World News joined 6

Quote:

---

A 23-YEAR-OLD woman killed two fellow students with a revolver in a classroom at a vocational college yesterday, then committed suicide, police said.

The women apparently were shot in their seats in the second-floor classroom at Louisiana Technical College, Baton Rouge Sgt. Don Kelly said. About 20 people were in the emergency medical technology class at the time, he said.

Police identified the victims as Karsheika Graves, 21, and Taneshia Butler, 26.

"Why those two women were targeted ... is still an unanswered question," Kelly said.

Police did not release the shooter's name because her relatives had not been contacted.

The shooter entered the room briefly, spoke with the instructor and left, he said.

She returned through another door and fired six rounds, Kelly said, reloaded and shot herself in the head.

Officers ran into the building within four minutes of the first emergency call, which came at 8:36am (1336 GMT), Kelly said.

"There was mass pandemonium, people running," he said. "One officer -- the first into the classroom -- told me he could still smell gunpowder."

The school offers classes in a dozen subjects including early childhood education, practical nursing, drafting and welding.

School administrators and campus police did not immediately return calls or e-mails.

Louis Davis, who said he was taking an automobile technology class yesterday morning, said a teacher told the students to stay in class because there had been an incident, without adding details. Students had to stay in their classrooms for about two hours and were briefly questioned by police before being released for the day, he said.

Classes were canceled through Tuesday, and tentatively scheduled to resume Wednesday, said Jim Henderson, vice president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.

"This is a tragic day for Baton Rouge, when you come to a learning institution ... and become the victim of a violent crime," Mayor Kip Holden said at the scene.

In Greenville, South Carolina, a student was shot in the leg at Greenville Technical College, but told police it was a self-inflicted accident, a campus official said. The wound was not life-threatening, said Brad Majors, the college marketing director. Majors said campus police and city police would continue to investigate.

---

shanghaidaily.com

Thanks for this.

Quote:

---

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Europeans to support the war in Afghanistan, warning that violence and terrorism could surge worldwide if NATO was defeated there.

While admitting US policy mistakes – and his own role in one of them – Gates urged the allies to come together in the fight against Islamist militants in Afghanistan and said the credibility of NATO itself was at stake.

"The threat posed by violent Islamic extremism is real – and it is not going to go away," Gates told an annual gathering of security and military experts in Munich, Germany.

"I am concerned that many people on this continent may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security," said Gates, admitting public support for the war in Afghanistan was weak in Europe.

His speech was the latest move in a campaign he has undertaken – sometimes quietly, sometimes through blunt public statements – to persuade NATO allies to supply more troops and resources for the mission.

He said NATO could not afford "the luxury" of letting some nations conduct less dangerous missions while others did more fighting and dying – a remark likely to annoy Germany, which confines its forces to the safer north of Afghanistan.

Gates branded Islamist militancy a movement built on false success, saying "about the only thing they have accomplished recently is the deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims while trying to create discord across the Middle East."

"What would happen if the false success they proclaim became real success – if they triumphed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or managed to topple the government of Pakistan? Or a major Middle Eastern government?" he asked.

"With safe havens in the Middle East, and new tactics honed on the battlefield and transmitted via the Internet, violence and terrorism worldwide could surge," he said.

HARD LESSONS

Gates cited more than a dozen attacks or plots against European targets, including bombings in London and Madrid, and recalled the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

"Imagine if Islamic terrorists had managed to strike your capitals on the same scale as they struck in New York," he said.

"For the United States, the lessons we have learned these past six years – and in many cases re-learned – have not been easy ones," Gates said. "We have stumbled along the way, and we are still learning."

Gates said the September 11 attacks were especially poignant as the United States had been heavily involved in Afghanistan in the 1980s only to turn its back on the country after Soviet troops withdrew and it become a safe haven for al Qaeda.

He described the decision to abandon Afghanistan as "a grievous error, for which I was at least partly responsible."

Gates was a senior official in the CIA when it helped mujahideen guerrillas fight the Soviets and later served as US deputy national security adviser and then CIA director.

While declaring NATO's 43,000-troop mission had achieved considerable success in Afghanistan, Gates said: "The really hard question the alliance faces is whether the whole of our effort is adding up to less than the sum of its parts."

---

Reuters

Quote:

---

Shuttle Atlantis astronauts will take a closer look at a minor tear in their ship's heat shield after an undisclosed medical issue sidelined plans for a spacewalk to install Europe's Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station, Nasa officials said.

The spacewalk, the first of three planned during Atlantis' visit, was rescheduled for Monday. Atlantis crew member Hans Schlegel, a German astronaut with the European Space Agency, will be replaced by backup Stanley Love for the task.

