16 people killed in school shooting in Germany

A teenager in black combat gear went on a bloody rampage at his former school in Germany on Wednesday, slaying at least 15 people before dying in a shootout with police, officials said. Nine pupils, three teachers and three passers-by were among those killed in the shooting spree at the secondary school in Winnenden, said Heribert Rech, the interior minister of the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. After armed commandos with helicopters and dogs launched a massive hunt for the 17-year-old gunman, he was killed in a fire-fight with police. German media reports said that he had shot himself dead in the car park of a nearby shopping centre after kidnapping a man and his Volkswagen Sharan car and drove through a police barrier towards the motorway. "The gunman just sprayed bullets all around him," N-TV cited an unnamed witness as saying. A local radio journalist told the same channel that the ex-pupil had used a machine gun during his rampage.

'Slumdog' kids get new homes?

Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, the two youths from Dharavi shanties who played roles of Jamal and Latika in Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire" will get one flat each from government quota if Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) has its way. Amarjeet Singh Manhas, Chairman of Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority, a unit of MHADA, has written a letter to the housing authority's vice-president Gautam Chatterjee asking him to provide one flat each to both as they made India proud with their acting talent. "The acting talent of the two has made India proud. The children, who belong to underprivileged family, are special for us. They played equal role in getting the movie the Oscars. In a move to honour them, Amarjeet Singh has written a letter to MHADA officials to grant them houses," Krishna Hegde, a member of MHADA board told. Rubina and Azharuddin are now living in Garibnagar in suburban Bandra. "Mumbai Congress president Kripashankar Singh will also meet Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the evening to discuss about providing flats to the children," Hegde added.

US attack Pak

United State of America has attacked Pak situated terorists camp with Mesiles. US president Barak Omaba has warned pak to control these terorosts camps. Pak Govt. is now surrounded with problums created by itself. Pakistan is the most poor countary in the world. Steps taken by all the ruling parties so far, has brought PAK to a dengerous end. US has warned pak that many other dangerous weapons may be used to overcome terror. US has prepared to ruined taliban. Taliban is the the greatest danger for the world. Al-quaida has spreaded in pak to a large extent. Fata is the main area in pak where taliban is ruling.
Taliban has full control on swat ghati.

Woman from France found dead in Goa

A French woman was found dead at the helipad in Vagator on Sunday morning. Though investigations are still on police suspect it could be a case of grug overdose.
Anjuna police sources said that the woman, in her early thirties, and her male companion were travelling in a van with kitchen, room and washroom and had stopped at the helipad to relax. Though, the police ascertained their nationality through the vehicle, they were unable to get further details as the woman's passport was not found. "While the woman was found dead, the man, who has a slight disability was fine, but fell unconscious on realizing that the woman had died. He has been admitted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital," said a police official. "The French woman's body has been kept at the GMC morgue for post-mortem," the official said.

Andhra girl, cousin's killings

The state government and the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Hyderabad, have initiated steps to bring back the bodies of 23-year-old Soumya Reddy and her cousin Tummala Vikram Kumar Reddy from the United States. Chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy has written a letter to the Consulate-General of India, Chicago, and the Embassy of India, Washington, offering to ferry the dead bodies to their home town. "The government will put efforts to bring the bodies as early as possible to the city," a GAD source told TOI. Meanwhile, Regional Passport Officer B Bala Bhaskar is liaising with the Indian embassy officials. The bodies of Soumya and her cousin Vikram Reddy might be flown to the city in the next three weeks after completion of probe. "If the parents want to go to the US, the RPO will extend its cooperation in preparing temporary passports," he said. Meanwhile, the Tummala family continues to be in the dark with little information emerging on the circumstances that led to the killings, as the St Louis County police searched for the gun at the Spanish Lake County Park where the two cousins were shot dead over the weekend. The shattered family in Padmaraonagar was clueless till Wednesday night with barely any information furnished to them by the US federal authorities and the Indian Consulate-General officials in Chicago, though the St Louis County medical examiner's office had completed the autopsies. It refused to divulge the post-mortem results, it is learnt. "At this time we do not have a suspect in custody and that there is no third party," Gary Berra of St Louis County police department said, stressing that the authorities continue to treat the killings as a murder-suicide only. Reports said the medical examiners have apparently determined that Vikram Reddy whose body surfaced in the Sunfish lake died from a single gunshot wound to his mouth, while his wallet was found by the investigators in Vikram's car where Soumya's body was found slouched. The police said Soumya was shot sometime between 9 pm on Friday(US time), when the park closes, and 8.30am on Saturday.

