welcome back, everyone. you're watching cnn. glad to be with you. it's almost 3:00 in the morning in atlanta. i'm zain asher. >> how early. good to have you here. i'm errol barnett. our top stories this hour, an american president and castro announcing their country also work together. an historic moment drawing praise and criticism. >> it's high time for a change. 00 years is long enough. >> the white house has conceded everything. and gained little. >> now, the story we're following closely, sony gives in. hackers force the movie studio to make an unprecedented decision about a film release. also coming up, vladimir putin preparing to address the nation, russia we'll take you live to moscow for a look at the

big issue, of course, the economy top of the agenda but we'll see what he has to explain if anything here coming up in a few hours. now, the u.s. and cuba have been at odds for more than half a century but today you really do get the sense there's new hope that the countries could be mending their broken relationship. >> since 1961, the u.s. has had no diplomatic mission with cuba but started with this. this is the beginning, this was the beginning, rather, of normalcy between the u.s. and cuba. the release of a u.s. aid worker, alan gross there, you just saw him hugging his wife clearly elated and overjoyed to be back on u.s. soil and spent the past five years in a cuban prison. his crime, quote/unquote alleged crime rather was trying to bring the internet to the country's small jewish community. officially he was freed on humanitarian grounds but his release is actually part of a bigger prisoner exchange between the u.s. and cuba.

>> cubanos or at least most of them are incredibly kind, generous and talented. it pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments mutually belligerent policies. >> all of this just did come together. the deal to free gross had been in the works for months but it wasn't finalized until tuesday when u.s. president barack obama spoke by phone with cuban president raul castro for nearly an hour. castro says pope francis and the canadian government helped facilitate this deal. >> this deserves respect from our people. i would like to thank and recognize the support of the vatican and especially that of pope francis in helping us improve the relations between cuba and the united states. >> now, for its part the u.s.

released three cubans part of a group originally known as the cuban five who arrested in miami back in 1998. they were convicted of espionage for gathering intelligence for cuba. an unnamed u.s. intelligence agent was also freed by havana. yeah, the prison exchange between the u.s. and cuba really just the tip of the iceberg. right now president obama says he's easing decades-old economic sanctions against cuba and will push for normized relations. jim acosta has more an a story that took everyone by surprise. here he is. >> reporter: nothing says a thaw in this more than this. the first presidential level engagement the white house says since the cuban revolution more than 50 years ago. >> we will end an updated approach that failed to help our

interests. >> reporter: senior administration officials say the secret u.s. cuba talk started in june 2013 with most of the discussions happening in canada and led by deputy national security adviser ben rodeo. those wheels were in motion when the president and raul castro shook hands at nelson mandela's funeral last year. but one key sticking point remained. the imprisonment of alan gross in cuba. >> a major obstacle stood in our way, the wrongful imprisonment of a usaid subcontractor for five years. >> reporter: last march he found a pivotal player to help broker the deal, pope francis. they discussed cuba at the vatican, something mr. obama did not disclose when asked by cnn. >> what were his concerns? >> in terms of the meeting with his holiness pope francis, we had a wide-ranging discussion. >> reporter: earlier the pope

kept the conversation going this year sending letters to president obama and raul castro then in october the vatican welcomed officials to push the talks forward. >> translator: i want to thank and recognize the support of the vatican. >> reporter: he flew to cuba to bring him home. >> i'm not sure everybody is happy. there's no doubt about that. we've already seen that and yet he says it's always better to be talking than not talking and that is really what this was about. >> reporter: a senior administration official says cuba's former leader fidel castro was not involved. as for a presidential trip to cuba. white house is not ruling one out noting mr. obama was in china last month where democracy is not exactly on the march. jim acosta, cnn, the white house. now, congressional reaction to the u.s./cuba announcement

has been mixed. that you might expect but what's kind of a surprise, it's not exactly falling along party lines. >> yeah, basically a number of cuban-american lawmakers are especially unhappy and it's really the person most vocal is florida senator marco rubio. take a listen. >> this policy contradiction is absurd and it is disgraceful for a president who claims to treasure human rights and human freedom. this president is the single worst negotiator we've had in the white house in my lifetime. he has basically given the cuban government everything it's asked for and received no assurances for democracy and freedom in return. >> i think that our policy has done more to keep the castros in power than anything. and so i think it's high time for a change, 50 years is long enough and that we ought to do this and do whatever we can so

