Successor. Also filling up the cabinet, who donald trump is eyeing for the top jobs in his administration. After a flurry of weekend meetings, plus knocked out of the running says goodbye live from cnn world head quarters. Im george h oowell. Cnn newsroom starts right now. 3 00 a. M. On the east coast barack obama is back in washington now after completing his final foreign trip as president of the United States. During his visits to greece, to germany and peru, much of the attention though was on president obamas successor. One area of major concern is international trade. President obama in his last press conference on the last leg of his last International Trip as president once again made the case for trade deals, deals like the Transpacific Partnership trade deal one his successor donald trump opposes. Deals like tpp are important and benefit the u. S. They allow america to help right the rulds of the road and absent u. S. Engagement in such deals it allows other countries, countries like china to step in and fill the void, write rules of the road that do not benefit american companies. The president spoke more broadly about the need for continued u. S. Engagement on the world stage calling the u. S. And indespenceable nation when it comes to dealing with global issues. The president was also asked about domestic politics. He was asked specifically about potential conflicts of interest that president elect donald trump could face because of his business dealings and while president obama declined to respond directly to that question, he did talk about how he approached the issue when he was located president. We made a decision to liquidate assets that might raise questions about how it would influence policy. I basically had our account put all our money in treasury bills. The yields, by the way, have not been massive over the course of the last eight years just because it simplified my life. I did not have to worry about the complexities of whether a decision that i made might even inadvertently benefit me. He also said it was important to follow not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law in order to avoid any potential edge i cans issues. It was one area out of many where the president provided a bit of indirect advice to his successor as he wrapped up this his last press conference a wide ranging press conference on his last major International Trip as president. Back to you. Thank you. Now while in peru, president obama also said that he is not optimistic about syria in the shortterm. Mr. Barack obama, met briefly with his russian counter part of the apec summit. Ukraine and syrias conflict did come up, but that allegations of russian influence on the u. S. Election did not come up. The issue of the elections did not come up because thats behind us and i was focused in this brief discussion on moving forward. I had already made very clear to him our concerns around Cyber Attacks generally as well as specific concerns we had surrounding the dnc hack. Mr. Putin though did speak about relations when donald trump takes office. Listen. Translator as to the newly elected president of the United States, we all clearly understand everyone knows there is a big difference between the preelection rhetoric and actual politics practically in all countries. The newly elected american president confirmed his intention to normalizerussia u. S. Relations. Naturally i did the same. In the meantime the president elect has another likely cabinet pick to announce very soon, a source close to the process, billionaire investor wilber ross is being seriously considered for commerce secretary. Cnns phil maddingly has more. Theres a weekend of marathon meetings, meeting after meeting, cabinet potential official after cabinet potential official and some advisors in their as well but it really was all about trying to get a sense of who will fill out the top cabinet. On sunday, theres a key focus on two individuals, chris christie, and rudy giuliani. And is actually been removed as the head of his Transition Team and all of his top allies have gone as well. All signs right now are pointing to no. Not so much for rudy giuliani. The former new york mayor, also a very close confident. He has been angling for the department of justice job. And other things. And other things. A little bit hedging, there maybe some other positions he may be looking at and this is all coming in the wake of saturdays meeting with former massachusetts governor, mitt romney who we were told very definitively is under consideration for that state job. Im told from trump advisors, donald trump is very intrigued by the idea of what it would mean to have mitt romney in his administration, particularly in the wake of their 14, 15, 16 month battle back and forth. It would be very interesting to see how that all plays out. One key thing to keep an eye on as this week goes on, starting today, there will be a focus on economic jobs, the economic transition landing teams landing at all of the agencies throughout the day, domestic policy as well. Were all keeping a very close eye on who the next big cabinet appointments will be. Trump advisors somewhat coy about that but definitely making clear announcements will be made soon. Thank you. The Vice President elect, mike pence, says that hes not owe dependsed by the surprise political message that he received from the cast of the smash broad way hit hamilton. The audience gave him a mixed reception when he showed up at the performance, some booed and some did cheer, one of the actors delivered a statement to the Vice President elect and the trump administration. Listen. We, sir, we are the diverse america who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. Our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. We hope this show has inspired us and to work on behalf of all of us, all of us. From that president elect trump was outraged and took to twitter that pence was harassed and the cast owes pence and apolo apology. They were very inappropriate. Thank you. Pence says the cast was only exercising their right to free speech. I heard the remarks that were made at the end and, you know, what i can tell you, i wasnt offended by what was said. Ill leave to others whether it was the appropriate venue to say it. I want to assure people who are disappointed in the election results, that president elect donald trump meant exactly what he said on election night, that he is going to be the president of all the people of the United States of america. The actor who delivered the statement tweeted that he appreciates that pence stopped to listen to the statement. Now to tell you about a rash of shootings against Police Officers in the United States happening in several cities, first, in san antonio, texas, and officer was fatally shot making a traffic stop saturday morning, another officer injured the same night in st. Louis, missouri, an officer was ambushed, shot twice at the head and a fourth officer, this time in gladstone, missouri, thats near kansas city was also shot sunday evening. It is still unclear whether there is any connection to the shootings that happened again in these various cities in the United States. Police in north dakota are reporting a standoff with hundreds of protesters against the controversial Dakota Access pipeline. An estimated 400 people are trying to get on to a closed bridge and have set multiple fires in the area. Protesters report that police are spraying the crowd with water canons and that its all happening in subfreezing temperatures. Those opposing the projects say it will contaminate Drinking Water and destroy sacrkal triba land in north dakota. The crisis in syria we continue to follow the situation there. Activist say that a barrel bomb killed a family of six people in eastern aleppo. They all