Nasa added a day to the previously planned 11-day flight to make up the lost time. Crew members are trying to save enough electricity for a possible 13th day in orbit to give the crew extra time to set up the Columbus laboratory.

Schlegel, 56, sounded cheery after a wake-up call by Mission Control.

"Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for this piece of music. It's a German song about the nature of man and was selected by my dear wife," Schlegel said.

Whether Schlegel would be able to participate in the second spacewalk of the mission had not yet been determined, John Shannon, the co-chairman of the mission management team told reporters.

Atlantis reached the space station on Saturday after a two-day journey that began with a launch on Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The ship carries Europe's first permanent space research laboratory, a $1.9 billion ($NZ2.44) project that is the heart of the European Space Agency's contribution to the $100 billion ($NZ128.78) space station programme.

In addition to Schlegel, who made one previous spaceflight in 1993, Atlantis carried European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who transferred to the space station crew.

Eyharts is to remain behind after Atlantis' delayed departure on February 17, taking the place of NASA's Dan Tani as a member of the resident station crew.

The combined shuttle and station crews began transferring the food, water and other supplies carried aboard Atlantis for the orbital outpost. They also planned to inspect a small tear in a thermal blanket on one of the shuttle's steering engines.

Nasa rigorously inspects the shuttle for heat shield damage since the loss of Columbia and seven astronauts in a 2003 accident triggered by heat shield damage.

---

Reuters

Quote:

---

A suspected suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 25 at an election rally in northwest Pakistan, a provincial government minister said.

Violence has intensified in Pakistan in recent months, with the army battling militants in the northwest and suicide bomb attacks in towns and cities, raising concern about prospects for the nuclear-armed
country in the run-up to February 18 elections.

"We have 16 confirmed dead including three security personnel and 25 wounded," Imtiaz Gillani, information minister of North West Frontier Province, where the attack took place, told Reuters.

Awami National Party provincial president Afrasiab Khattak was leading the rally in the town of Charsadda.

"There was an explosion at my meeting. There was a big bang and I saw some people getting hit. I'm fine," Khattak told Dawn Television.

The ANP is a secular party competing with religious parties in the legislative elections which were postponed from January 8 after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack on Dec 27.

Some Pakistanis believe President Pervez Musharraf, whose popularity has slumped over the past year and whose allies look set to do badly in the vote, might use violence as an excuse to postpone the elections again.

LAWYERS PROTEST

The government has blamed an al Qaeda-linked militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, who is based in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, for the attack on Bhutto and many of the other recent attacks across the country.

The military has stepped up operations against Mehsud in recent weeks. Security analysts fear the militants will launch more attacks in the run-up to the vote as part of their campaign to destabilise the country.

Last year, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao survived two separate suicide bomb attacks in Charsadda that killed scores of people.

Separately, police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a protest by hundreds of lawyers who tried to march to the home of Pakistan's deposed chief justice in the capital, Islamabad.

Former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was dismissed in November when President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule citing rising militancy and a meddling judiciary.

---

Reuters

Quote:

---

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel would target all those responsible for cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, amid calls by top ministers to assassinate Hamas political leaders.

"We will continue to target all terror elements, those who are responsible for them, those who send them," Olmert told his cabinet. "We will not give special consideration to anyone."

He was speaking one day after a rocket seriously wounded two Israelis, including an eight-year-old boy, in the centre of the Israeli town of Sderot, about 5 km (3 miles) from the Gaza Strip, controlled since last June by the Islamist group Hamas.

Gaza militants often fire short-range rockets and mortars at towns in southern Israel in what they say is a response to Israeli attacks on the territory. Few cause damage or injury, the rockets spark widespread panic among residents.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Israel, which had assassinated senior Palestinian leaders including Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004, should "rain fire" on areas of Gaza from which cross-border rockets are fired.

Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should order Palestinian residents of those areas to leave their homes and "demolish everything".

Ramon, Sheetrit and cabinet minister Zeev Boim said anyone involved in the rocket attacks, either directly or indirectly, should be targeted for assassination.

Sheetrit singled out Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas's government in the Gaza Strip, as a "legitimate target".

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, during a visit to Sderot, said the military will "strike with all our means" militants firing the rockets.

"You can hear the helicopter gunships in the air. We will continue to act until we bring an end to the Qassam (rocket) fire," Barak said.

Hamas, which seized Gaza in June after routing rival forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said it carried out Saturday's Sderot attack.

A Hamas militant was killed in an Israeli air strike overnight in the southern Gaza Strip.

As part of a campaign to stop the rocket fire and isolate Hamas, Israel has stepped military action and tightened its blockade of the coastal territory.