that ordinary cubans can have more control of their destiny and this does that by allowing americans to travel, more commerce, more contact. a good thing. >> now, opponents of the president's plan say they will do everything they can to block this new policy. >> when i say everything, i mean everything. they could actually refuse funding for u.s. embassy in havana or another option, block the nomination for a u.s. ambassador to cuba as well. >> we'll see how that drags on. we now want to move on to another big story we're following. the u.s. preparing at this hour to blame north korea for the massive hacking of sony pictures that's gone on and gone worse as the days have gone on. >> the spokesperson for the national security council said and i'm quoting "the u.s. government is working tirelessly to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice and we are considering a range of options in weighing a potential response." >> sony pictures pulled the movie "the interview" from its

release expected to be released christmas day. that won't happen. there are a number of threats against the theaters planning to show it. they actually refuse to show the movie before sony officially shelved it. president obama spoke about all of this to abc news earlier. >> reporte . >> well, the cyberis tack is serious. we'll be vigilant. we'll alert the public if we see anything but for now my recommendation would be people go to the movies. >> the comedy to assassinate north korea's leader, of course, that has angeredyongyangpyongya. >> brian stelter has more. >> reporter: capitulation. that's one word for what happened wednesday. sony caving under pressure canceled release of "the interview" "the interview" in light of the decision of

many of the biggest theater chains to yank the film from their schedules citing uncertainties and security fears. this coming after a warning by anonymous hackers threatening a 9/11-style attack at theaters where the film is played. the state department says they have no evidence of a specific credible threat in but -- >> we take seriously all reported threats against the homeland including recent threats made against movie theaters. >> reporter: there were real worries that americans might fear a holiday trip to the movies. backing away, cineplex now calling it an unprecedented and complex situation. regal entertainment citing the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats. the chains are keeping their options open with regal saying it's just delaying the opening. but this is another blow for sony coming three weeks after more than 100 terabytes of data were stolen. and the hits keep coming. on tuesday actors james franco and seth rogen canceled many of their press events including appearances on "seth myers," the tonight show and

"live with kelly and michael." >> james franco was supposed to be here but they're going through a lot over there so he had to cancel. but, you know, hopefully everything over there gets worked out. >> reporter: even the new york premiere set for tomorrow has now been scrapped. this as a movie with a $44 million budget so if theaters won't play it, what should sony do? >> i think sony should fight fire with fight. that is, if these people are using information they've hacked on the internet, why don't then on pirate sites and all kinds of other places -- that's where sony should take the fight rather than trying to get the movie, the information into movie theaters, i think it should be posted all over the web. let the whole world see it for free in hd and really show these hackers that two can play at this game. >> reporter: no word from sony on a digital release yet. lots of companies could help sony stream the movie. the question now, will any of them risk a hack attack to do it? brian stelter, cnn, new york. all right. we've got word coming into cnn

now of a deadly attack by the taliban in kabul, afghanistan. we don't have much information yet but police say they have identified a suicide bomber early thursday morning. when the bomber realized he was being chased by officials, he detonated explosives apparently. one afghan policeman was killed. three other people were injured. so a suicide bomber here killing a police officer in kabul. it was at this time yesterday we were reporting on an attack in helmand province. that just in. as soon as we get more we'll bring it to you. in 45 minutes from now president vladimir putin from russia is going to make his year-end news conference. obviously this president facing a lot of tough questions. how is he going to answer questions about the faltering economy and, of course, the ruble in freefall. we'll be live in moscow with that next. plus, colombia's farc rebels are calling for a holiday truce.

how this year's proposal differs from others. welcome back.

we are counting down in about 45 mens from now russian president vladimir putin is going to give his annual year-end conference and i can tell you a lot of people are going to be very curious as to what he has to say especially with ordinary russians suffering financially because of the fall of the ruble the economy is going to be front and center.

