Tunisian Forces Respond to Attack Near Border; Sharapova Admits to Failing Drug Test; World's Richest Female Athlete Fails Drug Test; Sharapova: You Must Be a Pro Off the Court; Quest Means Business: A Daily Newsletter
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard quest. More QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment, when we get the World Anti-Doping Agency response to Maria Sharapova's failed drug test. And we look back of the life of a man Ray Tomlinson. Now you may never have heard of Mr. Tomlinson, but he invented e-mail and he decided there was all going to be such and such @, Ray Tomlinson we'll talking about after this. Before any of it, this is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.</s>QUEST: The tennis star Maria Sharapova faces a possible suspension after announcing she failed a drug test at the Australian open. Sharapova said she was an unaware that a drug she was taken since 2006 had now been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency at the beginning of this year. At a press conference she expressed regret and asked for forgiveness.</s>MARIA SHARAPOVA, TENNIS PLAYER: I made a huge mistake and I've let my fans down. I've let the sport down that I've been playing since the age of 4 that I've loved so deeply. I know with this I face consequences and I don't want to end my career this way and I really hope that I will be given another chance to play this game.</s>QUEST: E.U and Turkish leaders are meeting at an emergency summit in Brussels. Turkey has asked the E.U. for $3.3 Billion and in exchange the country said it will stem the flow of migrants to Europe. Turkey has also promised to take back some migrants from Greece. Europe would take in some Syrian refugees in return.</s>AHMET DAVUTOGLU: TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: With this new proposal, our objective is to rescue the lives of the refugees. To discourage those who want to misuse and exploit the desperate situation of the refugees, meaning human smugglers. To fight against human smugglers. And to have a new arena, Turkish new relations.</s>QUEST: Tunisian authorities said at least 35 militants have been killed in clashes after a deadly assault on police in the army posts. It happened in a town near Tunisia's border with Libya. The militants attack killed at least 18 people and that included civilians and security forces. More now on the news that Maria Sharapova has failed a drugs test. In the past few moments the World Anti-Doping Agency sent us this response saying, "WADA is aware of the ongoing case. As is our normal process, and in order to protect the integrity of the case, WADA will refrain from commenting further until a decision has been issued by the ITF." They went on to confirmed, "...Meldonium was added to the 2016 prohibited list," saying, "...Meldonium was added to the list because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance." Simon Love, Sky News Australia joins me now from Melbourne. Where people are waking up to learn that Sharapova failed that drug test at the Australian open. Extraordinary, good morning to you, Simon, in Australia. But an extraordinary business. What will they make of it? Will there be sympathy for the facts of this? Or will they believe perhaps she should have known better, thrown the book at her?</s>SIMON LOVE, SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA: I think it will be a really interesting response. Good morning to you from the scene of the alleged crime, Melbourne Park in Southern Australia, Richard. Because here in Australia there's been a lot of talk around drugs in sports. There was an entire almost football team that was banned at an incident at a football club for taking an illicit substance. There was always a player over in Perth in Western Australia, Ryan Crowley, an Australian rules player, that inadvertently took a banned substance and he served out a 12 month suspension from the game. So this news surrounding Maria Sharapova as Melbournians and Australians wake up to it. It's a familiar setting, drugs in sport, athletes taking substances that they claim they did not know were banned. The details of this case, Maria Sharapova calling a snap news conference in Los Angeles. Only around 90 minutes ago. And many thought that it was actually her announcing her retirement of course after bowing out to Serena Williams, the world number one, here at the quarter finals of the Australian opening straight sets. However, Maria Sharapova was very forth with, she was very frank and upfront. Said that she had taken a banned substance and she had received a letter from ITF, the International Tennis Federation, to advise her of that positive test. She does not know her punishment, Richard. So it'll be interesting to watch and see whether she will be given an interim suspension. Of course that would prevent her from playing in the Indian Wells tournament that's due to get underway shortly. But this substance is very interesting. You were just mentioning it before. It goes by another name of Mildronate. Now, she says that she's been taking it for ten years, and that ten years ago, Richard, that this substance was not on the wider banned list. But it was only put on the wider ban list I believe around the 22nd of December, so not too long ago. And Maria Sharapova says that she had received an e-mail from WADA about the new banned substances, which included that substance she was taking. But she's admitted she did not open that attachment and look at the banned substance list, Richard.</s>QUEST: Simon, thank you, in Melbourne, Australia, Simon joining us there. She's been the highest paid female athlete in the world for more than a decade. Sharapova became an instant star when she won Wimbledon at the age of 17. Now, off the court she's also seen immense success with a variety of endorsements. Just look at the resume. You've got partnerships with Porshe. You've got TAG Heur who have just told us they have no comment to make at the moment. Now the taste for business even led her to launch her own candy company, Sugarpova. She made nearly $30 million last year according to Forbes. And thanks to those endorsements, she tops Serena Williams's income, even though Williams has more titles. I spoke to Sharapova back in 2013 when the candy line was initiated or launched. She told me her career success has come from a careful strategy and professionalism both on and off the tennis court.