'It does appear it was a trap'

The suspect in firefighter ambush killings leaves note

POLICE have found human remains in the burned-out home of the ex-con who killed two firefighters and believe the victim is the gunman's sister.

Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday the remains were found in the charred house that 62-year-old William Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl. A medical examiner will need to determine the identity.

Mr Pickering said Tuesday that 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.

Pickering says Spengler "was equipped to go to war."

Two firefighters were shot dead and two others are hospitalised. Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario.

One of the weapons recovered was a .233-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber gun used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Mr Pickering said.

A house burns in Webster, New York. Police say the man who set the blaze and then opened fire on firefighters left behind a note saying he wanted to kill and burn down the neighbourhood.

The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.

The ex-con also left a typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighbourhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said.

The two- to three-page typewritten note left by Spengler didn't give a motive for the shootings, Mr Pickering said.

He declined to divulge the note's full content or say where it was found, but read one line from it: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighbourhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

William H. Spengler Jr., 62, who set a house and car ablaze on Xmas eve in Webster, N.Y., and then opened fire, killing two firefighters and wounding two others. After exchanging gunfire with police, Spengler also killed himself. AP/Monroe County Sheriff's Department

Mr Pickering said authorities were still looking for Spengler's 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, who lived in the house with him. Their mother, Arline, also lived there until she died in October.

About 100 people attended an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening in Webster, a suburb of Rochester. Dozens of bouquets were left at the fire station, along with a handwritten sign that said, "Thanks for protecting us. RIP."

Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5.30am local time Monday to put out the fire, Mr Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.

Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.

Audio has been released of the shooting of New York firefighters in the US. Fox News reports.

A friend said Spengler hated his sister. Roger Vercruysse lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.

"He loved his mama to death," said Mr Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.

Mr Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other."

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

Firefighters gather around a burning house after they were let back into the area follwoing the fatal shooting. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush.

The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or fully auto."

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Mr Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Mr Pickering said.

Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, who volunteered as a firefighter in his spare time, was one of two firefighters killed in a Christmas Eve ambush in New York state.

A police armoured vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it removed 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.

The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.

Mr Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

Kaczowka's brother, reached at the family home Monday night, said he didn't want to talk.

Firefighters battle a blaze after they were let back onto the site outside Rochester. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in stable condition overnight at Strong Memorial Hospital, the chief said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

Cathy Bartlett was at a vigil Monday night with her teenage son, who was good friends with Kaczowka. Bartlett's husband, Mark Bartlett, has been a firefighter there for 25 years but missed the call this morning.

"Thank God my husband slept through the first alarm and didn't get up until the second one went off," she said.

A gunman has shot dead two firefighters when he ambushed them at the scene of a housefire in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

The shooting and fires were in a neighbourhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

"We have very few calls for service in that location," Mr Pickering said.

"Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.

"Volunteer firefighters and police officers were injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call of duty," Mr Cuomo said in a statement.

"We as the community of New York mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays without their loved ones."

Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.

Last December 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.
 

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Snowstorm heads east, three dead

An intersection in the Midtown section of Mobile, Alabama, is impassable after a tornado touched down on Christmas Day. Picture: Mike Kittrell Source: AP

AN enormous storm system that dumped snow and sleet on the midsection of the US and unleashed damaging tornadoes around the Deep South began punching its way toward the Northeast on Wednesday, slowing holiday travel.

Post-Christmas travellers braced for flight delays and a raft of weather warnings for drivers, a day after rare winter twisters damaged buildings in Louisiana and Alabama.

The storm system headed from the Gulf Coast to New England has been blamed for three deaths and several injuries, though no one was killed outright in the tornadoes. The storms also left more than 100,000 without power for a across the South, darkening Christmas celebrations.

Severe thunderstorms were forecast for the Carolinas while a line of blizzard and winter storm warnings stretched from Arkansas up the Ohio River to New York and all the way to Maine.

Rick Cauley's family was hosting relatives for Christmas when tornado sirens went off in Mobile. Not taking any chances, he and his wife, Ashley, hustled everyone down the block to take shelter at the athletic field house at Mobile's Murphy High School in Mobile.

The lawn of a damaged home is covered with debris after a tornado touched down in Mobile, Alabama. Picture: G.M. Andrews

It turns out, that wasn't the place to head.