>> if you look back it's been a tough year for russia, struggling under the weight of increased western sanctions, sharp drop in energy prices expected to continue and as zain just mentioned, the ruble has been in freefall losing almost half of its available to the u.s. dollar this year alone. it did manage a 14% recovery wednesday after moscow unveiled a package to support russian banks but the economy still front and center. okay, joining me now to talk more about this is, of course, our senior international correspondent matthew chance. he's live for us in moscow. so, matthew, i mean, i've got to ask you given the dire economic situation there in russia especially as we've been talking about with the ruble in freefall, a lot of ordinary russian citizens suffering financially. how is vladimir putin going to use this speech to restore the faith and the confidence of the russian people in him? >> well, first of all, i don't

think that he's lost their faith and confidence at this point. i mean his approval ratings are still sky high. somewhere in the region of 85%. and so, you know, he is an immensely popular political figure. i think what people around this nation will be looking at very closely is what message he has for them during this time of economic crisis, what steps he's going to take to dig them out of this mess and so that's the key thing i think for vladimir putin in order to maintain that popularity at least or at least limit its downside so he doesn't lose the faith of his population. it's to take or seem to be taking concrete steps to do whatever he can to alleviate the economic situation. the problem he's going to have though, of course, is that he doesn't actually have that much control over the economic situation in the country because the plunge in the ruble for the most part is to do with the plunge in the global oil price.

russia is dependent on its oil exports for much of its income and, of course, the country has very little control over what that oil price does on the international markets so in some ways his hands are tied but obviously there are things he can be doing in the short term possibly with trying to get the sanctions alleviated by the international community and also in the medium and longer term trying to diversify russia's economy away from oil so it's less vulnerable to this kind of dissent and crisis in the future, zain. >> incredible, those approval ratings you just mentioned, 85% especially given what's going on absolutely incredible but in terms of trying to get the west to lift those economic sanctions, i do want to talk about some of his option, of course, he could have choosed to pull out of ukraine which is what the west has been pressurizing him to do. if he chooses to make a move like that what is at stake for him politically here?

>> well, i mean first of all, i think there's no chance of him pulling out of ukraine if you consider crimea to be part of ukraine. crimea was annexed by russia and absorbed into the russian federation back in march. and, you know, that's now a done deal as far as the russians are concerned. it hasn't been recognized by the europeans or americans or anyone else but as far as russia is concerned, it's extremely unlikely that that decision is going to be reversed. in terms of the east of the country, well, you know, whether there's a rebellion under way where russia is accused of funding the rebels and supplying them with weapons as well as troops on the ground it's going to be difficult for him to do a public u-turn on that, as well. if we're referring to this press conference not least because the kremlin denies there is any russian support for those rebels in the east of the country so he can't come out and reverse his position. behind the scenes, though, i expect that he will be looking

at ways and the kremlin in general and the government in general will be looking at ways to perhaps get those international sanctions diminished as much as they possibly can. indeed, john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state said in recent days russia had been making progress toward de-escalating the situation in eastern ukraine but, you know, for the moment i think the perception in russia is is that the sanctions are here for the foreseeable future. >> yeah, i mean clearly vladimir putin has backed himself into a corner with regards to ukraine when it comes to responding to sanctions, i think everyone is curious to see how much he chooses to deflect blame. matthew chance live in moscow, thank you so much, we appreciate it. okay, let's quickly run through some other big stories we're following for you right now. colombia's farc rebels have declared a cease-fire and won't attack unless opposite forces attack first.

they've done these before during holidays but they were temporary. they resisted this before. a4 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny. the soldiers were found guilty of refusing to deploy for an operation to fight boko haram. five other soldiers were acquitted. the sentence is subject to approval from top military officials. a mass grave holding more than 230 bodies discovered in eastern syria's deir ezzor province. they remember members of a tribe that fought isis earlier this year to protect their oil-rich land. we do want to bring you this programming note for those watching cnn international, the syrian town of kobani has been the focal point in the fight against isis and our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh was there and spoke with kurdish fighters defending

it from militants and saw the damage and spoke with families firsthand and will bring us a rare and remarkable look at isis inside kobani airing at 8:00 p.m. in london and only here on cnn. coming up on cnn, disturbing issues of the carnage inside a school attacked by the taliban. we'll have survivors speaking out. a major announcement from the man heading fifa's ethics investigation. he's resigning it. he's giving it up. we'll explore what's behind his decision to quit. [ rob ] we weren't always the most adventurous couple.

