Gunman Killed Firemen With Bushmaster, Left Note

A convicted killer, who shot dead two firefighters with a Bushmaster assault rifle after leading them into an ambush when they responded to a house fire he set in Western New York, left behind a typewritten note saying he wanted to "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said.William Spengler, 62, set his home and a car on fire early Monday morning with the intention...

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Egypt approves new constitution drafted by Mursi allies

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Mursi's allies, results announced on Tuesday showed, proving that liberals, leftists and Christians have been powerless to halt the march of Islamists in power. Final elections commission figures showed the constitution adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote in the referendum held over...

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Yen down against dollar, euro on Abe comments

NEW YORK: The yen dipped against the dollar and the euro Monday after Japan's incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe renewed calls on the central bank to take further steps to ease monetary policy.At about 1900 GMT in quiet Christmas Eve trade, the dollar stood at 84.83 yen, compared to 84.25 yen late Friday. The common European currency reached 111.87 yen, up from 110.05 yen Friday.Abe has...

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Govt draws up plan to revamp cyber security of critical sectors

NEW DELHI: In its bid to meet the challenge of ever increasing cyber attacks and security in the virtual world, the government has set in motion a five-year project to revamp the entire cyber security apparatus of critical sectors in the country. In the past one year, India has suffered 13,000 cyber incidents. The responsibility for the job has been vested in National Critical Information Infrastructure...

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4 Firefighters Shot, 2 Killed in NY 'Trap'

A man who served nearly 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother set a house and car on fire this morning in upstate New York and then began shooting at emergency personnel who showed up, killing two firefighters, police said.In all, William Spengler, 62, shot four firefighters, killing two and severely injuring two more after setting his "trap," police said.An off-duty...

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Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief's compound in Kabul, NATO said. The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war. It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such...

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Cycling: British paper sues Armstrong over libel payment

LONDON: British newspaper The Sunday Times said on Sunday that it is suing Lance Armstrong for over £1 million over a libel payment made to the disgraced cyclist in 2006.The newspaper paid Armstrong £300,000 to settle a libel case after previously suggesting that he may have cheated.But the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) subsequently found that he had led the "most sophisticated"...

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Haryana politicians, bureaucrats using front men to buy land

NEW DELHI: Haryana politicians and bureaucrats have been allegedly putting their front men to buy property, which are often parts of common land or of panchayats. Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who hit the headlines after ordering a probe into Robert Vadra's land deals, had exposed this during his brief tenure in the land consolidation department. Khemka's two orders and a particular noting...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Egyptians back new constitution in referendum

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist-backed Egyptian constitution won approval in a referendum, rival camps said on Sunday, after a vote the opposition said would sow deep social divisions in the Arab world's most populous nation. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64 percent of voters backed the...

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