Gunman attacks 'Batman' premiere in Colorado, 12 dead,71 Victims

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By Keith Coffman and Stephanie Simon

AURORA, Colo. | Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:21pm EDT

(Reuters) - A gunman in a gas mask and bullet-proof vest killed 12 people at a midnight premiere of the new "Batman" movie in a suburb of Denver early on Friday, sparking pandemonium when he hurled a gas canister
into the auditorium and opened fire on moviegoers.

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"I thought he was just part of a prop": massacre witness

12:20pm EDT

• Police say shooting suspect's home "booby trapped"

The attack injured 55 others including children during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a mall in the suburb of Aurora, which turned into a chaotic scene of bleeding victims, horrified screams and pleas of "I'm hit, help me," witnesses said.

The suspect also booby-trapped his Aurora apartment with sophisticated explosives, creating a hazard for law-enforcement and bomb squad officers who swarmed to the scene. Authorities evacuated five nearby buildings, and created a perimeter of several blocks.

Officers took the suspect into custody in the parking lot behind the cinema, where he surrendered without a fight, police said.

He was armed with a high-powered rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation.

The suspect was identified as James Eagan Holmes, 24, a University of Colorado medical school student who was in the process of dropping out of a graduate program in neurosciences, the university said in a statement. His family issued a statement of sympathy for the victims and asked for privacy while they "process this information."

The living room of the suspect's apartment was crisscrossed with trip wires connected to what appeared to be plastic bottles containing an unknown liquid, said Chris Henderson, Aurora's deputy fire chief. Authorities planned to detonate the suspected explosives with a robot, he said.

"The pictures are fairly disturbing. It looks very sophisticated, how it's booby-trapped. It could be a very long wait," Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters.

The gunman appeared at the front of the theater during the movie and released a canister which let out a hissing sound before gunfire erupted, police said.

"When we got out of the theater it was just chaos. There was this one ... guy, was on all fours crawling. There was this girl spitting up blood," witness Donovan Tate told KCNC television. "There were bullet holes in some people's backs, some people's arms. There was this one guy who was stripped down to just his boxers. It looked like he was shot in the back or something. It was crazy."

Confusion reigned as shooting broke out during an action scene in the summer blockbuster, one of the more highly anticipated films of the year. The gunman may have blended in with other moviegoers who wore costumes as heroes and villains.

"He looked like he was in the military or like he was a SWAT person so he just kind of blended in with the chaos of the crowd. People thought he was probably like a cop or something," witness Jennifer Seeger told NBC's "Today."

Chandler Brannon, 25, who had been watching the movie with his girlfriend, said that about 20 minutes into the movie he saw a smoke bomb go off and heard what sounded like fireworks. He later realized they were a rapid volley of gunshots.

"I told my girlfriend to just play dead," he told Reuters. "All I could see was a silhouette."

CAMPAIGN TAKES A DAY OFF

President Barack Obama, who was notified of the shooting early on Friday morning by his homeland security adviser, John Brennan, urged Americans to "stand together" with the people of Aurora and said political campaigning ahead of the November 6 election should be set aside.

"There are going to be other days for politics. This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection," Obama told supporters at a previously scheduled campaign event in Fort Myers, Florida, which he cut short to address the shooting.

White House officials saw no connection to terrorism, an Obama spokesman said.

Obama's opponent, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, pulled all television ads in Colorado until further notice, campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said, and a scheduled campaign was dedicated to addressing the shooting.

MEMORIES OF COLUMBINE

The shooting evoked memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, also a Denver suburb and 17 miles from Aurora, where two students opened fire and killed 12 students and a teacher.

Six Aurora-area hospitals reported receiving 55 patients from the scene. Ten victims died in the theater and two died in the hospital, Aurora Police spokesman Frank Fania told NBC.

"This is one of the most horrific nights I've ever had to work," said Comilla Sasson, an emergency doctor at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora where 22 patients ranging in age from three months to 45 years arrived in private cars, police cars and ambulances.

U.S. military personnel apparently were among the casualties but it was not immediately clear whether any were killed, the Defense Department said.

