Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/104096
Thursday, January 17, 2013 – Daily News 5A WORLD BRIEFING 10 felt strongly that the deaths could have been prevented. Both figures are higher now than after the Virginia Tech shooting deaths. About a third said that after Newtown, they felt there may be too many guns in this country. A similar share said they worried how the shooting would impact U.S. gun laws. Obama outlines $500M gun control plans WASHINGTON (AP) — Braced for a fight, President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled the most sweeping proposals for curbing gun violence in two decades, pressing a reluctant Congress to pass universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and highcapacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. A month after that horrific massacre, Obama also used his presidential powers to enact 23 measures that don't require the backing of lawmakers. The president's executive actions include ordering federal agencies to make more data available for background checks, appointing a director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and directing the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence. But the president, speaking at White House ceremony, focused his attention on the divided Congress, saying only lawmakers could enact the most effective measures for preventing more mass shootings. ''To make a real and lasting difference, Congress must act,'' Obama said. ''And Congress must act soon.'' The president vowed to use ''whatever weight this office holds'' to press lawmakers into action on his $500 million plan. He is also calling for improvements in school safety, including putting Al-Qaidalinked militants seize BP complex in Algeria 1,000 police officers in schools and bolstering mental health care by training more health professionals to deal with young people who may be at risk. Poll: Broad support for gun laws WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans were angrier about last month's horrific school shooting in Connecticut than they were about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. And more favor stricter gun laws now than did shortly after the shooting deaths of 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech in April 2007. Three-quarters of Americans said they reacted to the Connecticut massacre of with deep anger, higher than the 65 percent who said they felt that way in a poll from NORC at the University of Chicago after the 9/11 attacks. A majority, 54 percent, said they felt deeply ashamed that an event like Newtown could happen in the United States, well above the 40 percent who said they felt that way in the wake of the disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina and 35 percent who felt that way after the shootings at Virginia Tech. The massacre prompted 3 in 10 to give serious thought to whether they could really be safe anywhere these days and 4 in JUST MOVE IT Part of a national campaign to promote physical activity for American Indians and Alaskan Natives FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 TH 11:30 AM Registration and Start Psycho Fitness & MMA 1450 Schwab St., Red Bluff Join us for a series of Non-competive walks and runs. Open to families, individuals of all ages and people of all cultures. For more information contact Avery Vilche at 200-2224 or Renee Timmons at 567-5528 ROLLING HILLS CLINIC DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — In what could be the first spillover from France's intervention in Mali, Islamist militants attacked and occupied a natural gas complex in southern Algeria on Wednesday. Two people were killed and dozens of others, including several Americans, were reportedly taken hostage. A militant group claimed responsibility for the rare attack on one of oil-rich Algeria's energy facilities, saying it came in revenge for the North African nation's support for France's military operation against al-Qaida-linked rebels in neighboring Mali. The militants said they were holding 41 foreigners from the energy complex, including seven Americans. The group — called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade — phoned a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation at the Ain Amenas gas field, located 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of Algiers, the Algerian capital. BP, together with the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil company Sonatrach, operates the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp, provides services for the facility as well. In Rome, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared that the U.S. ''will take all necessary and proper steps'' to deal with the attack in Algeria. He would not detail what such steps might be but condemned the action as ''terrorist attack'' and likened it to alQaida activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. French troops begin land assault in Mali BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — French soldiers pressed north in Mali territory occupied by radical Islamists on Wednesday, launching a land assault that was to put them in direct combat with al-Qaida-linked fighters ''in one to 72 hours,'' military officials said. Their presumed destination was the town of Diabaly, where fleeing residents said Islamist extremists had taken over their homes and were preventing other people from leaving. They said the militants were melting into the population and moving only in small groups on streets in the mud-walled neighborhoods to avoid being targeted by the French. ''They have beards. And they wear boubous (a flow- ing robe). No one approaches them. Everyone is afraid,'' said Ibrahim Komnotogo, who was out of town when the militants seized Diabaly over the weekend but kept in contact by telephone with other residents. In apparent retaliation for the French offensive, the same group controlling northern Mali occupied a natural gas complex in neighboring Algeria, taking dozens of people hostage, including Americans. Two foreigners were killed. Syrian army steps up offensive DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian troops stepped up an offensive against rebels in the north on Wednesday, following explosions targeting security forces and a university campus that killed more than 100 people in two days. Powerful suicide car bombs that killed about two dozen people in Idlib marked another escalation in the fight for control of northern Syria, a key battlefield in the country's civil war. The day before, massive blasts heavily damaged the main university in the commercial hub of Aleppo, killing 87 people and wounding scores of others. The nearly simultaneous bombings in Idlib Wednesday bore the trademarks of Islamic militants, the most organized rebel fighters trying to topple President Bashar Assad's government. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 22-month conflict, according to the United Nations.