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BLACKSBURG: Before a berserk killer's bullet found her in a classroom at Virginia Tech, Mumbai girl Minal Panchal looked forward to following her father's footsteps in the world of architecture. The Harry Potter fan, who loved cricket as well as Indian and Chinese cuisines, was confirmed dead a full 24 hours after the shooting spree by South Korean Cho Seung-Hui that killed 32 people on Monday. Her profile describes her as a fan of dry, sarcastic humour, sketching and cricket in the social networking site Orkut. The body of the 26-year-old is likely to be handed over to her family...

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Families in India and Israel are mourning two professors among the 32 people killed in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. The son of 76-yar-old Liviu Librescu , an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, says his father tried to stop the gunman from entering his classroom by blocking the door before he was fatally shot. Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from Tel Aviv, Israel, that his father immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1985 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then. Joe Librescu himself studied at...

“Who is this Asian man? Why is he being cuffed?” “Who is this man? Why is he being constrained? Is he still alive?”

_____________________________________________________________ This visitation of death against Virginia Tech University this week is a direct result of gun laws banning weapons within 1,000 feet of a school -- the victim disarmament zone is as advertised once more. Sure the shooter is to blame, but Congress shares the blame not only for shootings, but for any instance of disarming citizens who could have resisted with all legal authority and use of force. Why obfuscate or discourage this legal authority? We’ll never keep weapons – knifes, bare hands, brute force and guns – out of the hands of the criminal, but we sure...

What is the most effective way to stop mass murders like the shootings at Virginia Tech? Increase gun control Increase police presence Metal detectors and guards Reduce media violence Train and arm civilians

Well, I'm listening to all the calls for some sort of gun-control that will save us from the next VaTech style shooting and my mind drifted to Israel. The Israelis suffer a lot more suicide bombings that we do VaTech type massacres; and they're a lot smaller country too. So they've obviously got a big problem on their hands. And the solution hit me. All they have to do is ban suicide bomb belts. ML/NJ

LAREDO, Texas (AP) - Sen. John McCain says the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech does not change his view that the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to carry a weapon. "We have to look at what happened here, but it doesn't change my views on the Second Amendment, except to make sure that these kinds of weapons don't fall into the hands of bad people," McCain said Monday in response to a question. The Arizona Republican, who was campaigning in this Texas-Mexico border city, said he didn't know the details of the attacks at Virginia Tech. "I do believe in...

VIRGINIA: A gunman massacred 33 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history before the university could figure out what was going on and get the warning out to students. The bloodbath on Monday ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with tragedy, perhaps forever. G V Loganathan, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who graduated from IIT Kanpur and completed his PhD from Purdue University, was killed in the shootout. An Indian student, Minal Panchal, was also allegedly...

Shocking details were revealed Thursday in the investigation of Anthony LaCalamita, a man who police say went to his former employer's office on Monday and shot three people, killing one of them. Experts close to the investigation told Local 4 that LaCalamita, 38, was fired from his job because a pimp showed up at his office at Gordon Advisors. Local 4 sources said a so-called pimp allegedly came to LaCalamita's office to collect a debt he owed on a prostitute.

Police Tuesday identified the gunman accused in Monday night’s Trolley Square shooting as Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City... But is he Muslim? Will they ever say? Time to renew your concealed carry permits! The US west may have been safe, but thanks to the diversity lottery and the settlement of "refugees" from places where many of these refugees are the cause of their own problems, we could see more of this crap.