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you are from a somber candlelight vigil in d.c. just this week, in fact. you can see people with heavy hearts. it was in remembrance of the 148 people killed in the schoolhouse massacre in pakistan. >> the prime minister lifted the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases after gunmen ambushed that school in peshmerga. >> the taliban says it attacked the school because the student aspire to follow in their father's footsteps and target militants. it was the deadliest attack to hit pakistan in more than seven years. >> now as they observe three days of mourning nic robertson has a close-up look at the scene

where so many lives were taken earlier this week. some of what you're about to see is graphic. >> reporter: tumbled chairs, concrete walls chewed apart by a fuselage of bullets. few of the children in these classrooms could dodge. evidence of the ferocity of the craven attack is everywhere. floors still soaked in the blood of the innocents. this town is drenched in grief funeral after funeral. most between 12 and 16 years old. many buried in their school uniforms. the smaller they are, the heavier they are to carry, one official said. education in this impoverished town of 3 million is everything. no one saw this coming. [ sirens ] survivors now wondering how they made it through.

transasia we hid in a locker room and pretended to be dead. they kind of believed us. but two students and a teacher caught their attention so they shot them in the head to make sure they were dead. >> reporter: six men entered the haul. >> translator: they opened fire on some students. some died on the spot and others were injured. >> reporter: vigils are lighting up across the country. sympathy is strong and so is condemnation of the taliban. it is rarely this universal and rarely this visceral. and these men, some of them seemingly as young as their victims, are the attackers according to the taliban who say they planned and coordinated every murderous step the gunmen took, classroom to classroom, brutality now becoming clear. inside the school, a burnt office. a 28-year-old woman, an office assistant, not just shot, but set alight here, too.

too horrific for words. nic robertson, cnn, islamabad, pakistan. moving on to some other news for you now. the head of fifa's ethics investigation has resigned. michael garcia was looking into whether there was any wrongdoing. world sports' alex thomas has more. >> reporter: this is a major blow to the president who set up the independent ethics committee to answer criticism that fifa was corrupt and not transparent. and in an ex-mail michael garcia says the job started well. i felt they were making real progress in ethnics this fifa. garcia goes on to explain the detail of a well-publicized rou with the other chief head of the

adjudication chamber. garcia was the prosecutor and eckerd was the judge. for the 2018 and 2022 cups awarded to russia and qatar, eckerd published a summary and exonerated russia and qatar of any wrongdoing and did nothing to appease fifa's ethics. garcia disagreed with eckerd's sum economy and a day after that appeal was ruled inadmissible garcia has quit. in his e-mail garcia wrote "no independent governance committee, investigator or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organization. it's the lack of leadership on this issues within fifa to lead me to conclude my role is at an end." words that will hang over this week's committee meeting

and next year's fifa presidential elections. alex thomas, cnn, london. >> as we mentioned to you this hour, the u.s. is ready to blame pyongyang directly for the sony hacking but there are concerns even more aggressive moves may be coming. next i'll speak live to an expert on north korea. yeah, also coming up after the break a look at the impact of russia's economic crisis on the rest of the world. that's coming up.

you are still watching cnn and we appreciate that. hey, everyone, i'm errol barnett. >> i'm zain asher live this atlanta for you. let's get started right now. u.s. aid worker alan gross is back in the united states after spending about five years in a

cuban prison. he was jailed, this is his crime -- for allegedly trying to bring the internet to cuban dissidents. his release part of a plan to normalize relations after 00 years of tension. for its part the u.s. released three cubans part of a group originally known as the cuban five arrested in miami in 1998 convicted in 2001 of spying for cuba. an unnamed u.s. intelligence agent was also freed by havana. and the u.s. is ready to blame north korea for the massive hacking at the sony picture, the government says it's working to bring the hackers to justice and is now considering a response option. sony pulled the movie "the interview" from release after hackers threaten eed the people who went to go see it. growing concerns pyongyang may become more aggressive after this. >> north korea, we should note, is coming out of its official mourning period for kim jong-il

and as brian todd reports they're concerned he may lash out. >> reporter: he's now unshackled. free to be more aggressive after the three-year mourning period. by custom kim jong-un was supposed to observe that by being less aggressive, lying low. many argued he never waited. >> in addition to executing his uncle he purged anyone who can question his leadership or his authority. >> reporter: kim's brazenly killed his powerful uncle, tested nuclear weapons and ballistic missile, threatened south korea repeatedly. what could he possibly do now that is more aggressive? >> he is likely to have a fourth nuclear test. in the meantime, cyberattacks, asymmetric attacks of another nature including some military provocation across the northern limit line at sea or with

