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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

School Under Attack in Pakistan, Sydney Gunman & 2 Hostages Dead; Manhunt for Pennsylvania Shooting Suspect; Bill Cosby's Wife Breaks Her Silence; Russian Economy Headed for Collapse; Kerry's Shuttle Diplomacy on Mideast Peace

Aired December 16, 2014 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: a school under attack in Pakistan. Dozens killed, including children. A terrifying developing story. We're going to have the latest for you in moments.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, terrifying moments in Sydney. Two hostages killed after a gunman took several people hostage. What we are learning about the victims this morning and also, new details about the gunman's criminal past.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Thirty minutes past the hour.

We'll get to the latest on Sydney in a moment. But, first, this breaking news we are following: a deadly attack on a school in Pakistan. Gunmen stormed the school in Pakistan. At least 84 people now are now dead, including many children. Many, many more are injured.

I want to get right to Manisha Tank, following this for us in Hong Kong.

Manisha, this is a school run by the Pakistan's military, targeted by Pakistani Taliban. Tell us what we know right now.

MANISHA TANK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what we know, Christine, just to go over that number, shockingly high number of fatalities, 84. There are even reports surfacing that it might be vastly more than that. But we are doing our best to check on these numbers.

We also understand that two of the attackers are now dead. One apparently blew himself up. The other was killed by paramilitary forces.

This is the information -- the latest information that we've got from the chief minister of the province in which Peshawar is situated. Peshawar was this city in the north of Pakistan. It's an area. We have seen a lot of intensification in the operations of Pakistani Taliban.

Now, the Pakistani Taliban in a very chilling statement, they made a phone call. They claimed responsibility for this horrific attack on the school. They said that they had ordered six of their attackers to go in and suit up in suicide vests and armed to go into the school and to target children who might be from the age at which they are reaching puberty and upwards of age. They wanted to target personnel. This school is within a military compound. As you imagine, the military reaction very swift, paramilitary operation is ongoing.

The Pakistani military have told our office in Islamabad that a rescue operation is under way. Perhaps a light in the darkness here is they're saying that some students and staff have been evacuated. But at this stage, it is unclear how many children and staff may be still stuck in that school. Now, if we are understanding that two of these attackers are now dead, that leaves four, we know they have gone in there with suicide vests.

I'm sure it's a very, very tense situation that is unfolding. And the chief minister really confirming on these latest numbers and confirming on these developments. We can understand now that this is a hostage crisis.

ROMANS: Manisha, help me understand. Targeting children, was this meant to send a message to the military? To send a message to the Pakistani public? I mean, targeting children.

TANK: Yes, Christine, it's shocking. It's shocking to all of us all over the world. You know, Pakistani Taliban have made no bones about the fact they were going to target whoever they needed to target. This is a big reaction and they made it very clear in this statement. This is a big reaction. It's a retaliation for a major operation that has been going on by the Pakistani military.

There were, in fact, peace talks going on between the Pakistanis and the Pakistani Taliban. But these seized up six months ago. These attacks are more and more audacious. A year ago, we saw an attack on a church in Peshawar. That was another shocking attack. Large number of fatalities there.

And we have seen more and more bombings and the police and military said more of these potential bombings have been foiled in Peshawar. But the action by this group has worsened. It's has become more frightening and now this. For many in Pakistan, this really has taken it to new levels.

ROMANS: Manisha, we can tell you that while you have been speaking, officials have given a new fatality number. At least 95 killed in the Taliban attack on the Pakistan school. That again coming from officials in Pakistan. We know you will chase with your sources and try to figure out just exactly what's happening there and how of those many children managed to be evacuated or free.

Manisha, thanks. We'll continue to follow that all morning.

Just unbelievable -- just the scope of depravity. BERMAN: Yes, and the number of dead, 95. That goes up. That goes

down. We are trying to keep track of it.

But one thing is clear -- this was a barbaric attack, targeting kids simply for going to school. A tragedy.

There is other news coming from Sydney. That city is on high alert after the most serious act of terrorism on Australian soil in almost 40 years.

A gunman who appeared to be acting alone took 17 hostages in a Lindt chocolate cafe in the central business district. He held them for more than 16 hours. Some hostages escaped, really in two waves, before police moved in with stun grenades. The gunman and two hostages were killed. An entire city is in shock this morning.

