Germany wants a German Internet as spying scandal rankles

By Leila Abboud and Peter Maushagen

German Chancellor and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Angela Merkel talks with Sigmar Gabriel (2nd L) leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) SPD parliamentary floor leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) and Federal Chancellery Minister Ronald Pofalla (R) prior to a constitutional meeting of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, in Berlin October 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch

PARIS/FRANKFURT | Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:54am EDT

(Reuters) - As a diplomatic row rages between the United States and Europe over spying accusations, state-backed Deutsche Telekom wants German communications companies to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services.

Germany and France Propose Talks to Rein In U.S. Spying

By JAMES KANTER

The offer to hold talks is an attempt to agree on rules for surveillance operations, and to ease a dispute over eavesdropping by the United States that has plunged its relations with Europe to a low point.

Allegation of U.S. Spying Puts Obama at Crossroads

By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI

Officials in the Obama administration say that the National Security Agency, in its push to build a global data-gathering network, has rarely weighed the long-term political costs of some of its operations.

ROOM FOR DEBATE

If We Spy on Them, Are They Still U.S. ‘Allies’?

Brazil, France and Germany are angry at U.S. surveillance, but maybe that is the new normal.

• Germany and France demand talks with Obama over NSA spying revelations

  • Agency given leaders' phone numbers by government official
  • German chancellor says allies need to rebuild trust
  • Surveillance produced 'little intelligence', memo acknowledges
  339 comments
• LIVE LIVE blog: latest news and reaction
• Germany and France: NSA fallout jeopardises fight against terror
• NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts
• NSA bugging turns spotlight on world leaders' 'safe' communications
• Obama left increasingly isolated as anger builds among key US allies
• Julian Borger: With allies like these, who needs enemies?

Merkel, Hollande want new rules for sharing intelligence

Michael Birnbaum 7:37 AM ET

The German leader says trust must be rebuilt after allegations that the NSA monitored world leaders’ phone lines.

• WorldViews: Obama’s awkward call
• Germans probe spying allegations

Static between Merkel, Obama

Alleged monitoring of Angela Merkel’s cellphone has infuriated Germans. What deals could this endanger?

"coarse..."

I love to learn more about words (they are just words):
"coarse"

Family members of Landsberry, a former Marine who was also a member of the Nevada Air National Guard, described him as a hero who tried to persuade the young gunman to drop his weapon

Michael Landsberry - GS

Nevada student shoots teacher dead, wounds two before killing self

By Megan Ortiz and Wishelle Banks

SPARKS, Nevada | Tue Oct 22, 2013 3:42am EDT

(Reuters) - A student armed with a semi-automatic handgun killed a math teacher and critically wounded two classmates before killing himself at his Nevada middle school on Monday, law enforcement officials said.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene at the school in the northwestern Nevada town of Sparks, just east of Reno near the California border, after the gunfire erupted outside classrooms as students were arriving for the school day.

"A kid started getting mad and he pulled out a gun and shoots my friend, one of my friends at least," a seventh-grade student identified as Andrew Thompson told local television station KOLO. "And then he walked up to a teacher and says back up. The teacher started backing up and he pulled the trigger."

"The teacher was just lying there and he was limp," he told KOLO. "And me and five other friends went to him and said 'come on, we've got to get him to safety.' We picked him up, carried him a little bit far and we left him because our vice principal came along and said 'go, go, go, get to safety, get to safety.' So we left the teacher there and we went to safety."

The incident was the latest in a string of shooting rampages across the United States in recent years, including one in December at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 20 students and six adults and helped reignite a national debate over gun control.

The slain educator at Sparks Middle School was identified by his family as 45-year-old math teacher Michael Landsberry.

The shooter's identity was not released. Police in Sparks said he was a 12-year-old student enrolled at the school. Some media outlets later reported his age as 13.

Authorities declined to identify the two wounded students, both aged 12, who acting Sparks Police Chief Tom Miller said were rushed to a Reno hospital where one had emergency surgery.

One of the boys sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder and the other was hit in the abdomen, he said, and were listed in stable condition on Monday afternoon.

TEACHER CALLED HERO

Family members of Landsberry, a former Marine who was also a member of the Nevada Air National Guard, described him as a hero who tried to persuade the young gunman to drop his weapon.

"(He was) probably trying to stop that kid from hurting himself or anyone else," his sister-in-law Chanda Landsberry told Reuters.

Law enforcement officials said the student gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun at 7:16 a.m. local time (1416 GMT), about 15 minutes before classes were scheduled to begin at the school, which serves about 700 seventh and eighth grade students.

A 13-year-old eighth grader, Kyle Nucum, told the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper that he heard about half a dozen shots. Student Michelle Hernandez said she had seen the suspect before the shooting began.

"I heard him saying, 'Why you people making fun of me, why you laughing at me,'" Hernandez told the paper.

Some 150 to 200 police officers descended on the school following the shooting and searched the grounds with bomb dogs, Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said. Agents from the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security were assisting in the investigation, he said.

Sparks Mayor Geno Martini told a late-morning news conference that the shooting marked a tragic day for the city: "I just want to reiterate again that the city itself is very safe and this is just an isolated incident. But it's very, very tragic."

Robinson said it was too early to tell if the boy was targeting anyone in the shooting rampage. Authorities also declined to speculate on his motives.

Classes and after-school activities were canceled at Sparks Middle School for the rest of the week and counselors would be on hand to work with students and staff members who were traumatized by the shooting, the school district said.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Alistair Lyon)

U.S. Budget Woes Hit Military Readiness

» U.S. Budget Woes Hit Military Readiness
22/10/13 01:45 from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
U.S. General Ray Odierno, U.S. Army chief of staff, has said that budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty in the United States have led to sharp reductions in army training. In comments on October 21 at a conference of the Association of th...

» New York restaurant makes diners eat in silence
22/10/13 09:59 from Uploads by ITN
New York restaurant makes diners eat in silenceA restaurant in New York expects silence from its diners. . Report by Sophie Foster.From:ITNViews:19 1ratingsTime:01:22More inTravel & Events