assassinations or terrorism even. >> reporter: kim's regime did make some peaceful overtures recently releasing three americans, sending top officials to visit south korea but those moves are now seen as part of a charm offensive aimed at staving off a u.n. vote to recommend prosecuting leaders for human rights abuses. it didn't work and now kim could be more dangerous. >> nice tank. is that real? >> it was a grist to my grandfather from stalin. >> in my country it's pro-stounsed stallone. >> reporter: north korean leaders are furious over the new movie "the interview," a film about ab assassination attempt on kim which sony pictures just pulled. investigators determined hackers working for north korea were behind the attack. north korea has previously denied it. analysts says kim jong-un's reasons for hating the movie go beyond being embarrassed. if any copies were to leak out. >> cds will be pouring in across the border from china.

they will slip into the bags of elites and they will be seen. of this movie. regardless of where it's shown and that will sow a potential underground movement in the elite against kim jong-un. this is the paranow ya that is driving this regime. >> if the public sees this, he's very concerned about what that would mean, because in north korea he -- kim jong-un is considered god or at least son of god. his father and his grandfather. there's almost like a religious tone to this. >> reporter: now that sony decided not to release "the interview" for now we're watching what the hackers will do next. now that it's been determined north korea was behind the attack it might embolden them to launch more cybercampaigns and the north koreans have a growing and improving team of hackers and outsource hacking to others hiring freelancers to operate out of places like china and

thailand. brian todd, cnn, washington. joining us to speak more is barbara dammic, the author of "nothing to envy." thanks so much for your time today. so, you know, up until now this appeared to be just about embarrassing sony. but as the days of war go on, it seems like we're looking at real financial damages in the tens of million dollar, court cases that sony will be facing but what was this really about initially? was it just about protecting kim jong-un's honor? >> you know, the north korean government is very sensitive about anything that has to do with the leadership. you can criticize them all you want but when you actually directly go after their head of state, their god, their everything, they get, you know, quite angry and i think that was

what provoked their fury over this particular film. although i'd point out it's not the first time hollywood has gone after the north koreans if you remember some of the team america -- the father of the leader was an alien cockroach and in a way it was a much more unflattering portrait. >> what are the differences here then because there was no response like this to that movie? kim jong-un if we talk about some of the differences had his uncle killed. consolidated power in a monolithic government. what would his motivations be for doing this? >> i think it's not just the film is different. i think it's a different time and actually the north koreans are much more engaged with the outside world and so now i think they care. there used to be a feeling the north koreans were -- i do remember another one the remake of "red dawn" would use chinese

and switched it to north korea because you could say anything you wanted to about north korea. the north koreans are saying, no, we're listen. >> you've said in some of what i've read online that actually could be an upside to this and could be a good thing, the fact that north korea even though this is how they're doing it is engaging with the outside world, does care about how it's perceived. spin that out for me. >> you know, i said that it was a good thing before this attack became so serious. but i do think they're paying attention and have been very, very upset about the threat to bring kim jong-un before the international criminal court on human right as becauses and that also shows that they're paying attention, they're engaged with the outside world if not in a very productive way. >> just in the few seconds we have left, what would be your

advice as far as what should be happen next? should sony shelf this or should the u.s. government get involved? what should happen next. >> to be honest i'm still a bit skeptical. i'd like to see what evidence the u.s. government has that the north koreans really did it. you know, certainly they had the technical capability and the motive, but there's a lot in the nature of this attack that to me doesn't sound like the north koreans, you know, it seemed to me very much like somebody with a real grudge against sony and sony's leadership. so i'm still -- i'm still being very cautious. >> yeah, we don't know the exact details. the north koreans could have hired chinese hackers, something they've done before and do expect u.s. officials to outline what proof they have whether this is north korea and that's what they believe but fascinating stuff.