died together. The death toll also continues to rise. Six Straight Days of bombing now and more than 300 people have been killed since tuesday when the Syrian Government launched an attack on rebels. Six days of bombing and were hearing that this is the worst that they have seen since this conflict began five years ago. And theres no sign of let up in the violence, george. This horrific violence that were seeing in rebel held parts of aleppo and also in the regime held western aleppo, now before we show you our report about the situation in the city of aleppo, we want to warn our viewers that some of the images theyre about to see are disturbing. This father in disbelief in denial that his teenage son is gone. He tries to wake him up, refusing to hand him over to be placed in a body bag. He finally agrees but clings on to his boys breathless body. I swear hes breathing he says. The ang kwish of one father, one family out of hundreds who buried their loved ones in what seems to be a never ending cycle of grief, death and destruction in eastern aleppo. The Syrian Regime releasing a devastating this is a preliminary operation that includes a ground push on to eastern aleppo. They describe this as being part of zero hour operation, going after socalled terrorist groups across the country. Backed by the military muscle of russia, the Syrian Regimes seems to be on the offensive in other parts of the country. In this conflict with no red lines, schools on both sides of the front lines have been hit. Hospitals targeted. Leaving a desperately needed Health Sector in eastern aleppo, teetering on collapse. The months long siege taking its toll on the quarter of a million residents. Mass starvation as everything they have is running out. There is no more water, no more foods. We are maybe we are going to we are maybe going to very big starvation in aleppo. Civilians trapped in this living nightmare, terrified and desperate. The youd nations says it has a humanitarian plan that it has presented to the different parties in that conflict. Now that is not the difficult part. The complicated part here is to get the regime, the rebels and the russian allies all to agree to this United Nations plan. Something that we have seen fail time and time again and it is the civilians who end up suffering. George. The civilians who continue to be starved out, bombed out, gassed out, schools targeted and hospitals as well. Thank you for the reporting. Officials are trying to determine the cause of a deadly Train Derailment that happened in northern india. Still ahead here on cnn newsroom we have the very latest on the investigation and the rising death toll. Plus the president ial field in france it narrows down more on two men still vying for the conservative nomination and the presidency of that nation as cnn newsroom continues. Whythen get worse . Nks taste chalky . Introducing protein shots from 5hour energy. Protein shots from 5hour energy are smooth and tasty, and still deliver 21 grams of protein with 100 calories. Theyre great for workouts, no matter how you work out. Whether youre going for reps. Or laps. Or distance. You gotta try it. Period. Protein shots from 5hour energy. 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The death toll stands at least 142 people killed, 14 cars of a 23 car carrage train jumped the track early sunday. Dozens more people were injured in whats become indias deadliest train wreck. Cnns monica kompur. If you could just explain to our viewers around the world where things stand now when it cops to identifying the dead and also looking to see if there might be other survivors . Authorities are saying that there are no more survivors. They have completed the rescue operation, the area of the train crash has been cleared and as you mentioned the death toll unfortunately, the number is very grim. It is 142 people confirmed dead. Out of those 142 people, they have been able to identify most of the bodies. They have been able to identify 110 victims. This death toll high as it is may continue to rise even further and thats because many more people are in hospital and being treated for their injuries. We did hear from authorities, 49 people are still in hospital, some of them are seriously injured so we wont be surprised if we do see this number of 142 people dead continuing to rise. So those search and rescue operation has been completed and the death toll at 142. The question now turns to what caused such a horrible train crash to occur in the first plaus. Now the Junior Railway said a few hours ago it seems it may have been caused by a fracture on the tracks, a formal investigation has been ordered but at the moment it does look like it could have been caused by a fracture on the tracks. George . Fracture on the tracks. This reminds me just of the issue of transportation infrastructure in india. I think back just a couple months back to the overpass that collapsed and so many people were killed and injured in that situation and now this Train Derailment. Talk to us about why these accidents like this train accident, why theyre so common in india . Yes. Infrastructure does remain sort of the weakest link in indias growth story and its always been a recurring problem. You mentioned the highway the overpass that collapsed just a few months ago. Train accidents like this unfortunately are quite common. When you look at Indias Railway network, though, one of the reasons these train accidents are common is because of the sheer size of the network and also because of how old the network is. If you look at the sheer size, if you took the tracks that make up Indias Railway system and you line them up one after the other, it would go around the earth 1 1 2 times. Thats how big it is. Imagine the entire population of australia, 23 million people, thats how many people are moved by the Indian Railways every single day. Thats a massive burden for this network to bear. On to top of that you add the problem of subsidies, the has been subsidying passenger tickets for years. When you look at the revenue of this Railway Network by the time the revenue comes in a chunk of it almost really goes towards just operational cost and theres very little left over to use towards modernize it. The Railway System is in desperate need of upgrading. So that accidents like this are not repeated again in the future. A great deal of concern just given how extensive this rail system is and just the difficulty in making sure that safety is maintained. Thank you for your reporting. Moving on now to due buy where a british woman who went on vacation there could end up in prison after telling police that she was gang raped. Authorities have charged her with having extra marital sex e. Cnns leila is following the story. First of all, what do we know so far about this . What are we hearing from the United Kingdom in response . We do have a statement from the cons late here in dubai and theyre hoping that this case can move very quickly through the uae legal system. A lot of the information that we have on this comes from reporting from this ngo called detained in dubai. For those who are outside of dubais legal system this comes across as an out rage. Its a tourist worst nightmare. What weve gleamed from the information, this woman who was from the uk in her twenties was visiting on vacation when she reported that she had been raped. She took that complaint to the police and she said shed been raipd. As part of the Police Investigating the case they also turned around and detained the woman, the alleged victim in this case was detained and her passport was confiscated and she was charged with having sex outside of marriage which is a criminal violation here in dubai. So because of her passport has been confiscated she is now effectively trapped here in the country until this