US police seek clues in school shooting

NEWTOWN, Connecticut: US police indicated on Saturday they are homing in on the mystery of what triggered the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school by a young lone gunman.

Police have yet to make public the identities of the dead or almost any of the details of what happened inside Sandy Hook Elementary School just after classes started Friday.

The motives of the shooter, identified by US media as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, were the biggest mystery.

But Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance said detectives in Newtown, a picturesque small town north-east of New York City, had begun to "peel back the onion."

Asked whether any suicide note, emails or other clues to the killer's mind had been found, he said the crime scene "did produce some very - very good evidence in our investigation."

"Investigators will be able to use (this) in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred," he told a news conference.

Bodies were removed from the blood-soaked school overnight Saturday and relatives were privately given formal identification of the dead.

In addition to the dead in the school, police found a woman's body in the house where Lanza and his mother were believed to have lived.

News reports quoted police saying she was Lanza's mother and that he'd shot her in the face before heading to the school, armed at least with two semi-automatic pistols and a military grade rifle - all registered in his mother's name.

At the school, where a black-clad Lanza concentrated his fire on just two rooms, the child victims were aged between five and 10. Among the dead adults were the school principal.

A new security system had been recently installed, but Vance said the shooter forced his way in to the school.

Police then entered from several points, breaking "many windows" as they frantically tried to get survivors out and to locate the gunman.

Mary Ann Jacob, who works in the school library, told reporters Saturday that she had sheltered 18 children during the mayhem.

"We were locked in our room," she said. "It was hard to keep them quiet. We told them it was a joke. I think they didn't really know what was going on."

Amid a flurry of rumours about how the murders played out, NBC reported that Lanza may have had an altercation earlier with four school staff, and that three of them were among the slain.

Late Friday, as darkness fell over the town, locals gathered for a church vigil, spilling onto the street in large numbers.

"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Roman Catholic Mass.

A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.

The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said.

"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants. "Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."

President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said Friday he was aghast over the tragedy.

There were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Obama, saying the news "horrified me."

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

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.

- AFP/de

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Why three Hurriyats are better than one

SRINAGAR: The winter winds blowing in Kashmir are at odds with the heat generated by the impending visit of Hurriyat leaders to Pakistan. To the average onlooker, it's the timing of the visit that inspires curiosity. The Zardari government is in its final lap, and the Hurriyat leaders are strangely at pains to emphasize that there is no agenda or roadmap they expect from their visit to Pakistan. But this rather insipid declaration of intent disguises a very significant development. The Hurriyat has split once again.

While Syed Ali Geelani-led hardline Hurriyat (G) has existed along with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led moderate Hurriyat (M), there is now a third faction, of "outcastes", which may be called Hurriyat (O). It comprises leaders like Yasin Malik, Nayeem Khan and Shabir Shah. Although not formally announced, the Pakistan visit is the first public display of a serious chasm in ideologies — only the Mirwaiz has confirmed his visit.

For mandarins in North Block, this marks another triumph in their policy to divide and weaken the political component of the separatist cause. For New Delhi, while militant violence is an irritant, the real challenge has always been the political force of the separatists. After the elections in 1996 that saw the return of National Conference to power, there was a realization that resentment over bijli-sadak-pani translated into support for the then United Hurriyat. Thus, it was with the generous financial support and encouragement from North Block that PDP was born. The mainstream now had two poles to even things out. That's when work began on the Hurriyat.

By 2004, Geelani was forced into a corner of Islamist 'Kashmir banega Pakistan' agenda. The moderates, in turn, were courted. Central funding, armed guards and prominent displays in newspapers upped their profiles and respectability, the aim being to encourage them to contest elections. The carrot was also accompanied with a subtle stick: both the NC and PDP were encouraged to air their own stream of soft separatism. Omar Abdullah's full autonomy and Mehbooba Mufti's self-rule are very similar to the deal Hurriyat moderates hoped to cut with New Delhi.

Sources say the strategy seems to be working. For the past two years, there have been intense efforts through track two to ease the moderates into contesting the 2014 elections. This time, though, the moderates' repeated diffidence in doing so openly has been factored in. The solution for them is to field proxy candidates from select constituencies. So, while the Lone brothers have patched up with Sajjad fronting for brother Bilal in their family backyard of North Kashmir, the Mirwaiz will place proxy candidates from his stronghold: downtown Srinagar.

