International news

Coronavirus: Italian nurses share the startling reality of fighting the pandemic

Along with doctors and other medical staff, nurses have been on the frontline of Italy's fight against the coronavirus.

She as said to be bruised after using a face mask and said she couldnot go to the toilet or drink for six hours. Another collapsed asleep on a laptop at the end of a relentless 10-hour shift.

Along with doctors and other medical staff, nurses have been on the frontline of Italy's fight against coronavirus - sharing stories of exhaustion and heroism in the face of a disease that has killed more than 800 people in the country and infected over 12,400

Young nurse Alessia Bonari, who shared a photo showing the marks on her face after wearing a protective mask, said she was afraid to go to work every day

In an Instagram post, she wrote: "I am afraid because the mask might not stick properly to the face, or I might have accidentally touched myself with dirty gloves, or maybe the lenses don't cover my eyes fully and something slipped by.

"I am physically tired because the protective devices hurt, the lab coat makes me sweat and once I'm dressed I can no longer go to the bathroom or drink for six hours.

__________________________________________Health first: As Sanders Cancels Campaign Rally Over Corona Virus Fears.......

US Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders canceled a major rally in Cleveland Ohio Tuesday, the first major campaign event to be called off over fears of the spreading corona virus.

“Out of concern for public health and safety, we are canceling tonight’s rally in Cleveland,” the campaign said in a statement.

“We are heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials, who have communicated concern about holding large, indoor events during the corona virus outbreak.”

Wait for More

News By Mr.Geezzy

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CoronaVirus:Troops has been sent to New York 'Containment Zone'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a one-mile (1.6km) corona virus "containment zone" around a town north of New York City.

New Rochelle has seen "probably the largest cluster" of US cases, he said.

National Guard troops will be used to clean schools in the town and deliver food to any quarantined individuals.

The death toll in Italy, one of the countries worst hit by the virus, rose to 631 as the authorities placed the whole country in 

lockdown.

Italy's death toll is the highest outside China, which recorded its lowest number of new infections, just 19, on Tuesday.

China, where the virus was first detected, has seen a total of 80,754 confirmed cases, with 3,136 deaths.

Why is New York state taking this action?

The state has 173 active cases, the most in the US.

Of these cases, 108 are in Westchester County, where New Rochelle is located. New York City, which is located around 25 miles (40km) south of New Rochelle, has 36 confirmed cases of the virus in its population of eight million people.

Mr Cuomo said there would be no travel restrictions in the town (population 77,000) but large meeting points in the area would be closed.

 Schools, gathering places and businesses in the virus hot spot will be closed for two weeks. 

There were 804 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which is tracking the outbreak.

 Twenty-eight people have died in the US as a result of the virus - 23 in Washington state, two in California, two in Florida and one in New Jersey.

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France will not recognise Catalonia if the Spanish region unilaterally declares independence, its European Affairs Minister, Nathalie Loiseau, said on Monday.

“If there were to be a declaration of independence, it would be unilateral, and it would not be recognised,” Loiseau said on CNews television.

Catalonia, which has its own language and culture and is led by a pro-independence regional government, held a referendum on Oct. 1 over secession in defiance of Spain’s constitutional court, which had declared the vote illegal.

“Catalonia cannot be defined by the vote organised by the independence movement just over a week ago,” the French junior minister said.

“This crisis needs to be resolved through dialogue at all levels of Spanish politics.’’

A hasty decision to recognise independence following such a unilateral declaration would amount to fleeing France’s responsibilities, Loiseau added.

“If independence were to be recognised – which is not something that’s being discussed – the most immediate consequence would be that (Catalonia) automatically left the EU.”

Similarly, Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Catalonia’s capital Barcelona on Sunday to express their opposition to declaring independence from Spain, showing how divided the region is on the issue.

A crowd estimated by local police to number 350,000 waved Spanish and Catalan flags and carried banners saying “Catalonia is Spain” and “Together we are stronger”.

They poured into the city centre after politicians on both sides hardened their positions in the country’s worst political crisis for decades.

Two more Catalonia-based companies set board meetings for Monday to decide whether to shift their head offices out of the region.

They added to the intense pressure Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is under to back away from declaring independence when he addresses the regional parliament on Tuesday.

Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, said on Saturday he would not rule out removing Catalonia’s government and calling a fresh local election if it claimed independence, as well as suspending the wealthy region’s existing autonomous status.

Turn-out for the referendum was 43 per cent, with most residents, who wish to remain in Spain staying home.

The anti-independence demonstration, which included Catalans and people from other parts of Spain, underlined how the dispute has riven the region itself.

A month ago, a million people rallied in the city to support independence.

“We feel both Catalan and Spanish,” Araceli Ponze, 72, said during Sunday’s rally. “We are facing a tremendous unknown.

“We will see what happens this week but we have to speak out very loudly so they know what we want,” Ponze said.
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US President Donald Trump has “tremendous accomplishments on the international stage” and he is “keeping the world from chaos,” the White House has claimed.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders made the remarks on Friday in a response to Republican Senator Bob Corker’s who suggested that a select group of Trump administration officials “help separate our country from chaos.”

“I think the president is the one that’s keeping the world from chaos,” Sanders said. “He has an incredible team around him that’s helping him lead that effort, and he’s had tremendous accomplishments on the international stage by working with allies and confronting enemies.”

