this morning on world news now intense standoff. riot police in france set off explosions to force out a gunman wanted in a school shooting rampage. that gunman accused of having ties to al qaeda has been holding police at bay for more than 24 hours. it is thursday, march 22nd. announcer: from abc news, this is world news now. good thursday morning, everybody. i m paula faris. and i m rob nelson. that suspected gunman is linked to seven shooting deaths and investigators say he was planning to kill even more people. we ll update you on a very long standoff in the city of toulouse.
to well-earned muddy boots and a lot more spring per dollar. more saving. more doing. that the power of the home depot. break out the gardening gloves. miracle-gro garden soil is now 3 bags for 10 bucks. president obama is putting the kind of maybe sort of yeah stamp of approval on the keystone pipeline. the gop is crying foul. it s thursday, march 22nd. and this is now. joining me ari melberg of the nation, curt anderson, host of studio 360 radio. time magazine assistant managing editor whose cover story is the wimpy recovery. also joining us staten island s own ben white of morning money report. president obama is wrapping up a visit to oklahoma and is about to head off to ohio for the last stop on his four-state energy tour. just a short time ago the
reporter: monita, we ve just heard from the interior ministry something which you could read in certain ways, i suppose. two gunshots were fired at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. so about seven hours ago now. they don t know why and since then they haven t heard anything. they haven t heard any kind of communication with the suspect holed up inside the house. he had said earlier in discussions with police that he had wanted to die with his weapons in his hand. interior ministry has said consistently that their priority is to get him out alive. we hope that he s alive. there is a possibility on my reading of that information that could be that the gunshots fired, he has i mean, it is a possibility that he might have killed himself that there is no contact with him. of course, that is pure conjecture on my part. we really don t know what s going on inside that house and the siege continues, monita. very difficult to understand. to actually gauge what s happening when there is
that s fantasy, by the way, is all long islanders who have contributed to the great cultural contributions of our nation. we re celebrating long island this morning, everybody. our panelists this morning, washington correspondent for the new yorker, nice to have you. where about? what town? john fugal is with us, asked the question of the day on this show yesterday. we ll talk about that straight ahead. i m representing stony brook as well. that s right by me and will cain. thank gadness i m here. helping it out. let s get to our starting point this morning. the standoff we ve been watching for days is now over. cnn affiliate in france says the terror suspect is now dead. police stormed the apartment after 30 hours. that included a shootout and several explosions. the suspect is named mohammed merah, wanted in the killing rampage that left three jewish children, a rabbi and three french paratroopers dead. fran townsend joins us live by phone. fran, there was so ma
it s thursday, march 22nd. we begin with the very latest on relations with russia. yesterday, president trump spent the snow day tweeting his defense of his congratulatory call to russian leader vladimir putin writing, quote, i called president putin to congratulate him on his victory. in the past, obama called him, also. the fake news media is crazed because they want me to excoriate him. they are wrong. getting along with russia and others is a good thing, not a bad thing. they can help solve problems with syria, ukraine, isis, iran and even the coming arms race. bush tried to get along but didn t have the smarts. obama and clinton tried, but didn t have the energy or chemistry. remember reset. peace through strength. this comes as trump included in his briefing details a section says do not congratulate in all