The IB's plan focuses on steadily diluting the 50 shades of grey in the separatist spectrum until one reaches white. When a senior moderate leader recently accused Geelani of representing forces of darkness, he perhaps didn't realise how closely he was reflecting New Delhi's thinking.

This plan is the reason why since 2011 all these leaders are suddenly singing a different tune. Prof Abdul Ghani Bhatt set the ball rolling, saying openly what most Kashmiris knew: that militants murdered Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, father of the current Mirwaiz, and advocate Ghani Lone of the People's Conference. Bhatt then questioned the relevance of UN resolutions, calling for a plebiscite. The Mirwaiz, too, suddenly discovered civic issues. From urging people to pay electricity bills on time to criticizing the Omar government for graft in central schemes like NREGA.

Meanwhile, the Lone brothers are on a recruiting spree in North Kashmir, trying to revive the old cadre of their father's People's conference. This year has also been marked with skirmishes between the two factions of moderates, culminating in an attack on Shabir Shah by Mirwaiz's supporters in the aftermath of the Dastgeer Shrine fire in Srinagar.

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Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants

ALAMO, Texas (AP) — For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, and the only place she knew to seek treatment was the hospital — the most expensive setting for those covering the cost.

The family's options improved somewhat a decade ago with the expansion of community health clinics, which offered free or low-cost care with help from the federal government. But President Barack Obama's health care overhaul threatens to roll back some of those services if clinics and hospitals are overwhelmed with newly insured patients and can't afford to care for as many poor families.

To be clear, Obama's law was never intended to help Limas and an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants like her. Instead, it envisions that 32 million uninsured Americans will get access to coverage by 2019. Because that should mean fewer uninsured patients showing up at hospitals, the Obama program slashed the federal reimbursement for uncompensated care.

But in states with large illegal immigrant populations, the math may not work, especially if lawmakers don't expand Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor and disabled.

When the reform has been fully implemented, illegal immigrants will make up the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent. The only larger group will be people who qualify for insurance but fail to enroll, according to a 2012 study by the Washington-based Urban Institute.

And since about two-thirds of illegal immigrants live in just eight states, those areas will have a disproportionate share of the uninsured to care for.

In communities "where the number of undocumented immigrants is greatest, the strain has reached the breaking point," Rich Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Association, wrote last year in a letter to Obama, asking him to keep in mind the uncompensated care hospitals gave to that group. "In response, many hospitals have had to curtail services, delay implementing services, or close beds."

The federal government has offered to expand Medicaid, but states must decide whether to take the deal. And in some of those eight states — including Texas, Florida and New Jersey — hospitals are scrambling to determine whether they will still have enough money to treat the remaining uninsured.

Without a Medicaid expansion, the influx of new patients and the looming cuts in federal funding could inflict "a double whammy" in Texas, said David Lopez, CEO of the Harris Health System in Houston, which spends 10 to 15 percent of its $1.2 billion annual budget to care for illegal immigrants.

Realistically, taxpayers are already paying for some of the treatment provided to illegal immigrants because hospitals are required by law to stabilize and treat any patients that arrive in an emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay. The money to cover the costs typically comes from federal, state and local taxes.

A solid accounting of money spent treating illegal immigrants is elusive because most hospitals do not ask for immigration status. But some states have tried.

California, which is home to the nation's largest population of illegal immigrants, spent an estimated $1.2 billion last year through Medicaid to care for 822,500 illegal immigrants.

The New Jersey Hospital Association in 2010 estimated that it cost between $600 million and $650 million annually to treat 550,000 illegal immigrants.

And in Texas, a 2010 analysis by the Health and Human Services Commission found that the agency had provided $96 million in benefits to illegal immigrants, up from $81 million two years earlier. The state's public hospital districts spent an additional $717 million in uncompensated care to treat that population.

If large states such as Florida and Texas make good on their intention to forgo federal money to expand Medicaid, the decision "basically eviscerates" the effects of the health care overhaul in those areas because of "who lives there and what they're eligible for," said Lisa Clemans-Cope, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute.

