More Than 20, Mostly Kids, Killed at Grade School

More than two dozen people, mostly elementary school children, were shot and killed at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school this morning, federal and state sources tell ABC News.

The massacre involved two gunmen at a Connecticut school this morning, prompting the town of Newtown to lock down all of its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today.

State Police confirm that one shooter is dead. A second gunman is apparently at large. Car-to-car searches are underway.

It's unclear how many people have been shot, but 25 people, mostly children are dead, multiple federal and state sources tell ABC News. That number could rise, officials said.

It is the worst shooting in a U.S. elementary school in recent memory.

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

Today's shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, about 12 miles east of Danbury.

Watch State Police News Conference Live at 1 p.m. at ABCNews.com

State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41a.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.

Shannon Hicks/The Newtown Bee

Connecticut School Shooting: 3 Victims Hospitalized Watch Video

Connecticut School Shooting: 1 Gunman Confirmed Dead Watch Video

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

LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting

While some students have been reunited with their parents on the school's perimeter, one group of students remains unaccounted for, according to a source with a child in the school.

The school is kindergarten through fourth grade.

CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.

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

"Out of abundance of caution and not because of any direct threat Danbury Hospital is under lockdown," the statement said. "This allows us simply to focus on the important work at hand."

Newtown Public School District secretary of superintendent Kathy June said in a statement that the district's school were locked down because of the report of a shooting. "The district is taking preventive measures by putting all schools in lockdown until we ensure the safety of all students and staff."

State police sent SWAT team units to Newtown.

All public and private schools in the town are on lockdown.

"We have increased our police presence at all Danbury Public Schools due to the events in Newtown. Pray for the victims," Newtown Mayor Boughton tweeted.

State emergency management officials said ambulances and other units were also en route and staging near the school.

A message on the school district website says that all afternoon kindergarten is cancelled today and there will be no mid-day bus runs.

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Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s 2012 Christmas card: Fiscal cliff, Gretzky in heaven

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen — your Rep. Loretta Sanchez Christmas card for 2012!

(Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez)
Over the past decade, the California Democrat’s wacky holiday greetings have drawn a cult following. “I’ve seen them being sold on eBay,” the congresswoman told us.

(Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez)
Nice topical theme this year! “The ‘fiscal cliff’ is a very serious situation, so we didn’t want to make light of it,” she said. “But sometimes a chuckle makes things a lot easier.” (Last year’s card tipped a hat to Occupy Wall Street and all that 99 percent talk: “May the joy of the holidays occupy 100 percent of your heart.”)

That’s husband Jack Einwechter dancing with her. Sanchez’s late beloved cat Gretzky, the star of so many cards over the years, is represented inside the card, a halo over his furry head. “Of course — Angel Gretzky,” she said. “We keep Gretzky every year because he has so many followers.”

Earlier:
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ parody, with summer interns, 7/2/12

Last year:
Rep. Loretta Sanchez carries on holiday card tradition, without beloved cat Gretzky, 12/9/11

Loretta Sanchez’s 2011 Christmas card, 12/16/11

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D.C. power players appear in new video portrait — but is it art?

Elizabeth Kucinich becomes a real-estate agent; will keep public-affairs job, too

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Golf: US 2014 Ryder Cup captain Watson wants Tiger on team

NEW YORK: Eight-time major golf champion Tom Watson, named on Thursday to be captain of the 2014 US Ryder Cup squad by the PGA of America, said that he sees Tiger Woods being on that team.

Citing the 14-time major champion's hunger for victory, Watson said a healthy Woods would be a certainty on the 12-man US lineup by virtue of a captain's selection even if he is unable to qualify on points.

"I want him on my team," Watson said. "Tiger is maybe the best player in history. If he's not on the team, he's going to be number one in my picks."

Watson, who at 63 is the oldest captain in US Ryder Cup history, had been critical of Woods in the aftermath of his infamous sex scandal.

But Watson said he admires Woods for his determination to win and Woods was among the first to applaud Watson's appointment.

"I would like to congratulate Tom Watson on his selection as Ryder Cup captain," Woods said in a statement. "I think he's a really good choice. Tom knows what it takes to win and that's our ultimate goal.

"I hope I have the privilege of joining him on the 2014 United States team."

Watson, a five-time British Open champion, was selected in hopes of ending an American slump in the biennial golf showdown. Europeans have won five of the past six Ryder Cup matches, including at Medinah near Chicago last September.

"It's going to be a great journey. I hope that we will change the tide," Watson said.

The prior US Ryder Cup captain age mark belonged to Sam Snead, who was 57 when he guided the Americans in 1969.

Watson called the tension of the Ryder Cup as huge as any golf event.

