Shots fired involving U.S. soldiers in Frankfurt

Frankfurt police have confirmed that two were killed during an attack on a bus carrying U.S. military personnel. (CBS)

Shots fired involving U.S. soldiers in Frankfurt

(AP) FRANKFURT, Germany - A gunman fired shots at U.S. military personnel on a bus outside Frankfurt airport on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding two before being taken into custody, police said.


Kosovo's interior minister told The Associated Press that German police have identified the gunman as a Kosovo citizen.


The attack came as the bus sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport, Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt said.


The two killed were the bus driver and a passenger, and one person suffered serious wounds and another one light injuries, Fuellhardt said. The spokesman could not confirm whether any of the casualties were U.S. military personnel.
The U.S. Army in Europe referred calls to the Air Force, but a spokeswoman said she could not immediately confirm that the casualties were airmen nor give any details of the incident. The bus had a U.S. government license place marked "AF" for Air Force.


Fuellhardt said he could not give out any information on the suspect, but authorities in Kosovo said he was a citizen of the tiny Balkan nation.


Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police have identified the suspect Arif Uka, a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.


"This is a devastating and a tragic event," Rexhepi said. "We are trying to find out was this something that was organized or what was the nature of the attack."

Spokesmen for the Pentagon and the Air Force in the U.S. had no immediate information on the incident.

Obama to propose federal property board, save $15 billion

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about Libya from the White House in Washington

Obama to propose federal property board, save $15 billion

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday will propose saving billions of taxpayer dollars through creation of an independent board to recommend the sale of federal property, an administration official said.

Obama, who previewed the plan in his 2012 budget and State of the Union Address, will suggest naming the board from the private and public sector to make recommendations to Congress for rationalizing federal civilian real estate holdings.

"For too long red tape and politics have prevented the government from moving forward on these fronts," the official said, adding that the board was expected to return $15 billion over the first three years in operation.

The White House estimates there are around 14,000 federal properties designated as excess, plus thousands of others which are either no longer needed, or are underutilized.

Democrat Obama, under intense pressure from his Republican opponents to cut government spending and narrow a budget deficit estimated at $1.645 trillion this fiscal year, is trying to squeeze savings by making the government more efficient.

His budget proposed a five-year freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending to lower the deficit $400 billion over 10 years. Republicans warn these steps don't go far enough.

Canadian frigate headed to Libyan waters

HMCS Charlottetown, seen conducting a patrol in the Northern Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan, will head for the waters off Libya's coast on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says. (DND)

Canadian frigate headed to Libyan waters

Canada is sending frigate HMCS Charlottetown to the waters off Libya amid an international buildup of military forces in response to the violent internal crackdown by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

The Halifax-based warship will depart its home port on Wednesday to assist in the evacuation of Canadians from Libya, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced during Tuesday's question period in the House of Commons.

Speaking to reporters outside the House after Harper's announcement, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said it would take six days for the vessel and its 240 Canadian Forces personnel to reach the region.

MacKay said the ship could have a role in enforcing any future sanctions — including a blockade — if such measures are approved by either the United Nations or NATO.

The CBC's James Cudmore reported the frigate could also be used as a launching platform for special forces missions. But the defence minister said he would not comment on special forces operations.

On Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, MacKay said there are some members of the Canadian Forces who are already on the ground in Malta embedded in the operations centre set up by the United Kingdom, but those 13 people and the personnel on the way to the region are only there to "facilitate the extraction of Canadians."

"There are no plans whatsoever at this point that involve Canadian soldiers taking military action," he said, adding that there are between 100 and 200 Canadians still in Libya. "Our focus is evacuating Canadians, getting them safely and quickly out of harm's way, [and] getting them out of the country."
Canadian flight refused permission to land in Tripoli

The deployment comes after a Canadian military transport plane was forced to abandon its mission to pick up Canadians in Libya on Tuesday after being refused permission to land at the country's main airport.

The C-130J Hercules transport was on its way to Tripoli International Airport from Malta but was reportedly turned back due to congestion on the tarmac, a military spokesman said.

"The reason for the denial is apparently due to a shortage of ramp space," said Maj. Andre Salloum, spokesman for Canadian Forces Expeditionary Command.

Canada now has two C-17 military cargo planes and two Hercules aircraft sitting on the tarmac in Malta and has sent a military reconnaissance team of 13 soldiers to the Mediterranean island country located just 300 kilometres north of the Libyan coastline.