“We’re going to continue doing that. We’re going to continue doing that as a team with the president leading that effort,” she said.

Corker told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House chief of staff John Kelly were helping the Trump administration to maintain some order amid increasing chaos.

“I think Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Mattis and chief of staff Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos, and I support them very much,” he said.

 

Militia fighters in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo attacked a U.N. peacekeeping base on Friday, triggering clashes that left two of the fighters dead and two peacekeepers slightly wounded, the U.N. mission said.

Thirty-four rebels from a Mai-Mai militia have been killed in fighting with Congo’s army in the past week, local army spokesman Jules Ngongo said, a spike in violence he attributed to an army crackdown on the militia’s harassment of local residents.

Friday’s attack, in which two rebels were also wounded, was a rare frontal assault on U.N. forces charged with protecting civilians in Congo’s east, where dozens of armed groups exploit mineral resources and prey on local residents.“Very early this morning, about 30 Mai-Mai attacked,” mission spokeswoman Florence Marchal told Reuters, adding that U.N. forces drove off the assailants. It was not immediately clear which Mai-Mai group attacked nor what their objective was.The Mai-Mai comprise a number of armed bands that originally formed to resist Rwandan invasions in the 1990s. They have since morphed into a wide variety of ethnic-based militia, smuggling networks and protection rackets.

Congo’s mineral-rich eastern borderlands are a tinderbox of ethnic tensions and for more than two decades have been racked by violence that has often spilled across the country’s borders.

President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December has fuelled further unrest in the country’s east, where wars between 1996-2003 killed millions, and centre, where an insurgency against the central government has killed thousands since last August.

Last week, U.N. forces in east Congo’s South Kivu province intervened with helicopters and heavy machine guns to help beat back an advance by a separate rebel group on the strategic city of Uvira.

The U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, is the world’s largest with some 18,000 uniformed personnel and a more than $1 billion annual budget.

A Brazilian nursery school guard burned four toddlers and their teacher to death after spraying them with alcohol and setting them alight Thursday in an attack which horrified the nation.

Dozens of people were also hurt in the blaze while the guard, who was reported to be mentally ill, died after succumbing to his own burn injuries.

The tragedy occurred in a modest quarter of Janauba, a city of 70,000 about 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Belo Horizonte city.

Janauba’s mayor decreed seven days of mourning.

“This morning, four children and a teacher burned to death when a guard at the nursery school sprayed alcohol on the victims and his own body before setting them alight,” the prosecutor of Minas Gerais state, in the country’s southeast, said in a statement.

About 50 people were hospitalized with injuries, said Bruno Ataide Santos, director of the local hospital.

Their condition was not known.

The guard, aged about 50, died in hospital several hours after the incident which left him “with burns all over his body,” Santos told AFP.

About 80 children were in the nursery school when the attack occurred, prompting worried parents to converge on the site which they found reduced to ashes.

“As the creche is near our house we heard noise and rushed over,” Nelson de Jesus Silva, the father of one victim, told Globonews TV.

“My little girl was so good, so smart,” he said of his dead daughter Ana Clara Ferreira.Grief also struck Jane Kelly, the mother of little Juan Miguel Soares.

“I was thinking of changing nursery schools because we are preparing to move. I woke him up early to bring him here and when I saw him again he was dead in the hospital,” Kelly said between sobs.

The dead children were aged four, the G1 news site reported.

Police visited the home of the suspect and his family members to try to determine a motive.

But police superintendent Renato Nunes told the website of the Hoje em Dia newspaper that the guard had “mental problems” since 2014.

Officers found numerous bottles of alcohol at his home, Nunes added.

The guard had worked for at least eight years at the nursery school where he was not directly in contact with the children.

Janauba’s mayor Carlos Isaildon Mendes said an even greater tragedy was narrowly averted.

“This could have been worse because the babies’ room was in the hall next door. Evacuation would have been more difficult. As the children were bigger a lot of them were able to escape,” the mayor explained.

Brazil’s President Michel Temer expressed his condolences via Twitter.

“I am deeply saddened by this tragedy involving children in Janauba, and I want to express my solidarity with the families,” Temer wrote.

As the father of a school-age child, Temer said he understood “this must be an extremely painful loss” for the parents.

At least 16 people were killed on Friday when a train slammed into a bus that had broken down on a level crossing east of Moscow, authorities said.

The collision occurred before dawn on Friday near the town of Pokrov, some 110 kilometres (70 miles) from the Russian capital.

“According to preliminary information, 16 people, including a child, have been killed,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

“Other passengers, including minors, have been taken to hospital with various injuries. The number of dead and injured is being ascertained,” the committee said, confirming it had opened an investigation.

The regional interior ministry said the bus broke down on the level crossing.

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that 19 Uzbek nationals had died in the crash, despite the Investigative Committee reporting a lower figure.

The train, travelling at 90 kilometres per hour from the second city of Saint Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, slammed into the bus at 3:29 am (0029 GMT) on Friday.

The train was 400 metres (yards) away from the crossing when the driver slammed on emergency brakes and sounded a warning alarm, but it was not able to stop before it hit the vehicle, Russian Railways said.

All victims on the bus

All of those killed were on the bus, which was carrying 58 people, 56 of them Uzbek nationals.