The 18-year-old man who shot and killed at least five people Monday night at Trolley Square has been identified as Solejman Talovic, a Bosnian refugee who lived in Salt Lake City. Little additional information was released about Talovic. The Bosnian community, which numbers about 3,000 in Utah, planned a press conference later this afternoon. Talovic parked his car in the west parking lot and walked into the mall, encountering two people, whom he shot. Then he walked further into the mall and shot a woman, said Police Chief Chris Burbank. He then walked to a gift shop and shot five...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A meeting in a chat room has led to a woman bound and strangled and two deaths in Albuquerque. Several hours after they started, police still continue to work this strange case. A case where two people are dead and likely no one will end up behind bars. Medical examiners haul two bodies away from Blake's Cr. in southwest Albuquerque Sunday evening. One man was shot to death and the other was a female was bound, and suffered from suffocation. This is a bizarre case even for law enforcement veteran John Walsh. "This is one I have...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Gunfire broke out between two groups at a massive Halloween street party in the city's Castro district, wounding at least 10 people, including innocent bystanders, police said Wednesday. The shooting began around 10:40 p.m. Tuesday as authorities were dispersing thousands of revelers under a curfew aimed at controlling the traditionally raucous party. Two people were detained for questioning, but no one had been arrested early Wednesday, police Capt. Al Casciato said. He said two groups of people had gotten into an altercation when the shooting began. One victim was listed in critical condition at San Francisco...

A Tale of Three Cities Last Thursday evening in Decatur, Alabama, I had the occasion to hear Alabama Governor Bob Riley address a banquet room full of outdoor writers. The occasion was the 42nd Annual Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) Fall Conference. It wasn't expected to be the place where a governor running for reelection would be expected to announce a major initiative or political decision. Honestly, I didn't even expect too-much in the way of a typical political stemwinder speech. Riley's not known for firebrand rhetoric or high-pressure politicking, and he kept to that low-key delivery. Riley did, however,...

AMISH families in mournful parades of horse-drawn buggies took part in funerals today for four schoolgirl victims of a gunman who went on a sexual fantasy-fuelled killing rampage at their school. As four of the five young girls killed on Monday were laid to rest, tales of selfless heroism emerged of one victim who reportedly asked killer Charles Roberts to "shoot me first," to save her classmates. But the grief looked set to deepen, as US media reports said one critically wounded schoolgirl had been taken off life support in hospital and brought back to her spartan Pennsylvania home to...

A Tibetan nun in her mid twenties was shot dead by Chinese border patrols and at least one other Tibetan may have been killed while on their way into exile in Nepal on the Nangpa pass five days ago, according to eyewitness reports. Tibetans traveling with the nun were unable to bring her body, with evident wounds from several rounds of bullets, with them because they feared arrest before entering Nepalese territory. There are reports that up to seven more Tibetans may have been killed after the group was fired upon by Chinese armed personnel, but these could not be...

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) -- In most communities, a deadly school shooting brings demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones lash out at the gunman's family or threaten to sue. But that's not the Amish way. As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will. "They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent, and they know that they will...

WASHINGTON - Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo told authorities that he and conspirator John Allen Muhammad were responsible for four shootings, two of them fatal, that had not been publicly linked to them, according to a published report. The Washington Post, citing a source familiar with the case, said in a story in Friday's editions the shootings occurred before the three-week spree in October 2002 in which 13 people were shot, 10 fatally, in the Washington area. The Post said a second source confirmed that investigators have received information implicating Malvo and Muhammad in the four other shootings. The sources...

Hundreds of riot police armed with guns and shields surrounded and sealed off a southern Chinese village where authorities shot dead as many as 10 demonstrators this week. Residents in Dongzhou, a village in Guangdong province, said thousands of people had gathered to protest over what they said was inadequate compensation being offered for land to be used in the construction of a wind power plant. Police fired into the crowd and killed a handful of people, mostly men, villagers reached by telephone said. Accounts of the death toll ranged from two and 10, with many missing. State media have...

China Town Sealed After Police Shootings By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 9, 6:40 PM ET BEIJING - Armed with guns and shields, hundreds of riot police sealed off a southern Chinese village after fatally shooting demonstrators and searched for the protest organizers, villagers said Friday. Although security forces often use tear gas and truncheons to disperse demonstrators, it is extremely rare for them to fire into a crowd — as they did in putting down pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 near Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed. During the demonstration Tuesday in Dongzhou, a village in...