News Wrap: Sydney mourns hostage victims

JUDY WOODRUFF:

This was a day of mourning in Sydney, Australia. The city and nation paid respects to two hostages killed in a daylong standoff yesterday at a downtown cafe.

John Sparks of Independent Television News filed this report.

JOHN SPARKS:

Today, the people of Sydney found a place to meet and grieve after a terrible 24 hours in their city. This makeshift memorial, one city block from the Lindt cafe, marks the loss of two innocent lives after a self-styled sheik took 17 people hostage.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, also laid flowers after admitting there were difficult questions to face. Why, for example, was the hostage taker, Man Haron Monis, allowed to walk into that cafe with a gun?

TONY ABBOTT, Prime Minister, Australia:

How can someone who has had such a long and checkered history not be on the appropriate watch lists and how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community?

JOHN SPARKS:

When the spoke cleared, Man Haron Monis lay dead, as did two of his victims, Katrina Dawson, a barrister and mother or three, and the cafe manager, Tori Johnson, who reportedly tried to seize the gunman's weapon in the final moments. The authorities said tonight it was an isolated incident, but this 16-hour siege has shocked the nation.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

The gunman was allowed to enter Australia as a refugee from Iran in the late 1990s. Iranian officials said today that they tried to extradite him, but were refused.

Two suicide car bombings in Yemen killed at least 26 people today south of the capital, Sanaa. The first vehicle exploded at a Shiite rebel checkpoint as a school bus passed. At least 16 students were among the dead. A second blast struck the home of a Shiite leader. The rebels blamed Sunni militants from al-Qaida. The two factions are battling for control of parts of Yemen.

In Syria, Islamist fighters have captured a major military base after 100 government troops and 80 militants were killed in two days of fighting. The base at Wadi al-Deif is located on the main north-south highway linking the capital, Damascus, to Aleppo. Syrian activists say the militants included members of al-Qaida's Syrian branch called the Nusra Front.

Back in this country, a Pennsylvania man suspected of killing his ex-wife and five of her relatives was found dead today. Iraq war veteran Bradley William Stone had been the subject of an intensive manhunt for 24 hours. His body was discovered in the woods near his home in Pennsburg, just north of Philadelphia.

RISA VETRI FERMAN, District Attorney, Montgomery County, PA:

We have not received official confirmation from the coroner as to the cause and manner of death, but based upon what we found at the scene, we believe that he died of self-inflicted cutting wounds in the center part of his body.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Stone's killing rampage unfolded in three separate towns within a few miles of each other. Some schools in the area closed today out of caution.

A hackers group warned Americans today to avoid a new Sony Pictures movie. The Guardians of Peace threatened a "bitter fate" — quote — for anyone who goes to theaters showing the movie "The Interview." It's a comedy about a CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it hasn't yet found credible evidence of an active plot. Last month, the hackers group broke into Sony Pictures' computer system and released everything from financial data to embarrassing e-mails.

The district attorney in Los Angeles will not file charges against Bill Cosby for allegedly molesting a teenager in 1974. The L.A. County prosecutor's office said today the statute of limitations has expired. A woman had accused the comedian of forcing her to perform a sex act when she was 15. She's one of a number of women to charge that Cosby sexually assaulted them over the years.

This was another roller-coaster day for the price of crude oil. It was down sharply in early trading in New York, but as the day wore on, the price rallied, and ended the day about where it had begun. Wall Street also staged a rally, but it could not hold on. In the end, the Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 112 points to close below 17,069. The Nasdaq fell 57 points to close under 4,548. And the S&P 500 slipped almost 17 to finish at 1,972.