The remaining two were drivers from Kazakhstan.

“There are no victims among the train passengers,” the interior ministry said.

Images from the scene showed the white Mercedes bus had been almost completely torn apart with most of its roof ripped off and debris scattered across the tracks.The Uzbek ambassador to Russia was on his way to the scene along with other staff from the embassy, it said.

the interior ministry was sending a team of experts to the region to offer assistance.

Millions of migrants from poverty-stricken ex-Soviet countries such as Uzbekistan come to work in Russia. None of the official statements specified what the Uzbek nationals who were killed in the crash were doing in the country.

The foreign ministry of neighbouring Kazakhstan confirmed the two bus drivers, one of whom was killed, were Kazakh nationals.

The train continued on its route at around 11:00 am local time.

The train-bus collision appears to be Russia’s most deadly accident involving a train since 2006 when 22 people were killed when a train struck a bus at an unprotected crossing in the southern Krasnodar region.

In 1996, a train hit a school bus in the area of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, killing 21 children and injuring 19 others. The driver was unable to see the bus early enough to brake because of a heavy fog.

Another road accident

In a separate accident later Friday, at least six people died and about 15 were injured when a bus overturned in a ditch in the Moscow region, a regional interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

Russia’s road accident mortality rate is extremely high, although it has been declining over the past few years. Some 20,000 people died in car crashes in the country in 2016.

Seventeen people were killed in August when a bus carrying construction workers veered off a pier and plunged into the Black Sea.

News by Mr.gezzy

Spain's National Court on Friday is questioning two senior officers of Catalonia's regional police force and the leaders of two pro-independence civic groups who have been placed under investigation for sedition.

The case is linked to demonstrations Sept. 20-21 in Barcelona, when Spanish police arrested several Catalan government officials and raided offices in a crackdown on preparations for an Oct. 1 referendum on independence.

Spanish authorities say the demonstrations hindered the Spanish police operation, and that Catalan police didn't do enough to push back the protesters who were blocking Spanish police officers from leaving a building.

The questioning comes amid Spain's biggest political crisis in recent times. Spain has condemned the independence referendum, saying it's illegal, unconstitutional and invalid.

Three of the four under investigation for sedition arrived to the National Court in Madrid for questioning. They were Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, who came wearing his police uniform; Jordi Sanchez, the head of the Catalan National Assembly that has been the main civic group behind the independence movement, and Jordi Cuixart, president of the separatist group Omnium Cultural.The fourth person under investigation is Catalan police Lt. Teresa Laplana, who is testifying by video link from Barcelona because of medical reasons.

Catalan pro-independence supporters, including politicians, stood outside as Trapero, Sanchez and Cuixart walked into the National Court. Some held up referendum ballot papers. Dozens of Spanish police officers were deployed outside.

Carles Campuzano, the spokesman for the Democratic Party of Catalonia, described Friday's court hearing as an outrage, saying that the demonstrations last month can in no way be considered illegal.

"It's just another expression of the absolutely mistaken, authoritarian, repressive response by the (Spanish) state to the pacific, democratic and civic demand of Catalan society," he told reporters outside the court.

On Thursday, Spain's Constitutional Court ordered Catalonia's parliament to suspend a planned session next week during which separatist lawmakers plan to declare independence.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has urged the separatist leader of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, to cancel plans for declaring independence in order to avoid "greater evils."

In an interview with Spain's official EFE news agency on Thursday, Rajoy said the solution in Catalonia "is the prompt return to legality and the affirmation, as early as possible, that there will be no unilateral declaration of independence, because that way greater evils will be avoided."

Rajoy's remarks were the first since Sunday, when Catalonia held the banned independence referendum amid a violent crackdown by Spanish police trying to stop the voting. Puigdemont said the results of the vote validated the push to secede.

Thousands of protestors turned out in the West African state of Togo on Thursday for the second day running, in a campaign aimed at forcing out President Faure Gnassingbe.
Demonstrators converged from three points in the capital Lome for what was billed as a “march of anger” against a family which has ruled Togo for 50 years, culminating in a rally on the seafront.
“Demonstrators have used rocks to block the road from Gakpoto to St. Joseph’s school, and others are preventing cars from going through,” Amnesty International’s director for Togo, Aime Adi, said.
In Atikoume district, angry youths refused to follow the march itinerary set down by the 14-party opposition coalition, and said they would block streets, an AFP journalist saw.
However, in some neighbourhoods on the march route, tension that was noticeable on Wednesday seemed to have eased somewhat.
Marchers said they would maintain pressure on the Gnassingbe regime.
“I am not tired and I will never be tired so long as the struggle is not over. Even if we have to march every day, I will be there,” said Elie Zikla, a young man whose job is a motorbike taxi drive.
In the north of the country — a region previously seen as reliably pro-government — several other rallies, also drawing thousands of people, took place in the northern cities of Sokode, Bafilo and Dapaong, local residents told AFP.
However, there were no protests in the far northern town of Mango, where a young man was killed in a demonstration on September 20, which was followed by a crackdown by the authorities.
The protests are the seventh in a wave of agitation that began in August. At least four people have been killed and dozen injured.
The government, responding to unprecedented protests from the street, is proposing an overhaul of the constitution under which presidential terms would be limited to two five-year spells in office.
Gnassingbe, in power since the death of his father in 2005, was re-elected in 2010 and again in 2015, in votes that the opposition denounced as unfair.
If the two-term limit applies from the next elections, scheduled in 2020, he could theoretically remain in office until 2030.
As a result, the opposition wants the two-term restriction to be applied retroactively by restoring the 1992 constitution, in order to force Gnassingbe from office.
The president’s father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, ruled the country with an iron fist from 1967 until his death in 2005.
According to a source close to the presidency, the proposed change to the constitution will be put to a referendum “by the end of the year”.