Seeking to curb expenses, hospitals might change what qualifies as an emergency or cap the number of uninsured patients they treat. And although it's believed states with the most illegal immigrants will face a smaller cut, they will still lose money.

The potential impacts of reform are a hot topic at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In addition to offering its own charity care, some MD Anderson oncologists volunteer at a county-funded clinic at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital that largely treats the uninsured.

"In a sense we've been in the worst-case scenario in Texas for a long time," said Lewis Foxhall, MD Anderson's vice president of health policy in Houston. "The large number of uninsured and the large low-income population creates a very difficult problem for us."

Community clinics are a key part of the reform plan and were supposed to take up some of the slack for hospitals. Clinics received $11 billion in new funding over five years so they could expand to help care for a swell of newly insured who might otherwise overwhelm doctors' offices. But in the first year, $600 million was cut from the centers' usual allocation, leaving many to use the money to fill gaps rather than expand.

There is concern that clinics could themselves be inundated with newly insured patients, forcing many illegal immigrants back to emergency rooms.

Limas, 44, moved to the border town of Alamo 13 years ago with her husband and three daughters. Now single, she supports the family by teaching a citizenship class in Spanish at the local community center and selling cookies and cakes she whips up in her trailer. Soon, she hopes to seek a work permit of her own.

For now, the clinic helps with basic health care needs. If necessary, Limas will return to the emergency room, where the attendants help her fill out paperwork to ensure the government covers the bills she cannot afford.

"They always attended to me," she said, "even though it's slow."

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Sherman can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chrisshermanAP .

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .

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Adam Lanza Shot Victims at Close Range with Rifle

Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle at close range to kill children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday.

"I believe everybody was hit more than once," said Dr. H. Wayne Carver, the state of Connecticut's Chief Medical Examiner.

He said the bullets were uniquely damaging and that Lanza's victims died almost immediately.

"The bullets are designed in such a fashion the energy is deposited in the tissue so the bullet stays in," Carver said. He described the wounds as a "very devastating set of injuries."

Two handguns were also found at the scene, but Carver described the Bushmaster as the killer's primary weapon. A fourth weapon was found nearby. The weapons discovered at the school apparently belonged to a family member, possibly his mother, according to authorities.

Lanza, 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook on Friday morning and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide. He drove to the school after shooting his mother in the face at their home.

The weapons that police recovered from the scene included a Glock 9-mm handgun, a Sig Sauer 9-mm handgun and a Bushmaster rifle. Police also found .223 shell casings. Lanza was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

The shooter's mother, 52-year-old Nancy Lanza, had five weapons registered to her, including a Glock, a Sig Sauer, and a Bushmaster rifle.

Police said the Glock, the Sig Sauer and the Bushmaster at the school appeared to be registered to a family member. Authorities are currently completing their checks to see which weapons were used in the slayings, to whom they were registered and how they were obtained.

Federal agents are canvassing area gun ranges and gun stories to see if Adam Lanza had visited them for any reason.

The Glock and Sig Sauer are popular with law enforcement officers and the military, and are quickly and easily reloaded.

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

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Egyptians vote on divisive constitution

CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Egyptians queued in long lines on Saturday to vote on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation.

Soldiers joined police to secure the referendum after deadly protests during the buildup. Street brawls erupted again on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, but voting proceeded quietly there, with no reports of violence elsewhere.

President Mohamed Mursi provoked angry demonstrations when he issued a decree last month expanding his powers and then fast-tracked the draft constitution through an assembly dominated by his Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies. At least eight people were killed in clashes last week outside the presidential palace.

His liberal, secular and Christian opponents says the constitution is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights. Mursi's supporters say the charter is needed if progress is to be made towards democracy nearly two years after the fall of military-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak.

"The sheikhs (preachers) told us to say 'yes' and I have read the constitution and I liked it," said Adel Imam, a 53-year-old queuing to vote in a Cairo suburb. "The country will move on."

Opposition politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on Twitter: "Adoption of (a) divisive draft constitution that violates universal values and freedoms is a sure way to institutionalize instability and turmoil."