</s>SHARAPOVA: You have to be smart in other aspects of your tennis career. Whether it's going to a press conference and you know, saying the right things and doing the right things. You have to be a pro. Because at the end of the day, you're not just on the tennis court.</s>QUEST: It's image and it's brand, isn't it?</s>SHARAPOVA: I think it's a little bit of everything. It's how you see yourself and it's how you envision your career and your life, and your goals. And sometimes you think of the craziest things. I've had goals when I was quite young. When you're five years old and you're thinking you want to win Wimbledon, how crazy does that sound? You think that's so unrealistic and yet I did, I did.</s>QUEST: CNN's sports analyst Christine Brennan is with me from Washington. Sharapova says that when you go to press conferences, saying and doing the right thing, which arguably is exactly what she did today in Los Angeles. As I was listening to her, and I'm sure you were hearing, the word that came to my mind was contrite.</s>CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Yes, Richard, I would agree. I think it's a smart move for her as well, to come out in front of this, so to speak. Think of all the positive drug tests we've heard about and all of the rumors and innuendo. From Lance Armstrong, to Floyd Landis, to Marion Jones, on and on it goes. What did they all do? They denied and then denied some more. And when the chickens finally came home to roost, and they always do, they got the book thrown at them in all cases. All of them ruined. Obviously Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, two of the biggest ever. And so with that in mind, I think Maria is very smart to get out in front of this and hope she doesn't get a two or four year ban which would basically effectively end her career. But maybe get some time off for good behavior, and maybe it's less of a ban. I think that's really smart and it's refreshing, frankly, to see someone actually come clean and not deny. So at least there's that piece of it for her.</s>QUEST: Ok, now on this question of sponsorship, do you think that the sponsors will stay with her?</s>BRENNAN: It's a great question. I think if we look at history, sponsors usually bail pretty quickly, Richard. So I would not be surprised at all if some sponsors put things on hold. Number one, you won't - if she's banned, at least for some time, maybe not two years but let's say she's ban for six months or on some kind of probation, well then you're not going to have your athlete playing. So sponsors want the athlete to be out there playing that's the whole reason they sponsor people. So you've got that piece of it. And you just don't want to be attached to any of this. And while we're hearing that it's inadvertent and she took it for ten years, there is another story, and it usually comes out that there are other reasons. I have no clue if it was a mistake by Maria Sharapova or not, but it's certainly within the realm of possibility that it was not a mistake, and this was systemic use of this substance that was banned and all of a sudden surprised her and a lot of other Russians, by the way. Russian ice dancing world champion just got banned for the same drug today and there's other Russians that have used it so there's that piece.</s>QUEST: I'm clearly missing something, Christine, in all of this. Because I had this discussion with Alex Thomas this morning. It seems to me that what she's being done for now is that she didn't basically stop taking it once the rules had changed. But for the past ten years has been entirely legally taking it without any problem.</s>BRENNAN: Right, and I think what that tells us, I'm trying to get my sources, obviously, as this story is fast developing and I haven't yet. But what that tells is WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, decided that this was cheating. That the use of this drug it's for heart problems, but that it can be for endurance and increasing metabolism. That is what I'm hearing. And if that's the case, what they decided was enough of this. This is illegal and we're putting it on the banned substance. And there's all these athlete, it is incumbent upon them to find out what's on that substance and that's of course what Maria said today she did not do that.</s>QUEST: Right, I need you to talk about that finally, with your expertise on the athletic and the tennis world. They get this list. And they might be on all sorts of medications for legitimate or whatever. But isn't it their doctor's responsibility, their coach's responsibility, to know exactly what they are taking, medicinally, and say, "Whoa, we've now got a problem with this substance?"</s>BRENNAN: It certainly is, but I would say for a 28-year-old woman who's been in this world for a long time, Maria Sharapova, it's her responsibility too, and she did say that. What she puts in her body obviously is her responsibility. So a doctor can say don't do it and she could have still done it. We don't know if that's the case. But I do think these athletes, there's no excuse for this. And the old, "Gosh, didn't know," that doesn't work. It wouldn't work for you. In your line of work, depending on what the issue might be that would be a corollary. It wouldn't work for me. Maria has so much to lose that she had to open that attachment, Richard. She had to know what was going on. She had to be up on this. This should be the number one thing in her life is finding out exactly what's on the banned substance, making sure that she's up to date on that. So that is a huge mistake. If that is it, that's still a huge mistake. Obviously, if there was attempt to cheat, then it is of course, way worse.</s>QUEST: In a word, ban or no ban?</s>BRENNAN: Oh, I think ban. I think you've got to ban someone for this. Whether it's six, eight months, a year, you have to.</s>QUEST: Great to have you on the program. Thank you for your insight. Thank you for your judgment on this one. Thank you, much appreciated.</s>BRENNAN: Thanks, Richard.</s>QUEST: That was a forgettable message that kicked off an unforgettable revolution in communications. Ray Tomlinson says he couldn't remember what he wrote in the first ever e-mail. Whether it was "QWERTYUIOP" in wake of this death, the internet has shown it won't forget Mr. Tomlinson any time soon.