Twelve people were missing on Thursday after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized after colliding with a Hong Kong-registered tanker off Japan, the Japanese coastguard said.
Rescuers were searching for 12 of the 16 crew members aboard the 290-ton boat after Chinese authorities called for help, the Kyodo News agency reported.
The other four crew members were rescued by the Chinese coast guard.
The Chinese boat collided with the 63,294-ton tanker Blight Oil Lucky on Thursday morning, 400 kilometres north of Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan also known as the East Sea, officials said.
Japan launched three patrol boats for the operation.
The Chinese vessel was identified as the 290 tonne “Lurong Yuanyu 378.”

Ethiopian diplomat abandons delegation after UN Assembly, seeks asylum in US

An Ethiopian diplomat who was part of the government delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month has sought political asylum in the United States.
Baye Tadesse Teferi, the state’s chief protocol officer, quit his job in the United States after serving over two years with the government, he told VOA Amharic on Tuesday.
He added that his decision was due to fears of being persecuted for political reasons.
Teferi attended the summit with the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who has since returned.
Ethiopia is regarded as one of Africa’s fastest growing economies yet many citizens have faced repression by security forces and the government.
In the past two years, protests were held in the Oromia and Amhara regions where tens of thousands of people flooded the streets denouncing marginalization by the government.
The Ethiopian government reacted with force to the protests, leading to the death of about a thousand people, arrests, state of emergency, internet shutdowns among other measures to stop the protests.

 

Las Vegas gunman may have planned escape, sheriff says

Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Sept. 28, bringing 10 bags and at least 23 guns, including high-power rifles. He set up surveillance cameras inside and outside his two-room suite. There was one camera on a room service cart in the hallway outside his suite, police said.

One official said he also had a camera mounted in the room, apparently to record himself.

Paddock was shuttered inside his suite for three days at the giant hotel-casino, perched high above the site of the Route 91 Harvest Festival, taking place across the street. Room service was provided at some point during his stay.

A search into Paddock's car, which was parked at Mandalay Bay, revealed several cans of tannerite as well as 1,600 rounds of ammunition, Lombardo said Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators believe Paddock used a device similar to a hammer to smash two windows in his rooms before he allegedly opened fire on the music festival crowd, shortly after a rendition of "God Bless America."

Police responded to the hotel room, where Paddock was found dead. He is believed to have killed himself before police entered.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that Paddock utilized at least one camera outside the suite possibly to monitor approaching authorities.

"I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody," Lombardo said at a news conference Tuesday.

Lombardo said authorities are reviewing police body cameras.

While the motives behind the deadly rampage remain unclear, Lombardo said the attack was "obviously premeditated" and the shooter "evaluated everything he did."

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told a news conference today that the shooting "doesn't seem to have a terrorism nexus." 

 News has obtained images from inside Paddock's hotel room. A body, believed to be Paddock's, is partly visibly in one of the photos.

The images also show rifles and bullet shells scattered across the floor, with high-capacity magazines stacked like bricks in a corner. 

An employee at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino told ABC News she spent a total of 16 hours serving Paddock in the casino during her shifts there over the weekend. She said she watched him gamble for eight hours straight, from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

He played high-stakes video poker on machines in a separate, "exclusive" section of the casino, she said.

As soon as she saw Paddock's picture on the news, identifying him as the suspected gunman, she said she knew it was the man who was her customer the night before the shooting.

Portrait emerging of Las Vegas shooter as man 'descending into madness'

Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, tells family she has a 'clean conscience'

Vegas shooter had 200+ reports of suspicious activities, large financial transactions in casinos

47 guns, loaded high-capacity magazines found in Vegas shooter's hotel room and Nevada home

A 'plethora' of guns and ammo

Authorities have executed search warrants at three locations and for Paddock's vehicle parked at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

In addition to the 23 guns recovered from Paddock's hotel room — which police said were purchased in Nevada, California, Utah and Texas — authorities found a computer and several pieces of media there. Law enforcement sources said multiple loaded high-capacity magazines and a modified bump stock rifle, which allows a gun to stimulate rapid automatic gunfire, were discovered in the room as well.

Investigators are still in the process of examining the firearms to determine whether they were capable of firing automatically.

Meanwhile, material used to make explosives was found in Paddock's car. Explosive material and 19 additional firearms were discovered at Paddock's home in a Mesquite retirement community.

Five handguns, two shotguns, numerous electronics and a "plethora of ammunition" were found at his property in Reno, according to Lombardo.

Jill Snyder, the special agent in charge at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told "CBS This Morning" in an interview today that Paddock had been stockpiling firearms since 1982. He bought nearly 50 guns legally, she said, but none of those purchases set off any red flags for the ATF.

