east coast. wake up. minding your business, a pretty nice rally on the markets following the holiday. the dow, nasdaq, and s&p all gaining more than 1%. like those arrows. it was actually the lack of negative headlines from europe that helped push the stocks upward. >> facebook was another story, though. christine romans is here. new lows. >> lost another 10% yesterday, facebook shares. the stock is down more than a quarter of value since the ipo, closing below $30 yesterday for the first time. >> eek. >> this morning facebook shares are down in premarket. there's a lot of big negative bets in the options market about the bearishness of investors, and new lows because the company is preparing to buy a norwegian mobile browser called opera software. facebook needs help in mobile operations, but investors questioning whether this particular deal would be the right fit. other facebook news, the co-founder eduardo savarin speaking to newspaper. he says he moved to singapore saying "the decision decision was strictly ba