"The pressure is incredibly strong," he said. "The pressure of playing in the Ryder Cup is greater or as great as in any event. My job is to help them deal with that pressure.

"I've lived for that pressure and lived underneath that pressure all my career."

Watson will be 65 when the next Ryder Cup is contested in 2014 at Gleneagles in Scotland. Having won his first major title in Scotland at Carnoustie in 1975 and taken four major crowns on Scottish soil, Watson said he knew he wouldn't have the crowd in 2014.

"They are going to be cheering against me," he said.

Watson first served as the US captain in 1993, the last time a US squad won a Ryder Cup on European soil.

"I really wanted the challenge to do it again," Watson said. "I was waiting for about 20 years to get the call.

"I loved it the first time. It's just a great honor to be able to do it again.

"This time we need 14 1/2 points."

Watson becomes the first repeat US Ryder Cup captain since 1987, when Jack Nicklaus guided the Americans at his Muirfield Village home course but the Americans suffered their first defeat on US soil.

Brandt Snedeker, like Woods a member of this year's losing squad, backed Watson as well.

"Obviously they were looking outside the box, given our recent failures," Snedeker said in a posting on the tour website.

"They wanted to get a guy who has had success and commands respect. I think that's why they went this way: to get the US to rally around him as a way to rejuvenate the American side.

"Tom is one of the best competitors of all time. He's going to bring that fire and unwillingness to lose and mental strength that has defined his career."

Saying he hoped to bring the "Watson luck" to the US side, Watson said his role was inspirational and informational more than motivational.

"They don't need to be motivated. My job is to maybe inspire a little bit," Watson said. "The most important thing is to be there to help them out."

Among the lessons Watson cited was arriving early to allow bodies time to adjust to time changes before tinkering with stroke mechanics.

PGA of America president Ted Bishop said there was no problem selecting Watson despite him not having played full-time on the PGA circuit in 14 years.

"We're just tired of losing Ryder Cups," Bishop said, explaining that Watson's appointment was in large part due to that "weariness".

Watson, who won 39 PGA titles - the last at the 1998 Colonial, had no worries about age differences, citing contact with several top players and his playing in a few events alongside many of today's stars, including the Masters and British Open.

"I deflect that very simply by saying we play the same game," Watson said.

-AFP/ac

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Killing of fishermen: Italy summons Indian ambassador

ROME: Italy has summoned India's ambassador to insist that India's Supreme Court issue a decision soon concerning two Italian naval guards detained since February for the deaths of two Indian fishermen mistaken for pirates.

Italy maintains the shooting occurred in international waters and that as a result, Rome should have jurisdiction.

India claims the ship was in Indian territorial waters. The Indian Supreme Court is to decide on Italy's petition to try the sailors at home.

In a statement Thursday, the foreign ministry said it was "profoundly bewildered" why the court hasn't ruled even though arguments ended three months ago. It asked for a decision before Christmas.

The sailors were providing security on a cargo ship when they allegedly shot the fishermen. The dispute has strained diplomatic relations.

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Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy

The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.

The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang.

"This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist Richard Ellis with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Rather, galaxies appear to have been formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Ellis led a team that used Hubble to look at one small section of the sky for a hundred hours. The grainy images of faint galaxies include one researchers determined to be from a period 380 million years after the onset of the universe—the closest in time to the Big Bang ever observed.

The cosmos is about 13.7 billion years old, so the newly discovered galaxy was present when the universe was 4 percent of its current age. The other six galaxies were sending out light from between 380 million and 600 million years after the Big Bang. (See pictures of "Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries.")

Baby Pictures

The images are "like the first ultrasounds of [an] infant," said Abraham Loeb, a specialist in the early cosmos at Harvard University. "These are the building blocks of the galaxies we now have."

These early galaxies were a thousand times denser than galaxies are now and were much closer together as well, Ellis said. But they were also less luminous than later galaxies.

The team used a set of four filters to analyze the near infrared wavelengths captured by Hubble Wide Field Camera 3, and estimated the galaxies' distances from Earth by studying their colors. At a NASA teleconference, team members said they had pushed Hubble's detection capabilities about as far as they could go and would most likely not be able to identify galaxies from further back in time until the James Webb Space Telescope launches toward the end of the decade. (Learn about the Hubble telescope.)

"Although we may have reached back as far as Hubble will see, Hubble has set the stage for Webb," said team member Anton Koekemoer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "Our work indicates there is a rich field of even earlier galaxies that Webb will be able to study."

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Fiscal Cliff Talks' Latest Victim? Sandy Relief

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner just can't seem to break through an impasse in their "fiscal cliff" talks, increasing pessimism about a deal by Christmas and now threatening to sidetrack billions in federal aid for victims of superstorm Sandy.

