The chaos, but this morning, Vladimir Putin is firing back. We are live with the war of words and whether it will be more than that. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to early start. Im john berman. Im christine romans. Its thursday, april 17th, 5 00 a. M. On the nose in the east. Lets begin this morning in south korea, where rescue crews right now again trying to find hundreds of people missing in the chilly waters off that countrys southern coast. It has now been nearly two days since the ferry they were riding on overturned and sank with nearly 500 passengers on board, and many of them were High School Students going to a holiday. Right now, nearly 300 of them are still missing, and were hearing these horrifying stories of desperate Text Messages sent by those on board to their parents. Pauline chiou is live in jindo, where families right now are waiting for word from their loved ones. Pauline, about these Text Messages, we have to be cautious about those reports, dont we . Reporter we do. We have seen some of these Text Messages from parents that we spoke with earlier today, but they did say these are not Text Messages directed to me, these are Text Messages that were forwarded to me from someone else, and that person received it from someone else. So, i think we have to be really cautious about that. Ive also been hearing anecdotes from parents, saying that they have heard about Text Messages from children that actually specifies where they are in the ship. They list the students with them. But again, i caution that we have not actually met someone who says this is a text from my child. And we do know that some social media postings have already been declared as false, so we have to be careful when we talk about this. Now, i want to update you on the situation of what the families are going through right now. They have just met with south koreas president , park geunhye, and she met with them a couple of minutes ago, and it was a meeting that was very emotion emotional, where she was meeting them with some organizers of the searchandrescue operation. And there was a lot of yelling towards the organizers from the parents, and the president warned the organizers, she said to the organizers, dont just talk to the media, also talk to the parents, and that got a lot of applause. The president also said that she promised to add more people to these rescue teams. Now, we have been speaking with family members. We heard a very poignant story from one mother. She talked about how she and her daughter just two months ago went to jeju island, which is the destination of this ferry. Its a resort island. And when this field trip came up, she encouraged her daughter to go, but her daughter didnt want to. And listen to how she recounts the story. My daughter said to me, mom, i dont want to go there, because i went there again, a time again. So, i said to her, i think this trip will be very great experience for your school days. So, im very regretted. Im very regretted at that. Reporter so difficult. And then after she talked with us, she also showed us some cell phone video of her daughter dancing and laughing. So, this is just such a difficult time for this mother and the parents of so many of the students who are still unaccounted for. And christine, take a look at the weather around me. Rain and wind. This is making it very difficult for the search crews. And just to give you an idea of the challenges, there are many civilian divers as well as government divers that are participating, and three civilian divers earlier today actually lost their way during high tide, and they were later rescued by fishing vessels. So, just take a look at the weather. It is not easy, christine. Yeah, they have to be so careful in the rescue, even as theyre trying to move quickly, because it is cold and it has been almost two days. Pauline chiou for us this morning in south korea. Thank you, pauline. Now to the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370, and there is breaking news this morning. Malaysias transportation minister admitting a little over an hour ago that they may have to change their approach to try to find this plane. This as an unmanned underwater vehicle, the bluefin21, is ready to head back into the ocean to scan the sea floor again for debris. Our Miguel Marquez live in perth with the latest, including these new comments from this key malaysian official. Good morning, miguel. Reporter good morning there, john. And he is echoing what the Prime Minister here in australia is telling the wall street journal, saying that if they dont have a sense of where this plane is in a week, they may have to change things up. There come a time that we need to regroup and reconsider. But in any event, the search will always continue. Its just a matter of approach. Reporter now, to many, this seems a little premature, because the agency that is charged with finding this thing says that they have just really taken the first big, decent bite of the apple in looking at the ocean floor there. The bluefin21 down for a full 16hour go. Theyre now analyzing the data dumped from that and then will go down