Gunman shoots 3 in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- A gunman opened fire on a downtown street during the morning rush hour Monday in Australia's second largest city, killing one man and critically wounding two other people while scattering terrified commuters, police said.\

The suspect fled, and police launched a manhunt in the southern city of Melbourne, closing several streets and advising people to stay indoors as tactical officers armed with shotguns fanned out and helicopters joined the search overhead.

Police said the shooting did not appear to be a random act, and that it was believed a woman who was one of the victims knew the gunman.

The other two victims -- including the one who died -- were male bystanders who came to the aid of the woman during an altercation with a man who pulled out a gun, witnesses said.

A girl came out of a building over the road, she was screaming and a guy had her by the hair," Ross Murchie told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"She tried to grab hold of a taxi that was going by and the couple of bystanders went over to ask what was happening," Murchie said. "He let go of her hair, pulled out a gun and shot them all."

Inspector Steve Martin said the woman and one of the men who went to assist were rushed to hospital in critical condition with gunshot wounds to their chests. The third victim died at the scene, he said.
The shooting occurred on the corner of Flinders Lane and William Streets in central Melbourne around 8 a.m. Monday (2200 Sunday), sending hundreds of frightened commuters fleeing. A short time later, police said they had recovered a handgun and a jacket believed to have been worn by the attacker, who remained at large.

Prime Minister John Howard declined to comment directly on the shooting because he was not aware of the details, but said he was willing to open discussions on further tightening gun control laws with state leaders, who have responsibility for policing them.
Justice Minister David Johnston said Australian firearms laws already were very tight and that it was likely the gun used in Monday's shooting was obtained illegally.

"It is very, very, difficult for a law-abiding citizen to obtain a handgun," Johnston said, adding: "If someone wants to purchase a concealable weapon on the black market they will probably be successful."
Police said the gunman and the female victim may have been involved in a fight at a nightclub about 10 minutes before the shooting.

"It does appear that there was a relationship between the female and the male suspect," said Inspector Glenn Weir said. "Certainly we're not looking that it's a random act, certainly not gang-related. It appears as though it's a domestic-related incident."

Top story by CNN Virginia Tech report: Share mental health data

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cowed by confusing privacy laws, authorities sometimes fail to raise red flags about potentially dangerous students, and peers keep quiet out of a false sense of duty, a federal report on the Virginia Tech shootings concluded Wednesday.

On April 16, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 fellow students and faculty members before killing himself on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

The 23-year-old student had been described as a loner by his roommates and the violence in his writings had worried his teachers. After Cho expressed suicidal thoughts to a roommate, who then alerted others, Cho was given a psychological evaluation and a judge ordered he be treated.

But that order was not entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and Cho was able to buy the two guns he used in the shooting spree.

"Accurate and complete information on individuals prohibited from possessing firearms is essential to keep guns out of the wrong hands," the report concluded.

Part of the problem is that educators, doctors and police aren't sure what they're permitted to reveal about someone's medical history, the report found.

"We need to do a much better job educating educators, [the] mental health community and law enforcement that they can, in fact, share information when a person's safety or a community's safety is in fact potentially endangered," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt told reporters after delivering the report to President Bush.

"When a person is in danger themselves, or when a community is in danger, the existing law does provide the capacity for law enforcement to work with school communities, and school communities to work with the mental health community to get people help," he said.

On April 21, five days after the massacre, Bush asked the heads of the departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services to learn from educators, mental health experts, police and state and local officials in a dozen states how the federal government can help prevent similar calamities.

Communication of concerns was the dominant theme.

"We repeatedly heard reports of 'information silos' within educational institutions and among educational staff, mental health providers, and public safety officials that impede appropriate information sharing," said the report.

On the state level, a Virginia inspector general's report this week recommended that the state look at changing its mental-treatment commitment process to allow such authorities to contribute their observations and opinions. It also recommended increasing the number of "secure crisis stabilization programs" -- basically mental health intensive care units where patients can be held involuntarily for short periods.

State laws do not always ensure that information on people not allowed to own handguns is sent to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the federal report said.

