Psycho Stapleton: Extraordinary name given to court by man accused of shooting dead Indian student

'I'm Psycho... Psycho Stapleton: Extraordinary name given to court by man accused of shooting dead Indian student

* Kiaran Stapleton, 20, from Salford, is charged with murder
* Anuj Bidve was shot dead at point-blank range on Boxing Day



The man accused of gunning down Indian student Anuj Bidve on Boxing Day gave his name as 'Psycho Stapleton' when he appeared in court today charged with murder.

Kiaran Stapleton, 20, from Ordsall, Salford, was remanded in custody for 24 hours at City of Manchester Magistrates' Court.

A scrum of TV cameramen and photographers crowded the prison van carrying Stapleton as it arrived at court, while inside the courtroom was packed with reporters.

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Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot at close range in the Ordsall district of Salford, Greater Manchester on Boxing Day

Let's pray together: The heart-breaking plea by kidnapped college student to her captors - just minutes before they executed her

Eve Carson, the University of North Carolina student president brutally murdered by two thugs in 2008, pleaded for her life and even asked them to pray with her, startling court testimony has revealed.

The 20-year-old was kidnapped as she left the university library on March 5, 2008 and forced to take out money from an ATM before she was shot five times.

Jayson McNeil, of Durham, an acquaintance of the two men accused of killing Miss Carson, said in court yesterday that he was told what happened.

Victim: Eve Carson was kidnapped in March 2008 and forced to withdraw money from an ATM before being shot dead.Suspects: Demario James Atwater, right, has already pleaded guilty, while Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr, left, is on trial for kidnapping and killing Ms Carson

Two condemned to death for Belarus metro bombing

Belarus, the only European country still to carry out state executions, on Wednesday sentenced two men to death for a bomb attack at a metro station in Minsk which killed 15 people and ...

Norway divided after mass killer declared insane

Prosecutors Svein Holden (right) and Inga Bejer Engh comment the psychiatric evaluation of Anders Behring Breivik at a news conference at Oslo Police station on November 29, 2011

A report declaring mass killer Anders Behring Breivik insane, meaning he will most likely end up in a psychiatric institution rather than jail, has divided Norwegians who are still traumatised by the July massacre.

From disbelief and anger to acceptance that this may be the best way forward, Norwegians reacted strongly to the conclusions of a mental health assessment released yesterday about the man who committed the country’s worst ever attacks since World War Two.

Breivik killed 77 people on July 22 when he planted a car bomb that killed eight people at an Oslo government building, then went on to shoot dead 69 more, most of them teenagers, at an island summer camp of the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing.

Neo-Nazi murders, film confession shock Germany

People attend a vigil for the victims of racist violence at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, November 13, 2011.



Germany’s Interior Minister warned yesterday of a “new form of far-right terrorism” as details emerged of a grotesque film left by members of a neo-Nazi cell in eastern Germany, in which they claimed the murder of nine immigrants between 2000 and 2006.

Prosecutors said police had arrested a suspected accomplice of the group, which referred to itself in the film as the “Nationalist Socialist Underground,” and which is also thought to be behind the murder of a policewoman in 2007 and a bomb attack on a Turkish area of Cologne in 2004.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the murders were shameful for Germany.

Propofol infusion dominates Jackson doctor’s trial

A top medical expert offered damaging testimony against Michael Jackson’s former doctor yesterday, calling one defence theory a “crazy scenario” and offering a dramatic look at how the drug that killed the pop star could have been infused into his body.

The testimony of Dr Steven Shafer, an expert on the drug propofol that is seen as the chief cause of the singer’s death, left defendant Dr Conrad Murray looking exasperated as he sat in the courtroom.





It came as prosecutors were poised to wrap up their involuntary manslaughter case against Murray.

Murray has admitted that on June 25, 2009 — the day Jackson died — he injected the singer with propofol as a sleep aid but has pleaded not guilty to being responsible for his death.

In prior testimony, jurors have heard several doctors slam Murray for administering propofol by himself in a home when the powerful anaesthetic is normally used for surgery in a medical facility full of monitoring and emergency equipment.

Shafer demonstrated yesterday how Murray could have used a clumsy but deadly IV infusion of propofol to administer the drug into a vein in Jackson’s leg to help him sleep.