"From October 2016 to Sept. 28, 2017, he purchased 33 firearms, majority of them rifles," Snyder said. "We wouldn't get notified of the purchases of the rifles. We would only get notified if there was a multiple sale, which would be two or more handguns in an individual purchase."

Suspect's girlfriend arrives back in U.S.

Investigators say Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who lived with him at his home in Mesquite, is more than a mere witness.

"Currently she's a person of interest," Lombardo said at the news conference on Tuesday.

Danley, 62, returned on Tuesday night to the U.S. from the Philippines, where she was born, landing at Los Angeles International Airport at 7:17 p.m. PT on Philippine Air Flight 102.

She was taken out a back way so she wouldn't be seen in public, and FBI agents met her upon landing, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Police told reporters this afternoon that detectives would begin questioning Danley soon.

The law offices of Matthew Lombard confirmed for ABC News this afternoon that she is at the FBI field office in Los Angeles with Lombard, who is representing her.

Danley is not in custody and is free to go where she pleases. Investigators hope she can shed some light on the motivations behind Paddock's massacre over the weekend.

In an interview with ABC News today, Danley's elder brother Reynaldo Bustos said he immediately contacted his sister when he saw the news that her boyfriend was allegedly behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

"I called her up immediately, and she said, 'Relax. We shouldn't worry about it. I'll fix it. Do not panic. I have a clean conscience,'" Bustos said today outside Manila in Tagalog, his native language.

Paddock may have visited other festivals

Over the last several months, Paddock may have visited several music festivals in the broader Vegas area, officials briefed on the investigation told ABC News, adding that it's thought that all of them were within driving distance of Las Vegas.

Investigators believe Paddock started making regular visits to Mandalay Bay on Sept. 3 through the rest of the month. Paddock was known at "most of the big casinos" on the strip because he was a big player who came in a lot, the officials said.

Authorities are also looking into whether Paddock tried to secure a room at the El Cortez Hotel and Casino, located on the opposite side of the Las Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, on the weekend that the Life Is Beautiful music festival took place, between Sept. 22 and Sept. 24, the officials said.

Paddock had rented a room at the Ogden Hotel in downtown Las Vegas the weekend of the Life Is Beautiful music festival, Lombardo said Wednesday. Authorities have recovered items and surveillance video from the weekend he stayed there, Lombardo said. 

by geezzyworld

The Latest: Trump somber in visit to stricken Las Vegas

The Latest on President Donald Trump and the mass shooting in Las Vegas (all times EDT):

9:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump was somber Wednesday as he visited hospital bedsides and a vital police base in stricken Las Vegas.

He offered prayers and condolences to the victims of Sunday night's shooting massacre, along with the nation's thanks to first responders and doctors who rushed to save lives.

Trump said, "America is truly a nation in mourning." And he spoke of the families who "tonight will go to bed in a world that is suddenly empty."

He told those families: "We know that your sorrow feels endless. We stand together to help you carry your pain. "

It was a somber address from a provocateur president who prides himself on commanding strength but sometimes has struggled to project empathy at times of tragedy.

——

5:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump has received condolence calls from the leaders of Mexico and Japan after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The White House says Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Trump on Wednesday to express their sympathy to the victims of Sunday night's shooting in Las Vegas. A gunman on the 32nd floor of a hotel fired on an outdoor concert audience. At least 59 people died and hundreds more were injured.

The White House statement says Trump "welcomed" Pena Nieto's "expression of thanks" for U.S. help after Mexico's recent earthquake. A separate statement says Trump and Abe agreed to coordinate on North Korea and other issues ahead of Trump's trip to Asia next month.

——

4 p.m.

President Donald Trump is telling the people of Las Vegas that the nation stands with them to help bear the pain of the worst gun massacre in modern U.S. history.

He says at the city's Metropolitan Police headquarters that, "Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost" someone in Sunday night's shooting. He added, "We will struggle through it together."

At least 59 people died and 527 were injured when a gunman on the 32nd floor of a hotel on the Vegas Strip opened fire on an outdoor country music festival.

Trump says, "We stand together to help you carry your pain."

His remarks came during a daylong visit with victims, families and first responders.

———

3:28 p.m.

President Donald Trump tells first responders they should be proud of the way they responded to the mass shooting Sunday night in Las Vegas.

At Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Headquarters, Trump said, "You showed the world and the world is watching." Trump and his wife, Melania, were meeting with victims, doctors, police, dispatchers and others who responded to the tragedy, when a gunman in a hotel tower opened fire on an outdoor country music festival. Fifty-nine people were killed and more than 500 injured — some from being shot and others from the chaotic escape.

Earlier, Trump said the meetings and the response made him "proud to be an American."

————

3:08 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he met "some of the most amazing people" during a visit to a hospital where victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas are being treated.

And he says he's invited some of those survivors to the White House.

Trump met privately with people injured in Sunday's shooting, which killed dozens and injured hundreds at a local concert. He also met with family members and hospital staff.

He says he wants to "congratulate everybody" at the hospital and says it's "incredible" what doctors have done.

He adds: "It makes you very proud to be an American when you see the job that they've done."

Trump was speaking in the lobby of the University Medical Center.

————

1:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump has arrived at a Las Vegas hospital where he will meet with victims and medical professionals in the wake of a mass shooting.

