NEWS,20.07.2012

12 killed, 59 wounded in Colorado theater shooting

A gunman in a gas mask barged into a crowded Denver-area theater during a midnight showing of the new Batman movie Friday, hurled a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring at least 50 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.When the smoke began to spread, some moviegoers thought it was a stunt that was part of the "The Dark Knight Rises," one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer. They saw a silhouette of a person in the haze near the screen, pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting."There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," Jennifer Seeger said, adding that the gunman, dressed like a SWAT team member, fired steadily, stopping only to reload."Every few seconds it was just: Boom, boom, boom," she said. "He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed."The suspect was taken into custody near a car behind the theater and was identified by federal law enforcement officials as 24-year-old James Holmes.Holmes was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver, university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said. Holmes enrolled a year ago and was in the process of withdrawing at the time of the shootings, Montgomery said.Authorities gave no motive for the attack. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups.Police said 71 people were shot. Another 59 adults and children were wounded. Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said the suspect wore a gas mask, a ballistic helmet and vest as well as leg, groin and throat protectors. He said he had an AR-15 military-style, semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and two pistols.FBI agents and police used a hook and ladder fire truck to reach Holmes' apartment in Aurora, Oates said. They put a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole inside the apartment and discovered the unit was booby-trapped. Authorities evacuated five buildings as they tried to figure how to disarm the flammable and explosive material."It's something I've never seen before," Oates said.At least 24 people were being treated at Denver-area hospitals, some of them for chemical exposure apparently related to canisters thrown by the gunman. Some of those hurt were children, including a 4-month-old baby, who was treated a hospital and released.Police released a statement from Holmes' family: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."The movie opened across the world Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The shooting prompted officials to cancel the red-carpet premiere in Paris, with workers pulling down the display at a theater on the Champs-Elysees. Around the U.S., police and some movie theaters stepped up security for daytime showings of the movie, though many fans waiting in line said they were not worried about their safety.President Barack Obama said he was saddened by the "horrific and tragic shooting," pledging that his administration was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded."It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others.In Colorado, it was the deadliest since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire in the Denver suburb of Littleton, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves. Columbine High is about 12 miles from the theater.Friday's attack began shortly after midnight at the multiplex theater.The film has several scenes of public mayhem  a hallmark of superhero movies. In one scene, the main villain Bane leads an attack on the stock exchange and, in another, leads a shooting and bombing rampage on a packed football stadium.The gunman released a gas that smelled like pepper spray from a green canister, Seeger said. "I thought it was showmanship. I didn't think it was real," she said.Seeger said she was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face. At first, "I was just a deer in headlights. I didn't know what to do," she said. Then she ducked to the ground as the gunman shot people seated behind her.She said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl of about 14 "lying lifeless on the stairs." She saw a man with a bullet wound in his back and tried to check his pulse, but "I had to go. I was going to get shot."Witness Shayla Roeder said she saw a teenage girl on the ground bleeding outside the theater. "She just had this horrible look in her eyes. .... We made eye contact and I could tell she was not all right," Roeder said.Police, ambulances and emergency crews swarmed on the scene after frantic calls started flooding the 911 switchboard. Officers came running in and telling people to leave the theater, Salina Jordan told the Denver Post. She said some police were carrying and dragging bodies.Hayden Miller told KUSA-TV that he heard several shots. "Like little explosions going on and shortly after that we heard people screaming," he told the station. Hayden said at first he thought it was part of a louder movie next door. But then he saw "people hunched over leaving theater."

