29 killed as bus plunges into gorge in India

At least 29 passengers were killed and 20 others injured as a bus fell into a gorge in northern India Friday, police said.

The wreck occurred in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh state, said Atul Fulzele, the district police chief. Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident, he added.

More than 105,000 people were killed in traffic crashes in 2006, according to World Health Organization report released this year. About half a million people are injured by traffic crashes that year, the report said.

The India government said this year it has launched a campaign to reduce road-crash deaths by 50 per cent by 2012.

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Fort Hood suspect seemed "cool, calm, religious"

A picture began to emerge Thursday of the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings as a mental health professional who worked to help others in high-stress situations.

The gunman was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Hasan's office at the base's Darnall Army Medical Center is about a mile from the shootings, where 13 people were killed and 30 were wounded.

Hasan had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military, said a spokeswoman for his cousin, Nader Hasan. Hasan told his family he had been taunted after the September 11 attacks, the spokeswoman said.

"He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy," his cousin told the New York Times. "He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there."

An owner of a 7-Eleven at Fort Hood said Hasan -- whom he knows as "Major Nidal" -- came in for coffee and hash browns most mornings, including the morning of the shootings. Surveillance video from the store obtained by CNN shows a man who according to the store owner is Hasan at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday, about seven hours before the mass shooting. He was carrying a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb. Another surveillance video from Tuesday showed the man in scrubs.

"He looked normal," the owner said. "Came in had his hash browns and coffee as you see in the surveillance video."

The owner said he was too busy to chat with Hasan on Thursday, but through brief talks learned the officer's background was Jordanian, though he didn't speak Arabic well. He said Hasan didn't wear a wedding ring and jokingly asked several times whether the owner knew a bride for him.
Hasan would also ask the owner whether he planned to attend Friday prayers. The owner would say he was too busy.

Hasan said he would be deployed to Afghanistan soon, the owner said.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who had been briefed by a general at the post, told CNN that Hasan was to have been deployed to Iraq and was unhappy about it.

Staff Sgt. Marc Molano, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky, told CNN Hasan treated him for post-traumatic stress disorder earlier this year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"Dr. Hasan provided me with nothing but the best care," Molano said. "He was a very well-mannered, polite psychiatrist, and it's just a shock to know that Dr. Hasan could have done this. It's still kind of hard to believe."

Molano described him as "far and away one of the best psychiatrists I ever dealt with."
A soldier who served two tours in Iraq and is awaiting medical retirement for chronic PTSD and severe mental disorders called Hasan "a soldier's soldier who cared about our mental health."
"Hasan hears nothing but these horror stories from soldiers who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan," the soldier said. "Just hearing it I'm pretty sure would have a profound effect."
Mindy B. Mechanic, an associate professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, said listening to horror stories can have an impact, but such as extreme one is unlikely.

The impact on therapists who work with traumatized individuals is known as vicarious traumatization or compassion fatigue, Mechanic said.

"But they don't go out on shooting sprees," she said. "They might get depressed or have some emotional fallout from it, but to go on a shooting spree is not part of what happens to people from having to deal with trauma survivors all the time."

Mechanic, who does not know Hasan, said people don't just snap. "When you start looking back, there are crumbs that suggest everything was not hunky-dory."

A former neighbor of Hasan said he lived in a highrise apartment complex in Silver Spring, Maryland, with another man, apparently his brother, and that the two appeared friendly.
"They had some Arabic signs out there, and I asked them what they meant," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. The other man, who routinely wore a chef's outfit, told her it was a prayer, she said. "They seemed like they were nice people," she said.
The two men moved out three or four months ago, which she noticed because the Muslim prayer had been removed from their door.

"Honestly, they seemed like very cool, calm guys, and religious guys," she said. "It's kind of strange."

According to military records, Hasan was born in Virginia, and a federal official said he was a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent.

Military records show Hasan received his appointment to the Army as a first lieutenant in June 1997 after graduating from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, with a degree in biochemistry.
Six years later, he graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' F. Edward Hebert School Of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. He was an intern, resident and a fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

He was promoted to captain in 2003 and to major in May.

This year Hasan completed a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry and was assigned to Darnall in July.

He had been awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon, but was never deployed outside the United States.

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Four sentenced to hang for killing albino in Tanzania

A court sentenced four people to death in northern Tanzania for the killing of an albino man who was targeted for body parts believed to have special powers, authorities said Friday.

The four were found guilty of killing the 50-year-old albino in the Shinyanga region and sentenced to die by hanging for removing his body parts, said Lucca Haule, assistant commissioner of police.

So far, seven people have been sentenced to death for the killing of more than 50 Tanzanian albinos, including children, in the past two years, Haule said. Dozens more are awaiting trial.
Albinism is a genetic condition that leads to little or no pigment in the eyes, skin and hair.
Body parts of albinos are sought in some regions of Tanzania and other African countries, where some believe they bring wealth and good luck. Attackers chop off limbs and pluck out organs, selling them to witch doctors.