Trump arrived at University Medical Center Wednesday morning. He plans to speak privately with victims of the Sunday night shooting rampage that left at least 59 dead.

The president's motorcade drove past the Mandalay Bay hotel where the gunman fired down from the 32nd floor into a crowd at an outdoor concert Sunday night. He also drove past the Trump hotel.

The president also plans to meet with first responders later in the day.

——

12:56 p.m.

President Donald Trump has landed in Las Vegas, where he will meet with victims and first responders of the mass shooting Sunday night.

Greeting the president and first lady Melania Trump are Gov. Brian Sandoval and other officials.

Arriving with him Wednesday on Air Force One were House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Rep. Richard Amodei of Nevada and Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada. Before leaving Washington, Trump said authorities are "learning a lot more" about the gunman in the shooting, which killed 59 people and injured more than 500 during an outdoor Las Vegas concert.

The president says those details will be announced at "an appropriate time."

————

8:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump says it's a "sad day" as he departs the White House to meet with first responders and the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Trump says authorities are "learning a lot more" about the gunman in the shooting, which killed 59 people and injured more than 500 during an outdoor Las Vegas concert. The president says those details will be announced at "an appropriate time."

The president told reporters Wednesday before boarding Marine One that he and first lady Melania Trump will be paying their respects to meeting with police who have done a "fantastic job in a very short time."

——

4:24 a.m.

President Donald Trump is reckoning with the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas when he visits the city on Wednesday.

Trump heads to the city days after a gunman on the 32nd floor of a Vegas Strip casino and hotel opened fire on people at an outdoor country music festival below. The Sunday night rampage by Stephen Craig Paddock killed at least 59 people and injured 527, some from gunfire and some from a chaotic escape.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: "What happened is such a tragedy. So unnecessary. Who can believe what happened to Las Vegas?"

North Korean workers prepare seafood going to US stores

Americans buying seafood for dinner may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an Associated Press investigation has found. Their purchases may also have supported forced labor.

At a time when North Korea is banned from selling almost anything, the country is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide to bring in an estimated $200 million to $500 million a year. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion.

While North Korean workers have been documented overseas, the AP investigation reveals that some products they make go to the United States. AP also tracked products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.

In response to the investigation, Senate leaders said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to keep products made by North Koreans out and get China to refuse to hire North Korean workers.

"The (Trump) administration needs to ramp up the pressure on China to crack down on trade with North Korea across the board," said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.

At Chinese factories, North Korean workers aren't allowed to leave their compounds without permission, and must step from housing to factories in pairs or groups, with North Korean minders. They receive a fraction of their salaries, while the rest — as much as 70 percent — is taken by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's government.

John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, urged its 300 members, including the largest seafood importers in the U.S., to "ensure that wages go to the workers, and are not siphoned off to support a dangerous dictator."

Besides seafood, AP found North Korean laborers making wood flooring and sewing garments in Chinese factories. Those industries also export to the U.S., but AP did not track specific shipments except for seafood.

American companies aren't allowed to import products made by North Korean workers anywhere in the world, and companies doing business with them could face criminal charges for using North Korean workers or materially benefiting from their work. (The AP employs a small number of support staff in its Pyongyang bureau under a waiver granted by the U.S. government to allow the flow of news and information.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, responsible for enforcing the law, did not respond to requests for comment.

"This is a state-sponsored scheme to export folks who are in bonded labor," said Luis CdeBaca, former U.S. ambassador for human trafficking issues. "It's supporting a repressive regime."

Western companies involved that responded to AP said forced labor and potential support for North Korea was unacceptable in their supply chains. They said they'd investigate, and some said they'd already cut off ties with suppliers.

Meanwhile, as many as 100,000 North Koreans continue to work in construction in the Gulf states, shipbuilding in Poland, logging in Russia and on fishing boats in Uruguay. New U.N. sanctions bar countries from expanding their North Korean workforce. Despite the pay and restrictions, the jobs abroad are highly coveted among North Koreans.

Roughly 3,000 North Koreans are believed to work in Hunchun, a Chinese industrial hub near the North Korean and Russian borders.

At some factories, laborers work hunched over tables as North Korean political slogans blasted from loudspeakers. When a reporter approached a group of North Koreans — women in tight, bright polyester clothes preparing a meal at a garment factory — one confirmed that she and some others were from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Then a minder arrived, ordering: "Don't talk to him!"

It's unknown what conditions are like in every factory, but AP reporters saw North Korean laborers living and working in several facilities, including joint venture Hunchun Dongyang Seafood Industry & Trade Co. Ltd. & Hunchun Pagoda Industry Co. Ltd., distributed globally by Ocean One Enterprise; Yantai Dachen Hunchun Seafood Products, and Yanbian Shenghai Industry & Trade Co. Ltd.

They're getting their seafood from China, Russia and the U.S.

Despite AP seeing North Korean workers, Hunchun Dongyang's manager Zhu Qizhen denied that they hire them and refused to give details. The other Chinese companies didn't comment.

Shipping records show more than 100 cargo containers of seafood were sent to the U.S. and Canada this year from the factories where North Koreans were working in China, including packages of snow crab, salmon fillets and squid rings.