The hostage taker has been identified as a self proclaimed Muslim cleric with a checkered criminal past. His name is Man Haron Monis.

Overnight, the prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, addressed concerns about the gunman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: It's pretty obvious that the perpetrator was a deeply disturbed individual, a long history of crime, a long history of mental instability and infatuation with extremism. It's interesting that the ISIL death cult seems to attract people like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The two hostage fatalities have also been named this morning. They are lawyer Katrina Dawson and the Lindt store manager Tori Johnson. Sydney is grieving their loss with a huge floral memorial that's right there near the site of the siege.

CNN's Andrew Stevens joins us now from Sydney with the latest.

Andrew, the barrister, the barrister, the 28-year-old attorney, a mother of three is just -- heartbreaking and the young man was the store manager.

What can you tell us about them?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESONDENT: That's right. He was the store manager there. His parents put out a tribute to them praising their beloved Tori. There has been a real outpouring towards Tori Johnson, towards both of them actually, Christine, because they are seen very much as the innocent victims in this horrific attack here in Sydney.

It has shocked the city, no doubt about it. They're picking themselves up today. As you say, there is a massive flower memorial. And so many people walking past carrying bunches of flowers to pay their respects to what happened in that hostage crisis. Now, it looks like and we cannot confirm this, there are still no

details and police have not talked about it. It looks like Tori Johnson, the manager of the Lindt cafe and one of the victims there, actually tried to wrestle the gun from the gunman. Shots were fired inside the Lindt cafe and that is what triggered the police response. The police were indicating they were prepared to sit it out for some time, perhaps into today, the daylight hours today, perhaps even longer.

But shots were fired inside that cafe. The police responded immediately and went in hard in numbers with stun grenades and flash grenades. In the course of freeing the hostages, one of the hostages died, that was Kate Dawson, who, as you say, mother of three young children all under the age of 10 years old, a rising star in Australia's legal circles. She died during the evacuation of the hostages.

Hostages had been managing to get out. When the gunshots were first heard, it looks like a small group of hostages did manage to get out just ahead of the police. It is a very quick reaction. It happened very, very quickly. Situation turned dramatically. The gunman was shot and killed, we assume by police, and also the two fatalities of the two bystanders.

But Sydney has been coming out in force today to show its respects, to pay its respects to those people, for their bravery and recognize the trauma that the city has been going through, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Andrew Stevens, thank you for that this morning, Andrew.

You think about Boston and you think New York, you think about places where these sorts of things happen and how the whole city kind stops, you know?

BERMAN: They come together after the fact. That is happening in Sydney this morning.

ROMANS: Feel for them this morning.

BERMAN: There is new information about the Sydney gunman and his checkered criminal past. Australian officials say that man, Man Haron Monis was out on bail for a sexual assault committed 12 years ago. He had been charged as an accessory in the murder of his wife and he had pleaded guilty to writing cruel letters to the families of Australia troops.

The premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, says Monis -- he should not have been on the streets. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE BAIRD, NEW SOUTH WALES PREMIER: We are all outraged that this guy was on the streets. We are. And we need to understand why he was. We also need to understand why he wasn't picked up, and we will work closely with the federal authorities, together with our agencies, to ensure what we can do better. We need to understand the circumstances here.

The community has every right to feel upset. I'm incredibly upset. I mean, I'm outraged. And what we need to do is to ensure everything is done to learn from this. Can we do it better?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Atika Shubert live with us now from London with the details on the gunman's checkered past -- Atika, that perhaps this should have been a warning sign to authorities.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. He was writing the harassing letters between 2007 and 2009 to the families of Australian soldiers who died in Afghanistan. And that was really when he first came to light in the sort of criminal way and he was found guilty of that and sentenced to 300 hours of community service. He actually pled guilty to that.

And then, he was charged as accessory to the murder of his former wife. Now, he was released on bail in that case because the judge said he was not a threat to society.