Killings have gone up in the east African nation, which has an estimated 200,000 albinos, according to the Tanzania Albino Center.

"People believe that albino body parts mixed with traditional medicine can make people rich," said Franck Alphonse, the center's director. "It is a thriving business ... witch doctors are asking business people to bring the body parts of albinos, who are not considered human beings."
Tanzanian government officials said they have mobilized police to help the embattled population, but admit it is hard to quell the attacks.

Most happen in rural areas, where there is not enough police presence, according to the police commissioner.

"We don't have the resources in those places ... it is not easy, but we are trying to map out locations where albinos live so that we can better protect them," he said. "We are hoping the convictions will serve as a lesson for the killers to stop."

The Tanzania Albino Center educates the public and provides albinos with basic services such as shelter, medication to prevent skin cancer, advocacy and awareness. Most albinos are stigmatized and do not go to school, leading to lack of employment and means to protect themselves, according to Alphonse.

He said politicians should go after albino killers more aggressively.

"We want to see justice done to everyone involved in the killings," Alphonse said. "They (police) only pick those who slaughtered albinos, what about those who send these people to kill?"

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Suspect in Fort Hood shootings in stable condition

The suspect in Thursday's deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, is in stable condition, the hospital commander at the base said Friday.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, was shot multiple times and was taken into custody, ending the shooting rampage Thursday afternoon.

The gunman opened fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood, killing one civilian and 12 soldiers, said Col. John Rossi, deputy commanding general at Fort Hood.

Twenty-eight people are still hospitalized and in stable condition, Rossi said at a news conference Friday morning. Hasan is the sole suspect in the shootings, Rossi said.

Authorities are investigating whether any of the killed or wounded were struck accidentally by someone trying to shoot the gunman, Rossi said.

Hasan was reported to have been wearing his uniform when he opened fire, said Col. Steven Braverman, hospital commander at Fort Hood. Braverman said Hasan had received orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

Earlier Friday, officers raided Hasan's apartment, searching for clues as to what caused him to allegedly gun down soldiers he had taken an oath to help, a police spokeswoman said.

The alleged gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire at a military processing center at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 30 others, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said.

Hasan, a psychiatrist practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, was shot multiple times and was taken into custody, ending the shooting rampage Thursday afternoon, Cone said.
In the nearby town of Killeen, a SWAT team and FBI agents were searching Hasan's apartment to help determine what caused the shooting, which military experts called the worst mass shooting at an American military base, Carol Smith, a Killeen police spokeswoman, said early Friday.

As investigators gathered evidence, details began to emerge about the alleged shooter.
Hasan, 39, is a graduate of Virginia Tech and a psychiatrist licensed in Virginia. He previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A federal official said Hasan is a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent. Military documents show Hasan was born in Virginia and has never deployed outside the United States.

An owner of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Fort Hood said Hasan, whom he knows as "Major Nidal," came in for coffee and hash browns most mornings, including the morning of the shootings.

Surveillance video from the store obtained by CNN shows a man, who according to the store owner is Hasan, at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday carrying a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb. That was about seven hours before the mass shooting.
"He looked normal, came in, had his hash browns and coffee as you see in the surveillance video," the owner told CNN.

Other surveillance footage from Tuesday showed him wearing hospital scrubs.

Hasan's first cousin, Nader Hasan, issued a statement late Thursday on behalf of their family, saying they are "shocked and saddened" by the shootings.

"We are filled with grief for the families of today's victims," the statement says. "Our family loves America. We are proud of our country and saddened by today's tragedy. Because this situation is still unfolding, we have nothing else that we are able to share with you at this time."
The shooting occurred in a building called the readiness center, one of the last stops before soldiers deploy and one of the first places soldiers go upon returning to the United States.
Some of the victims were headed to Iraq or Afghanistan, said Col. Benton Danner.

At a news conference earlier in the day, Cone said the shooter had two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic.

"All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30, at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said, referring in military time to 1:30 p.m.

A witness in a building adjacent to where the shooting happened said soldiers were cutting up their uniforms into homemade bandages as the wounded were brought into the building.
"It was total chaos," the witness said.

Cone noted that a graduation ceremony was being held in an auditorium about 50 yards away from where the shooting took place.

"Thanks to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off the doors to that auditorium where there were some 600 people inside," he said.

President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered that all flags in the state be lowered to half-staff until Sunday as a tribute to the victims.

"We are deeply saddened by today's events but resolve to continue supporting our troops and protecting our citizens," he said.

In the aftermath of the incident, Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, posted an online appeal for blood as it began receiving victims.

"Due to the recent events on Fort Hood, we are in URGENT need of ALL blood types," it said.
Fort Hood is the Army's largest U.S. post, with about 40,000 troops stationed there. It is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is near Killeen, Texas. The Headquarters Unit and three brigades of the 1st Cavalry are deployed in Iraq.

The fort is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which helps soldiers returning from war with combat stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face.