Bank bailout fails to ease fears for Spain

 

Concerns about Spain's crippling financial problems flared again Friday as even news that the country had been given the final go-ahead for a bank bailout loan of up to €100 billion ($122.9 billion) failed to take the sting out of a further round of bad economic news.Earlier Friday, finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro unanimously approved the terms for a bailout loan for Spain's banks, which have been struggling under the weight of toxic loans and assets from the collapse of the country's property market. Investors have been fighting shy of Spain for months, worried that the country could not keep control of its deficit during a recession while supporting its stricken financial sector.Spain is the 17-country eurozone's fourth-biggest economy and many market-watchers fear that if it asked for a bailout, the rest of the region could not afford to foot the bill. The country and its banks were also locked in a vicious debt spiral, where the shaky banking system has been propped up by the indebted government so that the banks could buy more government debt. The loan facility agreed to on Friday was designed to break that spiral.The bank agreement came as Spain cut its growth forecast and one of the country's heavily indebted regions asked for help. The news sent the country's borrowing costs soaring and its stock prices plummeting. In afternoon trading, Spain's main IBEX index was down almost 6 per cent while the interest rate on the country's 10-year bond an indicator of investor confidence in a country's ability to manage its debt was at 7.2 percent. This is a rate that many market-watchers consider is too high a price for a country to pay in the long term.Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro on Friday forecast Spain's recession will drag on into 2013, although the economy will not be quite as weak as it now. According to the latest figures, the country's gross domestic product is expected to contract 0.5 percent in 2013,compared with the previous forecast for it to grow by 0.2 percent.Unemployment, which is now at 24.4 percent, will remain about the same next year, Montoro said.Meanwhile, the economy will shrink 1.5 percent this year, a slight improvement from the 1.7 percent drop previously predicted, he added.Also Friday, the region of Valencia that it would become the first to tap a fund designed to help out Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions. Many Spanish regions are so heavily in debt due to overspending and the burst real estate bubble that they cannot raise money at affordable rates. As a result, they are struggling to repay creditors and settle contract bills.The fund for the regions was created only last Friday and will have €18 billion ($22 billion) in capital. A third of that is a loan from the state-owned company that runs Spain's many lotteries.The government this week passed painful austerity measures tax hikes and cuts to benefits, salaries and pensions  to reduce state debt and strengthen confidence in its finances.Spaniards staged massive anti-austerity protests in 80 cities and towns across the country Thursday night. Police say 15 people were arrested and 39 people injured overnight in central Madrid after tens of thousands of people took part in a demonstration.Across Europe, markets tumbled on concerns about Spain. In France, the CAC 40 index dropped 2.14 per cent while the German DAX index was off 1.9 percent. The euro fell to a two-year low of $1.2165.

Here is a round-up of what else is happening around Europe:

BRUSSELS

Finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro unanimously approved the terms for a bailout loan for Spanish banks of up to €100 billion ($122.9 billion).

As part of the deal the "eurogroup" of ministers called Friday for strict monitoring of the banks that receive the aid. It also requires the Spanish government to present this month plans to reduce its budget deficit to under 3 percent of the country's €1.1 trillion ($1.34 trillion) gross domestic product by 2014."The eurogroup is convinced that the reforms attached to this financial agreement will contribute to ensuring a return of all parts of the Spanish banking sector to soundness and stability," the finance ministers said in a statement.Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, welcomed the agreement."The implementation of these measures will contribute to significantly strengthen Spain's financial system, an essential step in restoring growth and prosperity in the country," she said in a statement.The agreement, which will be signed in the next few days, calls for an initial disbursement of €30 billion ($36.9 billion) this month. The full amount of money needed to shore up Spain's banks will not be known until September, after individual banks have been assessed."The aim of this program is very clear: to provide Spain with healthy, effectively regulated and rigorously supervised banks, capable of nurturing sustainable economic growth," Olli Rehn, the European monetary affairs commissioner said in a statement.

FRANCE

France's corporations and wealthy people were in the line of fire Friday, when the country's lower house of parliament passed a revised 2012 budget on Friday to raise €7.2 billion ($8.8 billion) in new revenue.The bill, drawn up by President Francois Hollande's Socialists, reverses many of the measures passed under the former conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy, including: tax breaks on overtime, a lower wealth tax and a reduction in the social charges that employers pay into the state benefit system.The measures were necessary if Hollande's administration is going to stick to a strict schedule for reducing the deficit while growth continues to slip. The amendments assume the country will grow just 0.3 percent this year. The Socialists have said they are committed to reducing the deficit to 4.5 percent of France's gross domestic product this year and 3 percent next.France's €2 trillion ($2.4 trillion) economy is the second largest after Germany's among the 17 countries that use the euro.