"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley said. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second." They were all fine, though the school was damaged, as were a church and several homes, but officials say no one was seriously injured.

Camera footage captured the approach of the large funnel cloud.

Mobile was the biggest city hit by numerous twisters. Along with brutal, straight-line winds, the storms knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Torrential rains drenched the region and several places saw flash flooding.

An image taken from video provided by WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama, shows a tornado touching down in the town on Christmas Day.

More than 325 flights around the US were cancelled as of Wednesday morning, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. The cancelations were mostly spread around airports that had been or soon would be in the path of the storm.

Holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms. In Arkansas, highway department officials said the state was fortunate the snowstorm hit on Christmas Day when many travellers were already at their destinations.

Texas, meanwhile, dealt with high winds and slickened highways.

On Tuesday, winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver, and a 53-year-old north Louisiana man was killed when a tree fell on his house. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol there says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy US Highway near Fairview.

A motorist shovels snow from his car in Madison, Wisconsin.

Trees fell on homes and across roadways in several communities in southern Mississippi and Louisiana. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency, saying eight counties reported damages and some injuries.

It included McNeill, where a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents pushed out of Oklahoma late Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 25cm of snow was forecast. Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 48km/h whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity for a time.

Christmas lights also were knocked out with more than 100,000 customers without power for at least a time in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

The US Midwest braced for Christmas snow and sleet, while the Southern Gulf states were under tornado warning.

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky up to Cleveland with predictions of several inches to a foot of snow. By the end of the week, that snow was expected to move into the Northeast with again up to a foot predicted.

Jason Gerth said the Mobile tornado passed by in a few moments and from his porch, he saw about a half-dozen green flashes in the distance as transformers blew. His home was spared.

"It missed us by 30 metres and we have no damage," Gerth said.

In Louisiana, quarter-sized hail was reported early Tuesday in the western part of the state and a WDSU viewer sent a photo to the TV station of what appeared to be a waterspout around the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans. There were no reports of crashes or damage.

Wild winter weather hit much of the US.

Some mountainous areas of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains could get up to 25cm of snow, which would make travel "very hazardous or impossible" in the northern tier of the state from near whiteout conditions, the weather service said.

The holiday may conjure visions of snow and ice, but twisters this time of year are not unheard of. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 181km/h or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

The most lethal were the storms of December 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32.

In Mobile, a large section of the roof on the Trinity Episcopal Church is missing and the front wall of the parish wall is gone, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church in the Midtown section of the city.

Some areas of the US received up to 25cm of snow and residents were warned that travel would be impossible.

On Christmas Eve, the church with about 500 members was crowded for services.

"Thank God this didn't happen last night," Rye said.

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington, contributed to this report.
 

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Abe elected Japan's Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe, who's Liberal Democratic Party won the election, returns to the prime ministership.

JAPAN's parliament elected Shinzo Abe as the nation's prime minister today, ending three years of rule by liberal administrations and bringing back to power the conservative, pro-big business party that has run Japan for most of the post-World War II era.

Shinzo Abe, whose nationalist positions have in the past angered Japan's neighbors, is the country's seventh prime minister in just over six years. He has promised to restore growth to an economy that has been struggling for 20 years.

Shinzo Abe steps up pressure on central bank

He led the Liberal Democratic Party to victory in nationwide elections on December 16 to cement his second term as Japan's leader. He was also prime minister in 2006-2007 before resigning for health reasons that he says are no longer an issue.

Shinzo Abe worries China over island talk

Shinzo Abe has been elected Prime Minister of Japan. He also served as the country's PM in 2006-2007. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

He won elections in both houses of Parliament, though in the less powerful upper house, where his party is weaker, he finished second in the first round and needed a runoff to win. He was to name his Cabinet later today.

Capitalizing on voter discontent with the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan, Abe has vowed to shore up the economy, deal with a swelling national debt and come up with a recovery plan following last year's devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises.

Abe has also stressed his desire to make Japan a bigger player on the world stage, a stance that has resonated with many voters who are concerned that their nation is taking a back seat economically and diplomatically to China. Abe has vowed to stand up to Beijing over an ongoing territorial dispute and strengthen Tokyo's security alliance with Washington.

"I feel as fresh as the clear sky today,'' he told reporters before the vote, adding that he wanted to get right to work.