He has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for dinner by 6 p.m. and required his personal authorization for anyone working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.
Nearby Killeen was the scene of one of the most deadly shootings in American history 18 years ago when George Hennard crashed his truck into a Luby's cafeteria and then began shooting, killing 23 people and wounding 20.

Hennard's spree lasted 14 minutes. He eventually took his own life.

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Italian news agency says Naples killer has been identified

Police have identified the man whose shooting of another man outside a store in Naples, Italy, was captured by a surveillance camera, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday.

The announcement came two days after police released the video of the brazen daylight shooting in hopes it would lead someone to come forward. Police did not release the man's name.

The video, shot May 11, shows a man wearing jeans, a dark jersey and a baseball cap, walking into the store and looking around, turning and walking back out.

Passersby appear unfazed. One woman tries to lift up the victim's head in an apparent attempt to see if she knew him; a man steps over the body.

Police said they had been without any clues before the release of the video. A source who was not identified publicly said the killer was a man in his 30s from Naples' northern Sanita district who had recently left the city.

A third man seen in the video was thought to have been an accomplice, but he told Il Mattino newspaper that he had nothing to do with the killing.

"I am the man of the film, but I have never been a lookout, and now I am afraid," the 39-year-old man said. "I was taking a breath of air, waiting for my daughter to go shopping."
The man said he had been living "in terror" since acquaintances called him from Germany to tell him they had seen him on the video.

Police said they knew of no motive for the killing, which took place in the poor neighborhood of Rione Sanita, where Camorra, the name for organized crime in Naples, is strong.
The victim was a bank robber, the spokesman said.

A police spokesman said Camorra has been blamed for about 60 killings this year in Naples and its surrounding county.

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Coroner says 6 women whose bodies were found at home died violently

Six women found dead at a Cleveland, Ohio, home appeared to have been strangled, and their decomposing bodies could have been lying there for "weeks, if not months or years," a coroner told CNN on Saturday.

Police discovered the bodies at the home of Anthony Sowell, a 50-year-old convicted rapist, after they tried to serve an arrest and search warrant for him related to a sexual assault investigation.
On Thursday, detectives from the department's sex-crimes unit and members of its SWAT team went to Sowell's home to execute the warrant and to arrest the suspect, but he was nowhere to be found, Cleveland Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

Five female victims were found inside the home, and another female body was discovered outside the home, said Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller III.

Miller's office had yet to identify the victims, who all died of "homicidal violence," he said.
"They were mostly strangled, it appears," he said.

Stacho said a tipster told officers of Sowell's whereabouts and police arrested him Saturday afternoon as he walked on a street near the 4th District Police Headquarters.

About a month ago, a woman accused Sowell of rape and felonious assault, Stacho said Friday.
"Once we were able to get the cooperation of the victim, we secured an arrest warrant for Mr. Sowell and subsequently a search warrant for his premises," Stacho said.

Officers serving the warrants Thursday discovered two badly decomposed bodies on the third floor of the house, Stacho said. A subsequent search revealed what appeared to be a freshly dug grave under the stairs in the basement, he said.

On Friday, investigators returned to the house, dug up the grave and found a third body, he said.
A further search of the house and property found two more bodies in a crawl space, and a sixth body was found in a shallow grave outside the home, Stacho said.

Read local coverage on CNN affiliate WJW
Five different burial methods were used on the victims, and the bodies were in varying states of decomposition, Miller said, making it difficult to determine the ages of the victims. He added that the states of the bodies made it hard to tell how long they had lain in the makeshift graves.
"It's really very difficult to tell," Miller said. "It's been some time, I would say probably at least weeks, if not months or years."

Stacho said Sowell makes his living as a "scrapper."

"He walks around and picks up scrap metal and takes it to junkyards to make a few pennies."
Sowell was convicted for a 1989 rape for which he was imprisoned from 1990 to 2005, Stacho said.

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Parents of California teen raped at school: Stop the violence

The parents of a 15-year-old girl who was gang-raped on a California high school campus urged the community Saturday to channel its anger over the event "through positive action," according to a pastor.

At a Saturday community event at the campus where the attack took place, the Rev. Jim Wheeler, who said he was the family's pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, read a statement from the teenager's parents.

"Stop the violence," Wheeler read. "Please do not respond to this tragic event by promoting hatred or by causing more pain. We've had enough violence already in this place."

Police say as many as 10 people were involved in the rape on October 24 in a dimly lit back alley outside Richmond High School, where a homecoming dance was taking place.

Another 10 people watched the attack without calling 911, police say.

Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

A sixth person who was arrested is expected to be freed because of insufficient evidence, CNN affiliate KGO reported.

Authorities say the attack lasted for more than two hours. The victim, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition, was released Wednesday.

The parents' statement urged the community to work to ensure that such an attack never happens again.

"If you need to express your outrage, please channel your anger through positive action," they said, according to Wheeler.

"Volunteer at a school. Go help a neighbor. Be courageous in speaking the truth and in holding people accountable. Work toward changing the atmosphere in our schools and in this community so that this kind of thing never happens again.

"Please do not let this happen again."

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