One importer, The Fishin' Company in Munhall, Penn., said it cut ties with Hunchun processors and got its last shipment this summer. Seafood can remain in the supply chain for more than a year.

Often the fish arrives in generic packaging. But some were already branded in China with familiar names like Walmart or Sea Queen, which is sold exclusively at ALDI supermarkets. There's no way to say where a particular package ends up, nor what percentage of a factory's products wind up in the U.S.

Walmart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said company officials banned their suppliers from getting seafood processed at a Hunchun plant a year ago after an audit revealed potential issues with migrant workers.

"Combatting forced labor is a complex problem that no one company, industry, or government can tackle alone," she said.

ALDI did not comment.

Some U.S. companies had indirect ties to North Korean laborers in Hunchun. Customs records indicate that Chicken of the Sea, owned by Thai Union, did business with sister companies of the Hunchun factories in another part of China. Thai Union said the sister company they do business with meets all of their fair labor standards, and should not be penalized just because they have the same owner.

Boxes at the factories also had markings from several major German supermarket chains and brands. REWE Group, which owns REWE markets and the Penny chain, said their contract has expired with Hunchun Dongyang. All the companies that responded said suppliers were forbidden to use forced labor. Shipments also went to two Canadian importers, Morgan Foods and Alliance Seafood, which did not respond to requests for comment about who processes their seafood in China.

As the late summer chill set in one evening, a dozen or so women from Hunchun Pagoda played volleyball in the quiet road in front of the compound's gate.

A train horn blew. The women shouted to one another. A car with a foreigner drove by. One laughingly called out: "Bye-bye!"

Vegas gunman transferred $100K, set up cameras at hotel room

The Las Vegas gunman transferred $100,000 overseas in the days before the attack and planned the massacre so meticulously that he even set up cameras inside the peephole of his high-rise hotel room and on a service cart outside his door, apparently to spot anyone coming for him, authorities said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, investigators are taking a harder look at the shooter's girlfriend and what she might have known about the attack at a country music

festival, with the sheriff naming her a "person of interest"

The girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, returned to the United States from the Philippines on Tuesday night and was met at Los Angeles International Airport by FBI agents, according to a law enforcement official.

The official wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Authorities are trying to determine why Stephen Paddock killed 59 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

They have been speaking with Danley, who was out of the country at the time of the shooting, and "we anticipate some information from her shortly," Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said hours before she arrived.

Lombardo said he is "absolutely" confident authorities will find out what set off Paddock, a 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and retired accountant who killed himself before police stormed his 32nd-floor room.

Authorities released police body camera video that showed the chaos of the attack as officers tried to figure out the location of the shooter and shuttle people to safety. Amid sirens and volleys of gunfire, people yelled "they're shooting right at us" while officers shouted "go that way!"

Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said the shooting spanned between nine and 11 minutes.

Paddock transferred $100,000 to the Philippines in the days before the shooting, a U.S. official briefed by law enforcement but not authorized to speak publicly because of the continuing investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Investigators are still trying to trace that money and also are looking into at least a dozen financial reports over the past several weeks that said Paddock gambled more than $10,000 per day, the official said.

The cameras Paddock set up at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino were part of his extensive preparations that included stockpiling nearly two dozen guns in his room before opening fire on the concert below. McMahill said the cameras included one in the peephole and two in the hallway.

"I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody," Lombardo said.

During the Sunday night rampage, a hotel security guard who approached the room was shot through the door and wounded in the leg.

"The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was preplanned extensively," the sheriff said, "and I'm pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did and his actions, which is troublesome."

Lombardo said the investigation is proceeding cautiously in case criminal charges are warranted against someone else.

"This investigation is not ended with the demise of Mr. Paddock," the sheriff said. "Did this person get radicalized unbeknownst to us? And we want to identify that source."

In addition to the cameras, investigators found a computer and 23 guns with him at the hotel, along with 12 "bump stock" devices that can enable a rifle to fire continuously, like an automatic weapon, authorities said. Nineteen more guns were found at Paddock's Mesquite home and seven at his Reno house.

Video shot outside the broken door of the room shows an assault-style rifle with a scope on a bipod. The sheriff said an internal investigation has been launched to find out how that footage was obtained.

Some investigators turned their focus Tuesday from the shooter's perch to the festival grounds where his victims fell.

A dozen investigators, most in FBI jackets and all wearing blue booties to avoid contaminating the scene, documented evidence at the site where gunfire rained down and country music gave way to screams of pain and terror.

"Shoes, baby strollers, chairs, sunglasses, purses. The whole field was just littered with things," said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt after touring the site Monday. "There were bloodstains everywhere."

More than 500 people were injured in the rampage, some by gunfire, some during the chaotic escape. At least 45 patients at two hospitals remained in critical condition. All but three of the dead had been identified by Tuesday afternoon, Lombardo said.

As for what may have set Paddock off, retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente speculated that there was "some sort of major trigger in his life — a great loss, a breakup, or maybe he just found out he has a terminal disease."

Clemente said a "psychological autopsy" may be necessary to try to establish the motive. If the suicide didn't destroy Paddock's brain, experts may even find a neurological disorder or malformation, he said.

He said there could be a genetic component to the slaughter: Paddock's father was a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list in the 1960s and was diagnosed a psychopath.