ITALY

Italy's Premier Mario Monti admitted Friday that the eurozone debt crisis had spread to Italy and that the country must try to avoid taking a bailout.He emphasized that Italy does not need further budget measures to raise revenue and shore up public finances.Monti was asked to form a government late last year after weeks of market turmoil over Italy's stagnant growth and high public debt  which at €1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) is nearly 120 percent of GDP  forced the previous Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi out of office.Italy's borrowing costs have risen steadily in recent weeks due to fears that the government will not be able to handle this high debt load as the country's economy stagnates.Many of the country's debts are due soon, with Italy having to roll over more than €300 billion ($410 billion) of its debts next year alone. On Friday, the 10-year bond yield was up 0.25 percentage points at 6.15 percent, while the FTSE MIB stock index dropped 4.38 percent.

NEWS,22.03.2012.

Gunman dies in hail of bullets as French siege ends

A 23-year-old gunman who said al Qaeda inspired him to kill seven people in France died in a hail of bullets as he scrambled out of a ground-floor window during a gun battle with elite police commandos. Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, died from gunshot wounds at the end of a 30-hour standoff with police yesterday at his apartment in southern France and after confessing to killing three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi.He was firing at police as he jumped out of the window, Interior Minister Claude Gueant told reporters near the five-storey building, in a suburb of the southern city of Toulouse. Two police commandos were injured in the operation - a dramatic climax to a siege which riveted the world after the killings shook France a month before a presidential election.” At the moment when a video probe was sent into the bathroom, the killer came out of the bathroom, firing with extreme violence," Gueant said. "In the end, Mohamed Merah jumped from the window with his gun in his hand, continuing to fire. He was found dead on the ground.”

 Elite RAID commandos had been locked in a tense standoff since the early hours of Thursday with Merah, periodically firing shots or deploying small explosives until mid-morning on Thursday to try and tire out the gunman so he could be captured. Surrounded by some 300 police, Merah had been silent and motionless for 12 hours when the commandos opted to go inside. Initially, he had fired through his front door at police when they swooped on his ground-floor flat on Thursday morning, but later he negotiated with police, promising to give himself up and saying he did not want to die. He told negotiators he was trained by al Qaeda in Pakistan and killed three soldiers last week and four people at a Jewish school on Tuesday to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and because of French army involvement in Afghanistan. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is running for re-election next month called Merah's killings terrorist attacks and announced a crackdown on people following extremist websites.” From now on, any person who habitually consults websites that advocate terrorism or that call for hate and violence will be punished," he said in a statement. "France will not tolerate ideological indoctrination on its soil.” His handling of the crisis could well impact an election race where for months he has lagged behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls. Early on Thursday, the first opinion poll since the school shooting showed Sarkozy two points ahead of Hollande in the first-round vote on April 22, although Hollande still led by eight points for a May 6 runoff. Three years of economic gloom, and a personal style many see as brash and impulsive, have made Sarkozy highly unpopular in France, but his proven strong hand in a crisis gives him an edge over a rival who has no ministerial experience.Sarkozy vowed on Wednesday that justice would be done and urged people not to seek revenge.Merah had been under intelligence surveillance and the MEMRI Middle East think tank said he appeared to belong to a French al Qaeda branch called Fursan Al-Izza, ideologically aligned with a movement to Islamise Western states by implementing sharia law. He boasted to police negotiators that he had brought France to its knees, and that his only regret was not having been able to carry out more killings. French commandos had detonated three explosions just before midnight on Wednesday, flattening the main door of the building and blowing a hole in the wall, after it became clear Merah did not mean to keep a promise to turn himself in. They continued to fire shots roughly every hour, and stepped up the pace from dawn with flash grenades.” These were moves to intimidate the gunman who seems to have changed his mind and does not want to surrender," said interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.He was tracked down after a no-holds-barred manhunt in France, during which presidential candidates suspended their campaigning. Immigration and Islam have been major campaign themes after Sarkozy tried to win over supporters of Le Pen, who accused the government of underestimating the threat from fundamentalism. Leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities have called for calm, pointing out the gunman was a lone extremist. On Thursday, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen accused Sarkozy's government of surrendering swathes of often impoverished suburban districts to Islamic fanatics, demanding that the last month of pre-election debate put the focus back on failing security.