Jurors watched as the pure white propofol Jackson called his “milk” flowed down an IV tube and mixed with saline fluid, then emptied into a bottle that represented the singer’s body.

Shafer said it was essential for the anaesthetic to drip at a set rate and testified that Murray wrongly did not have a pump to control the flow. “He is responsible for every drop of propofol in that room,” Shafer told jurors.

Murray watched, wide-eyed and exasperated. After the demonstration, he slumped to one side of his chair with his hand at his mouth and a resigned look on his face.

Shafer is the final witness called by prosecutors. Murray’s defence attorneys are expected to cross-examine him today, then begin calling their own witnesses to the stand.

In his second full day on the stand, Shafer also undercut defence theories that Jackson could have given himself propofol and the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam and caused his own death.

Shafer said the 50-year-old “Thriller” singer would have had to inject himself several times with propofol, each time falling in and out of consciousness, to achieve a cumulative rise of the drug in his bloodstream.

“People don’t wake up ... hellbent to give themselves another dose,” Shafer said. “It’s a crazy scenario.”

He used charts to argue the most likely scenario to explain the level of propofol found in Jackson’s bloodstream at autopsy is that Murray had him on an intravenous drip of the drug when the singer went into cardiac arrest.

Before that moment, the propofol caused Jackson to stop breathing with Murray failing to keep watch over the singer, Shafer said. He added that had Murray paid attention, he could have saved Jackson.

“He could easily have just turned off the propofol infusion,” Shafer said. “... And there would have been no injury to Michael Jackson.”

Medical examiners determined Jackson died of an overdose of propofol, with the lorazepam playing a contributing role.

Murray’s defence attorneys, in addition to suggesting Jackson “self-administered” more propofol, have argued the singer could have swallowed more lorazepam than the four milligrams Murray said he infused into the singer.

But Shafer also criticised that theory. He said the amount of actual lorazepam found in Jackson’s stomach — as opposed to the harmless, metabolised form of the drug — was minuscule.

Murray faces a maximum four years in prison if convicted. — Reuters

Obama's secret death warrant on al-Awlaki revealed

President Obama's secret memorandum authorising the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki was only legally valid if he could not be taken alive, it has emerged.

The legal writ, issued by the Justice Department, tackled the issues surrounding the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen by the American government - on the surface an unconstitutional act.



The issuing of the document followed fraught negotiations between administration officials and lawyers at the DOJ.Constitutional? Anwar al-Awlaki - a U.S. born citizen - was killed using secret authorisation from the justice department

Killed: Anwar al-Awlaki, left, and Osama bin Laden have both died following attacks by the U.S.legal? Officials at both the White House and the Justice Department have since refused all requests to answer how fifth amendment rights - guaranteeing a fair trial for all U.S. citizens - were satisfied by the secret memorandum

Officials at both the White House and the Justice Department have since refused all requests to answer how fifth amendment rights - guaranteeing a fair trial for all U.S. citizens - were satisfied by the secret memorandum.

The New York Times revealed more information regarding the secret document today.

The paper reported the roughly 50-page document was completed by the DOJ's legal Counsel around June last year.

According to the paper: 'The deliberations to craft the memo included meetings in the White House Situation Room involving top lawyers for the Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence agencies.

'It was principally drafted by David Barron and Martin Lederman, who were both lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel at the time, and was signed by Mr. Barron.'

The news follows the revelation that American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government aides.

Once the panel adds a terror suspect to its list it then informs the president, White House officials told Reuters.

There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council.

Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.

The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda connections, to the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month.

The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process.

Current and former officials said that to the best of their knowledge, Awlaki, who the White House said was a key figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, had been the only American put on a government list targeting people for capture or death due to their alleged involvement with militants.

Amanda Knox's Emotional Journey Home

Sadistic teenager hangs pet and posts pictures online.

A sick 17-year-old boy filmed himself hanging his pet pooch and posted photos of it on Facebook saying, 'I’ve killed my dog - ha, ha.'

The picture shows the helpless dog - still apparently struggling - swinging from a clothesline while Kamil Hric looks on laughing.

Hric, from Poprad, Slovakia - who was arrested after other horrified Facebook users alerted police - told prosecutors: 'So what? It's only a dog. I did it for fun.'

A police spokesman said: 'We don’t know what made him do this but we will be carrying out psychiatric reports.'

