27 Dead in Fresh US Tragedy

From Page 1
The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.
Another source of confusion in the police probe was whether the shooter killed his mother at the school, where she reportedly worked, or whether she was the extra victim found in a home in Newtown--the 28th body in the day’s bloodshed.
The shooter was wearing dark clothing, a mask, a bulletproof vest, and was carrying four guns.
Obama went on national television to express his “overwhelming grief.” He ordered flags to be lowered at half mast.
And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.
Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.

Gun Control Laws
Activists gathered outside the White House for a vigil and to call for stricter gun-control legislation. Some were there in response to a comment made by White House press secretary Jay Carney about the debate about gun control in which he said, “...I do not think today is that day.”
The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States’ relaxed gun control laws.
However, the White House on Friday scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

Frequent Occurrence
Deadly shootings are a frequent occurrence in US public places, often ending only when the gunman is shot or kills himself.
On Tuesday, a man with a semi-automatic rifle raked an Oregon shopping mall, killing two people, then taking his own life.
In the most notorious recent incident until now a 24-year-old, James Holmes, allegedly killed 12 people and wounded 58 others when he opened fire in a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, in July.
However, despite the tragedies, support for tougher gun ownership laws is mixed, with many Americans opposing restrictions on what they consider to be a constitutional right to keep powerful firearms at home.
Earlier, though, White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to discuss the political fallout, telling reporters this was a day “to feel enormous sympathy for families that are affected.”
But congressman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, immediately responded: “If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don’t know when is.”
“Yet another unstable person has gotten access to firearms and committed an unspeakable crime against innocent children.
We cannot simply accept this as a routine product of modern American life,” he said.
“I am challenging President Obama, the Congress, and the American public to act on our outrage and, finally, do something about this.”
Obama’s presidency has been marred by several mass killings since 2009, including a 2011 attack on Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a point-blank shot to the head, and a rampage at a Colorado movie theater in July that left 12 dead, including the shooter.
After a massacre this summer that killed six people at a Sikh temple, the White House rejected the idea of new gun control legislation.
Obama’s position was that the administration would do everything in its power to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and unstable individuals, while protecting Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.

Gun Lobby
The constitution’s Second Amendment is defended tooth and nail by the US gun lobby, which has been successful in blunting past drives to restrict the sale of high powered weapons.
To change the laws, Obama needs Congress to act, and so far the Republican opposition has blocked all reforms of the federal gun laws, including a return of the ban on assault rifles passed under president Bill Clinton but which expired in 2004 under president George W. Bush.

Foreign Troops Should Leave Afghan Villages

Afghanistan’s president said on Saturday that the US and NATO troops transferring security to local forces should leave the country’s villages as soon as possible and pull back to their bases.
The US has already said that from mid-2013 on, the United States and its allies would operate from fewer bases and that the withdrawal of military supplies and equipment from Afghanistan would accelerate. But the comments from the Afghan leader suggest he would like to see that process gain some momentum, AP reported.
“There will be a change in our relations with the world in 2013,” President Hamid Karzai said at the opening of a conference on Afghan foreign policy strategy. “The US and NATO forces are going to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but before that--in 2013--the transition of security is going to be completed and there will be no military activity of foreign forces in Afghanistan.”
“We are working to make this transition of security happen sooner. We want all the foreign forces to come out of the villages and go to their bases so the Afghan forces can carry out the security,” Karzai said, adding that that after the international forces pull back to their bases, they can gradually return home from there, completing the withdrawal by the end of 2014.
Karzai has long stressed that terrorism is not rooted in Afghan villages, but resides in other sanctuaries outside the country--a veiled reference to neighboring Pakistan.

Anti-Nuclear Rally Held in Japan

Hundreds of protesters and the head of Japan’s Tomorrow Party took to the streets on Saturday to march against nuclear power ahead of the first national election since the Fukushima disaster.
Some protesters played drums while others rapped about the fault of the Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), Reuters reported.
Saturday’s march also included the head of Japan’s Tomorrow Party, Yukiko Kada, governor of the western Japanese prefecture of Shiga and former environmental sociology professor, who launched the party just days before the official campaign kicked off to bring together anti-nuclear forces.
Dancing along with protesters although not marching in front of Tepco herself, Kada asked for votes in Sunday’s election.
“This is the first election since March 11th. We mustn’t forget Fukushima here. Let us fight in this national election in a manner true to the pain the people of Fukushima have endured,” Kada said.
Kada’s platform aims to shut down all nuclear reactors within 10 years, much sooner than the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s goal to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s, and wants to improve conditions for working women to boost the birth rate and stimulate economic growth. Three reactors melted down at the plant, causing the worst radiological release since Chernobyl in 1986, contaminating wide areas of land and forcing about 160,000 people from their homes. Many of those people are unlikely to ever go home.
All of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors were shut down for safety checks after the disaster and only two have resumed operating.