barbara, thanks so much for connecting with us, 5:40 in the afternoon and continue to watch this story unfold. zain? >> such an incredible loss for freedom of speech as well when you think about the fact that, you know, essentially the hackers have won. that's why president obama said if you want to go to the movies, you should. >> how will this change sony and other studios looking at similar parodies. >> a lot will be careful with the type of e-mails they send. a push for middle peace. jordan submitted a palestinian draft resolution to the u.s. security council wednesday. they were calling for israel and the palestinian territories to be withdrawing from them. >> and calls for negotiations leading to a palestinian state. the resolution was drafted in language to avoid a veto from israel's ally, the united states. it could happen sometime thursday and the move actually came on the same day that the

europe parliament adopted a resolution to support palestinian statehood in principle. >> and the general court of the eu removed hamas from its list of terrorist groups and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu was not happy about it and had a strong reaction. take a listen. >> today we witnessed staggering examples of european hypocrisy. in geneva they call for the investigation of israel for war crimes while in luxembourg the european court removed hamas from the list of terrorist organizations. hamas that has committed countless war crimes and countless terror acts. it seems that too many in europe on whose soil 6 million jews were slaughtered have learned nothing. >> the israeli prime minister's demanding the eu place hamas back on the terrorist list immediately. well, russia's economy certainly right now on the brink

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now, a day after it jumped 14% against the u.s. dollar, the ruble is holding steady in thursday morning tradeing.

>> but russia's currency still has lost pretty much almost half its value against the u.s. dollar this year dragged do you know by a struggling economy. richard quest looks at their plans. >> reporter: the crisis is on their doortell. both the finance ministry and central bank in moscow are now having to decide what to do to prevent further collapse of the russian economy. the finance ministry says that the ruble is extremely undervalued and is trying to sell up to 7 billion in foreign currency reserves. the object is to buy, of course, the ruble and hopefully prop up its value. the russian prime minister dmitry medvedev insists russia has the resources to overcome the crisis in this extremely undervalued currency. >> translator: the figures we have seen do not reflect the real picture and have

unreasonably left a zone comfortable for the people and for the economy. and emotions have also played the role here. >> reporter: the finance ministry is doing what it can as the government, the central bank, of course, is also getting involved. having already set, of course, that a year ago the situation was unthinkable and now the central bank having raised interest rates dramatically is going to take more desperate measures. the tripling of interest rates to 70% seemingly has done very little. it's moved to free-float the ruble and in doing so it spent one-fifth of the currency reserves. put all this together and russia's currency crisis seeps set to continue for some time to come. richard quest, cnn, new york. >> and a reminder by the way we are going to be hearing from russian president vladimir putin about 15 or so minutes from now, of course, the big question as

richard was slightly talking about is will russia's economic woes drag down the global economy? i want to talk about that with cnn's emerging markets editor, john defterios in abu dhabi. we're talking $50, $60 a barrel, a far cry from where it was this summer at $100 a barrel. how does that impact russia in terms of lost oil revenues? >> reporter: well, zain, the harsh reality is they've been overly dependent on it. despite putin's prom cla nations he would diversify the economy. if it stays between 50 and $60 a barrel it will cost russia anywhere from 180 billion to $200 billion a year, three-quarters of their exports earnings comes from oil and gas that makes up half of overall revenue. so a lot of pressure. what does that mean in terms of

growth? the economy flatlined because of the u.s. and european-led sanctions but if you add a drop in oil prices even the central bank of russia is suggesting that growth could contract 4% to 5% next year and with the falling ruble, it means that import prices go up. this means the cost of food, for example, will go higher, as well and this, indeed will put pressure, political pressure on president putin if it continue, zain. >> yes, so russia clearly learning the hard way about, you know, the issues with overdependence on one resource, but i do want to ask you, though, was some type of effort by russia to cooperate with opec and other oil producing countries like saudi arabia, why did that not take place? especially given russia's economic situation, how desperately they need to cooperate with opec right now? >> reporter: yeah, in fact, russia has this break-even point, zain, of 95 to $100 a barrel to balance its budget.

if we'll be in a range of 5 ato $60 perhaps for 2015 it leaves a gaping hole. they went to the opec meeting and two days before sat down with the saudi arabia oil minister, the mexican energy minister and venezuela and said, look, with prices down why don't we take some of the oil off collectively going forward and this will, in fact, boost prices but it was rejected by saudi arabia and the other gulf producers, those in the arab gulf, qatar, uae backed saudi arabia and said let's let the market decide. right now opec particularly those four producers i'm talking about wanted to protect their market share and some suggest even put pressure on russia and the united states, lower oil prices, hurt the shell producers and clearly is hurting the russian economy right now. >> yeah, and actually retail investors in the gulf where you are are feeling it because of the massive sell-off there. john defterios in abu dhabi, we

appreciate it. in the holiday season here. can't bring out the best in people. >> and it can bring out the worst. >> we have the video in this surveillance video at the walmart that's here. we'll show it to you after the break.