NEWS,21.03.2012.

Gunman boasted he brought France to its knees

A besieged gunman suspected of shooting dead seven people in the name of al Qaeda boasted to police on Wednesday he had brought France to its knees. He said his only regret was not having been able to carry out his plans for more killings. In an unfolding drama that has riveted France, about 300 police, cordoned off a five-storey building in a suburb of Toulouse where the 24-year-old Muslim shooter is holed up. The shooter is identified as Mohamed Merah.Authorities said the gunman, a French citizen of Algerian origin, had been to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he claimed to have received training from al Qaeda.

Merah told police negotiators he had killed three French soldiers last week and four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children.” He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins, part of the anti-terrorist unit leading the investigation, told a news conference. The gunman, who filmed his killings with a small camera, had already identified another soldier and two police officers he wished to kill, Molins said. The gunman had repeated promises to surrender this evening to members of the elite RAID unit surrounding the house, which had been evacuated of its other residents.” He has explained that he is not suicidal, that he does not have the soul of a martyr and that he prefers to kill but to stay alive himself," Molins said.Sarkozy, who is running for re-election in five weeks time, paid tribute at a ceremony in an army barracks in Montauban, near Toulouse, to the three soldiers of North African origin killed last week. A fourth soldier of Caribbean origin is in a coma.” Our soldiers have not died in the way for which they had prepared themselves. This was not a death on the battlefield but a terrorist execution," Sarkozy said, standing before three coffins draped in the French flag after paying his respects to bereaved relatives.” We must remain united. We should in no way yield to discrimination or vengeance," he said in his eulogy.” France can only be great in unity. We owe it to the memory of these men; we owe it to the three murdered children, to all the victims."Sarkozy's appeal for national unity came after far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a rival presidential candidate, said France should wage war on Islamic fundamentalism.

 Interior Minister Claude Gueant said Merah was a member of an ideological Islamic group in France but this organisation was not involved in plotting any violence. He said Merah had thrown a Colt 45 pistol of the kind used in all the shootings out of a window of the block of flats, where he has been living, in exchange for a mobile phone, but was still armed. Two police officers were injured in a firelight with the gunman after police swooped at 3 am local time (0200 GMT).Police sources said they had conducted a controlled explosion of the suspect's car at around 9 am (0800 GMT) after discovering it was loaded with weapons. Officials said police had also arrested Merah's girlfriend and his brother, who is also known to authorities as a radical Islamist.Gueant said Merah had contacted the first soldier he attacked on the pretext of wanting to buy his motorcycle. Investigators identified the IP address he used - that of his mother - because he was already under surveillance for radical Islamist beliefs.” We knew, and that is why he was under surveillance, that he had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan," the minister said.Merah's telephone was tapped from Monday and with the help of other information the police decided to raid his house.Merah has a criminal record in France, Gueant said, but nothing indicating such an attack was possible. A police source told  that investigators had also received a tipoff from a scooter repair shop in Toulouse where the gunman asked to change the colour of the Yamaha scooter used to flee the shootings and to remove a GPS tracker device.A group of young men from Merah's neighbourhood described him as a polite man of slight build who liked football and motorbikes and did not seem particularly religious."He isn't the big bearded guy that you can imagine, you know the cliche," said Kamal, who declined to give his family name."When you know a person well you just can't believe they could have done something like this."Sarkozy had been informed of the standoff early in the morning, officials said. The president's handling of the crisis could be a decisive factor in determining how the French people vote in the two-round presidential elections in April and May.The Jewish victims from the Ozar Hatorah school were buried in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Parliament speaker Reuben Rivlin said in his eulogy at the hill-top cemetery that the attack was inspired by "wild animals with hatred in their hearts".Authorities said on Tuesday that the gunman had apparently filmed his rampage through the school with a camera strapped to his body.He wounded Rabbi Jonathan Sandler as he entered the building, then shot an 8-year-old girl in the head, before returning to kill Sandler and his two children, who had rushed to his side, at point blank range.Immigrants and Islam have been major themes of the campaign after Sarkozy tried to win over the voters of Le Pen, who accused the government on Wednesday of underestimating the threat from fundamentalism."We must now wage this war against these fundamentalist political and religious groups that are killing our children, that are killing our Christian children, our Christian young men, young Muslim men and Jewish children," she told the i-Tele news channel, questioning the decision to deploy in Afghanistan.But leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities said the gunman was a lone extremist.France's military presence in Afghanistan has divided the two main candidates in the election.Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande has said he will pull them out by the end of this year while Sarkozy aims for the end of 2013.

