Five dead in ‘tragic’ Las Vegas shooting

WASHINGTON: Two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian were killed in an apparent ambush Sunday that ended with the two gunmen killing themselves.

One of the attackers yelled "This is the start of a revolution" before shooting the officers and stripping them of their weapons and ammunition, the Las Vegas Review-Journal said.

Two officers were "ambushed" and shot by the gunmen -- a man and a woman -- as they ate lunch at CiCi´s Pizza, Sheriff Douglas Gillespie told reporters. One of the officers died at the scene, while the second subsequently died in surgery.

A police dispatch call was made around 11:22 am (1822 GMT). The attackers then ran across the parking lot to a nearby Walmart store, and the Review-Journal said they exchanged gunfire with and ultimately killed a civilian who was carrying a concealed weapon. The civilian, who has not yet been identified, was found dead inside the front door.

"It´s a tragic day, it´s a very, very difficult day but we still have a community to police and we still have a community to protect," Gillespie said. "We will be out there doing it with our heads held high but an emptiness in our hearts."

The male shooter, described as a tall white man, yelled "everyone get out" before shooting, Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill told a news conference earlier.

The two gunmen, who have not yet been named, then went to the back of the Walmart for "some kind of suicide pact," McMahill added.

Gillespie said a preliminary investigation suggested the woman had first shot the man before taking her own life.

"What precipitated this event, we do not know," Gillespie said.

"My officers were simply having lunch when the shooting started."

Gillespie named the slain officers as Alyn Beck, 42, and Igor Soldo, 32. He said they both had young families "devastated" by the tragedy.

"We have lost two officers with young families and a family of law enforcement that cares very, very much about them, as well as a community that cares very, very much about them as well as the innocent citizen that lost their life," he said.

Las Vegas police are doubling up their patrols in the wake of the incident. (AFP)

1 killed, 3 injured in Seattle campus shooting

LOS ANGELES: A lone gunman killed one person and injured three others Thursday on a college campus in the northwestern US city of Seattle, where the mayor denounced America´s "epidemic of gun violence.

"The latest bloody rampage to shake the United States came just two weeks after an apparently mentally disturbed man opened fire at a California university and killed six people. Those wounded at Seattle Pacific University, including at least one who was critically hurt, were being treated in hospital. The dead victim was a 20-year-old man, according to police.

The Seattle Police Department described how the gunman opened fire in a lobby of a science building on the campus. "Police have one suspect in custody, an adult male who was subdued after being pepper-sprayed by a student security guard," the police statement added. Initial reports suggested there were two gunman, but police said that proved false.

Mayor Ed Murray expressed outrage that his city had fallen victim once more to the gun violence plaguing the United States. "Today should have been a day of celebration at the end of the school year. Instead it´s a day of tragedy and of loss," he told reporters. "Once again, the epidemic of gun violence has come to Seattle, the epidemic of gun violence that´s haunting this nation."

Witnesses described their fear as the shooting unfolded, and the bloody aftermath. One student recounted hearing a loud bang from next to the classroom he was in. His teacher initially thought it was a science experiment, but someone went out and came back saying: "I think someone´s been shot.""So we turn off the lights we lock the door and we close the blinds," the student, identified as Blake, told KIRO 7 TV."I was scared for about a minute," he added, recalling hearing shouting and someone running past the door.After a couple of minutes, "cops come in through another classroom which was connected to ours and they escorted us out."I just saw piles of blood on the ground, just scattered throughout the lobby. And I actually stepped in a puddle.... "I saw someone was on the ground. Someone was on top of them, their hands behind their head."Police spokesman Chris Fowler described how the young male gunman was taken into custody after opening fire in the lobby of a building on the campus.He began to reload when a student who was monitoring the building "confronted the shooter (and) was able to subdue the individual," Fowler told reporters, without directly confirming the death."Once on the ground, other students jumped on top of them and they were able to pin the shooter to the ground until police arrived."Less than two weeks ago, a reportedly mentally unstable 22-year-old man killed six people before turning the gun on himself at a college campus in Santa Barbara, California.School shootings have become a tragic periodic occurrence in the United States in recent years.They include the December 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 small children dead, and the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007 in which 33 died, including the gunman.mt