Official results will not be announced until after a second round of voting next Saturday. But partial results and unofficial tallies are likely to emerge soon after the first round, giving some idea of the outcome.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of voters who cast ballots. A little more than half of Egypt's electorate of 51 million are eligible to vote in the first round in Cairo and other cities.

Rights groups reported some abuses, such as polling stations opening late, officials telling people to vote "yes", bribery and intimidation.

But Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, which is monitoring the vote, said nothing reported so far was serious enough to invalidate the referendum.

"Until now, there is no talk of vote rigging," said Eid.

TRANSITION

Christians, making up about 10 percent of Egypt's 83 million people and who have long grumbled of discrimination, were among those waiting at a polling station in Alexandria to oppose the basic law. They fear Islamists, long repressed by Mubarak, will restrict social and other freedoms.

"I voted 'no' to the constitution out of patriotic duty," said Michael Nour, a 45-year-old Christian teacher in Alexandria. "The constitution does not represent all Egyptians."

Howaida Abdel Azeem, a post office employee, said: "I said 'yes' because I want the destruction the country is living through to be over and the crisis to pass, and then we can fix things later."

Islamists are counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and the many Egyptians who may fall into line in the hope of ending turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt's pound to eight-year lows against the dollar.

Mursi was among the early voters after polls opened at 8 a.m. (1:00 a.m. Eastern Time). He was shown on television casting his ballot shielded by a screen and then dipping his finger in ink - a measure to prevent people voting twice.

Turnout was high enough for voting on Saturday to be extended by four hours to 11 p.m. (4 p.m. Eastern Time). One senior official on the committee overseeing the referendum said Saturday's vote could continue on Sunday if crowds were too heavy to allow everyone to cast ballots in one day. Voting for Egyptians abroad that began on Wednesday has been extended to Monday, the state news agency reported.

After weeks of turbulence, there has been limited public campaigning. Opposition politicians and parties, beaten in two elections since Mubarak's overthrow, only announced on Wednesday that they backed a "no" vote instead of a boycott.

TWO DAYS

The second round will be held in other regions on December 22 because there are not enough judges willing to monitor all polling stations after some said they would boycott the vote.

Egyptians are being asked to accept or reject a constitution that must be in place before a parliamentary election can be held next year to replace an Islamist-led parliament dissolved in June. Many hope this will lead Egypt towards stability.

If the constitution is voted down, a new assembly will have to be formed to draft a revised version, a process that could take up to nine months.

The army has deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis.

(Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Football: Runaway Bayern go 12 clear despite Gladbach draw

BERLIN: Runaway leaders Bayern Munich needed a second-half equaliser to snatch a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday in their final Bundesliga match of 2012.

The draw left Bayern 12 points clear of the chasing pack, who are all in action during the rest of the weekend's programme, while 'Gladbach move up to sixth.

"The team fought hard, they gave everything and we're happy to take that point at home," said Bayern's director of sport Matthias Sammer.

Having already opened the season with a record eight straight wins, Bayern are hoping to finish the weekend with another achievement as they look to break Borussia Dortmund's record 10-point lead at the halfway stage.

Bayern hammered 'Gladbach's goal, enjoying 65 percent ball possession, and finished with 25 shots on goal, compared to their guests' five.

After Gladbach claimed a half-time lead through a Thorben Marx penalty, Bayern battered their visitors' goal and the torrent of chances finally paid off when Swiss star Xherdan Shaqiri equalised with half an hour left.

Gladbach took the lead when Bayern defender Jerome Boateng leapt to block a cross from midfielder Tolga Cigerci and the ball struck his hand.

Referee Tobias Welz immediately pointed to the spot, despite furious protestations from Germany star Boateng, and Marx slammed home the 21st-minute penalty.

"I don't know how the referee could class that as a penalty," fumed Boateng.

"I seriously don't think it was justified.

"I think we deserved to win."

The goal came against the run of play and took the wind out of Bayern's sails and it looked like history was about to repeat itself after Gladbach had poached a 1-0 win in Munich on their previous visit in August 2011.

Things refused to go the hosts' way in the first-half as defender Dante headed over while winger Franck Ribery had a shot saved.