In another shocking display of animal cruelty, a dog was buried alive in Malta last week.

 Appalling cruelty: This is how star the crossbreed dog was discovered; buried alive, with all her legs tied together and with 40 gun pellets in her skull.Sadistic: Teenager Kamil Hric from Slovakia uploaded this picture of him hanging his pet dog on Facebook

The cross-breed mongrel was found by chance near the city of Birzebbuga by animal welfare officers investigating an unrelated case.

The dog, who was later named Star by her rescuers, was found buried in the dirt after officers heard whimpering from beneath a wooden board.

A tree stump had been placed on top of it to weigh it down. Star was buried alive up to her nose and had been shot in the head 40 times.

Her four legs had been tied together and she had been shot repeatedly with a pellet gun.

Star miraculously survived an operation to remove the 40 pellets from her head at Ta' Qali hospital, in Central Malta.

Muslim girl, 19, 'stoned to death after taking part in beauty contest'

A teenage Muslim girl was stoned to death under 'Sharia law' after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.

Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Murdered: Katya Koren was attacked after taking part in a beauty contest which her friends said angered hardline Muslims

Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared.

Police have opened a murder probe and are investigating claims that three Muslim youths killed her claiming her death was justified under Islam.

One of the three - named as 16-year-old Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest and told police she had 'violated the laws of Sharia'.

Gaziev said he had no regrets about her death because she had violated the laws of Islam.

Study ties new al Qaeda chief to murder of journalist Pearl

Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian militant recently appointed interim leader of al Qaeda operations, has been linked to the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, US investigators said in a report.

A Wall Street Journal reporter, Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on Islamist militants, and was later beheaded.

The findings by investigators of the Pearl Project revealed al-Adel had discussed Pearl’s abduction with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, also known as KSM, the accused mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“KSM told the FBI that he was pulled into the kidnapping by a high-level leader in al Qaeda circles, an Egyptian named Saif al-Adel, who told him to make the kidnapping an al Qaeda operation,” said the investigators in their report which was published in January.





Journalism academics and students set up the Pearl Project at Georgetown University in the United States to investigate Pearl’s kidnapping and murder.

The linkage of al-Adel to Pearl’s murder shows the long-standing ties between al Qaeda and Pakistan militancy, which flourishes not only in the lawless northwest along the Afghan border but in Karachi and other urban centres.

Pearl fell into al Qaeda’s hands after Pakistani militants, the subject of Pearl’s research, kidnapped him.

Al-Adel learned of Pearl and approached Mohammad to take him off the Pakistani militants’ hands.

“He (al-Adel) thought this was an opportunity,” Mohammad told FBI agents, according to the report’s authors.

“We can take advantage of it. He said he wanted to make sure it’s an al Qaeda thing.”

Mohammad, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and taken to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, later admitted he beheaded Pearl.

Mohammad told investigators he initially had no idea about the kidnapping and he also said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was reportedly angry over Pearl’s brutal killing, the report said.

A former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo Bay military commissions told the researchers: “One of the high value detainees told interrogators that Osama bin Laden was angry that KSM had slaughtered Pearl so publicly and brutally, arguing that the murder brought unnecessary attention on the network.”

A British-born Islamist militant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in 2002 for his role in Pearl’s killing. He has appealed his conviction. Three other co-accused who face life sentences, have also appealed.

Al-Adel, the latest militant named in connection with Pearl’s murder, was appointed al Qaeda’s temporary leader following the killing of bin Laden by US special forces in a Pakistani town on May 2.

US prosecutors say al-Adel is one of al Qaeda’s top military commanders and helped plan 1998 bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They also say he set up al Qaeda training camps in Sudan and Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Guatemala Massacre Comes With Chilling Message - 27 people decapitated on Guatemala farm

Guatemala's government has declared a "state of siege" in the Peten region near Mexico's border in response to the recent massacre of nearly 30 field workers on a ranch in the area.

Syrian government denies mass grave claims - Unrest in Syria: 'Mass grave discovered in Deraa'

Students in Syria's second-largest city called for a nationwide strike today amid a government crackdown on democracy protesters, some of whom alleged Tuesday that they had discovered a mass grave of ...

£1.7m and you can save your eyes: Iranian woman blinded in acid attack names her price

It will cost an Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a fellow student two million euros - or £1.7million - to escape a court-ordered blinding.