3 officers killed, 2 injured in Canada shooting

MONCTON: Three police officers were shot dead and two others injured in a rare case of gun violence in the east coast Canadian province of New Brunswick, officials said. Authorities were searching for a suspect.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Damien Theriault said police responded to a call Wednesday about an armed man in the north end of the city of Moncton at 7:30 p.m. Three of the responding officers were killed and two sustained non-life threatening injuries and were in stable condition.

"We are still actively looking for the shooter," Theriault said. "He is believed to still be in the Pinehurst subdivision area of Moncton. We are urging people in that area to stay inside and lock their doors and for people to say away from that area."

Asked how he was dealing with his grief, Theriault said he personally knew the officers before breaking down and excusing himself because he couldn´t complete his sentence.

Police said they were looking for 24-year-old Justin Bourque of Moncton — a city of about 69,000 people about 95 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of the capital of St. John, New Brunswick. The police force tweeted an image of a suspect wearing military camouflage and wielding two guns.

Danny Leblanc, 42, said he saw the shooter in the distance Wednesday evening, wearing a camouflage outfit and standing in the middle of the street with his gun pointed at police cars.

The construction worker said he believed it was an RCMP officer he was looking at until he heard a burst of automatic gunfire coming from the man´s gun.

He said he quickly retreated into his home and remained there with his family. At one point a neighbor posted on social media that their kitchen window was shattered by gunfire.

Leblanc said few people on his normally quiet street were sleeping as they awaited word at midnight on whether arrests had been made.

Word that police had been killed shocked the city, Leblanc said.

"It´s devastating. I don´t know if he was on a hunt for them, or what," he said.

Police had a number of roads in the city blocked and traffic was backed up on major arteries across the city. Drivers were also asked to stay out of the area.

Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc urged all residents to pay strict attention to the RCMP warnings.

"It is a terrible tragedy," he said. "We as a city must pull together as a family to support those who have suffered losses."

Such violence is rare in Canada, particularly on Canada´s East Coast. Theriault said the city of Moncton didn´t have a homicide last year or this year until Wednesday evening.

"We have been blessed until this point," he told The Associated Press.

He said other RCMP officers from around Atlantic Canada are in Moncton assisting with the search.

The shootings brought back memories of when four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were shot and killed in the western Canadian province of Alberta in 2005 in the deadliest attack on Canadian police officers in 120 years. They had been investigating a farm in Mayerthrope, a small hamlet in Alberta when a man shot them before he was killed.

The Horizon Health Network, a provincial health authority, said two patients were taken to Moncton Hospital with gunshot wounds. Horizon Health said the two shooting victims are in stable condition.

Sean Gallacher, who lives near the area where police were concentrating their search, said he heard what he now believes were gunshots but initially thought his daughter had dropped some toys on the floor above him.

"I was downstairs and heard a few bangs," said Gallacher, 35.Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney tweeted that he was "shocked by the tragedy" and that his thoughts and prayers were with frontline RCMP officers.

 

Sobbing Pistorius describes shooting girlfriend

PRETORIA: A sobbing Oscar Pistorius described the moment he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp claiming he fired four shots "before I knew it", he told his murder trial on Tuesday.

The sprinter wept so uncontrollably as he recounted the events of the fateful night that it forced the adjournment of his trial until Wednesday.

Trembling and overwrought, the champion athlete described rushing and stumbling toward his bathroom with a gun in the dead of night on Valentine´s Day 2013 after hearing a suspected intruder.

"I was overcome with fear" he said, his voice cracking with anguish. "Before I knew it, I´d fired four shots at the door".

Pistorius faces a life sentence if found guilty of deliberately murdering Steenkamp, a charge he denies.