Since Libyans began their revolt against Gadhafi's 41-year-old rule two weeks ago, his regime has launched the harshest suppression of protests in the Arab world, where authoritarian rulers are facing an unprecedented wave of uprisings.

After recent criticism of Canada's sluggish response to revolts in other North African countries, Canada has adopted a UN resolution and has already instituted some sanctions, including a freeze on Gadhafi's assets and a travel ban on him, his family and members of his regime.
Billions in Libyan assets frozen

Billions of Gadhafi's assets have already been frozen by Canada, the United States and European nations in response to the regime's crackdown, which has been blamed for the deaths of as many as 1,000 people, according to UN estimates.

A senior government source told CBC News on Tuesday that Ottawa has frozen $2.3 billion in Libyan assets at Canadian financial institutions so far.

On Tuesday, Harper spoke with Lawrence Gonzi, the prime minister of Malta, thanking him for hosting Canadian aircraft and personnel as part of the evacuation efforts.

Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's spokesman, said the leaders also discussed the need for co-ordinated international relief efforts.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said Canada is doing the right thing by stationing equipment and personnel after delays in reacting to the crises in other North African countries, such as Egypt.

"It's not just a matter of what's happened, but a matter of also being able to understand that there are many, many other places in the Middle East and indeed around the world where change can happen very, very quickly," Rae said. "So I think we have to improve the kind of responses we've been able to make."

Rae said Canada should be quick to join an international humanitarian effort in the region.

Pakistan Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti shot dead

Shahbaz Bhatti had said he had been threatened, but that he would not be intimidated

Pakistan Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti shot dead

Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti has died after gunmen opened fire on his car in the capital Islamabad.

He was travelling to work through a residential district when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets, police said.

Mr Bhatti, the cabinet's only Christian minister, had received death threats for urging reform to blasphemy laws.

In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.

The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Critics say it has been used to persecute minority faiths.
'No security escort'

The Vatican condemned the murder of the Catholic politician as an "unspeakable" act of violence.

Mr Bhatti, 42, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), had just left home in the capital when three to four gunmen surrounded his vehicle and sprayed it with bullets.

One witness, Gulam Rahim, told AP news agency that two of the attackers had opened the door and tried to pull Mr Bhatti out, while another man fired a Kalashnikov into the car.

He was rushed to the nearby Shifa hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival, Dr Azmatullah Qureshi told the AFP news agency.

The gunmen, who were wearing shawls, escaped in a white Suzuki car, according to witnesses.

Police chief Wajid Durrani told reporters that the minister was not accompanied by his guards when the attack happened, although he said Mr Bhatti had been provided with a security detail.

"The squad officer told me that the minister had directed him to wait for him at his office," said Mr Durrani, reports AFP news agency. "We are investigating the matter from different angles."

No group has said it was behind the attack, but pamphlets purporting to have been issued by al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab, a branch of the Taliban in Pakistan's most populous province, were found at the ambush site.

The pamphlets warned that anyone who criticised the blasphemy law would be shot.

A Taliban spokesman later said they carried out the attack, reports Reuters news agency.


Vendettas

Security has been stepped up on all main roads in Islamabad.

 In January, Mr Bhatti told the BBC he would defy death threats he had received from Islamist militants for his efforts to reform the blasphemy law.

 "I was told that if I was to continue the campaign against the blasphemy law, I will be assassinated. I will be beheaded. But forces of violence, forces of extremism cannot harass me, cannot threaten me," he said.

A government spokesman condemned the assassination.

"This is a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan," Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, told the AP news agency.

"The time has come for the federal government and provincial governments to speak out and to take a strong stand against these murderers to save the very essence of Pakistan."

Governor Taseer was shot dead on 4 January, also in Islamabad, by one of his own police bodyguards. The killer has been feted by many in the country as a hero.

The governor had backed a private member's bill in parliament by Sherry Rehman, a female MP, to amend the blapshemy law in an attempt to make miscarriages of justice less likely and remove its death penalty.

But in the face of strident popular opposition, the federal government said it would not support the proposed reforms.

Ms Rehman said last month she was receiving death threats every half hour by e-mail and telephone.

Pakistan's blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since a Christian, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to hang last November for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. She denies the charge.

The mother-of-five had been picking berries alongside local Muslim women, when a row developed over sharing water.

Days later, the women complained that she had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

Although no-one convicted under the blasphemy law has ever been executed, more than 30 accused have been killed by lynch mobs.

Critics say that convictions under the law hinge on witness testimony, which is often linked to grudges.

About 1.5% of Pakistan's 185 million population is Christian.