‘I announced that I want two million euros to guarantee my life and my future, and not for treatment,’ Ameneh Bahrami told the Arman newspaper.

‘It is only then that I will give up qesas (retributive justice) against Majid, although they said - and I hope it is true - that the sentence will be carried out next week,’ she added

 Revenge: Ameneh Bahrami was left with horrific scars after Majid Movahedi threw sulphuric acid in her eyes after he had begged her in vain to marry him. She is seen here holding photos of how she used to look

Twisted: Majid Movahedi had stalked Ameneh before his heinous crime

Majid Movahedi was sentenced to be blinded in both eyes in February 2009 after being convicted of hurling acid in the face of university classmate Bahrami when she repeatedly spurned his offer of marriage.

The court-ordered blinding of Movahedi was postponed at the 11th hour on Saturday. No official reason was given.

Bahrami, the driving force behind the sentence, had travelled to the Iranian capital from Spain where she now lives in the expectation of it being carried out. She even said she was ready to do the blinding herself.

Amnesty International had called on Friday for a stay of the sentence, which it described as ‘amounting to torture’.

'Regardless of how horrific the crime suffered by Ameneh Bahrami, being blinded with acid is a cruel and inhuman punishment amounting to torture,' said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director for Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

The Islamic sharia code in force in Iran provides for eye-for-an-eye-style retributive justice, most commonly for murder or those convicted of causing intentional physical injury.

Bahrami, who was 24 when she met Movahedi in 2002, has been undergoing medical treatment for her disfigurement for years in Spain. She is blind in both eyes and still has serious injuries to her face and body.

A number of acid attacks have been reported in Iran in recent years and the press has been generally supportive of Bahrami, publishing sympathetic interviews with her, and photographs of her face before and after the attack.

In December 2010, Iran's Supreme Court upheld another sentence to blinding handed down against a man convicted of an acid attack against his wife's lover that deprived him of his sight. There has been no reported confirmation of it ever being carried out.

Obama: Osama bin Laden killed in shootout

 News anchors prepare to go live from the briefing room as US President Barack Obama delivers remarks to the nation from the White House in Washington, May 1, 2011.

 US President Barack Obama announcing live on television the death of Osama bin Laden from the White House in Washington yesterday, May 1, 2011

 May 26, 1998 file photo of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The elusive Al Qaeda leader is dead and his body has been recovered by US authorities, CNN reported yesterday, May 1, 2011

 Firemen battle the fires in the Pentagon after a hijacked airliner crashed into the building in this September 11, 2001 file photo. Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the attack.

 The World Trade Center towers in New York burn on September 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the attacks on New York and Washington.

People cheer and wave US flags outside the White House as President Obama delivers his remarks to the nation.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama said yesterday.

“Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.

It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team, and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012.

And it was at least a huge symbolic blow to al Qaeda, the militant organisation that has staged bloody attacks in many Western and Arab cities, and has been the subject of a worldwide campaign against it.





Obama said US forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad, north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

In Washington, thousands of people gathered quickly outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting “USA, USA, USA”. People in cars blew their horns in celebration and people streamed to Lafayette Park across from the presidential mansion. Police vehicles with their lights flashing stood vigil.

“I’m down here to witness the history,” Laura Vogler, a junior at American University in Washington, said outside the White House. “My boyfriend is commissioning as a Marine next week. So I’m really proud of the troops.”

Many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden after he vanished in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in late 2001 as US and allied forces invaded the country in response to the September 11 attacks.

Intelligence that originated last August provided the clues that eventually led to bin Laden’s trail, the president said. A US official said Obama gave the final order to pursue the operation last Friday morning.

“The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children,” Obama said.

A crowd gathered in Lafayette Park outside the White House erupted in jubilation at the news. Hundreds of people waved flags, hugged and cheered.

Bipartisan cheerWASHINGTON, May 2 — Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama said yesterday.

“Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.


t is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team, and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012.

And it was at least a huge symbolic blow to al Qaeda, the militant organisation that has staged bloody attacks in many Western and Arab cities, and has been the subject of a worldwide campaign against it.

Obama said US forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad, north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

In Washington, thousands of people gathered quickly outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting “USA, USA, USA”. People in cars blew their horns in celebration and people streamed to Lafayette Park across from the presidential mansion. Police vehicles with their lights flashing stood vigil.