"My ears were ringing, I didn´t hear anything," Pistorius continued. He shouted for Steenkamp to phone the police, and rushed back into the room.

"I kept on shouting for Reeva." When she did not respond Pistorius said he realised he may have made a terrible mistake and rushed back to the bathroom to break down the door.

There, in a pool of blood, he found her fatally wounded, with gunshots to the hip, arm, hand and head.

"I sat over Reeva," the athlete testified crying loudly and putting his head in his hands and before letting out the barely intelligible cry, "she wasn´t breathing".

After a brief adjournment from the harrowing testimony, his lawyer Barry Roux came back to say his client was in no state to continue.

The case was adjourned until Wednesday.

- The moment ´everything changed´ -

Earlier, Pistorius had explained how the couple had gone to bed around 10pm after a quiet evening, but woke up to bring in two fans he had left outside to cool his bedroom.

At that point he knew Steenkamp was awake and they exchanged a few words.

"That´s the moment that everything changed," he said, after he heard the sound coming from the bathroom.

"The first thing that ran through my mind was that I needed to arm myself," he said under defence lawyer Barry Roux´s gentle coaxing.

"I wasn´t sure where to point the firearm. I had it pointed at the toilet but my eyes were going to the window and the toilet," he said.

"I wasn´t sure if someone was going to come out of the toilet attacking me," he said, his voice quavering.

His sister Aimee was crying softly with her head bowed, while Steenkamp´s mother June sat impassively in the public gallery.

- A future together -

Pistorius´s initial evidence has focused on countering the prosecution´s portrayal of him as reckless and obsessed with fast cars and guns.

He had begun his second day of testimony with a description of how he met the vivacious law graduate and how they quickly grew closer. He said they had begun to plan a future together.

"The first six days we knew each other we called each other every day," he said.

"I was very keen on Reeva," he said. "We started really seeing a future with each other." The star Paralympian was in tears as he read reams of transcribed cell phone messages he and Steenkamp sent each other during their four month relationship.

In one typical message the aspiring actress affectionately said "I love you, boo".

Pistorius also sought to explain text messages in which Steenkamp said she was frightened by his behaviour

."I´m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and how you will act towards me," Steenkamp said.

Pistorius said: "I just think it was a bad hour in our relationship," describing a fight at an engagement party.

He also issued a tearful apology to Steenkamp´s family."I can promise that when she went to bed that night she felt loved."

He is likely to remain on the stand most of the week as his extensive testimony is expected to be followed by gruelling and lengthy cross-examination by the prosecution.

Cape Town-based criminal advocate William Booth, who is not participating in the trial, said much will depend on how Pistorius holds up in that second phase.

"Oscar´s evidence can only be properly assessed once he´s been cross-examined," Booth said.

In the five weeks since the trial began, Pistorius has appeared fragile and sometimes annoyed, frequently crying in court.

He was physically sick when the gruesome details of Steenkamp´s death were discussed.

His lawyer Barry Roux said he will call up to 17 witnesses in his case to testify on ballistics, urine emptying, damage to the toilet door, sound, and "disability and vulnerability".

The trial is slated to run to at least mid-May.

Karzai orders probe into AP journalists’ shooting

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered “a full investigation” into the shooting of two Associated Press journalists, the Presidential palace said on Friday.

“President Hamid Karzai was grieved” by the incident in which one AP photographer was shot dead and another reporter was injured by an Afghan policeman in the country’s east, a statement from the palace said.

“Anja Niedringhaus, a German photographer, and Kathy Gannon, a Canadian reporter, working for the AP were shot by a police officer at 11:00 am (0630 GMT) in Tanai district,” said Baryalay Rawan, a police official from the Khost province where the incident happened.

The police officer opened fire while the women were sitting in their car, AP confirmed, adding that Gannon — who was shot twice — was in stable condition at a nearby hospital. The news organization confirmed Niedringhaus was killed.

Police said their driver was unhurt.

