we're very happy you're with us this morning. it's 5:00 in the east. breaking news in france. police have a home surrounded. they say an al qaeda suspect wanted for committing that jewish school massacre is inside. france also says two officers were wounded in a shootout there overnight. we'll take you live to that scene? just a few moments now. and a big night for mitt romney after a decisive 1 -point win, he's setting his sights on louisiana. romney has near ri half the delegates that he needs to secure the nomination. and shocking new ref layings in the shooting death of a florida teenager. the girlfriend of 17-year-old trayvon martin says she was on the phone with him just minutes before he was killed. an now lawmakers are calling his death a murder and a hate crime. in assessing the damage in mexico after a strong earthquake rattled the massive capital all the way to the resort city of acapulco. hundreds of homes were damaged. at least 11 people are injured. luckily no deaths reported there. water rising and raging in texas. take a look at this. the fire department forced to pull a woman from her car that was carried downstream after she ignored a warning and drove around a barrier. severe storms expected to unleash flooding across the south and the plains today. this is cnn breaking news. >> we've got breaking news this morning, about 300 police are surrounding an al qaeda suspect right now in france. he's apparently wanted in that horrible massacre at a jewish school. we're told he's surrounded inside the home, the interior minister saying they want to get him alive. he is expected to surrender and for some reason they're thinking that could happen in two hours. there were two officers already wounded in this incident. the person inside is accused of murdering a rabbi, his two young sons and another person at that school. the man said he wanted revenge for palestinian children. this aco koccording to reuters. a suspect whose brother was inside the house turned himself in to police already. all of this happening in a raid in the southern city of toulouse in france. that's less than two miles from the jewish school where that massacre actually played out. it's already near the sites of three deadly attacks, just over the past several days. our diana magnay is live in toulouse, france right now. this sounds like such a developing situation, diane. maybe you could get me up to speed on exactly where we stand right now in this situation. >> reporter: sure, ashleigh. this is the seventh hour of this operation. as you said, 300 police involved in this. after an unprecedented manhunt, really to find who people were considering a serial killer. it's a fairly fluid situation. you have police coming up and down this road all the time. the interior minister has been here overnight and police officers have been in negotiations with this 24-year-old suspect through his door. we heard from the mayor earlier that he was being uncooperative, very stubborn and very determined. then we heard this development that he'd thrown a gun out of the window and said that he would surrender himself in a couple of hours time at 12 noon local. so the interior minister says he certainly hopes that will be the case. police do, however, presume that he is heavily armed. he is capable of carrying out more attacks despite this gun, there was a heavy exchange of gunfire earlier. it remains to be seen what will happen over the next several hours. they have said they want him brought out alive. ashleigh? >> how do we know that this might wrap up in two hours? that seems leake a lot of information for a situation that's currently in a standoff. >> reporter: well, because the suspect has himself said that he would hand himself over in two hours time. he has been talking to police, not in a very cooperative fashion but talking to them through the front door. and he's apparently admitted to the fact that he committed the attacks in the jewish school to avenge the deaths of palestinian children. he also says that he was the man responsible for killing those three soldiers in two separate attacks last week, soldiers of northern african origin. and we also know a little bit about how investigators came to that man, came to this house. that was the first killing of the soldier, sunday a week ago. it happened at a rendezvous where that soldier said he wanted to sell a motorbike. that happened via e-mail. the ip address on that e-mail was traced and at that point they'd already got this man under suspicion, apparently, ashleigh. >> diana magnay, good job. we'll keep tapping in to find out what the developments are in toulouse this morning. it was five minutes past the hour. here it was a decisive win in the illinois primary for mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor now the clear front-runner with more than half the delegates he needs to clinch that nomination. the final totals, romney 47%, santorum, 35%, newt gingrich dead last with 8%. cnn's delegate estimate, romney 562, santorum, 249, gingrich, 137, ron paul with 69. mitt romney is sensing this could be his campaign's defining moment. he is urging the party to rally behind him. >> each day we move closer not just to victory but to a better america. join us. join us, together we're going to ensure that america's greatest days are still ahead. thanks, you guys. >> and next up here we have saturday's louisiana primary, 46 delegates at stake there. washington, d.c., maryland and wisconsin primaries follow on april 3rd as well. let's talk to cnn political editor paul steinhauser. he's live in washington, d.c. i was doing some math this morning. i didn't get it right the first time. if you add up all of the delegate counts mitt romney is still ahead, add up santorum, gingrich and paul, he still has more delegates. how did he do in the exit polls, though? >> he did pretty well. he won where he needed to, the suburbs in chicago. he took over the vote in that heavy populated area. they said beating president barack obama, the most important thing. take a look at this, here from the exit polls. almost 40%, 4 in 10 said electability, most important issue for a candidate quality. of those people who said can this candidate defeat barack obama, look ott who's on top by far. mitt romney. almost three out of four of those who said it was important went for mitt romney. that's part of the story he won. the exit polls indicate he still has a problem and santorum won the vote with the conservative voters, the