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relief to californians as they've been battling drought but they certainly do still have a long way to go. >> one man who knows it very well is our own meteorologist derek van dam who joins us from the weather center with a look ahead from the state of california. >> zain, i think you used the operative word some correctly because it's only been some rain and some relief for california. they've got a long way to go and put it into perspective and still need 11 trillion gallons of water just to end the drought in its current state. 99.7% of the state of california still under drought conditions. let's compare this to something you and i are familiar with. how about an olympic size pool. 11 trillion gallons of water is equivalent to 17 million olympic size pools full of water. can you imagine that coming out of the sky. we still have several, several storms to go before we actually become, well, relatively drought-free for the californian

coast. well, fortunately we have a storm system to discuss. that is for the weekend. of course, it may impact your plans if you're still tuned in with us from anywhere from seattle to san francisco this weekend, but you definitely need the rainfall and also going to get that all-important mountain snow. snowpack is very critical as it starts to just increase across the sierra nevadas for instance, currently at 47% of its average snowpack across that mountain range but into the summertime when that snow finally melts it trickles down the mountains and feeds those reservoirs with some of that fresh water needed to help out the drought-stricken state of california. lease put it into further perspective. san francisco this month has received 9 1/2 inches. the december average is roughly around 4 1/2 inches but look at the year that we're coming off of. under a half an inch of rainfall this time last year. los angeles, very similar type

numbers, here's the storm system moving through the west coast at the moment. again mountain snows for the pacific northwest, great news for the skiers and snowboarders but plenty of rainfall in the forecast across that region. by the way, guy, also looking for a storm that's bringing some wet weather to the central plains states of america. back to you, zain and errol. >> yeah, california clearly thirsty there but seeing a lot of rain at once. it can't be easy especially in parts of l.a. where there's flooding but i'm sure they're grateful to have it now. >> okay. >> derek, thank you so much. okay, wait till you hear this one. this is low. as we were saying earlier so a florida man is accused of faking a heart attack in an effort to steal christmas presents from walmart >> that's pretty creative. i would say. >> is that a compliment, zain? he apparently had some help from his friend during this alleged incident. jeanne moos has more. >> reporter: the heart was a fake heart attack.

taurus scott in the red hat and vest enters a florida walmart with his buddy in a light sweatshirt. >> with grand plans for christmas. >> reporter: the two start loading stuff in a cart. >> they were going to steal christmas presents and one of them was a barbie car. ♪ pow pow power wheels >> reporter: as well as a barbie glam vacation house. well, they go towards the door separately, and that's where dupree gently gets down on the floor. >> he didn't even do a really good job of faking the heart attack. >> reporter: he clutches his chest. eventually the shopper in the white jacket notices and starts to look for help. meanwhile, scott with the loaded cart slips out the door, and as soon as the cart clears the store, dupree recovers. >> miracles occur around christmas. his heart was all better, and he strolled out. >> reporter: the two meet in the parking lot and take off. their getaway car was not the pink barbie car. >> it was not.

it was not the pink barbie car. i mean that was not very manly-manly. >> reporter: the fake heart attack caused walmart to examine their security cam video. they discovered the theft and the sheriff's department had no trouble identifying the suspects. it seems both had long arrest records. scott had recently been released from prison after serving ten years for armed robbery. >> so guess what, we wish them a merry christmas from our county jail. ♪ shop shop shop till we drop drop drop ♪ >> reporter: but dropping from fake cardiac arrest ended up getting them arrested. jeanne moos, cnn. >> oh, it's the worth one. this is the big one. >> reporter: new york. >> i'm dying. >> well, i'd say "a" for effort. >> another compliment. i'm going to keep my eyes on you. thank you so much for watching, everyone. i'm zain asher. >> and i'm errol barnett. "early start" is next for everyone in the states. everyone else, stay tuned to cnn newsroom. have a great day.

. an historic beginning for the united states and cuba. president obama announces a breakthrough agreement with the island with severed ties years ago. movie release, canceled. sony pulling the plug on the film "the interview" following cyber attacks and terror threats from hackers. this morning, all eyes on north korea. is the leader kim jong-un behind the