Teenagers' latest addiction – Tanorexia

More than 25 percent students of a large university are addicted to tanning, a new study has found. All the students having symptoms of tanning dependence also suffer symptoms similar to alcohol and drug-addicted individuals.
The study by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center also found those with a tanning dependence tend to be more likely to be thin and smoke cigarettes than others.
For the study, the researchers set out to understand what proportion of college students report problems with tanning dependence and whether there are shared behaviours among those considered to be tanning dependent and those with other forms of addiction.
"Adolescents and young adults tend to put themselves at risk for later skin cancer by exposing themselves to high levels of ultraviolet radiation, so by understanding some possible reasons why, we hope to develop innovative interventions to help prevent these risky behaviors," explained an associate member at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Carolyn Heckman, Ph.D.
They recruited 400 students and other volunteers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia during the spring semester of 2006. Participants took part in an online survey utilizing items adapted from questionnaires used to measure traditional substance abuse and dependence.
The measures assess tolerance to tanning (the need to tan increasingly frequently), withdrawal from tanning (discomfort when not having tanned recently), and difficulty controlling the behaviour despite awareness of its negative impact such as freckles, wrinkles, pre-cancerous lesions, etc.
The survey included questions such as "Do you think you need to spend more and more time in the sun to maintain your perfect tan?” "Do you continue tanning so your tan will not fade?" and "Does this your belief that tanning can cause skin cancer keep you from spending time in the sun or going to tanning beds?".
Participants were queried about their level of intentional and incidental sun exposure, tanning booth use, and chemical sunless tanner use.
The survey also asked about health-related behaviors such as body mass index, smoking, and exercise."The media and lay public may know tanning dependence as ''tanorexia,'' alluding to similarities to both substance addictions and body image disorders like anorexia.
There is some evidence that UV tanning dependence may have biological underpinnings like other addictions such as the production of endorphins as in the ''runner''s high," said Heckman.
Heckman added: "We were surprised to find that 27 percent of those we surveyed were classified as tanning dependent. The finding that almost 40 percent of those surveyed had used tanning booths and that the mean age when tanning booths were first used was 17 is also alarming.
"It was revealed that sun tanning was more closely related to tanning dependence than indoor tanning, though use of indoor tanning during warm weather also signalled tanning dependence.Finally, the researchers said that those addicted to tanning were more likely to be thin and smoke cigarettes than others, suggesting meaningful avenues for further research into possible links among risky behaviours

LYNNE SPEARS DENIES REPORT

Lynne Spears is denying reports that she ordered a present to be sent to Bristol Palin, the pregnant 17-year-old daughter of John McCain’s vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, on behalf of her teenage daughter (and new mother) Jamie Lynn Spears.
"I just got off the phone with Lynne. I can tell you that she hasn't sent her any gifts, but that she does support Sarah and, of course, can empathize with their situation," Curt Handling, Spears' publicist at the Thomas Nelson publishing company, tells E! News.
On Wednesday, a source close to the Beverly Hills baby store Petit Tresor told CelebTV.com that Lynne Spears, Jamie Lynn’s mother, called about the gift, and requested that the gift come from her daughter.
“It was ordered by phone, and they asked what could be done for under $100. They spent $60 on pink burp cloths,” the source said.
A store rep told ABC News that Spears included a card with the package: “Dear Bristol, Hang in there! XXOO, Jamie Lynn Spears.”
Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney Spears' younger sister and the former star of the TV show "Zoey 101," gave birth to her daughter, Maddie Briann, in June. She's engaged to Casey Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Miss., but the couple has been dogged by rumors of his infidelity.

Pak Woman scientist caught with Al-Quida personal

One of the most perplexing mysteries in the war on terror returned centerstage on Monday with the announcement by US authorities of the arrest in Kabul of a Pakistani-American woman scientist whose sudden disappearance in 2003 caused many to think she was in American or Pakistani custody and underscored the disturbingly clandestine nature of the war. Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT alumna with a doctorate in neurosciences, and a mother of three children, vanished while on a visit to Karachi nearly five years ago. She was believed to have been taken into custody by Pakistani and/or US intelligence agencies because of her alleged connections to suspected terrorists and some questionable financial transactions. So strong was the belief that she was one of the victims of the covert and spooky US-Pakistani collaboration that her family and friends petitioned courts for her release. There was concern and outrage in the Boston area, where she had long standing academic connections going back to her sophomore years at MIT in 1992. Her work ranged from a paper on "Islamization in Pakistan and its Effects on Women," to articles on the early systems in the Internet to, later, research in Neurosciences at Brandeis University. More recently, there were reports that she was being held in solitary confinement at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan, where fellow captives were said to have nicknamed her Prisoner No.650 and the "Gray Lady of Bagram." One report said she had lost her sanity and cried all the time. There was no information about her children, two of whom were toddlers when she disappeared and the youngest was only six months old. But on Monday, the FBI announced that Siddique, now 36, was captured in Afghanistan as recently as July 17. The Bureau's version: On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police ("ANP") observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor's compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist's Arsenal. Siddiqui's papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars, the FBI said. According to the Bureau, on July 18, 2008, a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second floor meeting room -- unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain. The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer's rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain. Siddiqui said, "May the blood of be directly on your ." The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9 mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui's torso, hitting her at least once. Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After being subdued, Siddiqui temporarily lost consciousness. The agents and officers then rendered medical aid to Siddiqui. Pak woman scientist with al-Qaida link captured

The FBI said Siddiqui had been brought to New York on Monday evening and will be presented on Tuesday before a Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on charges related to her attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan. No word about terrorism-related charges -- or about her three little children who disappeared along with her. But the FBI version has been strongly contested by Siddiqui's family in Pakistan, which insists she has been in custody all along. "After five years of detention, Aafia was suddenly 'discovered' in Afghanistan? I am not that much of a believer in coincidence," her sister, Fauzia Siddiqui told the media in Karachi. Independent rights group The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement also termed the US claims as lies. "To say that she had been taken into custody only on July 17, 2008 is a blatant lie," it said. "The insinuation, that she had been hiding herself since 2003, is a travesty of truth." Meanwhile, the new civilian government in Pakistan has demanded consular access to Aafia Siddiqui, amid suggestions that the previous military dictatorship actively collaborated with the US in keeping her in custody.