Buckley Air Force Base is the largest employer in Aurora, a city of more than 320,000 people, according to the Aurora Economic Development Council.

"Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved," read a statement from Holmes' family in San Diego that was read by police there.

The family, which said it was cooperating with authorities, asked for privacy.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS

In New York, police will deploy officers at screenings of "The Dark Knight Rises" throughout the city "as a precaution against copycats," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

The Paris movie premiere was cancelled on Friday, event organizers said. Workmen cleared away barriers that had been set up in preparation for the premiere at a cinema on the capital's Champs Elysees avenue.

"Warner Bros. is deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time," said Jessica Zacholl, a spokeswoman for Time Warner-owned Warner Bros., the studio behind the film.

The film, with a budget of $250 million, opened on 4,404 screens, the second widest release ever behind "Twilight: Eclipse," and industry analysts had said it stood a good chance of matching or beating the opening weekend box office record of $207 million set by Disney's "Avengers" in May.

The prior release in the Batman series, "The Dark Knight," has grossed more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office since its release in 2008.

Exports: Bangladesh leaves Pakistan behind for the first time

July 19,2012 : Bangladesh for the first time has left Pakistan behind in exports as the former has   surpassed an unprecedented mark of $24.3 billion during last fiscal year as   compared to $23.6 billion figures registered on account of Pakistan's exports. 

Exports of Dhaka, which remained historically lesser than the same of Pakistan, have now recorded the jump this year despite the challenges like inflation in the major importing market of Europe and other domestic issues. Though the total export figure of Bangladesh was still lesser than its fixed target of over $26 billion, it continued growth as compared to Pakistan's exports, which declined by 4.71 per cent, as compared to last year's figure of $24.8 billion. On the other hand, Dhaka succeeded to cross previous figure of $22.92 billion to $24.3 billion this year. 

Both countries are largely based on textile exports and whenever there is a change in demand, supply and price of textile made ups in international market, total exports of the two countries accordingly.

According to experts, Bangladesh, comparatively relying more on textile garments, is enjoying the zero rated facility and tariff concession in global market specially EU because of its status as Least Developed Country (LDC).

On the other hand, Pakistani products are facing high duties in the said markets. However, despite having at least 40 per cent share of non-textile item, Pakistani exports could not maintain the increasing trend after July to June 2010-2011 when Islamabad had pushed its exports from $19.3 billion to $24.8 billion with the increase of over $5 billion.

During 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, Dhaka's exports were recorded as $15.54 billion, $16.17 billion and $22.982 billion respectively. On the other hand, Pakistani exports during the said financial years were $17.69 billion, $19.29 billion and $24.81 billion, respectively showing an increase of 2 to 3 billion over the exports recorded by formerly East Pakistan. 

However, Bangladesh's exports rose 5.9 per cent in the year ended June despite demand for garments from key Western markets remained waned. But the fresh increase was still nearly 8.4 per cent short of a target of $26.5 billion originally set by Dhaka. 

Pakistan, which had also fixed export target of $26 billion keeping in view last year's growth, remained much far away from the target. Bangladesh's economy and exports have been boosted recently by a dramatic shift in global garment orders from China to lower-cost Bangladesh. Ready made garment sales for the fiscal year rose 6.56 per cent from a year ago to $19 billion.

Bangladesh's low labour costs have helped it join the global supply chain for low-end clothing, manufacturing garments for international brands. 

Sources at Ministry of Commerce, however presented the excuses of energy crisis, poor law and order situation and inflation in major importing markets for the declining trend in exports of the country. They are optimistic that Pakistani exports especially textile would enjoy a considerable growth after the approval of Unilateral Tariff Concession Package offered by EU. 
Besides, the GSP and GSP Plus facility, Pakistan is likely to get in EU by January 2014, could also give a boost to over all exports  for the first time. Source:  Business Recorder: Pakistan's Premier Financial Daily

Terrorism charges against five after London arrests

Three men accused of going to Pakistan for terrorist training, while a man and a woman are charged over terrorist materials

Agencies in London

• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 July 2012 02.23 BST

Terrorism charges against the five including going to Pakistan for terrorist training and possessing terrorist materials. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Five people have been charged with terrorism offences following arrests by the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command.