After weeks of public posturing and private negotiations, both sides remain firmly dug in with their opposing positions on tax hikes and spending cuts for deficit reduction.

"The president wants to pretend spending isn't the problem," Boehner told reporters today. "That's why we don't have an agreement."

House Republicans are demanding significant changes to entitlement programs to curb spending, which Democrats flatly oppose. The White House, invoking the president's re-election and public opinion polls on its side, still insists there will be no deal without a tax-rate increase on the top 2 percent of U.S. income-earners.

"Until the Republicans realize this, are willing to do what is right, we are going nowhere," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

The gridlock on how to best reduce the deficits and debt threatens to derail another pressing piece of business at hand: the White House's $60 billion emergency-relief request for states devastated by Sandy.

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

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Some Republicans are balking at the size of the request -- which was endorsed by the governors of the affected states, including New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie -- noting that its price tag would nearly wipeout any deficit savings Democrats are seeking next year by raising tax rates on the rich.

Other lawmakers have said the aid package should be offset with a fresh batch of spending cuts, which could be hashed out in committee hearings early next year. FEMA still has $5 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, they say, enough to last until March.

Congressional leaders on both sides warned members Wednesday to prepare for a working Christmas in Washington unless a compromise can be reached soon. The "fiscal cliff" hits in 19 days, triggering a cascade of automatic tax hikes and deep spending cuts that could thrust the economy back into recession.

Obama and Boehner have traded a series of proposals over the past few days, speaking at least once by phone this week. The president lowered his desired target for new tax revenue from $1.6 trillion to $1.4 trillion; Boehner has indicated his willingness to raise more than the $800 billion he put on the table.

But the Ohio Republican said today that the two sides are nowhere near a deal.

"More than five weeks ago, Republicans signaled our willingness to avert the 'fiscal cliff' with a bipartisan agreement that is truly balanced and begins to solve our spending problem," Boehner said. "The president still has not made an offer that meets these two standards."

Obama predicted Monday that Republicans will ultimately accept tax hikes for the wealthy and signaled new willingness to make "tough" spending cuts. But he did not offer specifics.

"If the Republicans can move on that [taxes], then we are prepared to do some tough things on the spending side," Obama told ABC's Barbara Walters this week. "Taxes are going to go up one way or another. And I think the key is that taxes go up on high-end individuals."

In the event both sides cannot reach a broad deal, there is still some optimism about a last-ditch effort by both parties to prevent an income tax hike on 98 percent of earners.

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Talks to avert ‘fiscal cliff’ show no progress

Talks to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” appeared on the verge of an impasse Wednesday morning after late-night attempts to prevent negotiations from breaking down yielded no significant progress.

President Obama’s chief negotiator, Rob Nabors, rushed to the Capitol late Tuesday to meet with top aides to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) hours after a phone call between the two leaders that Boehner said left the two sides far apart.

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UN court sentences Srebrenica commander to life for genocide

THE HAGUE: The UN's Yugoslav war crimes court found Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir guilty of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, and sentenced him to life in jail.

"The majority of the court finds you guilty" of crimes including genocide, judge Christoph Flugge told the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"Zdravko Tolimir, you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment," the judge then told the gaunt former commander, who crossed himself three times before the verdict was handed down.

The majority of the court's judges agreed with prosecutors who had asked for a life sentence, saying Tolimir, now 64, was involved in "massive" crimes committed at the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves in July 1995.

They said they were "of a massive scale, severe in (their) intensity and devastating in (their) effect."

Judges said Tolimir -- whom they called the "right-hand man and eyes and ears of (Bosnian Serb army commander) Ratko Mladic," -- who is also being tried by the court -- had overseen Bosnian Serb army officers conducting the slaughter of at least 6,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Conducting his own defence, Tolimir said that what happened at Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in July 1995 amounted to "fighting against terrorist groups", rather than the murder of Muslim men and boys after Dutch peacekeepers at the "safe" enclave were overrun by Mladic's forces.

Tolimir, said Judge Flugge, "had full knowledge of the despicable criminal operations and himself furthered their goals," in this brutal episode in the Balkans country's bloody 1992-95 war that claimed 100,000 lives and left 2.2 million others homeless.

Apart from genocide, Tolimir was found guilty on six other counts including extermination, murder, persecution and forcible transfer.

Judges said prosecutors did not prove a count of deportation beyond reasonable doubt in relation to the attacks on Srebrenica and Zepa.

During his trial prosecutors said the former intelligence chief was part of a grand scheme to murder thousands of Muslim men and boys and expel thousands of woman and children from the enclave in order to create a "mono-ethnic Serb state."

The prosecution also alleged that about 25,000 women, children and elderly people were forcibly transferred from the enclaves to Muslim-controlled territories, while thousands of men and boys old enough to bear arms were executed and dumped in mass graves.