strong tea party supporters own those people who say they are evangelical christians and santorum did win the true conservative areas in southern illinois. of course, louisiana is next. as you mention. that's a more conservative state. zoraida? >> how did romney do with women. >> he won women again as he has in almost every state we've seen in the exit polls. >> let's talk about newt gingrich. yesterday he said phase one is taking romney out. i was thinking perhaps he drops out in order to help santorum take romney out. >> his statement did not indicate that. it was critical, the statement he put out after the statements came in. he said he's looking ahead to tampa, the convention in louisiana in late august. i don't know, i can't get in newt gingrich's mind. zoraida? >> we want you to stay fired up for us, the more ammunition, the better. thank you very much. paul steinhauser in washington. a major earthquake has rocked southern mexico, the epicenter is located about 200 miles southeast of mexico city. apparently 200 to 800 homes, i know that's a wide estimate but that's all we have right now, flattened in one particular town. this thing measured 7.4 magnitude as well. you can see some of the facade damages at least in the initial video that's coming in to us. the tremors were felt in mexico city, also in acapulco. obviously emotions running deep at this point. we know of 11 people who were injured but right now, no reports coming in of deaths, thank god for that. the quake also shook the mexican parliament and here's something we don't often report. the president and the first lady's daughter was on a school trip, the media does not cover that normally but because of what's happened in mexico, we do. malia was on a vacation, a school vacation in mexico. first lady's spokeswoman says malia is okay and that she was never in any danger and that's the reason that the press has been given the green light to report that. because of the potential danger for the first lady and the president's child. >> in the video where you saw the woman who was very upset, it's because she was happening right when she was in her car. you can hear somebody saying don't move, don't move, stay still. >> i'd be frozen in fear if anything, right? >> rob marciano is at the cnn weather center with word of tornado warnings in deep south. >> it's a slow moving system. it hammered texas yesterday with flooding rains and tornadoes. this system is now in through louisiana, southern louisiana is where we're seeing tornado warnings right now, in through parts of cameron, arcadia parish, geoff davis parish, along the i-10 corridor between lake charles and lafayette. these are moving from the south to the north, all with this circulation that's not making much eastward progress. tornado watch in for most of louisiana and a sliver of arkansas for the next few hours as these storms slowly edge to the east but mostly go from south to north and with this slow movement we've got a tremendous amount of rainfall obviously going over one play. flood watches and warnings across much of western louisiana, getting up into arkansas as well, up to 6 inches possible and in some cases we've already seen that. a tremendous amount of rainfall coming out of this system as it moves slowly to the east, into a big bubble of warm air. temperatures continue to bake. chicago unbelievably, another day of 80 degree plus temperatures, 85 in chattanooga, 83 degrees in cincinnati. these are more like june as opposed to the middle of march. >> no kidding. i'm hearing about it on facebook, come back home, taste the weather over here. it's tough to watch. thank you. >> all right, guys. 11 minutes past 5:00. our breaking news, this just in. i have bad news for you. it's not just bad, it's double bad. the gas prices are ticking up again almost twice as much as it has every day. the national average jumping almost 2 cents. i'm sorry. it's according to aaa. you can blame them, well, i think you can blame a lot of people for it. national average is $3.86. it's been on the rise for 12 straight days. we'll continue to see the prices this high until the cost of oil all around the world on that pesky world market goes down. all right. maybe it will happen, speaking of oil, the keystone pipeline extension is back on the fast track now. sources telling cnn that president obama wants to cut the red tape for the extension of the oil pipeline. what does this mean? >> here's the catch. part of the pipeline. how good is the pipeline if you only have part of it? the president has been criticized all over the campaign trail for blocking the permit. why the 180 or is it even a 180? or is it only a 60? i'm not quite sure. i'm confused if you build a southern part of the pipeline. >> we already have a lot of big pipeline in this country. make no mistake. this isn't the only oil pipeline. right? i'll show you a picture of what this is supposed to look like. the keystone pipeline, republicans have been hammering the president. the part that the president wants to fast track is the part by that green arrow down from cushing, oklahoma to port arthur. you look up, you can see there's an awful lot more that needs to be built. it goes through the sand hills of nebraska. that's the big sticking point. this part has not been approved yet. transcanada wants to build a pipeline under a fragile and beautiful part of the country. i think most people would be surprised. it's so fragile and desolate and beautiful at the same time. i was there in 2010. it has oil dereks. underneath there's a huge aquifer and there are countries about the pipeline and the aquifer. transcanada and people who support the pipeline are trying to figure out where to root this thing. the president wants to fast track the southern portion of this pipeline extension so it can be under way. people in the oil business are saying longer term it's good to have this diverse supply line for oil from north america but we're not there yet. >> how significant is it right now, though, with the suffering that folks have at the pump? >> it's not going to do anything today to your price of oil and gas. all of these things are subtle and long term and there are political fights over this. there was something else that moved oil prices yesterday. this administration also giving some waivers to 11 different countries for the business that they're doing, buying oil from iran. and those waivers on some sanctions for iran actually saw oil prices drop sharply. >> these are waivers to say you can do more business? >> yes. they have already decreased their purchases so substantially of iranian oil -- >> amazing. >> a little bit of a waiver there. there's a lot beginning on in the international markets of oil that we're watching closely. >> thank you, christine. >> you're welcome. 