“I’m down here to witness the history,” Laura Vogler, a junior at American University in Washington, said outside the White House. “My boyfriend is commissioning as a Marine next week. So I’m really proud of the troops.”

Many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden after he vanished in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in late 2001 as US and allied forces invaded the country in response to the September 11 attacks.

Intelligence that originated last August provided the clues that eventually led to bin Laden’s trail, the president said. A US official said Obama gave the final order to pursue the operation last Friday morning.

“The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children,” Obama said.

A crowd gathered in Lafayette Park outside the White House erupted in jubilation at the news. Hundreds of people waved flags, hugged and cheered.

Bipartisan cheer

Former President George W. Bush, who famously vowed to bring bin Laden to justice “dead or alive” but never did, called the operation a “momentous achievement” after Obama called him with the news.

Martin Indyk, a former US assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, described bin Laden’s death as “a body blow” to al Qaeda at a time when its ideology was already being undercut by the popular revolutions in the Arab world.

Statements of appreciation poured in from both sides of Washington’s often divided political divide. Republican Senator John McCain declared, “I am overjoyed that we finally got the world’s top terrorist”.

Said former President Bill Clinton: “I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al Qaeda attacks.”

Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

Bin Laden had been hunted since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan close to the Pakistan frontier in 2001.

The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Hunt for Serial Killer Turns Up More Bones Along Long Island Beaches- Bones Found at Jones Beach; Unclear if Human - Buffalo native amongst LI killer's victims

The heavily thicketed ground that borders a highway along a stretch of New York beaches where as many as 10 bodies have been found is now being examined as the disposal site

Sailor in court over submarine shootings

HMS Astute, the first of the biggest ever hunter-killer submarines to be ordered by Britain’s Royal Navy, sails into the River Clyde and up the Gareloch to her new home at HM Naval Base Clyde in Faslane near Glasgow, Scotland in this file picture of November 20, 2009.

A Royal Navy sailor appeared in court today accused of shooting dead a colleague and of the attempted murders of three other crew on board a nuclear-powered submarine.

Ryan Donovan, 22, Dartford, Kent, spoke only to confirm his name, age and address during the short hearing at Southampton Magistrates' Court.

Donovan has been charged with killing Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, who was fatally shot on board HMS Astute while it was docked in Southampton on Friday.





He has also been charged with the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hodge, 45.

Donovan was remanded in custody to appear at Winchester Crown Court on April 13, the Press Association reported.

The shootings took place as local dignitaries, including the city council's mayor, chief executive and leader, were being given a tour of the submarine while it was on a five-day official visit to the city.

Royston Smith, a local council leader on board and a former Royal Air Force engineer disarmed the shooter.

Police and the defence ministry have said the shooting was not terrorism-related and there was no risk to the public

Survivors of Rio school massacre seen on CCTV sprinting away from class where killer opened fire

Pupils in the Brazilian school where a gunman went on a murderous rampage can be seen fleeing for their lives in images captured on a security camera in the corridor.

Wellington de Oliveira, 24, killed 13 children and injured 20 more in yesterday's attack on Tasso de Oliveira elementary school in the Realengo suburb of Rio de Janeiro.

In one CCTV image, the former pupil can be seen holding his gun outside the classroom where he launched his bloody spree before turning the weapon on himself.

The gunman roamed the halls of the school for children aged 10 to 15, lining his victims against a wall and shooting them in the head at point blank range as he shouted 'I'm going to kill you all!'

Killing spree: 24-year-old Wellington de Oliveira shot dead 13 children at a Rio de Janeiro school and then himself

The pupils can be seen fleeing from the carnage. Eleven of their classmates were killed before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.Pupils are seen on security cameras running from the classroom in Tasso da Silveira school after the gunman opened fire.The pupils can be seen fleeing from the carnage. Eleven of their classmates were killed before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.One of the pupils exits the classroom with a bullet wound in his shoulder after the attack in the Realengo neighborhood of Rio.The security camera image shows Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 24, walking inside a corridor of the Tasso da Silveira school with a gun in his hand

He had told school officials who approached him that he was there to deliver a speech, and then opened fire on students with two pistols.

Two boys, one with a gunshot wound, fled the school ran to two police officers on patrol two blocks away.