Adding injury to insult, defensive midfielder Javi Martinez went off with a facial injury from a stray elbow as Gladbach goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen pulled off a string of superb saves.

Bayern attacked in waves in the first-half with 11 shots on target compared to the guests' single attempt.

Only another fine ter Stegen save denied Bastian Schweinsteiger early in the second-half, but the Gladbach defence was finally beaten following a mistake by Cigerci.

His badly-timed pass was snapped up by Shaqiri, who levelled on 59 minutes.

Bayern kept up the pressure as the minutes ticked down, but Gladbach's defence held firm, despite Bayern's 14 corners, to leave Lucien Favre's team unbeaten in their last seven games.

Leverkusen can trim Bayern's lead back to nine points if they win at home to Hamburg on Saturday.

-AFP/ac

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Indo-US `bonhomie’ strains bilateral ties with Iran

NEW DELHI: As Iran reached a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) for the next round of nuclear talks to be held on January 16, Tehran said India was leaning too close to the US for bilateral ties to remain untouched.

"We have long and friendly relations with India. We can continue to be friends. We can try to materialize this potential. But if India keeps moving towards Washington, then there will be some limitations for us," Mostafa Dolatyar, head of Iran's Institute of Political and International Studies and a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, told journalists. However, he added that Tehran understood New Delhi's constraints and left it to India to define its relationship with Iran. "India is a developing country. We know their limitations. We are not living in Mars. We are living on earth."

Dolatyar was particularly critical of India not utilizing adequately the Iranian market, when even the US could do so despite its sanctions. "When American products can find their way into our markets, why can't India products. They (India) have to find a way. It is not the fault of the Iranian government because despite sanctions American products continue to be sold in Iran," he said.

Iran was also supportive of India's role in Afghanistan, but was clear that the US presence could be a negative. "If India wants to do something substantive we are fine with it because Afghanistan is in India's immediate neighborhood. But we have doubts as far as American involvement is concerned," he said.

On Thursday, foreign minister Salman Khurshid said India would "review" its oil imports from Iran in new year. India has substantially reduced its oil imports from Iran, which is down from 16% to 10% in a couple of years. New Delhi also recently got an extension of a waiver by the US administration.

"I think we are well within the structure of US waiver. The bottom line of the conditions of the waiver has been satisfied which is you should not increase dependency on it," the minister said on the sidelines of a CII seminar.

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APNewsBreak: Texas cancer probe draws NCI scrutiny

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The National Cancer Institute confirmed Friday that federal officials are taking a closer look at a troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting effort in Texas that is under a criminal investigation over a lucrative taxpayer-funded grant awarded by the state agency.

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has coveted status as an NCI-approved funding entity — an exclusive group headlined by the nation's most prominent cancer organizations. The list is fewer than two dozen and includes the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and federal entities like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The designation is a federal seal-of-approval that signals high peer review standards and conflict of interest policies. Yearlong turmoil within the Texas institute, or CPRIT, reached a new peak this week when the agency's beleaguered chief executive asked to resign and prosecutors opened cases following an $11 million grant to a private company that was revealed to have bypassed an independent review.

NCI spokeswoman Aleea Farrakh Khan told The Associated Press that officials are "evaluating recent events" at CPRIT. She said officials have not made decisions or contacted the agency directly.

Members of CPRIT's governing board did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

NCI designation is not required for CPRIT to continue running the nation's second-largest pot of cancer research dollars, Khan said. But jeopardizing that status — and especially losing it — would be a severe blow to CPRIT's reputation, which already has been battered by sweeping resignations, internal accusations of politics trumping science and now a criminal investigation.

A recent internal audit at CPRIT discovered an $11 million funding request from Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics was approved without the agency ever scrutinizing the proposal's merits. The revelation came only months after two Nobel laureates and other top scientists left the agency in protest over a $20 million grant some accused of being rushed to approval without a proper peer review.

While CPRIT is funded by taxpayers, donors to cancer nonprofits might look to an NCI designation for assurance that their money is in good hands.

"It says, 'If I'm donating money to this agency, if NCI is approving them, that means NCI says it's handling its money well,'" Khan said.

Khan added that CPRIT's inclusion on the list does not mean all of its funding mechanisms are NCI-approved.