Three men from London – including Richard Dart, who appeared in a BBC Three documentary after converting to Islam – were charged on Wednesday night with offences that involved travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism between July 2010 and July 2012.

Dart, 29, of Broadway, Ealing, Imran Mahmood, 21, of Dabbs Hill Lane, Northolt, and Jahangir Alom, 26, of Abbey Road, Stratford, are charged with preparing for acts of terrorism between 25 July 2010 and 6 July this year.

The three are alleged to have travelled to Pakistan for terrorism training, to have travelled abroad to commit acts of terrorism, and to have advised and counselled the commission of terrorist acts by providing information about travel to Pakistan and terrorism training, and operational security while there.

Dart was featured in a recent BBC documentary My Brother the Islamist, which chronicled the efforts of his filmmaker stepbrother Robb Leech to understand why the former had rejected his family and embraced an uncompromising form of Islam.

A fourth man, Khalid Baqa, 47, of Priory Road, Barking, is charged with three counts of possession of terrorist material and one count of dissemination of terrorist material. According to the charges, Baqa had CDs containing a document entitled 39 Ways to Support and Participate in Jihad, as well as a number of issues of a magazine called Inspire for distribution to others.

A woman, Ruksana Begum, 22, of Provost Estate, Islington, is charged with possession of a digital memory card containing a document likely to be of use to a terrorist

All five will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday.

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Shafilea Ahmed parents Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed denied charge with the murder of their daughter

A father accused of murdering his daughter because he believed she had brought shame on his family broke down in court as he denied the charge.Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, have been on trial at Chester crown court for eight weeks charged with killing their daughter Shafilea, 17, in 2003.Farzana Ahmed has always denied murder, but this week the jury of seven men and five women were told she had changed her account and said she witnessed her husband beat Shafilea on the night of the alleged murder.She also claimed he had threatened to kill her and their other children if she ever asked him what had happened to Shafilea.

But on Wednesday, Ahmed denied ever hurting his daughter or having anything to do with the murder.

Asked by Tom Bayliss QC, defending, how he felt about his wife, Ahmed said: "I love her to bits."

He said his feelings had not changed, even after she changed her story.Bayliss said: "Have you ever caused any harm to your daughter Shafilea?"Ahmed said: "No."Bayliss said: "Were you responsible for the death of your daughter?"He replied: "No."Ahmed added: "We were devastated to find out that she had left home in the first place."When he was asked how he felt when his daughter's body was found, he struggled to respond, before adding in a strained voice: "We couldn't believe it when we heard."

Shafilea disappeared in September 2003 and her body was found on the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria the following February.The prosecution claims she was killed by her parents because she brought shame on the family by her desire to lead a westernised lifestyle.The trial continues. The parents of Shafilea Ahmed, the victim of a suspected "honour killing" almost eight years ago, have been charged with murder and appeared before magistrates on Wednesday.

Shafilea, 17, disappeared from her home town of Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.

Her badly decomposed remains were found in February 2004 on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria, following a flood.

She had hoped to study law at university and become a solicitor. Her inquest heard that the most likely cause of death was strangulation or suffocation.

Police said Iftikhar Ahmed, 51, a taxi driver, and Farzana Ahmed, 48, a housewife, were arrested on suspicion of murder in September 2010. Cheshire police have now charged both with murder following authorisation by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The couple made a six-minute appearance at Halton magistrates court in Runcorn, Cheshire, on Wednesday.

They were remanded in custody until Friday, when they will appear via videolink at Manchester crown court.

They spoke only to confirm through an interpreter their names, ages and address. The murder charge was put to them, but no plea was entered. There were no submissions made by the prosecution or defence solicitors.

The court heard that the couple were charged with murdering the teenager on 11 September 2003 in Cheshire.

At the inquest into Shafilea's death, Ian Smith, the coroner for south and east Cumbria, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.

The couple have always strenuously denied any involvement in their daughter's death and once stormed into a police press conference to tearfully protest their innocence, claiming the police were racially motivated.