Galliano apologizes, amid reports he is headed to rehab

Fashion designer John Galliano arrives at a police station in Paris on Monday, Feb. 28, 2011. Christian Dior has fired Galliano in wake of alleged anti-Semitic remarks he made during a dispute at a trendy Paris cafe. (AP / Michel Euler)

Galliano apologizes, amid reports he is headed to rehab

Disgraced fashion designer John Galliano apologized Wednesday for the behaviour that led to his firing by design house Christian Dior.


However, Galliano denied allegations of racism and said he has fully co-operated with a police investigation into his alleged comments.


In a statement released Wednesday by the fashion designer's lawyers, Galliano said he accepted "that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people."


Despite denying the claims against him, Galliano said his apology was offered "unreservedly."


Earlier Wednesday it was reported that Galliano had left France and was headed for rehab.


He was fired by Dior one day earlier on Tuesday.


Galliano's career began to unravel on Thursday when he was questioned by police after an incident at a Paris cafe. He was accused of directing anti-Semitic and anti-Asian comments towards a couple.


Then on Monday, amateur video emerged of a second, earlier incident at the same cafe, in which Galliano appears to insult Jews.


Dior suspended Galliano on Friday pending the results of a police probe, but then fired him on Tuesday.


According to a report Wednesday in the New York Times -- citing anonymous sources -- Galliano left France for rehab after being persuaded to do so by supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.


The newspaper report speculated that Galliano is likely headed to The Meadows, a treatment centre in Arizona where Elton John and Donatella Versace have been treated in recent years.

The timing of Galliano's fall from grace is especially bad for Dior, which is set to unveil its new collection at the fall-winter 2011-2012 shows starting this Friday.

However, Hilary Alexander, fashion director for Britain's The Daily Telegraph, said the effect on the company will be minimal compared to the effect on Galliano himself.

"It's his name really that's being featured in all the publicity and stories that are being written," Alexander told The Associated Press Television News at Paris Fashion Week.

"Dior is a house that has a 60-year history and billions of dollars in global sales that they must maintain and as far as I can see they intend to pick up the reins and carry on. It's business as usual and the show must go on."

She said Dior has protected its own interests by acting quickly to disassociate itself from Galliano immediately after the allegations emerged.

The company is believed to be seeking a replacement for Galliano, who has held the design reins at Dior for more than a decade.

'Wizard of New Zealand' leaving Christchurch after quake

'The Wizard,' as he is known in Christchurch, holds the Queen's baton following a welcome ceremony as part of the Commonweath Games Queen's Baton Relay January 2006.

'Wizard of New Zealand' leaving Christchurch after quake

(CNN) -- Christchurch may come back now that the earth-rumbling monster that devoured the city's downtown is gone, but the pointy-hatted, black-robed man who preached almost daily outside the cathedral on his "theory of everything" will not.

The Wizard of New Zealand -- as he is known, and listed in telephone directories -- says he's calling it quits, now that his public stage has been destroyed.

So he is moving down island with his 91-year-old mother to the east coast town of Oamaru.

"Almost every building I really love is gone," he said. "My platform is gone. Without Cathedral Square I can't function. I am heart-broken."

The Wizard, who is otherwise known by his given name, Ian Brackenbury Channell, has been entertaining tourists and fans since 1974. Channell did so first as a wanted soapboxing miscreant evading arrest, and later as an honoraria-paid attraction registered by a local gallery as "living work of art."

 Channell was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 2009 and, during a chance meeting, told Sir Ian McKellen, the actor who played Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings," how a "real" wizard does the job.

Channell travels with his own special passport that bears the name "The Wizard of New Zealand," according to his website.

Besides being a wizard, the London, England-born Channell is also a comic, teacher and politician with views that are not easily categorized. Soon after arriving in New Zealand, he founded the "Imperial British Conservative Party." Channell, a former sociology professor at the University of South Wales, had previously run three times for Parliament in Australia -- and lost.

At the university, Channell managed to persuade the vice chancellor to declare him wizard of the institution, his website states.

"People think I'm mad, but they can't prove it. They also think I'm evil, but they can't prove it," said the wizard. "So they're stuffed."

Channell said he was headed out the door to make his daily appearance at Cathedral Square when the earthquake struck around 12:50 p.m. Between November and Easter, the wizard makes his daily appearance in the square at 1 p.m.

"It felt like being in a cocktail machine," the wizard said.

Magically, perhaps, Channel's house was largely unharmed by the temblor. The wizard shrugged off the suggestion that had he left the house early, he might have been killed.