Recommendations proffered

Though the report concluded that "in a country of more than 300 million people, it is impossible to eliminate all risks," it laid out a number of recommendations, including ensuring that information be maintained on individuals prohibited from owning firearms.

It recommended efforts to "de-stigmatize" mental illness, reduce student isolation and encourage students to seek help for themselves and others.

The report cited concerns from a number of participants over "an insufficient number of skilled mental health workers" that sometimes resulted in waiting lists for services, though this was apparently not the case with Cho.

In a written statement, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger said, "Based on my quick review, the report unearthed the deep complexities of the issues facing college campuses today. We believe that this will further inform the national and our state discussion on the nexus between societal safety and personal freedoms."

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has ordered a separate investigation into the killings, which is not complete.

By CNN

Weapon dates bowhead whale to 1800s

Highlights
-Weapon embedded in bowhead whale's neck is from 115 to 130 years old
-It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890
-The whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month
-The fragment will be displayed at the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt -- more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.

The bomb lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.

It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping.

The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Bockstoce said.

"It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place," he said. "He couldn't have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years."

The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877, the year Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president, when federal Reconstruction troops withdrew from the South and when Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention, the phonograph.

The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.

"It's unusual to find old things like that in whales, and I knew immediately that it was quite old by its shape," said Craig George, a wildlife biologist for the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, who was called down to the site soon after it was found.

The revelation led George to return to a similar piece found in a whale hunted near St. Lawrence Island in 1980, which he sent to Bockstoce to compare.

"We didn't make anything of it at the time, and no one had any idea about their life span, or speculated that a bowhead could be that old," George said.

Bockstoce said he was impressed by notches carved into the head of the arrow used in the 19th century hunt, a traditional way for the Alaskan hunters to indicate ownership of the whale.

Whaling has always been a prominent source of food for Alaskans, and is monitored by the International Whaling Commission. A hunting quota for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission was recently renewed, allowing 255 whales to be harvested by 10 Alaskan villages over five years.

After it is analyzed, the fragment will be displayed at the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.

By CNN

Pop Tarts: Britney Spears Has Double Wardrobe Malfunction

Oops! She did it again!

Spotted earlier this week departing Hollywood hotspot Winston’s at 2.30 a.m., Britney Spears unfortunately forgot about using double-sided tape to hold that darn top in place.

In true Brit behavior, she got out of the car and flashed her "girls" to the world.

At least our pop princess is partying with panties now ... well, a G-string anyway. Proof is available all over the Internet.

Meanwhile, Britney's mother Lynne Spears says her daughter is "just figuring things out."

"It's sad that the whole world had to watch her make mistakes that all of us have made at one time or another," Spears is quoted as telling Us Weekly magazine in its latest issue.

"Everything is going to be good," Lynne Spears tells the magazine. "Everything is going to be really good. I can see her life picking up and it's just going to hold great things for her."

by FoxNews

Officer charged in taped beating apparently kills himself

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A former New Orleans police officer charged in the videotaped beating of a man after Hurricane Katrina apparently shot himself to death about a month before his trial, authorities said Monday.

The body of Lance Schilling, 30, was found Sunday in a suburban Metairie home. An autopsy showed he died of a gunshot wound to the roof of the mouth, Jefferson Parish coroner's office said.

Schilling and another former officer were accused of beating Robert Davis, 64, a retired school teacher who had returned to New Orleans to check on his property several weeks after the storm.

An Associated Press Television News team recorded Davis being kneed and struck at least four times on the head by two police officers the night of October 8, 2005.

Davis was booked on municipal charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. All charges were later dropped.

Schilling's attorney, Franz Zibilich, said he was saddened by his client's death. He believed the suspected suicide had no connection to the pending trial, which had been set for June 29. The former officer faced five years behind bars if convicted of second-degree battery charge.

"The truth be known, he was looking forward to having this matter tried and heard," Zibilich said.

New Orleans police spokesman Marlon Defillo said Schilling had not been with the department since December 2005.

thank see you.

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