But at the inquest evidence was heard that Shafilea claimed she was held down and beaten by her parents and was fearful of an arranged marriage. The coroner ruled that she had been the victim of a "very vile murder".

She disappeared shortly after a trip to Pakistan in which she was introduced to a potential suitor. During the trip she drank bleach and harmed herself in an apparent cry for help, and needed regular hospital treatment to correct injuries to her throat.

The coroner said: "Shafilea was the victim of a very vile murder and there's no evidence before the court as to who did it. There are things people know that have not been told to this court."

He said Shafilea had not had justice.

"Her ambition was to live her own life in her own way: to study, to follow a career in the law and to do what she wanted to do. These are just basic fundamental rights and they were denied to her."

Mrs Ahmed was remanded to Styal prison in Cheshire and her husband was remanded to Liverpool prison.

The couple were initially arrested on suspicion of kidnapping their daughter in December 2003 but in June 2004 were released without charge when the Crown Prosecution Service ruled there was insufficient evidence against them.

They were rearrested on suspicion of murder in September 2010.

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Source: The Guardian

"It is the order of Allah that she be executed". so-called "honour killings" in Afghanistan

 A man Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters showed, a sign that the austere Islamist group dictates law even near the Afghan capital.

In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province.

"Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed".

Provincial Governor Basir Salangi said the video, obtained on Saturday, was shot a week ago in the village of Qimchok in Shinwari district, about an hour's drive from Kabul.

Such rare public punishment was a painful reminder to Afghan authorities of the Taliban's 1996-2001 period in power, and it raised concern about the treatment of Afghan women 11 years into the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents. "When I saw this video, I closed my eyes ... The woman was not guilty; the Taliban are guilty," Salangi told Reuters.

When the unnamed woman, most of her body tightly wrapped in a shawl, fell sideways after being shot several times in the head, the spectators chanted: "Long live the Afghan mujahideen! (Islamist fighters)", a name the Taliban use for themselves.The Taliban could not be reached for comment.

Despite the presence of over 130,000 foreign troops and 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, the Taliban have managed to resurge beyond their traditional bastions of the south and east, extending their reach into once more peaceful areas like Parwan.

HARD-WON WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN JEOPARDY?

Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and work since the Taliban, who deemed them un-Islamic for women, were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

But fears are rising among Afghan women, some lawmakers and rights activists that such freedoms could be traded away as the Afghan government and the United States pursue talks with the Taliban to secure a peaceful end to the war.

Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year, according to Afghanistan's independent human rights commission. Activists say there is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government.

"After 10 years (of foreign intervention), and only a few kilometres from Kabul... how could this happen in front of all these people?" female lawmaker Fawzia Koofi said of the public execution in Parwan.

"This is happening under a government that claims to have made so much progress in women's rights, claims to have changed women's lives, and this is unacceptable. It is a huge step backwards," said Koofi, a campaigner for girls' education who wants to run in the 2014 presidential election.

Salangi said two Taliban commanders were sexually involved with the woman in Parwan, either through rape or romantically, and decided to torture her and then kill her to settle a dispute between the two of them.

"They are outlaws, murderers, and like savages they killed the woman," he said, adding that the Taliban exerted considerable sway in his province.

Earlier this week a 30-year-old woman and two of her children were beheaded in easternAfghanistan by a man police said was her divorced husband, the latest of a string of so-called "honour killings".

Some Afghans still refer to Taliban courts for settling disputes, viewing government bodies as corrupt or unreliable. The courts use sharia (Islamic law), which prescribes punishments such as stonings and execution. source:Reuters

