House GOP: We have the votes for "Plan B"

Play Video

Cantor: "We're going to have the votes" to pass "Plan B"

Updated 1:45 p.m. ET

As the House readies for an expected vote on an alternate plan, dubbed "Plan B," to avoid massive tax hikes on all income earners, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he is confident he will have enough support to pass their plan.

"We're going to have the votes," Cantor told reporters this morning.

"Plan B," a scaled-back measure that extends tax rates for everyone except those making $1 million, comes to the House floor at the unilateral direction of Republican leadership just days after it seemed talks between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and President Obama were progressing to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff." Both sides offered major concessions to move toward compromise, but aides tell CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett that Boehner didn't have enough support in his party to pass his proposal that included $1 trillion worth of revenue increases.

While "Plan B" would raise taxes on millionaires, which is something Democrats support, it does not go far enough for Democrats who want higher tax rates for more income earners. The president's latest "fiscal cliff" offer would raise the marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent on those making more than $400,000, a concession from his previous demand that taxes go up for households making more than $250,000.

Play Video

Boehner: Dems' "Plan B" is "slow walk" over "fiscal cliff"

Boehner said he is doing his part by offering "Plan B"  to ensure taxes don't increase on millions of Americans in the New Year. "It will be up to Senate Democrats and the White House to act," he told reporters today.

While Cantor says they have the votes to pass the alternative, some Republicans expressed reservations because it would raise taxes on about 400,000 families, or about 0.2 percent of Americans.

Boehner's proposal doesn't abide by "clear conservative, clear Republican principles," Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan, told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

Perhaps offering Republicans an out, in an about-face, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said Boehner's proposal does not raise taxes. Other outside conservative groups, however, including the Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks, are urging Republicans to vote against "Plan B", saying it does raise taxes.

Play Video

Reid: "Boehner's plans are nonstarters in the Senate"

Generally opposed to raising any taxes at all, Republicans are also reluctant to vote for a plan that has already been declared dead in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., if it passes the House. "Speaker Boehner's plans are non-starters in the Senate," Reid reiterated today. 

Even if it somehow cleared both houses of Congress, the White House announced Wednesday that it would veto "Plan B."

Another reason some Republicans also objected to Boehner's "Plan B" because it doesn't include spending cuts. Republican leadership addressed that concern Thursday morning, however, by offering a second piece of legislation that cuts $200 billion from the federal budget.

House Republicans "are taking concrete actions" to avert the "fiscal cliff" and reduce spending, Cantor said. "Absent a balanced offer from the president, this is our nation's best option."

During a news conference Wednesday, the president said Republicans "keep on finding ways to say no as opposed to finding ways to say yes" on agreeing to a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."

He added that it's time for the Republicans to step up and compromise because its' "what the country needs."

The president pointed out their proposals are only "a few hundred billion dollars" apart. "The idea that we would put our economy at risk because you can't bridge that cap doesn't make a lot of sense," he said.

The president's latest proposal includes about $1.2 trillion dollars of revenue increases and $800 billion in spending cuts. Boehner said it's not balanced. His latest offer is, which is not what the House is voting on today, includes about $1 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in tax increases.

Read More..

Merry 'Cliffmas'! Chances for a Deficit Deal Dim

The outlook for a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" by Christmas is increasingly grim, though lawmakers and the White House still have hope for a deficit-reduction compromise by the end of the year.

Republicans will move forward tonight with a vote to pass House Speaker John Boehner's so-called "Plan B option" – an extension of current tax rates for Americans making up to $1 million a year while replacing some pending automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs with other measures.

The step seeks to show Republicans acting to avoid an income tax hike on 99 percent of Americans in 2013, and leverage new pressure on President Obama in the ongoing talks for a broader "cliff" deal.

"Absent a balanced offer from the president, this is our nation's best option and Senate Democrats should take up both of these measures immediately," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said today.

Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, calling it counterproductive and the cuts burdensome for the middle class. If the Senate were to consider the bill to stave off a looming tax hike, Democrats would surely amend it to enact more amicable terms.

"'Plan B'... is a multiday exercise in futility at a time when we do not have the luxury of exercises in futility," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

Outgoing Sen. Joe Lieberman Criticizes Colleagues for Putting Party Above Country Watch Video

President Obama Promises Action to Reduce Gun Violence Watch Video

The posturing on "plan B" has drawn focus away from a broader bargain on taxes, spending, entitlement reforms and other measures that had begun coming into focus earlier this week.

Obama and Boehner have not spoken since Monday, though staff-level talks have continued behind the scenes.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said lawmakers would break for the Christmas holiday but return to Washington one week from today.