Thwarted from his daily wizarding duties downtown, Channell said he went knocking about his neighborhood to offer his help and managed to find a dog in distress.

The dog, a Brussels Griffon named Molly, was drowning in water that seeped up from the ground until the wizard stepped in with a rescue that made headlines.

While Channell may have the power to save a drowning dog, saving Christchurch is beyond his magical abilities. He predicted that the old Gothic buildings in the city center will be replaced by skyscrapers.

"Unless they have a change of heart, the heritage and the image of Christchurch will be gone," Channell said.

The wizard's part of that heritage is disappearing for a different reason, he says.

"Young and old are going to the internet," said Channell. "People don't go to the square to exchange ideas so much anymore."

ASIO's security check logjam revealed

Refugees: 900 are held in detention centres, most on Christmas Island. (AAP - file image: Mick Tsikas)

ASIO's security check logjam revealed

ASIO is under pressure to explain why 900 asylum seekers are stuck inside detention centres waiting for months for security checks to be completed.

The security agency has told the ABC it now takes an average of 66 days to do a security check on an asylum seeker - about a month longer than it took in 2009.

During a Senate estimates hearing last week, the Immigration Department revealed that 900 people are being held in detention centres because ASIO has not completed its security checks.

These 900 people have already been accepted in Australia as genuine refugees and most are being held on Christmas Island.

The group makes up more than 13 per cent of Australia's total asylum seeker population and security delays are being blamed for overcrowding inside detention centres and millions of dollars in extra costs.

They can be held indefinitely, because there is no limit on the time ASIO can take to deliver an answer on their security clearance.

In October last year, 330 asylum seekers who arrived by boat were stuck in detention waiting for an ASIO assessment. But in just four months that number has almost trebled.

The Greens say that some detainees have been waiting for security checks for 18 months, and that children are also stuck in detention waiting for their parents to be assessed.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told estimates that she knew of a family who had been in detention for over 14 months.

"Three kids, under the age of 9, [are] being held in detention indefinitely, despite the fact that they are refugees, and we are still keeping them locked up," she said.

Checks taking longer


During 2009, it took ASIO an average of 37 days to complete security checks for asylum seekers who arrived by boat.

By October 2010, the security checks were taking an average of 57 days.

ASIO has revealed to Lateline that the security checks now take an average of 66 days to complete.

A senior government official has told Lateline that ASIO was warned about a spike in security assessments 15 months ago and that it needed to increase its resources to deal with the boat arrivals.

The official said that ASIO finally got the message six to nine months ago, but it was too late and ASIO did not have enough staff to cope with the increasing number of asylum seekers.

The official also said the delays are causing tensions between ASIO and the Immigration Department, which is now under pressure to release aslyum seekers who have been accepted as refugees.

ASIO has had to take urgent steps to address the situation.

In a written statement to Lateline, a spokeswoman said: "During 2009-10, ASIO had to divert significant resources to undertaking security assessment of irregular maritime arrivals for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

"Protection visa applicants and other refugee assessments were most significantly affected.

"In response, ASIO implemented new measures, including the establishment of a dedicated team responsible for protection visas and other complex non-irregular maritime arrival visa cases."

Agency under pressure

Liberal Senator Russell Trood wants to know why the delays have occured.

He says despite a large budget increase during the past decade, ASIO is struggling to keep up.

"They were moving people from one part of the agency to another to focus a larger among of resources on this problem of the security checks, so it's clearly putting pressure on the agency overall," he said.

"I'd be surprised if it was not putting great pressure on particular sections of ASIO."

Refugee lawyer David Manne says ASIO has not made the security checks a high enough priority.

"In the meantime, it's quite clear that there are seriously inadequate resources being dedicated to ensure that security checking is done properly, humanly and in a timely fashion," he said.

Last year, during a Senate estimates hearing, ASIO officials stated that between 2008 and 2009, ASIO completed 207 security assessments for irregular maritime arrivals.

The officials said between 2009 and 2010, that number increased to 2,028 security assessments, almost ten times the number being processed the year before.

Mr Manne says the long delays are not neccessary and the Federal Government has another option.

"Two years ago, the government announced a new policy, which promised an end to the practice of prolonged detention by ensuring that upon initial completion of health, security and identity checks, asylum seekers would be released into the community, unless they prosed some clear risk to the community," he said.

"It's clear that promise has been abandoned."

Tonight, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said that asylum seekers would only be considered for community accommodation once health, identity and security checks had been completed.