First time the tribunal had sentenced a convicted war criminal in CONGO

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court sentenced a Congolese warlord to 14 years in prison on Tuesday, a watershed moment for the 10-year-old tribunal and a potential landmark in the struggle to protect children during wartime.
Judges found Thomas Lubanga guilty in March of recruiting and using children in his Union of Congolese Patriots militia - sending them to kill and be killed during fighting in Congo's eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003. Tuesday's announcement was the first time the tribunal had sentenced a convicted war criminal.
"The vulnerability of children means they need to be afforded particular protection," Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford said at the sentencing hearing. Human rights activists hailed the decision.
"This sentence sends out a stark warning across the world to those engaged in the use of child soldiers that their criminal actions will land them in prison," said Armel Luhiriri of the Coalition for the ICC, a non-government group that supports the court and its efforts to end impunity for the world's worst crimes. Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence, but said they would be willing to cut it to 20 years if Lubanga offered a "genuine apology" to the victims of his crimes. Lubanga did not offer an apology.
Wearing a gray suit and tie, Lubanga showed no emotion as Fulford read out the decision. He can appeal his conviction and sentence.Fulford said that the time Lubanga has served in pretrial detention since March 2006 would be deducted from the sentence.
One of the judges, Odio Benito, issued a separate dissenting opinion, saying the sentence should have been 15 years in recognition of the suffering of victims of harsh punishments and sexual violence.
It was not immediately clear where Lubanga would serve his sentence. The court has no prison cells for holding convicted war criminals, but has deals with seven countries to jail them - Denmark, Serbia, Mali, Austria, Finland, Britain and Belgium.Fulford gave Lubanga three sentences of 13, 12 and 14 years each, respectively for conscripting, enlisting and using child soldiers, but the sentences are to be served concurrently.

Conscripting involves abducting children and pressing them into military service, while enlisting them can mean they serve voluntarily.
Franck Mulenda, a legal representative for 140 victims in the case, welcomed the sentence."It is very important. It consoles the victims," he said outside court. The court should now order reparations for former child soldiers, "so they can get back their education and their place in society," Mulenda said. Fulford criticized former chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo for not bringing charges of sexual violence against Lubanga or presenting evidence of such crimes at a sentencing hearing last month.
Rights activists say Lubanga's militia and other warring parties in Ituri engaged in widespread rape.The judge also praised Lubanga for being "respectful and cooperative" throughout the case despite it twice being held up by prosecutors defying court orders linked to identifying witnesses.
Lubanga's sister, Angele Zasi, insisted on his innocence."We (the family) are very disappointed by the judgment of the court. Everyone knows that my brother is innocent of all that they reproach him," Zasi said.
Congo's information minister Lambert Mende said he thought the sentence was not harsh enough but added "it is a punishment and I believe that it will haunt him for the rest of his life".source:TOI

Parking price should reflect the price of the land :Chennai now has a plan to end its vexing parking problem

According to transport department statistics, two-wheelers make up 28.13 lakh of Chennai's 36.82 lakh vehicles. An exponential increase in vehicles coupled with lack of parking management has resulted in chaos on the roads. 

"Parking is a commodity, which has to be priced at market value. If land in T Nagar costs Rs 20,000 per sqft, the parking price should reflect the price of the land," said Raj Cherubal of NGO City Connect. Budapest has more than 70,000 official parking lots. Parking fees vary for commercial and residential areas and increase in proportion to occupancy. About 200 controllers check for parking violations. The team suggested that similar methods be employed in Chennai, including monitoring of the controllers by GPS .

 .A team of ministers and bureaucrats makes a trip to Hungary, visits its capital Budapest and, hey, presto! Chennai now has a plan to end its vexing parking problem. The high-level team from the transport and urban development departments has recommended to chief minister J Jayalalithaa that a parking management authority be set up to deal with the issue that drives motorists up the wall every day. 
The team has proposed that the authority, comprising Chennai Corporation, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the traffic police, work out a pricing mechanism for parking spots based on the land value of its location and outsource the various components that the system will require. 
If the proposal is implemented, the city will for the first time have an independent body in charge of parking for its 36.82 lakh vehicles. 
The team, led by transport minister V Senthil Balaji and housing and urban development minister R Vaithialingam, visited Budapest to participate in the summit 'Sustainable Transportation', organized by Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), New York. Members of the team visited various parts of Budapest and saw pathbreaking changes made in its transport systems. They decided to adopt the Budapest model of parking for Chennai.
 "The visit helped us explore the possibilities of resolving traffic problems in Chennai, in particular by setting up a parking management authority," an official said.  Source: The Times Of India