Human rights groups criticise what they call "collective punishment" against Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

---

Reuters

Quote:

---

Baghdad - A suicide car bomb killed 33 people in Iraq on Sunday, a security official said, hours before US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad to assess recent security gains and discuss troop levels.

The bomber struck a checkpoint outside a crowded market near the town of Balad in the country's north, said Colonel Hamadi Atshan, a spokesperson for Iraqi security forces in the area.

The checkpoint was run by Sunni Arab volunteers who had joined US forces to fight al-Qaeda, Atshan said, adding women and children were among those killed in one of the worst attacks in Iraq this year.

The US military put the death toll at 23.

"There was a big explosion near the checkpoint. I saw blood, clothes, children's shoes and other personal things strewn on the ground," said Mustafa Kamal, a member of the volunteer security force and who was wounded in the attack.

Troop levels

Gates told reporters he would discuss troop levels with the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

Petraeus is expected to testify to the US Congress in April about possible further cuts in American forces in Iraq should recent drops in violence be sustained.

"I will obviously be interested in hearing from General Petraeus about his evaluation - where he stands and what more work he feels he needs to do before he's ready to come back with his recommendations," Gates said.

Gates is visiting Baghdad a year after a US-Iraqi security offensive was launched with the aid of an extra 30 000 US troops to halt the country's slide into all-out sectarian war.

Security has improved since the additional forces were fully deployed in June, allowing the US military to start withdrawing some troops.

By July, US force levels will have dropped by five brigades, bringing numbers to roughly 130 000, or the same as before the additional deployments began in early 2007.

---

Reuters

Thanks for this.

Quote:

---

http://stuff.co.nz/images/701063.jpg
ATTACKED: East Timor President Jose Ramos-Hort
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was stable after he was shot in the stomach during an attack on his Dili home by rebel soldiers, Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa said.

The president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle for East Timor's independence from Indonesian occupation, was being operated on by an Australian military medical team in Dili after the pre-dawn attack by the gunmen.

"I was in the heliport and yes, he's in a stable condition, his life is not endangered," da Costa told CNN television, referring to a heliport at an Australian military base in Dili where Ramos-Horta was taken.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the assault and an East Timor soldier was also seriously wounded, military spokesman Domingos da Camara said.

Da Costa said Ramos-Horta would be flown to the Australian city of Darwin for further treatment and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was in charge of the country. It was still unclear who carried out the attack, he said.

"We haven't had confirmation (that Reinado and his renegades were involved)," da Costa said. "At least two of them had military uniforms," he said, which pointed to the involvement of rebels.

The military said attackers in two cars were involved in the raid on the president's isolated home at 4.30am. International security forces placed a cordon around the house and were patrolling Dili's streets to prevent fresh violence.

A spokesman for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was deeply concerned by the attack, which was a reminder of the continuing fragile nature of security in Timor Leste.

It was important that the shooting should not undermine the fledging democracy there, he said.

The Government was getting updates on the situation from the New Zealand embassy but had no information as yet about Mr Ramos-Horta's condition.

Prime Minister Helen Clark is expected to comment about the situation at her post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon.

Asia's youngest nation has been struggling to claw its way back to stability after plunging into chaos in 2006 when the army tore apart on regional lines.

The factional bloodshed two years ago killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes, with foreign troops needed to restore order.

Reinado has led a revolt against the government and has been charged with murder during the 2006 factional violence.

Rebels loyal to Reinado fired on Australian troops patrolling near Dili earlier this month, an Australian commander said at the time.

Last August President Jose Ramos-Horta met Reinado to seek an end to the unrest.

"At the meeting, both sides expressed support for a dialogue process with the aim of settling their differences peacefully and ending the armed confrontation," the Swiss-based mediators, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, said in a statement at the time.

It called the meeting "a positive move towards the start of a genuine dialogue process."

Ramos-Horta, the nation's former prime minister, was sworn in as president last May, succeeding Xanana Gusmao.

Although he shares revolutionary roots with Fretilin, he has taken an increasingly independent path and is seen as more friendly than Fretilin stalwarts to international investment and the West.

He won the Nobel prize in 1996 and returned to East Timor in 1999 after living abroad for more than two decades.

---

, NZPA

Quote:

---

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said, directing his words to U.S. President George W. Bush. "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar (euro) oil project by Chavez's government last year. A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.

"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President."

"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, saying the Irving, Texas-based oil major acts in concert with Washington and is part of corporate "worldwide mafias."

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive in courts internationally.

"If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil is going to reach $200 (a barrel) and Venezuela will join the economic war," Chavez said. "And more than one country is willing to accompany us in the economic war."

---

FOX