The officers sprinted to the school and exchanged fire with the gunman.He was hit in the leg, fell down and realising he was caught, shot himself in the head.

'He saw me and aimed a gun at me,' said officer Marcio Alves. 'I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head.'

Jade Ramos, a student at the school, said the gunman repeatedly yelled 'I'm going to kill you all!'

'He had already killed a lot of children in the first floor and in the yard,' she said.

'He kept telling the kids to face the wall and was shooting at their heads. The children kept begging, 'No, please!' There was a lot of blood, children agonizing on the stairs.'

Ramos said she escaped by running into a classroom, where a teacher then locked the door and barricaded it with tables.

'He came in shooting,' said Andreia Machado, recounting what her 13-year-old daughter, Thayane, told her before going into surgery.

Thayane was hit by three bullets and lost feeling in her legs because one hit her spine, said her mother. Crying as she spoke, Machado wondered if her daughter would ever be able to return to school - or walk.

'She's such an active child,' she said. 'That's the biggest fear I have, her not being able to walk again. But we have to trust in God.'

Those killed were between the ages of 12 and 15. One of the boys died at a hospital about 12 hours after the shooting.

Oliveira left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

The letter also explained in detail how Oliveira wanted his corpse to be cared for - bathed and wrapped in a white sheet that he left in a bag in the first room where he said he would start shooting. The letter also states that the gunman should not be touched by anyone who is 'impure' unless they wear gloves.

'If possible I want to be buried next to my mother. A follower of God must visit my grave at least once. He must pray before my grave and ask God to forgive me for what I have done,' read the letter, portions of which were posted on the Globo television network's website.

Edmar Peixoto, the deputy mayor of western Rio, said the letter also stated the gunman had AIDS.

About 400 people were inside the school when the shooting began about 8:30 a.m. local time.

'What happened in Rio is without a doubt the worst incident of its kind to have taken place in Brazil,' said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert at the University of Sao Paulo.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said life at the four-story, pastel yellow and green school was turned into a 'hellish nightmare'.

'This day would have been so much worse if it weren't for the hero policeman,' Paes told reporters at the school.

Rio Governor Sergio Cabral called the shooter a 'psychopath' and said there were no indications anyone else was involved in the shooting, but that the investigation would continue.

'We have to investigate where he got the weapons and where he learned to use them,' the governor said.

Terrified parents rushed to the school in the Realengo neighborhood. Television images showed them crying and screaming for information about their children.

Zilda Nunes, 67, lives across the street from the school and said three of her grandchildren were inside when the shooting began.

She screamed for help when she heard the gunfire, but didn't enter the building. As students fled, she offered them sugar water to help calm them down, she said.

'There were so many children shot, so much blood,' Nunes said. 'People were asking for help, but what could I do?'

Three helicopters were landing and taking off from a football field next to the school, ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, attending an event in the capital, Brasilia, lamented the deaths of "defenseless children."

'I ask for one minute of silence for these children who were taken so early from their life,' she said, her voice cracking and eyes welling with tears. 'It's not in the nature of our nation to have these types of crimes.'

 Carnage: Firefighters carry the body of the suspect from the building after he opened fire with a handgun

 Distraught: Parents scream for information after the shooting this morning

 Motive? The gunman, believed to be a former pupil at the school, left a note stating he wanted to kill himself

 Worst nightmare: Anxious parents and relatives of pupils wait outside school desperate for news of their loved-ones

 Ready for action: Armed police arrive at the school after the alarm was raised

Indonesian copper mine workers protest after killings

Workers from Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Inc’s gold mine go on strike in front of the local parliament in Timika, Indonesia’s Papua province, April 8, 2011

Hundreds of workers at an Indonesian copper and gold mine run by Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc protested today after the killing of two colleagues, which heightened concern about security along the jungle road they need to take to work.

Local police said two men had died inside a burning car yesterday, a day after two other people were wounded in a shooting near the huge mine in Papua, a province with a simmering separatist movement.

Yesterday, Freeport said in a statement: “Initial reports from police indicated that the vehicle appears to have been fired upon.” Police would not comment on whether the men had been shot at.

Freeport said production at the mine continued as normal.



“Several employees expressed their grief and solidarity in a peaceful manner and operational activity is normal,” Jakarta-based Freeport spokesman Ramdani Sirait said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Friday.

The police said they would beef up security in the area.