The Taliban, who have vowed to disrupt the upcoming Presidential elections by targeting candidates and polling centres, said they had no hand in the attack.

“The freedom fighters were not involved in this attack,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the insurgents. “It could be a personal issue.”

The German Foreign Ministry said that the country’s embassy in Kabul was “persistently trying to find clarification” about the killing of Niedringhaus.

The UN and NATO condemned the “tragic and abhorrent attack.”

“I am outraged by this terror attack on civilians,” said Jan Kubis, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“The journalists were informing the world how Afghan citizens are exercising their right to shape a better future for themselves, their children and their country,” Kubis was quoted as saying.

“I strongly condemn this tragic attack,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu, adding that the journalists were in Afghanistan to cover a “watershed moment in the country’s history.” “I express my condolences to the family of the deceased and wish a prompt recovery to the one who has been wounded,” Lungescu added.

The attack took place on the eve of the Presidential election. The journalists had gone to Khost city, the capital of the province of the same name, along with a convoy delivering election ballots.

They then went on to nearby Tanai district, on the border with Pakistan, where Taliban are thought to be based, Rawan said.

“They went to Tanai only with their Afghan driver to cover the elections tomorrow,” he said, adding that the incident took place in front of the district governor’s office.

AP contradicted the police statement, saying that the duo was with the election convoy for the entire journey from the centre of Khost city to the outskirts in Tanai district.

“The convoy was protected by the Afghan National Army and Afghan police. They were in their own car with a freelancer and a driver,” the press agency’s report said. “According to the freelancer, they had arrived in the heavily guarded district compound shortly before the incident.” “As they were sitting in the car waiting for the convoy to move, a unit commander named Naqibullah walked up to the car, yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ — God is Great — and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK—47. He then surrendered to the other police and was arrested.” “Anja and Kathy together have spent years in Afghanistan covering the conflict and the people there. Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist well loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss,” AP quoted their Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll as saying in New York.

Gannon is based in Islamabad, and has covered Afghanistan and Pakistan since 1986, with a focus on Taliban and other militants.

Niedringhaus, 48, was a Pulitzer—winning photojournalist, who had been working in Afghanistan and the surrounding region since 2001.

Gary Pruitt, the CEO of AP, announced the death of Niedringhaus, in an email saying the two “it appears, were targeted and attacked.” “Those of you who worked with Anja know what a life force she was: spirited, intrepid and fearless, with a raucous laugh that we will always remember,” Pruitt said in a statement to AP staff.

“Where once reporters and photographers were seen as the impartial eyes and ears of crucial information, today they are often targets.” Paris—based Reporters without Borders asked the authorities “to do everything possible to guarantee the safety of journalists, whose role is crucial at the height of the electoral process.” “The shooting has highlighted the permanent and ubiquitous danger for reporters in some regions of Afghanistan,” said Benjamin Ismail, the head of the Reporters without Borders Asia—Pacific desk.

“It is all the more shocking for apparently being the work of a policeman who should have been protecting Afghan and foreign journalists.” Friday’s was the latest in a series of attacks on journalists in the country.

Last month, Sardar Ahmad, an Afghan journalist for the French newswire AFP, was killed with his wife and two children in a Kabul hotel attack by four Taliban assailants.

Also in March, Swedish journalist Nils Horner was gunned down in his car in Kabul.

Delhi Traffic Police stops Hrithik Roshan's film shooting

Hrithik Roshan shot some gravity-defying stunts above the flyover bridge at Mayur Vihar Extension Metro station in Delhi on Sunday morning.

Hrithik and Katrina Kaif have been shooting in the capital, favouring Delhi's flyovers for their film's action sequences. The shooting was stopped in the afternoon by the Delhi Traffic Police, for causing a jam.

The duo traveled across Spain while shooting for Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. She also did a special song and dance number in his Agneepath. The song Chikni Chameli was shot over three days with Hrithik on the sets for just a day. Bang Bang has brought them together once again and according to the source their friendship seems to have deepened.