Venezuela Furious at Obama’s Comments on Chavez

The government expressed outrage at US President Barack Obama on Friday for calling Hugo Chavez’s policies “authoritarian” at such a “delicate moment,” with the Venezuelan president recovering from a difficult cancer surgery.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said Obama’s comments were further damaging relations between the two nations and constituted another sign of US “aggression and disrespect,” AP reported.
Venezuela “demands respect from the president of the United States and officials from his government for the dignity of the Venezuelan people, its institutions and especially for the figure of Commander Hugo Chavez,” the statement said.
Obama said in an interview with WLTV Univision 23 in Miami on Thursday when asked about his message for the Venezuelan people: “The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We’ve seen from Chavez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent.” Obama said he wouldn’t speculate on the medical condition of Chavez, who underwent his fourth cancer-related operation in Cuba on Tuesday.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read the government’s response on television Friday, saying that “Venezuela has become an authentic democracy” during Chavez’s government. Venezuelans “openly exercise freedoms and rights that US society is far from reaching,” the statement said. Chavez’s government has long been embroiled in tensions with the US government, even as Venezuela has relied on the US as a top market for its oil.

Thousands Attend Anti-Putin Rally

Several thousand opposition supporters gathered in central Moscow for an unauthorized rally and at least one prominent opposition figure has been detained.
Opposition leaders had applied for permission to hold a march marking a year since a wave of massive protests against Vladimir Putin and the government arose, but city authorities refused to allow the gathering.
There was a heavy police presence around the approximately 3,000 activists who came to Lubyanka Square for the rally. The square is outside the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency of the Soviet KGB.
Russian riot police detained at least three opposition leaders as they tried to attend the rally, witnesses said.
Leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov raised a fist in the air as police grabbed him under the arms and hauled him away into a waiting van near Lubyanka Square.
Ilya Yashin said on Twitter that he and Ksenia Sobchak, both of them prominent members of the opposition, were detained as they made their way to the rally in front of the former KGB security police’s headquarters on Lubyanka Square. The rally is intended to mark 12 months of protests against Putin that have included the biggest demonstrations against the former KGB spy since he rose to power 13 years ago but failed to prevent him winning a six-year third term as president in March.
Moscow city authorities refused to give the opposition permission to hold the protest and police told people to leave as they gathered on Lubyanka Square despite freezing cold.

Pakistan Hails India Ties

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that relations with India have improved since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and there is “growing interaction” between the two countries.
On arrival in Delhi he said that he had a “message of peace and love from the children, women and men, old and young of Pakistan” for the people of India.
Malik signed a new visa agreement with India at the start of his visit.
The deal was agreed after talks between India and Pakistan in September.
India suspended peace talks with Islamabad after the attacks on Mumbai, its financial capital, in which 175 people died.
The attack was blamed by India on the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.
Delhi wants LeT founder Hafiz Saeed - who lives openly in Pakistan - to be extradited. But Malik said on Friday that his country would only do so if the Indian authorities acquired proof of his guilt that would stand up in court.
He said that Pakistani authorities had arrested Saeed three times, but on each occasion the courts had found him innocent and freed him.
The interior minister’s three-day visit comes less than a month after India executed Pakistani-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks.
Malik insisted that it was now necessary to forget the “dark days”. He said that he hoped the visa agreement would trigger more interaction between the people of both nations.
“The journey towards peace is progressing very well, especially with the new visa regime, it will also bring a lot of good for us... Let us not create any negativity,” he said.
The agreement makes it easier for business travelers to get visas quickly and easier for people aged over 65 in both countries to get “on arrival” visas. It also enables members of divided families, tourists and pilgrims to obtain visas speedily instead of waiting for months.
“When Indians enter Pakistan and Pakistanis enter India, they should feel like they are coming home,” Malik said.

Pakistan Hails India Ties

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that relations with India have improved since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and there is “growing interaction” between the two countries.
On arrival in Delhi he said that he had a “message of peace and love from the children, women and men, old and young of Pakistan” for the people of India.
Malik signed a new visa agreement with India at the start of his visit.
The deal was agreed after talks between India and Pakistan in September.
India suspended peace talks with Islamabad after the attacks on Mumbai, its financial capital, in which 175 people died.
The attack was blamed by India on the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.
Delhi wants LeT founder Hafiz Saeed - who lives openly in Pakistan - to be extradited. But Malik said on Friday that his country would only do so if the Indian authorities acquired proof of his guilt that would stand up in court.
He said that Pakistani authorities had arrested Saeed three times, but on each occasion the courts had found him innocent and freed him.
The interior minister’s three-day visit comes less than a month after India executed Pakistani-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks.
Malik insisted that it was now necessary to forget the “dark days”. He said that he hoped the visa agreement would trigger more interaction between the people of both nations.
“The journey towards peace is progressing very well, especially with the new visa regime, it will also bring a lot of good for us... Let us not create any negativity,” he said.
The agreement makes it easier for business travelers to get visas quickly and easier for people aged over 65 in both countries to get “on arrival” visas. It also enables members of divided families, tourists and pilgrims to obtain visas speedily instead of waiting for months.
“When Indians enter Pakistan and Pakistanis enter India, they should feel like they are coming home,” Malik said.

Retaliating Bill

Russian legislators have given initial approval to a bill that would impose sanctions on Americans accused of human rights violations.