"If you look at Speaker Boehner's proposal and you look at my proposal, they're actually pretty close," Obama said Wednesday, appealing for a big "fair deal."

"It is a deal that can get done," he said. "But it cannot be done if every side wants 100 percent. And part of what voters were looking for is some compromise up here."

The latest offers exchanged by Obama and Boehner are roughly $450 billion apart, largely differing on where to draw the line for an income tax hike at the end of the year.

Obama wants to see rates rise on incomes above $400,000 a year, a concession from his earlier insistence on a $250,000 threshold. Boehner, who had opposed any tax rate increase, now says he could agree to a rate hike on earners of $1 million or more.

Both sides also disagree about the size of spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

Obama's plan would trim spending by $800 billion over a decade with half coming from Medicare and Medicaid. He has also agreed to limits on future cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries, something anathema to many Democrats.

But Boehner has said the cuts are insufficient. He seeks $1 trillion or more in spending reductions, citing entitlement programs as the primary drivers of U.S. deficits and debt.

"For weeks the White House said that if I moved on [tax] rates that they would make substantial concessions on spending cuts and entitlement reforms. I did my part. They've done nothing," Boehner said today.

"The real issue here, as we all know, is spending," he said. "I don't think that the White House has gotten serious about the big spending problem that our country faces."

Read More..

Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said.

The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on.

Opposition sources said rebels had won some territory in the strategic southern town of Morek and were surrounding the Alawite town of al-Tleisia.

They were also planning to take the town of Maan, arguing that the army was present there and in al-Tleisia and was hindering their advance on nearby Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground in the conflict.

"The rockets are being fired from there, they are being fired from Maan and al-Tleisia, we have taken two checkpoints in the southern town of Morek. If we want to control it then we need to take Maan," said a rebel captain in Hama rural area, who asked not to be named.

Activists said heavy army shelling had targeted the town of Halfaya, captured by rebels two days earlier. Seven people were killed, 30 were wounded, and dozens of homes were destroyed, said activist Safi al-Hamawi.

Hama is home to dozens of Alawite and Christian villages among Sunni towns, and activists said it may be necessary to lay siege to many minority areas to seize Morek. Rebels want to capture Morek to cut off army supply lines into northern Idlib, a province on the northern border with Turkey where rebels hold swathes of territory.

From an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, Alawites have largely stood behind Assad, many out of fear of revenge attacks. Christians and some other minorities have claimed neutrality, with a few joining the rebels and a more sizeable portion of them supporting the government out of fear of hardline Islamism that has taken root in some rebel groups.

Activists in Hama said rebels were also surrounding the Christian town of al-Suqeilabiya and might enter the city to take out army positions as well as those of "shabbiha" - pro-Assad militias, the bulk of whom are usually Alawite but can also include Christians and even Sunnis.

"We have been in touch with Christian opposition activists in al-Suqeilabiya and we have told them to stay downstairs or on the lowest floor of their building as possible, and not to go outside. The rebels have promised not to hurt anyone who stays at home," said activist Mousab al-Hamdee, speaking by Skype.

He said he was optimistic that potential sectarian tensions with Christians could be resolved but that Sunni-Alawite strife may be harder to suppress.

SECTARIAN FEARS

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of the U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

Deeper sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

Some activists privately voiced concerns of sectarian violence, but the rebel commander in Hama said fighters had been told "violations" would not be tolerated and argued that the move to attack the towns was purely strategic.

"If we are fired at from a Sunni village that is loyal to the regime we go in and we liberate it and clean it," he said. "So should we not do the same when it comes to an Alawite village just because there is a fear of an all-out sectarian war? We respond to the source of fire."

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

Rebels said on Thursday they had negotiated to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

A resident in Damascus said dozens of families were returning to the camp but that the army had erected checkpoints. Many families were still hesitant to return.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors from the government as well as from the army, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

The conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces on Thursday arrested an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Read More..

Football: Newcastle powerless to keep Ba admits Pardew

LONDON: Newcastle manager Alan Pardew admitted on Thursday that his club are powerless to keep Demba Ba if the Senegal striker wants to quit St James' Park.

Ba has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave if another team offers 7.5 million pounds and Pardew knows the former West Ham star could attract interest from several clubs during the January transfer window.

The 27-year-old, who has scored 11 times this season, was forced to deny reports this week that he had said it would be a dream come true to join Arsenal, while Liverpool are also said to be interested.

In the circumstances, Pardew is resigned to a month of worrying that one of his key players will be tempted away from Tyneside.

"It's unfortunate that the contract he has leaves open a lot of questions because we have this clause and every window that comes around, I have to answer the same questions," Pardew said.

"It would be disappointing for him to leave in this window for this club and for his team-mates here, but the decision will be his, ultimately, because that clause is there.