But I want you to take a listen to the godfather of his former wife who was killed and his response to what's happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYYUT KHALIK, GODFATHER OF NOLEEN HAYSON PAL: They finally arrested him and we were so happy that finally justice has been done. And two weeks later, we found out they put him out on bail and if he was still in jail, those innocent victims, you know, have died. They should have just locked him up and thrown the key away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUBERT: And this is what many Australians today are asking. Why was he out in the streets? Should he have been in jail? Was there any indication that he would take this violent behavior and direct it toward society? That's what police and investigators will be looking at now, John.

BERMAN: Right. Those are the questions they are asking in Australia today and for the days ahead.

Atika Shubert for us -- thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. An intense manhunt -- intense manhunt underway right now for a man accused of killing his ex-wife and several of her family members. What police are saying next.

BERMAN: And Bill Cosby's wife is breaking her silence, speaking out now about the sexual assault allegations that are piling up against her husband.

Stay with us.

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BERMAN: The hunt is on this morning for an Iraq war veteran suspected of killing his ex-wife and five former in-laws. Right now, officers are scouring Doylestown, Pennsylvania. That is where Bradley Michael Stone was apparently spotted after going on a shooting rampage on Monday, covering three Philadelphia suburbs.

Police say the 35-year-old killed his ex-wife, her mother, grandmother and sister as well as his brother-in-law and a 14-year-old daughter. Bradley did not kill his two daughters who were living with his estranged wife.

Officials say he is considered armed and dangerous, and suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

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RISA VETRI FERMAN, MONTGOMERY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We are also reaching out to the public to see if anyone has sighted him. As we stand here right now, we do not know where he is. We are -- we do not have vehicle information. We actually recovered his vehicle and his personal cell phone. So, we do not have information about how he might be traveling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Forty-four minutes past the hour.

Russia's economy reeling right now. Falling oil prices and Western sanctions really hurting the economy and the ruble, Russia's currency has been in a freefall. Now, the central bank there is raising interest rates to 17 percent to try to reverse course.

This is a huge international story with big, big potential ramifications around the world.

Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins us from Russia.

Matthew, any -- any way here that Russia to avert what looks like it could be a financial disaster?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's trying as best as it can, isn't it? I mean, this dramatic rate increase overnight. It was a meeting that was called for 1:00 in the morning here local time. They managed a 6.5 percent percentage increase on the interest rates. You can imagine that happening in the U.S., mortgage payments and car repayments and things like that. It's going to have an absolutely devastating effect on people's ability to live their lives and to pay for their cost of living.

The hope was that it would, you know, try to stem any panic and encourage people to keep savings in rubles. But, you know, it doesn't tackle the underlying issues affecting the Russian currency. The oil price has slumped dramatically. The Russian ruble is virtually pegged to the oil price, which has been dragged down with it. You've got those international sanctions as well from the U.S. and from the European Union, really having an impact on the Russian economy now. And it's all these things that have combined to make this currency crisis, the economic crisis in Russia, so deep and so potentially damaging for the government.

ROMANS: Vladimir Putin's approval rating is still remarkably high. And Russian people -- the Russian people must feel the bite of this. I mean, if you got consumer inflation at 10 percent, that means every time you go to buy a loaf of bread, it costs more than it did the week before.

How long do you think -- I mean, why is Putin's approval rating so high if people are starting to feel this?

CHANCE: Yes, no, it's a good question. We are obviously going to be watching closely to see what happens to his approval ratings. And you know what, you can bet that he's going to be watching very closely as well.

There are some in the region of 85 percent of approval rating. We are just at the start really now of what could be a really damaging economic crisis. So, you know, it's difficult to see how he is going to manage to keep approval ratings up there.

But we'll see. He'll be looking over his shoulder as well.

ROMANS: It certainly is such a big and interesting story, when you see a currency of the country fall in half against the dollar in a short period of time that is -- that spells trouble.

All right. Thanks, Matthew Chance. We will keep watching on that as we go forward.

It's a remarkable story.

BERMAN: It really is.

Forty-seven minutes after the hour right now.

Secretary of State John Kerry meeting with Palestinian leaders today. What Israel wants the United States to do about plans for statehood. That's next.

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ROMANS: Secretary of State John Kerry engaged in an old fashion shuttle diplomacy this week, trying to negotiate an accord between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Kerry met with Israeli's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rome on Monday. Today, he meets with Palestinian and Arab leaders in Paris.

CNN's Nic Robertson live for us this morning in Jerusalem.