15 minutes past the hour. police in new york clashing once again with occupy wall street protesters, this is lower manhattan. 300 demonstrators removed overnight from union square. one person was arrested. the city says it can tolerate 25 demonstrators at a time but they cannot sit down or lie down. digging deeper into the case of trayvon martin. he was that unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain. the focus is now on the stand your ground law in florida. we talked about tornadoes, now we're going to talk about fires. flames rising from the debris and threateningi the homes that were just rebuilt in tuscaloosa. and can an aspirin a day keep cancer away? ponder that thought and come join us again, you're watching. "early start." because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. it's so great to see you. you, too! ahh, cloudy glasses. you didn't have to come over! actually, honey, i think i did. oh? you did? whoa, ladies, easy. hi. cascade kitchen counselor. we can help avoid this with cascade complete pacs. over time, a competing gel can leave cloudy hard water deposits, but cascade complete pacs help leave glasses sparkling. shiny! too bad it doesn't work on windows. okay, i'm outta here. there's only one cascade. love it or your money back. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. 19 minutes past 5:00. that's a good time to check the top stories making news this morning. let's follow breaking news in france this morning. police have a home surrounded. they say a man claiming to be an al qaeda terrorist wanted for committing that jewish school shooting, he's inside that house. france says two officers were wounded in a shootout there. the interior minister saying they want him alive and he's expected to surrender within the next two hours. illinois goes to mitt romney. the former massachusetts governor scoring a decisive win in last night's primary, picking up 47% of the vote. good enough for a 12-point margin over rick santorum. romney is nearly halfway toward the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. a wildfire that's already burned nearly 100 acres in alabama has jumped a containment line. it's burning in a debris field near homes that were rebuilt after the deadly tornado in tuscaloosa county that killed dozens of people last april. so far, no one has had to evacuate the area because of that wildfire. a daily dose of aspirin might significantly reduce the risk of cancer and prevent tumors. researchers found people who took aspirin regularly for five years reduced their risk of developing cancer by 37%. experts warn that the drug can cause dangerous side effects like stomach bleeding. for an expanded lack at all of our top stories head to cnn.com/earl cnn.com/earlystart. the mother of trayvon martin says she cannot eat or sleep until her son's killer is arrested. the martin family attorney says brand new witness accounts reveal martin was murdered by neighborhood watch captain george zimmerman. trayvon martin's girlfriend has come forward. she says she was on the phone with the teenager minutes before he was shot to death. phone records confirm that he said zimmerman was following martin and she told him to run. >> he said he lost the man. but the man trayvon said was following him. i asked him to run and trayvon said he wasn't going to be running. >> martin was killed just moments later. zimmerman is claiming self-defense. the fbi and justice department are now investigating. jo john zarrella is live in florida with the latest for us. if we can first begin with the eyewitness accounts. what did they say they saw? >> reporter: zoraida, what we are hearing right now is, of course, the police department has come under a great deal of fire over what happened and the handling of it. the police here are telling us they are confident in the way they handled it and they are inviting the federal officials, the doj, the fbi, the florida department of law enforcement to come in and take a look. last night on the anderson cooper show, anderson talked to two women who live in that gated community who have apparently talked to police and given statements but now they are talking exclusively with anderson cooper about what they say they saw inside that gated community. >> so you saw mr. zimmerman on top of trayvon martin? >> exactly. >> when you say on top of, how so? >> straddling him. >> exactly. >> i don't believe it was self-defense. what we saw when we walked out on the porch. if it was self-defense, why was he on trayvon's back? >> now, police here have not released that transcript of the interviews that they have done with these women at this point. but, again, you heard there what they say transpired on the night of february 26th. here last night as well, in sanford, just a few blocks from here at a local church, there was another major rally. the community coming together again asking for some -- for zimmerman to be arrested, for zimmerman to be picked up. as we know, george zimmerman has not been charged with any crime nor has he been arrested. ashleigh, zoraida? >> john zarrella, live for us in florida. thank you very much. ashleigh, back to you. it is now 23 minutes past 5:00 in the morning. it's the time we get a chance to do an early read on the local news that's making national headlines. this morning, got a whole stack of them. we start with the "chicago tribune." here's what's coming out of good old, illinois. that state is having a real tough time coming up with the money for college students and aid to go to school. apparently it's running out. the students who apply for state tuition to get help paying their tuition next year, a lot of them will be turned away because apparently the funds are being awarded on a first come, first served basis. the money is depleted in record time. there's a huge percentage of kids in illinois that won't qualify for it. because too many people want it and there just isn't enough. >> the 529 program in illinois, a mess as well. >> there are federal programs as well. don't be in despair. there are other places but that one spot isn't as good as it used to be. lawmakers in michigan say kids should be older when they e