Japan's next Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vows to push for a weaker yen to improve the economy and holds firm on a territorial dispute with China. No reporter narration.

He has already named a roster of top party executives that includes two women - more than previous LDP administrations - and is younger than earlier ones, with three of the four in their 50s.

Abe was expected to give the finance portfolio to another former prime minister, Taro Aso. The new foreign minister likely will be Fumio Kishida, an expert on the southern island of Okinawa, where residents are calling for the removal of nearly 20,000 US troops based there. The defense minister was expected to be Itsunori Onodera, who was in Abe's previous administration.

The LDP governed Japan for decades after it was founded in 1955. Before it was ousted in 2009, the LDP was hobbled by scandals and problems getting key legislation through a divided parliament.

This time around, Abe has promised to make the economy his top priority and is expected to push for a 2 percent inflation target designed to fight a problem that was until recently relatively unique in the world - deflation. Continually dropping prices deaden economic activity, and the Japanese economy has been stuck in deflation for two decades.

Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to restore growth to an economy struggling for past 20 years.

Besides generous promises to boost public works spending - by as much as 10 trillion yen ($119 billion), according to party officials - Abe is pressuring the central bank to work more closely with the government to reach the inflation target.

He has acknowledged, however, that the road ahead for Japan will be bumpy.

"Our party leadership will undoubtedly have to deal with many issues,'' he said yesterday.

Exit polls suggest the Liberal Democratic Party, led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has scored a resounding victory in parliamentary elections. Andrew Raven reports.

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Aussies survive deadly plane crash

BURMA is probing the cause of a Christmas Day air crash that has killed two people and injured 11.

FIVE Australian tourists were lucky to escape with their lives after a Burmese passenger jet crash-landed on a road in central Burma, killing two people and injuring 11.

Black smoke was seen billowing from the charred wreckage of the Air Bagan aircraft, which came down near Heho airport - the gateway to the popular tourist destination of Inle Lake.

The fatalities were Burmese citizens: a tour guide and a man riding a motorcycle on the road where the plane came down.

Pictures: Australians hurt in Burma plane crash

Anna Bartsch and Stuart Benson at Adelaide Airport before they leave for Myanmar.

Five Australians were onboard, including Adelaide locals Anna Bartsch, 31 and Stuart Benson 32, both of whom escaped with only minor injuries.

Survivor tells of fiery crash

Bartsch said in an email to adelaidenow that they had lost all their belongings but were incredibly fortunate.

An Air Bagan flight has crash landed on a Burma road, killing two and injuring at least eight.

"The wings were ripped off by trees before we crashed which, strangely enough, was a positive because it meant that there were no major explosions as the main fuel reserves were gone," she wrote.

"We were stuck inside for a bit while the plane was burning though, at which point things were not looking great.

"Our injuries are minor sprains, back/neck soreness and a bit of smoke inhalation only so we feel very lucky!''

Smoke billows fromthe blazing wreck of an Air Bagan passenger plane which crashed on a road in Burma. Five Australians were among the survivors. Three people died.

Benson, 32, said from a hotel in the capital Yangon: "I don't think I've ever really had an experience when I've thought 'this is about it.."

"We were stuck inside for a bit while the plane was burning, at which point things were not looking great." he told The Mercury.

The other three Australian tourists were from Queensland.

Adelaide woman Anna Bartsch was onboard the Air Bagan plane which crash-landed on a road in eastern Burma. She  and friend Stuart Benson escaped with only minor injuries.

One of the five received medical treatment for a minor back injury.

Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Yangon have been providing assistance to the Australians. 

Air Bagan airline said tonight that the plane's black box has been found and would be sent to Singapore for analysis.

Smoke billows fromthe blazing wreck of an Air Bagan passenger plane which crashed on a road in Burma. Five Australians were among the survivors. Three people died.

Fifty-one foreigners were among the 63 passengers on board the flight from Yangon via Mandalay, according to the information ministry. 

Four foreigners - two Americans, a Briton and a Korean - were also among the injured, according to reports.

Air Bagan described the incident as an "emergency landing."

Anna Bartsch (white singlet, centre)a nd other foreigners who survived a crash landing of an Air Bagan passenger plane in Heho, leave Witoriya hospital where they have gone through medical check up. The Air Bagan flight packed with Christmas tourists crash-landed on a road in central Burma, killing three. AP /Khin Maung Win

Authorities gave a different and more dramatic account, saying the pilot mistook the road for a runway due to bad weather.