Nic, why the sudden burst of activity?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what we are expecting from the Palestinian Authority now and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator in a few hours. The Palestinian Authority is saying that they are going to move to put a proposal to the United Nations Security Council that will state that they want to have their state, a Palestinian state recognized along the 1967 borders, that they will use language in that draft resolution which says that the Israeli occupying force should be removed from that state within a specified time. The time duration expected to be a couple of years, that they want East Jerusalem as their capital and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Now, Benjamin Netanyahu, when he met with Secretary Kerry yesterday in Rome, was asked when he came out of the meeting, did you get any assurances from Secretary Kerry that the United States would veto that if it goes to a vote at U.N. Security Council, which is expected, which is planned for tomorrow and Netanyahu didn't really answer that question. What he did say was that he was heard very clearly by John Kerry and his position is and Israel's position is it rejects this move.

He says that this will make the region less stable and be less dangerous for Israel. He said that Israel will use its force to resist this type of dicta and push back against it. He expects the United States, however, it seems he expects them not to change what they've done in the past and that would be to veto a move a like this -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nic Robertson, thanks for that this morning, Nic.

BERMAN: Fifty-two minutes after the hour.

The Senate has confirmed Dr. Vivek Murthy as the next surgeon general of the United States. His nomination had been stalled for nearly a year after he made comments in support of stricter gun laws. President Obama said the 37-year-old is committed to keeping Americans safe. He also said Dr. Murthy will be the huge asset in the battle against Ebola.

ROMANS: Bill Cosby's wife Camille now speaking out, making her first public comments in the wake of claims of almost two dozen women that they were drugged, raped or sexually assaulted by her husband of more than five decades. In a statement, she accuses the media of giving a pass to his accusers, saying a different man has been portrayed in the media over the last two months. It is a portrait of a man I do not know. She says it is also a portrait painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media have given a pass. Bill Cosby has denied those allegations.

BERMAN: The parents of several children killed during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have now find a lawsuit against the gun maker, distributor and seller. The families filed a wrongful death suit against Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the rifle that Adam Lanza used in the massacre. Also named in the suit are Camfor, the distributor of the gun, and Riverview Sales, the gun shot that sold the gun to Lanza's mother. ROMANS: And attorneys for those families say it is not the kind of gun that is used in home defense or for hunting, which is not suitable for home defense or hunting. And so, it should not have been sold to Nancy Lanza.

All right. Fifty-three minutes past the hour.

If you think you are sick of airline baggage fees, wait until you find out how money the airlines are raking in from all those baggage fees. Hint: there is a lot of zeros. We're going to get an early start on your money, next.

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ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

U.S. stock futures barely budging. But this has been a wild few weeks. Yesterday, the Dow shot up more than 100 points at the bell before reversing course and closing down 100 points. Why? Oil, crude oil moving lower again this morning, about 50 -- look at that chart.

BERMAN: No! It's down to $54?

ROMANS: $54, the lowest in more than five years. The prices have been in a tail spin. They can't seem to find a floor here. Supply is booming, especially here in the U.S. And global demand is weakening. Econ 101, that means lower prices.

Gas prices keep sliding. With oil prices, right now, the average price for a gallon of regular, $2.53, down way more than a dollar from the summer and it's putting an extra 100 bucks in family's pockets every month. You can find deeper savings in a lot of places, 13 states have stations selling gas under $2. More stations are expected to join that trend this week.

Airline bag fees are becoming inescapable, and that's adding up nicely for the carriers. All together, the 27 U.S. carriers took in almost $1 billion in package fees last quarter. That is according to the Department of Transportation. That is up 9 percent from a year ago. Almost every carrier now charges for checked bags. Even JetBlue, one of the last holdouts, announced plans to start charging last month for checked bags.

You know, some of the airlines are moving to charge you for the overhead bin space, too.

BERMAN: And shoes. If you want to wear shoes, you have to pay extra to get on an airline. And also, while gas prices and fuel prices are plummeting, you would think that the airlines will be cutting their ticket prices, but --

ROMANS: Hurts (ph) their profit, no, they don't. Cut ticket prices.

BERMAN: Good to hear.

ROMANS: Ticket prices are actually rising.

BERMAN: On that note, EARLY START continues right now.

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