again. Remember, the area they are searching is in the area where those pings were found, and the area theyre beginning in is where the strongest ping was heard, an area about 500 or 600 square miles. And that bluefin21 can search a very small subset of that 500 or 600 square miles where those pings came from. So, they believe, a lot of folks here believe that they are searching in the right place. They may need a little luck, but theyve certainly had some in hearing those pings to begin with. The other piece of the puzzle that we are expecting to hear Something Back on soon is oil that they picked up, or an oily substance that they picked up on the ocean here. That has now been transported from out there all the way back into perth, and they believe that they will have a very strong chemical fingerprint, if it is from malaysian flight 370. Back to you guys. No doubt, the next few days will be critical. Miguel marquez for us live in perth today. Thanks to miguel. As for the families of those who were on board the plane, their anger boiling over. In just a few minutes, were going to go live to beijing, where ivan watson will have the latest on that. Thats coming up. This morning, Eastern Ukraine seems precariously closer to war with attackers overnight going after a Ukrainian Military base, a shootout leaving three dead and dozens more detained, a day after civilians apparently hijacked Ukrainian Military vehicles to try to stop the governments efforts to push prorussian militants out of the region. President obamas putting the blame on russia, saying the kremlin is destabilizing the region, the kremlin is supporting those militias. The president issuing this warning to Vladimir Putin. What ive said consistently is that each time russia takes these kinds of steps that are designed to destabilize ukraine and violate their sovereignty, that there are going to be consequences. Theyre not interested in any kind of military confrontation with us, understanding that our conventional forces are significantly superior to the russians. So, putin just said in a marathon questionandanswer session that russia is only acting to protect its people. Lets go live to Eastern Ukraine and cnns phil black. Phil, whats the situation on the ground there this morning . Can you hear me, phil . What are you seeing around you this morning . I think phil is not hearing us right now. We can tell you, though, that the russian president , Vladimir Putin, is in this really interesting last year it was four hours long. Its his annual sort of talk to people on television. He answers all these questions. So far, 2 million questions, most of them actually statements of support for the president and what hes doing in crimea and ukraine. Less questions, more adoration. Absolutely. All right, new information this morning about the man police say brought a rice cooker in a backpack to the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. Plus, a fire truck slams into a packed restaurant. The latest next. Mine was earned in korea in 1953. Afghanistan, in 2009. Orbiting the moon in 1971. 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We want to get back to phil black now, live for us in Eastern Ukraine with the latest on whats happening on the ground there. Its been a confusing couple days, quite frankly, because the west, the president of the United States saying this is russias fault, russia saying, no, no, you know, ukraine, the Ukrainian Government is destabilizing. What are you seeing there . Reporter its really chaotic, christine, indeed. Lets begin just by talking about this new incident overnight in the Southern City of minutes aftwhere they say th attackers were killed, 13 injured, dozens arrested. They have not spoken about any Ukrainian Military casualties, but if thats accurate, its easily the most violent confrontation in this crisis so far. And this is coming into what is supposed to be the third day of the Ukrainian Military operation to try and restore government control in this region where prorussian militants and protesters have really been consolidating their hold on local government, local administration, setting up road blocks, taking authority away from the Central Government. But what weve seen through this operation is really no progress whatsoever. If anything, things have gone backwards. It has been chaotic. What weve seen on a number of occasions have been Ukrainian Military units driving convoys of Armored Vehicles, being stopped not by militants, but by locals, villagers who dont want them there, who block, then swarm these vehicles, preventing them from advancing, and then putting these soldiers in the humiliating position of having to negotiate their own retreat, sometimes having to give up their own weapons, sometimes giving up the Armored Vehicles theyre driving as well. Last night in the city of slovyansk just down the road, we saw six Ukrainian MilitaryArmored Vehicles really being shown off as trophies by prorussian militants. What all of this means is that the Ukrainian Government is not really controlling its military here, because that military does not want to use force against its own people. That