"While descending, the plane mistakenly landed ... due to fog beside the runway," state television reported. It said the aircraft made a hard landing on a road and then came to a stop in a nearby rice paddy field.

"The rear end of the plane broke and caught fire," state TV said, carrying a statement posted on Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut's Facebook page. Rescuers brought the fire under control about 45 minutes later, he said.

Two people were killed and 11 injured in the crash-landing, officials said.

Witnesses said smoke filled the plane when it hit the ground and was still rising from the plane's badly charred wreckage hours later.

Airport officials in Heho said that injured passengers were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Taunggyi for treatment.

Air Bagan is one of five private airlines that fly domestic routes in Burma. It is a unit of Htoo Trading Company, which is owned by business tycoon Tay Za.
 

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Fireworks factory explodes, injures 30

A building believed to be a fireworks factory has exploded in Lagos, injuring 30 people. Source: AP

FIRE has ripped through a crowded neighbourhood in Nigeria's largest city and wounded at least 30 people after a huge explosion rocked a building believed to be storing fireworks, officials say.

The blast and fire led to panic in the densely packed area of Lagos, a city of some 15 million people, with residents jumping from windows to flee and others salvaging goods from their shops in the neighbourhood's large market.

Fireworks continued to explode well after the fire began while smoke was heavy and the blaze intense, making it difficult for rescue workers and firefighters to approach the scene.

Huge crowds gathered in the area, including onlookers and those seeking to help.

Details were still emerging, but officials said it appeared to have begun at a warehouse storing fireworks, where a fire caused a major explosion that shook parts of the sprawling city.

Residents examine a car wreckage after the blast.

The fire then spread, with at least nine buildings in the neighbourhood ablaze when an AFP journalist arrived on the scene.

Residents rushed to help firefighters as they neared the fire, bringing containers of water and helping to carry hoses, but the volatile situation made it difficult.

"We have treated up to 30 people so far," Red Cross worker Nicolas Adesile said at the scene, adding there had not been any reports of deaths.

One man treated for a cut on his leg said he jumped from his building to escape.

Smoke billows over Lagos after a fireworks factory blast sparked a huge fire and inured at least 30 people.

"I had to jump from the first floor to save my life," he said.

Officials were seeking to confirm further details on the incident, with the force of the explosion so strong that rumours even spread over whether there had been a plane crash.

The National Emergency Management Agency said fire was believed to have caused the explosion at a shop storing fireworks. The shop was severely damaged and crumbling.

"NEMA has mobilised response agencies and volunteers to an explosion in a building suspected to be loaded with (fireworks) in the Jankara area of Lagos," agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib said in a statement.

"Search and rescue officers of NEMA (are) having hectic time to reach the place due to traffic and crowds," he said.

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Video released of kidnapped Aussie

Kidnapped Australian Warren Richard Rodwell held a copy of a local newspaper, dated December 15.
 

AN AUSTRALIAN man held hostage by militants in the southern Philippines for more than a year has appeared in a video as proof that he is alive.

Warren Richard Rodwell said on the video that he is being held in isolation. He said he understands there are negotiations for his release under way but added, "I personally hold no hope at all for being released."

He said he was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, a notorious al-Qaeda-linked group.

Philippine intelligence officials said on Wednesday they believe the video, which has been circulated on YouTube, is authentic.

Rodwell appeared thinner than in a previous video posted in January. He held a copy of a local newspaper dated December 15 and said the recording was made the following day.

Rodwell was abducted by six gunmen on December 5 last year in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province by several armed men who are believed to have fled in speedboats.

Bloodstains were found at the coastal home from which he was taken. A search of nearby islands failed to find any trace of him.

The kidnappers demanded an initial ransom of $US23,000 from his wife, with whom he runs a store in the seaside town of Ipil on Mindanao island.

According to police, Rodwell's wife said she had no way of raising the ransom.

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Newtown finds comfort in Christmas

Julian Revie of Ottawa, cancelled a planned trip to Australia to travel to Newtown and support the community over Christmas. Above, Mr Revie plays carols at a memorial on Christmas Day.

THIS Christmas was unlike any other in Newtown.