Tolimir was involved in a "joint criminal enterprise" to "summarily execute and bury thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys aged 16 to 60 captured from the Srebrenica enclave," according to the charge sheet.

During the trial, prosecutors said Mladic relied on Tolimir to "carry out the slow strangling of the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves" to create conditions which would force the Muslim population "to give up hope of survival."

Tolimir is the most senior Serb to have a verdict handed down by the UN war crimes court since two Croatian generals and two former Kosovar guerrillas were acquitted last month, sparking Serbia's ire.

In 2004, Radislav Krstic became the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb officer to be sentenced on appeal to 35 years in jail for his role in the Srebrenica massacre.

Arrested in May 2007 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tolimir had seen his trial delayed several times due to ill-health.

Mladic, also dubbed "the Butcher of Bosnia," was arrested in Serbia last year, and now faces 11 counts before the same Hague-based court, including for the Srebrenica massacre.

-AFP/ac

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Ravi Shankar harnessed folk tunes with equal felicity

NEW DELHI: Perhaps the finest novel written by Hindi-Urdu literary genius Munshi Premchand, Godan, was miserably adapted to the big screen by film director Trilok Jetley in 1963. Despite having proven performers like Raj Kumar and Kamini Kaushal in lead roles, the movie sank without a trace.

But the film had at least one endearing footnote: a bunch of folksy compositions flavoured with the salt of village India. Bollywood cineastes would surely recall a boisterous Mehmood singing, Pipra ke pathwa sareekhe dole manwa ke hiyera mein uthath hillor, purwa ke jhokwa se aayo re sandeswa ke chalein aaj deswa ki ore (lyricist: Anjaan, singer: Rafi), and dancing past the fecund cornfields. Hori khelat nand lal Biraj mein, also sung by Mehmood onscreen, is another number that amiably captures the movie's hinterland feel. Both these songs also underline the versatility of composer Ravi Shankar: he could harness folk tunes with the same felicity with which he played ragas on his complex sitar. It is clear that the Benaras-born musician never forgot his childhood days.

Ravi Shankar's most memorable Hindi film compositions came in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anuradha (1961), where the born-to-break-hearts Leela Naidu made her debut. The film revolved around a singer conflicted between her love for music and her idealist doctor husband ( Balraj Sahni). The masterclass musician's melody-driven, semi-classical tunes harmonized perfectly with Shailendra's meaningful poetry to bring out the protagonist's predicament.

With Lata at her rapturous, nuanced best, every Anuradha song is 10/10 -- Jaane kaise sapnon mein (Raag Tilak Shyam), Saanwre saanwre kahe mose (Raag Bhairavi), Kaise din beete, kaise beeti ratiyan and Hai re woh din kyon na aaye. The songs of Anuradha were a commercial as well as a critical success. And it is surprising that Ravi Shankar composed only fleetingly for Hindi cinema thereafter. May be, he was too busy teaching music to the Beatles.

The next notable film in his Bollywood ouvre came much later in 1979; Gulzar's Meera, a much-talked and little-seen movie. The lyricist-director's dream project was based on the life and music of the 16th century poet-princess, Meerabai. It was a difficult subject and the surprise choice of Ravi Shankar as music director shows how he was valued by serious filmmakers. The movie was a letdown but its music, especially some of the bhajans such as Jo tum todo piya and Mere to giridhar gopal, became chartbusters. Incidentally, Ravi Shankar controversially used Vani Jairam, and not Lata Mangeshkar for the songs.

Few remember that Ravi Shankar started his Hindi film career providing music for two progressive movies: KA Abbas' Dharti Ke Lal (1946) and Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, which won the Grand Prize in Cannes. Reminiscent of the Saigal era, the compositions in these films failed to create a major impact.

It was with his background score for Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) that Ravi Shankar really came into his own illustrating how music can play such a major role in a movie's mood building. In the famous train scene, the swish of the wind and water, the approaching sound of the steam locomotive and the two kids rushing through the field of Kaash flowers - is a fitting example of subtle, minimalist music. Even in the other two movies of the Apu Trilogy, Aparajito and Apur Sansar, Ravi Shankar provided the background score. He also gave the music for Paras Pathar, one of Ray's underfeted works.

The Indian composer earned an Oscar nomination for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. The overwritten background music, actually, is one of the film's weakness. But Ravi Shankar, the musician, was too big a brand for even the Oscar awards committee to ignore.

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory

This image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.

To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.

"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge.

Full story>>

Why We Love It

"I like the way this view of the Milky Way also shows us a compelling foreground landscape. It also hints at the astronomy problems caused by light pollution."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published December 11, 2012

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