An entire page of CPRIT's website is devoted to boasting its NCI designation. The agency says the status is important because it means cancer centers in Texas seeking its own NCI designation — so as to reassure patients or bolster recruitment — can include CPRIT research dollars in their calculations to maintain levels needed to be NCI approved.

"This enhances Texas' ability to leverage additional federal funding for cancer research and raises Texas' profile as a center for cancer research," according to the website.

Executive Director Bill Gimson submitted his resignation letter Tuesday but offered to stay on through January. He has described Peloton's improper funding as an honest mistake and said no one associated with CPRIT stood to personally profit from the company's award.

Prosecutors have not made any specific criminal allegations. Launching separate investigations into CPRIT are the Texas attorney general's office and the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit, which investigates criminal misconduct within state government.

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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

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20 Children Killed at Conn. Grade School, 7 Adults

Twenty children died today when a heavily armed man invaded a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, killing his mother and spraying the school with bullets.

The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, 20, was killed inside of the school.

Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children died in the school and two more died later in a hospital. Six adults were also slain, bringing the total to 26.

In addition to the casualties at the school, a body was also found in the shooter's home, officials said.

In the early confusion surrounding the investigation, federal sources initially identified the suspect as Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24.

LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting

Sources said the shooter was armed with a Glock semi automatic handgun and a Sig Sauer semi automatic handgun, law enforcement sources told ABC News. Additionally, .223 caliber shell casings--a rifle caliber--were also found at the scene. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest when he opened fire in the elementary school.

Among the dead in the school was the gunman's mother, who was a kindergarten teacher, sources told ABC News. Many of the students slain were in class with her when she was killed.

First grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29, locked her 14 students in a class bathroom and listened to "tons of shooting" until police came to help.

"It was horrific," Roig said. "I thought we were going to die."

She said that the terrified kids were saying, "I just want Christmas…I don't want to die. I just want to have Christmas."

Shannon Hicks/The Newtown Bee

Connecticut Shooting: 27 Dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School Watch Video

Connecticut School Shooting: White House Response Watch Video

Connecticut School Shooting: Student Describes Scene Watch Video

A tearful President Obama said there's "not a parent in America who doesn't feel the overwhelming grief that I do."

The president had to pause to compose himself after saying these were "beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10." As he continued with his statement, Obama wiped away tears from each eye.

He has ordered flags flown as half staff.

The alert at the school ended when Vance announced, "The shooter is deceased inside the building. The public is not in danger."

The massacre prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today. Authorities initially believed that there were two gunmen and were searching cars around the school, but authorities do not appear to be looking for another gunman.

It's unclear how many people have been shot, but 27 people, mostly children, are dead, multiple federal and state sources tell ABC News. That number could rise, officials said.

CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.

It is the second worst mass shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 when 32 were killed before the shooter turned the gun on himself. Today's carnage exceeds the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.

The Newtown shooting comes three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Oregon mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself.

Today's shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which includes 450 students in grades K-4. The town is located about 12 miles east of Danbury.

State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41 a.m. and immediately began sending emergency units from the western part of the state. Initial 911 calls stated that multiple students were trapped in a classroom, possibly with a gunman, according to a Connecticut State Police source.

Lt. Paul Vance said that on-duty and off-duty officers swarmed to the school and quickly checked "every door, every crack, every crevice" in the building looking for the gunman and evacuating children.

A photo from the scene shows a line of distressed children being led out of the school.

Three patients have been taken to Danbury Hospital, which is also on lockdown, according to the hospital's Facebook page.

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U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital.

"We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State Department spokeswoman said after a senior Kremlin envoy conceded publicly on Thursday that Assad's opponents could win the 20-month-old civil war.

"The question now is, will the Russian government join those of us in the international community who are working with the opposition to try to have a smooth democratic transition?" U.S. spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added in Washington.

In Marrakech, where his new coalition won recognition from other international powers as the legitimate leadership of Syria, rebel political leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he believed Russia, ally and arms supplier to the Assad dynasty since Soviet times, was looking for ways out of its support for a lost cause.