When a gunman wiped out nearly an entire elementary school class and killed students and adults in two other first-grade classrooms just 11 days before Christmas, it made it impossible for the holiday to be the same this year.

Some residents, like Joanne Brunetti, have found ways to console and help their grieving neighbours. Well-wishers from across the US are stopping by to do the same.

Ms Brunetti watched over 26 candles that had been lit at midnight, just before Christmas Day, in honour of those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She and her husband Bill signed up for a three-hour shift and erected a tent to ensure that the candle flames never went out throughout the day.

"You have to do something and you don't know what to do, you know? You really feel very helpless in this situation," she said.

Portraits of slain students and teachers hang from a Christmas tree at a memorial in Newtown.

"People have been wonderful to everybody in Newtown whether you were part of what happened or not. My thought is if we were all this nice to each other all the time maybe things like this wouldn't happen."

At a town hall memorial, Faith Leonard waved to people driving by and handed out Christmas cookies, children's gifts and hugs to anyone who needed it.

"I guess my thought was if I could be here helping out maybe one person would be able to spend more time with their family or grieve in the way they needed to," said Ms Leonard, who drove to Newtown from Gilbert, Arizona, to volunteer on Christmas morning.

"I know they've been inundated with support and that's great but it's always nice to have a present to open on Christmas Day."

Joanne and Bill Brunetti take the early Christmas morning shift monitoring a memorial for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.

Julian Revie played Silent Night on a piano on the footpath at the downtown memorial. Mr Revie, from Ottawa in Canada, was in the area visiting at the time of the shootings. He cancelled his plans to go to Australia, found a piano online and chose to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day playing for the people of Newtown.

"It was such a mood of respectful silence," said Mr Revie, who planned to leave the piano behind.

"But yesterday being Christmas Eve and today being Christmas Day, I thought now it's time for some Christmas carols for the children."

Many town residents attended Christmas Eve services on Monday evening and spent the morning at home with their families. Others attended church services in search of a new beginning.

At St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, attended by eight of the child victims of the massacre, the pastor told parishioners: "Today is the day we begin everything all over again."

Recalling the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, the Reverend Robert Weiss said: "The moment the first responder broke through the doors we knew good always overcomes evil."

"We know Christmas in a way we never ever thought we would know it," he said. "We need a little Christmas and we've been given it."

Police have yet to offer a possible motive for gunman Adam Lanza's rampage. The 20-year-old Newtown man, who lived at home, killed his mother in her bed before heading to the school and killing 20 children - all aged either six or seven - and six adults. He then killed himself.

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China launches worldÂ’s longest bullet train

A train on China's new high-speed line between Beijing and Guangzhou waits to start its journey in Beijing on December 26. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

CHINA has opened the world's longest high-speed rail line that more than halves the travel time from the capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the south.

The opening of the 2,298 kilometre-line was commemorated by the 9am local time departure of a train from Beijing for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

China has massive resources and considerable prestige invested in its showcase high-speed railways program.

But it has in recent months faced high-profile problems: part of a line collapsed in central China after heavy rains in March, while a bullet train crash in the summer of 2011 killed 40 people. The former railway minister, who spearheaded the bullet train's construction, and the ministry's chief engineer, were detained in an unrelated corruption investigation months before the crash.

Trains on the latest high-speed line will initially run at 300kp/h with a total travel time of about eight hours. Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

The line also makes stops in major cities along the way, including provincial capitals Shijiazhuang, Wuhan and Changsha.

More than 150 pairs of high-speed trains will run on the new line every day, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Railways.

Railway is an essential part in China's transportation system, and the government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.

The opening of the new line brings the total distance covered by China's high-speed railway system to more than 9300km - about half its 2015 target of 18,000 km.

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Syria police boss defects to join revolution

In this image made from video broadcast on Al Arabiya TV, Syrian Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal says he is defecting and joining "the people's revolution." Source: AP

Syria's military police chief has announced his defection from President Bashar al-Assad's regime, accusing the army of having turned into "murderous gangs," in a video posted online.

"I, General Abdel Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, commander of Syrian military police, announce that I am defecting from the regime army, to join the people's revolution," the military-clad officer said.

"The army has deviated from its essential mission, which is to protect the country, and it has morphed into murderous, destructive gangs," Shallal charged in the video circulated by opposition activists yesterday.