“We will scour the area ... We can’t underestimate this,” the area’s deputy police chief, Mada Laksanta, told Reuters.

The mine has been a frequent source of friction in Papua because of its environmental impact, the low share of revenue going to local Papuans and the legality of payments to Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.

In 2002, two American teachers and an Indonesian companion were killed in an ambush outside the Freeport installation.

Previous deadly attacks blamed on separatists have generally been unsophisticated and the movement is poorly armed. The military and police generally keep a tight rein on the province.

Freeport is the world’s biggest publicly traded copper miner and its Grasberg facility, 3,400km east of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, has the world’s largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold reserves.

It expects to sell 1.0 billion pounds of copper and 1.3 million ounces of gold this year, down from 2010 sales of 1.2 billion pounds of copper and 1.8 million ounces of gold, as the Indonesian unit is expected to mine lower-grade ore at the Grasberg pit, the firm said on its website.

Freeport owns 90.64 per cent of PT Freeport Indonesia, which operates the mine in Papua, while the Indonesian government owns the remainder.

Thailand to further probe killing of Reuters journalist

Thai investigators said today they were still trying to establish who killed Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto last year after reversing preliminary findings that a soldier probably fired the fatal bullet.

Muramoto (picture), a 43-year-old Japanese national, was killed by a high-velocity bullet wound to the chest while covering clashes between anti-government “red shirt” protesters and troops in Bangkok’s old quarter on April 10 last year.





Witness accounts in a preliminary state investigation said he was shot from the direction of troops, but authorities now say the type of bullet was inconsistent with those used by soldiers.

Thai investigators have concluded the fatal bullet was of 7.62 mm calibre and that soldiers were armed with M-16 rifles that fire 5.56 mm bullets, the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Tharit Pengdit, told a news conference.

“The bullet that shot Muramoto was 7.62 mm not M-16 that was used by the authorities,” Tharit said. “It could be an AK-47 or something similar ... but exactly who shot him I can’t answer at this point. We need more investigation.”

Television footage showed troops opening fire in the direction of hundreds of protesters, while soldiers came under attack from grenades. Mysterious black-clad gunmen were filmed moving among the demonstrators.

“Of course, the bullet came from the direction of the troops, but we don’t know who fired it because the troops were also surrounded by red-shirt protesters,” said Tharit of the bullet that killed Muramoto.

A preliminary version of the DSI report seen by Reuters in December quoted a witness as saying he saw “a flash from a gun barrel of a soldier”, then watched Muramoto fall after he was shot in the chest while filming the troops.

The DSI also acknowledged on November 16 a soldier may have fired the fatal shot, but said it was too early to conclude the case. The DSI’s report was sent to police for further investigation.

“The apparent contradiction between the preliminary investigation and these reports makes full transparency about the process and the findings imperative,” said Stephen J. Adler, Editor-in-Chief of Reuters News.

Tharit defended the DSI’s investigation. “The reason we submitted a finding earlier to police that Muramoto was likely shot by a soldier was because that was what the witness said. The witness also didn’t see where the bullet was exactly shot from.”

The latest DSI statement will likely rekindle debate over how exactly Muramoto was killed and the identity of mysterious black-clad gunmen filmed moving among the demonstrators or firing from above in sniper positions on the night the journalist died.

It also raises questions over the weapons used by the soldiers. Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said troops deployed in Bangkok on April 10 were armed with US-made M-16 and Israeli-made Tavor rifles, but red shirt witnesses reported the presence of other types of weapons.

A law firm representing the red shirts and their figurehead, fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, issued a report on January 31 quoting from an unspecified number of unidentified officers in Thailand’s military who said the black-clad gunmen were members of the military.

The government says the shadowy gunmen were terrorists who were allied with the red shirts and responsible for most of the deaths during the clashes.

The Bangkok Post yesterday said “the army chief of staff paid the DSI head a visit to complain about an initial department finding” that blamed soldiers for the journalist’s death.

At least 91 people were killed in violence last April and May in Bangkok after the red shirt protesters occupied parts of the capital, and more than 1,800 were wounded. The military fought street battles with gunmen among the red shirts during the crisis, turning parts of central Bangkok into combat zones.

The military has repeatedly insisted that soldiers were not responsible for any of the deaths and injuries during the violence, a claim most independent observers consider implausible.