means the Ukrainian Governments authority on this region remains very weak, and that puts the government in a very weak position going into these fourparty talks in geneva today between the United States, europe, ukraine and russia, which is supposed to somehow thrash out a solution to this crisis. Back to you, christine. Peaceful solution to this crisis, indeed. Phil black. Thank you for that, phil. This morning, a boston area arts student set to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after a bomb scare near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Police arrested kevin edson, also known as kayvon edson, for carrying a rice cooker in his backpack on the anniversary of the marathon attacks. He was dressed in black. You can see him there detonating that. He was screaming boston strong when Police Stopped him. Prosecutors say he told police it was a performance and that the art student suffers from bipolar disorder. Edsons being held on 100,000 bond. Awful timing. Some restrictions may be listed on boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as he awaits trial on charges that he was responsible for the deaths of three people at the marathon and an m. I. T. Police officer during the manhunt afterwards. A federal judge ruling the accused terrorist should be allowed to see autopsy photos. The judge is considering allowing tsarnaev to meet with his sister outside the earshot of investigators. Nearly one month after the ground gave way northeast of seattle, the death toll from a catastrophic landslide still rising. Two more bodies have been recovered, pushing the official figure to 39. Up to six people still missing. Search teams have combed through hundreds of acres of muck for more than three weeks now. Scientists say unusually high rainfall and a weak hillside contributed to that slide. One person in Critical Condition this morning after this dramatic crash near los angeles. Two fire trucks collided at an intersection, sending one barreling into a restaurant. More than a dozen people, including several firefighters, were hurt. Fire Officials Say both trucks were racing to a house fire at the time. The cause of the accident still under investigation. Global stocks basically flat right now. We have three days of gains in the u. S. Investors watching everything from rising tension in ukraine to corporate earnings. One stock were watching today, google. Earnings yesterday disappointed investors because of mobile. Google may be winning the smartphone wars with its android software, but its primary business is still search, and Search Engines survive on ads. With more people searching on phones and tablets, google has to sell more mobile ads, which costs less than their web equivalent, meaning googles ad revenue dropped 9 . The stock fell 3 after hours. Its down more than 5 in the past month. One of the tech stocks getting hit in the past month during the tech selloff, so, watch for tech to be maybe a drag on the market today. So, i went on a little road trip for a few days. I know i get back to the house and theres snow i know. There is snow on the lawn. Sorry. What is going on here, Indra Petersons, and will it stop . Yeah, and you know what, the snow is gone. Thats the good news, but the cold temperatures . We broke records yesterday. It is one thing when youre breaking records in places like, i dont know, wisconsin, michigan in the morning hours, but when you talk about as far south as louisiana and florida yesterday morning, you know it was cold. And yes, it is still cold. In fact, we still have freeze warnings and frost advisories out there. Not as bad as yesterday, and the good news is we are going to be recovering. Its going to take some time, but we will get there, most importantly, by the weekend. What are we looking at . One of the systems already moving out, kind of seeing leftover showers in the upper midwest. Well really start watching the second system, pulling up that moisture in from the gulf and then kind of spreading into the southeast. Thats the concern here, because heavy amounts of rain are expected. Tallahassee could see about 4 inches, atlanta over 2 1 2 inches. So, thats going to be the concern over the next several days. But once it kicks out of here, which it will before easter weekend, were going to be talking about temperatures rebounding. So, not so bad. A huge change in the forecast. Instead of showers on the weekend for the northeast for easter sunday, things are improving, not to mention temperatures back where they should be and dry. Look at this. Look at the entire northeastern seaboard. Looking beautiful here on the eastern seaboard, then maybe some showers around kansas city. Yeah, pacific northwest, some showers for easter and maybe towards dallas, but overall, most people, average temperatures, dry. Are you happy now, berman . Im happy. I feel much better. Youre welcome. I didnt want parkas for the easter egg hunt. A huge change. Although there are more pockets. That is true. Thinking like a 7yearold. The egg hunt is a very good lesson in capitalism, by the way. You eat what you kill. Get it out there. You get as many eggs as you can. All righ