"I believe that the Russians have woken up and are sensing that they have implicated themselves with this regime, but they don't know how to get out," al-Khatib told Reuters. He held them "particularly responsible" for helping Assad with arms but said Moscow need not "lose everything" in Syria if it changed tack.

Under President Vladimir Putin, wary since last year's Libyan war of what Russia sees as a Western drive to use the United Nations to overthrow national leaders it dislikes, Russia has blocked U.N. efforts to squeeze Assad, who has also had strong support from his long-time sponsor Iran.

But Mikhail Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, was quoted as saying in Moscow: "One must look the facts in the face."

"Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out." The Syrian government, he said, was "losing control of more and more territory" and Moscow was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary.

Nuland said Bogdanov's comments demonstrated that Moscow now "sees the writing on the wall" on Syria and said Russia should now rally behind U.N. efforts to prevent a wider bloodbath.

"They can withdraw any residual support for the Assad regime, whether it is material support (or) financial support," she said. "They can also help us to identify people who might be willing, inside of Syria, to work on a transitional structure."

DIPLOMACY

International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who has met Russian and U.S. officials twice in the past week, is seeking a solution based on an agreement reached in Geneva in June that called for the creation of a transitional government in Syria.

But Russia has repeated warnings that recognition of al-Khatib's coalition, notably by the United States, is undermining diplomacy, and rejected U.S. contentions that the Geneva agreement sent a clear message that Assad should step down.

Nuland said the Brahimi meetings could lay the framework for a political structure to follow Assad:

"We've said all along to the Russians that we are concerned that the longer that this goes on, and the longer it takes us to get to an alternative political path for Syria, the only path is going to be the military one and that is just going to bring more violence.

"We all ought to be working together."

Bogdanov, whose government has suggested that Assad himself should be allowed to see through a transition he has promised, suggested the rebels and their allies were set on a military solution and he gave little hint of detente with Washington.

"The fighting will become even more intense and (Syria) will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of civilians," Bogdanov was quoted as saying. "If such a price for the removal of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable."

The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said elsewhere: "I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse."

A U.S. official said: "Assad probably still believes that Syria is his and illusions can die hard. But Assad and those closest to him have got to be feeling the psychological strain of fighting a long war that is not going their way."

DAMASCUS BATTLES

But Al-Khatib, who played down Western concerns of sectarian Sunni Islamists in rebel ranks, warned that the fighting was far from over, even as it has begun to rattle the heart of Assad's power in Damascus. On Wednesday, a car bomb killed at least 16 people in a nearby town which is home to many military families.

"The noose is tightening around the regime," al-Khatib said.

"(But) the regime still has power. People think that the regime is finished, but it still has power left, but it is demoralized and however long it lasted its end is clear."

Day and night, Damascenes can hear the thunderous sound of bombardment aimed at rebel-held and contested neighborhoods.

The city's streets have now turned into a labyrinth of checkpoints and road blocks, with several major roads permanently closed off to traffic by concrete barriers.

"We escape from one place and trouble follows," said one grandmother, Um Hassan, as she described to Reuters her family's flight from one neighborhood to another as fighting seeps into the capital. "I don't know where we can keep running to."

Nonetheless, al-Khatib played down demands for their allies to provide heavier weaponry - a request long resisted by governments wary of anti-aircraft missiles and other hardware reaching Islamist rebels who might turn them against the West.

"The Syrian people ... no longer need international forces to protect them," he said, not specifying whether he meant a no-fly zone, arms supplies or other military support.

The opposition chief said he was willing to listen to proposals for Assad to escape with his life - "The best thing is that he steps down and stops drinking the blood of the Syrian people" - and outlined three scenarios for a change of power:

Al-Khatib ruled out the Russian proposal suggesting Assad hand over power to a transitional government while remaining president, saying it was "disgraceful for a slaughtered nation to accept to have a killer and criminal at its head".

The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes bombed rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold.

Syria has relied on war planes and helicopters to bombard rebel districts but Damascus denied accusations by U.S. and NATO officials that it had fired Scud missiles in recent days. The foreign ministry said the long-range missiles were not used against "terrorist groups," a term it uses for the rebels.

At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Michael Roddy) For an interactive look at the uprising in Syria, please click on http://link.reuters.com/rut37s

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