NEWS,20.03.2012.

Fears French gunman could strike again

French police stepped up the search today for a gunman who filmed his carnage as he shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school, fearing the killer could strike again.Officials believe the scooter-riding gunman is a trained marksman with "extremist" views who may also be responsible for last week's shootings of three soldiers of North African origin.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has said racism appeared to be the motivation for yesterday's school attack, which came just five weeks before the first round of the presidential election.Racist and anti-Semitic attacks are not uncommon in France.Immigrants and Islam have been major themes of the campaign as Sarkozy tries to win over the voters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Analysts say the shootings could transform the election debate and possibly tone down populist rhetoric."We will track down this monster," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said of the killer on France 2 television. "We will find him, bring him to justice and punish him."France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe and has a history of attacks on both groups, but yesterday's shooting was the most deadly anti-Semitic attack on French soil in nearly 30 years.The police tightened security at religious sites, raised the terror alert in the southern town to the highest possible level and talked to gun clubs in an effort to track down the killer."It would be surprising if he stops now," one police officer involved in the investigation said.Surveillance tapes at the school showed the gunman recorded his shooting spree with a small video camera around his neck.He is also the prime suspect in the killing of three paratroopers in two separate shootings last week in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban."This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel," Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.In each attack, the gunman arrived on a stolen Yamaha scooter and used a Colt 45 handgun. His face was hidden by a motorcycle helmet during the attacks.The three dead soldiers included two members of the 17th parachute regiment. 

Police have interviewed three former soldiers expelled from the regiment for neo-Nazi activity in 2008, but a police source said they had been ruled out of the investigation.At the entrance of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, a five-floor brick building in a leafy residential neighbourhood, residents and parents left floral tributes and candles in memory of the victims.A child who survived the attack spoke of his sheer terror as the shots rang out through the school."We were getting ready for prayers when the principal stormed in and screamed that there was a shooting. I panicked and fled to the old canteen and heard the shots, but saw nothing," an 11-year old boy told France Info radio."I thought he was going to come in any minute and finish us all. Then I waited and waited and then my daddy came to get me."Schools all over France observed a minute of silence."This has happened in Toulouse, in a religious school with children from Jewish families, but it could have happened here. The same killer could have come here, these children are exactly like you," Sarkozy said, attending the silent vigil in a Paris secondary school.The bodies of the four victims, who hold dual French-Israeli nationality, will be repatriated to Israel on Tuesday night, Joel Mergui,the head of a Jewish religious organisation, said.The Israeli embassy identified the victims as Jonathan Sandler, 30, his children Gabriel and Arieh, aged four and five, and Myriam Monsonego, seven.