"The genetics load the gun, personality and psychology aim it, and experiences pull the trigger, typically," Clemente said.

Paddock had a business degree from Cal State Northridge. In the 1970s and '80s, he worked as a mail carrier and an IRS agent and held down a job in an auditing division of the Defense Department, according to the government. He later worked for a defense contractor.

He had no known criminal record, and public records showed no signs of financial troubles, though he was said to be a big gambler.

Nevada's Gaming Control Board said it will pass along records compiled on Paddock and his girlfriend to investigators.

His brother, Eric Paddock, said he was at a loss to explain the massacre.

"No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff," he said outside his Florida home.

The FBI discounted the possibility of international terrorism early on, even after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Eric Paddock said his brother did show a confrontational side at times: He apparently hated cigarette smoke so much that he carried around a cigar and blew smoke in people's faces when they lit up around him.

Donald Trump Wants to Change How You Pay for School

President Donald Trump has unveiled his 2018 budget, and students (and their parents) might want to pay attention. The proposed spending plan includes big changes to federal student loans and other programs that help people pay for college. Among the suggested changes? Killing a big loan forgiveness program, tweaking loan terms, and slashing funding for work-study.

The cost-cutting measures are designed to save the government money. But what about students themselves? Will they benefit? At this point, it’s hard to say. The budget is in its early stages. What passes Congress will likely look significantly different than what the president has outlined.
Nonetheless, the suggested changes offer a glimpse into Trump’s vision for college funding and access. And they come alongside some other shifts in the student loan landscape that don’t require the OK of Congress, such as a simplified approach to loan servicing. From streamlined repayment plans to ending certain loan forgiveness programs, here are 12 ways Trump wants to change how you pay for school — and pay back what you owe.

1. The government would no longer pay interest on certain loans

Students would have to say goodbye to subsidized Stafford loans if Trump’s budget passes. Ending the practice of paying the interest on some student loans for undergraduate students while they are still in school would save the government more than $1 billion, according to The Associated Press. But students who lose the subsidized benefit would graduate with slightly more debt — an extra $2,300 on average, Nate Matherson, CEO of LendEDU, told The Cheat Sheet. Taxpayers would save as a result of the change, Matherson said, but “it would cost students more money.” “If students do lose the subsidized loan benefit, then we just encourage them to pay their interest as it accumulates instead of waiting and having interest on interest,” he said.

Las Vegas shooting: Paddock's girlfriend denies knowledge of attack

The girlfriend of the Las Vegas gunman who shot dead 58 people on Sunday has said she had no idea what her "kind, caring, quiet" partner was planning.

Marilou Danley arrived back in the US on Tuesday, two days after her partner Stephen Paddock carried out the attack.

It was the worst shooting in modern US history, with more than 500 injured.

US President Donald Trump, who visited the city on Wednesday, said "America is truly a nation in mourning" in the wake of the mass killings.

In a statement read by her lawyer, Ms Danley said Paddock "never said anything to me or took any action" which she understood as a warning of what was to come.

"I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him," she said, expressing shock at the "horrible unspeakable acts of violence" Paddock had committed.

US authorities named Ms Danley a "person of interest" in their investigation and said they had made contact with her shortly after the shooting.

Ms Danley voluntarily flew back to Los Angeles from the the Philippines on Tuesday night to speak to the FBI, just over two weeks after Paddock had surprised her with a "cheap ticket" to enable her to visit her family.

While there, he wired her $100,000 (£75,400), explaining it was to buy a house.

"I was grateful, but honestly I was worried it was a way for him to break up with me," she said. "It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone."Her sisters earlier told Australian outlet 7News that Ms Danley "was sent away... so that she will not be there to interfere with what he's planning".

Paddock checked into a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel on 28 September, reportedly using some of Ms Danley's identity documents

At about 22:08 on 1 October, he unleashed the first round of gunfire into the unsuspecting crowd at a country music festival.

Over the course of the next nine to 11 minutes, he killed 58 people and injured more than 500 others, before it is understood he turned the gun on himself.

On Wednesday, President Trump praised the emergency services who battled to save as many as they could, despite the danger to themselves."When the worst of humanity strikes - and strike it did - the best of humanity responds," he said as he applauded injured officers.

"In the depths of horror, we will always find hope in the men and women who risk their lives for ours," he added.

Mr Trump said he was in the "company of heroes" after visiting the first responders.

"Words cannot describe the bravery that the whole world witnessed on Sunday night," he said. "Americans defied death and hatred with love and with courage."

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Will the attack trigger more demand for gun controls?

The shooting has prompted calls for reform to US gun laws.

But Mr Trump - who has been backed by the National Rifle Association, and spoke often of protecting gun rights during his campaign - has tried to steer clear of leaning too far either way.

After visiting Puerto Rico on Tuesday, he said "perhaps that [time] will come" for a debate.First Lady Melania Trump joined the president to meet some of the victims and emergency responders on Wednesday.

Mr Trump told reporters at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas: "I have to tell you it makes you very proud to be an American when you see the job that they've done."The president was joined by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Nevada congressman Mark Amodei and Nevada Senator Dean Heller, who had constituents killed in the attack.

Witnesses described hundreds of shots being fired. What sounded like automatic gunfire can be heard on videos from the scene.