"The destruction of cities and villages, and the commission of massacres against our people, defenceless civilians, who took to the streets calling for freedom" prompted Shallal to defect, he said.

Shallal, whose functions are limited to disciplining soldiers, is not a well-known figure.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited sources close to Shallal as saying he was set to retire in January, and its head Rami Abdel Rahman said he has already left Syria, like many other senior military defectors.

According to reports on online platforms, he left Syria for Turkey.

"This man was pushed to the sidelines a long time ago," one Syrian activist said online, adding that Shallal was "suspected of collaborating with insurgents."

This Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012 image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network shows Syrians helping a wounded man after a government airstrike hit Halfaya, Syria. The death toll from the conflict has reached 45,000 a watchdog groups says.

Shallal "withdrew military police checkpoints from the roads, and he was good to people," another activist wrote online.

Meanwhile the Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, was headed for Moscow, an airport source in Beirut told AFP yesterday, amid reports of a US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria.

"Accompanied by foreign ministry official Ahmed Arnus, Muqdad's Aeroflot flight to Moscow took off from Beirut airport at midnight (2200 GMT)" Tuesday, the airport source said, on condition of anonymity.

French daily Le Figaro has reported that the new initiative would see President Bashar al-Assad staying in power until 2014 while preventing him from further renewing his mandate.

Earlier yesterday a watchdog said the death toll in Syria's civil war has topped 45,000, as a new push by peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table appeared to have failed.

At least anther 20 people including eight children were killed in tank shelling of a farming village in the north of the country, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The grim statistics added gravity to a UN warning that Syrians are losing hope of any end to the bloodletting and that the humanitarian situation across the country is rapidly deteriorating.

A Syrian man carryies an elderly woman as residents search for bodies in the rubble after a government airstrike in Halfaya.

"In all we have documented the deaths of 45,048 people," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that more than 1000 people were killed in the past week alone.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of medics and activists on the ground, said the actual number of people killed since an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted in March last year could be as high as 100,000, with both sides concealing many of their casualties.

The Britain-based watchdog reported fierce army shelling of a farming area in a village in the northern province of Raqa.

"At least 20 people, among them eight children and three women, were killed in shelling by regime forces of farmlands in Kahtaniyeh village, west of the city of Raqa," said the Observatory.

Amateur video posted online by activists showed several bloodied bodies, including at least one of a child, laid out on blankets in a house.

Raqa has seen an escalation of violence in recent months as rebels have launched an assault to seize several areas of the province, strategically located on the Turkish border.

The Observatory also reported new clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk in southern Damascus, the scene of fierce fighting last week.

Violence first broke out in Yarmuk - home to some 150,000 people - as regime warplanes were reported to have carried out an air strike on the camp on December 16, killing at least eight people.

Elsewhere, the army took control of three Alawite villages in the central province of Hama, among them Maan, large swathes of which were overrun by jihadists two days earlier, said the Observatory.

Mr Brahimi arrived in Syria on Sunday to push a new initiative aimed at ending the bloodshed and getting the regime and opposition to the negotiating table.

A UN Security Council diplomat, however, said the veteran Algerian diplomat had received no support from any of the warring parties.

"Assad appears to have stonewalled Brahimi again, the UN Security Council is not even close to showing the envoy the kind of support he needs and the rebels will not now compromise," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Opposition activists also blasted Mr Brahimi.

"Brahimi's arrival in Damascus to discuss a new political initiative to solve the crisis caused by the regime... has not put a stop... to massacres," said the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of anti-regime activists.

A French daily has reported a supposed US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria, causing rage among opponents who reject any compromise with the regime.

Le Figaro said a solution in the offing would involve Assad staying in power until 2014 while preventing him from further renewing his mandate.

The UN said worse was to come inside Syria.

With four million people in need of aid inside Syria and well over 500,000 registered as refugees outside, "it's becoming more and more difficult just to do the very basic things to help people to survive," John Ging, a top UN relief official, said in New York on Tuesday.

"People are losing hope because they just see more violence on the horizon, they just see a deterioration."

Analysts said only a few in Assad's regime now controlled power.

"Power has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of just a few people in Assad's clan, which has grown autistic and seems to have chosen to just keep going," Paris-based expert Karim Bitar said.

"Bashar, who runs the show, only listens to people who owe him, for the most part, for their rise," said another analyst on condition of anonymity.

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