"The most important things we have got with Demba is he is someone who is a goalscorer and he is scoring goals, and that's very, very important to a side.

"His commitment to and work-rate for the team, I don't fault."

- AFP/fa

Read More..

Life-size hobbit Bag End made of 2 million Legos

Welcome to Lego Bag End.

(Credit:
Lego)

I've tried what I thought were some ambitious Lego builds in my childhood, but I never got close to making anything that could be considered life-size. That's why I'm tipping my hat to the insane quest of the Lego builders who made a life-size Bag End in honor of "The Hobbit" movie.

The Bag End creation is impressively detailed. There's a big round door and life-size characters running around, including Bilbo and Gandalf. If you look closely in one of the photos, you can even see smoke coming out of the chimney. I don't think that part is made out of little plastic bricks.

A feast is laid out on a table while dwarves stand with their weapons at the ready. There's an unexplained pretzel in the scene, but it still looks pretty tasty.

It took 3,000 hours of work and 2 million bricks to put the scene together. The photos all show it hanging out in a big warehouse, but there's no indication yet of where or when it might go on display. I would like to suggest it go on display in my backyard where I can play with it for hours on end.

If you don't have 2 million Legos and 3,000 hours of spare time, you can always pick up a Lego Bag End kit that's a little more down to size. The official movie tie-in kit sold at retail contains just 652 pieces.

Gandalf hangs out at Bag End.

(Credit:
Lego)

(Via Nerd Approved)

Read More..

State Dept. officials resign following Benghazi report

Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, CBS News confirmed, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Two other officials are resigning as well, CBS News has confirmed: Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and an unnamed person from the State Department's near eastern affairs department.

Boswell's resignation from his post as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security is effective immediately. Sources say he will stay on as director of the Office of Foreign Missions for a short, indefinite time.

The report, released today by an independent board led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, did not single out any individuals for culpability. It did, however, blame failures within two bureaus at the State Department for the missteps that eventually lead to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three additional American personnel in Libya. The two bureaus cited -- Near Eastern Affairs and Diplomatic Security -- were criticized for a security posture that was "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack," and for failing to coordinate with other agencies to better secure the consulate.

Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees were briefed on the report this morning. After the briefings, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the report "is going to significantly advance the security of personnel and our country."

A number of congressmen said today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should still testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack. Clinton was scheduled to testify on the Benghazi attack this Thursday in two congressional hearings. However, after falling ill and suffering from a concussion, she's no longer scheduled to appear at the hearings. Clinton sent a letter to Congress, indicating she accepts the Benghazi report's 29 recommendations for strengthening security at diplomatic posts and recognizes the the need to address the "systemic challenges" at the State Department.

House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-lehtinen, R-Fla., said Clinton "absolutely" still needs to testify. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said committee members still have many questions and that today's closed-door briefing was just the start.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said it was "imperative" for Clinton to testify before a new secretary of state is confirmed in President Obama's second term.

"I think that is very important to her, I think it is very important for our country, and I think it is very important to really understand the inner workings of the State Department itself," he said.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement that Clinton will need to "personally address" issues he feels were not addressed entirely in the report.

"While I appreciate the board's hard work, I am deeply concerned that the unclassified report omits important information the public has a right to know," Issa said. "This includes details about the perpetrators of the attack in Libya as well as the less-than-noble reasons contributing to State Department decisions to deny security resources. Relevant details that would not harm national security have been withheld and the classified report suffers from an enormous over-classification problem."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., by contrast, called the report's conclusions "very stark, very candid, very honest."

The report, he said, "told us the following: Mistakes were made, lives were lost, lessons need to be learned." Durbin said the review board's conclusions were: "Our intelligence fell short, our security personnel were inexperienced and unprepared, our security systems failed, our host nation was lacking in protection for our own people, and senior State Department officials unfortunately showed a lack of leadership and management ability."

He added, "That is a challenge to all of us, it is a challenge for us to assess this in an honest fashion and to change policy to put resources in place that will make a difference."

Read More..

Inside One School's Extraordinary Security Measures

While schools across America reassess their security measures in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., one school outside of Chicago takes safety to a whole new level.

The security measures at Middleton Elementary School start the moment you set foot on campus, with a camera-equipped doorbell. When you ring the doorbell, school employees inside are immediately able to see you, both through a window and on a security camera.

“They can assess your demeanor,” Kate Donegan, the superintendent of Skokie School District 73 ½, said in an interview with ABC News.

Once the employees let you through the first set of doors, you are only able to go as far as a vestibule. There you hand over your ID so the school can run a quick background check using a visitor management system devised by Raptor Technologies. According to the company’s CEO, Jim Vesterman, only 8,000 schools in the country are using that system, while more than 100,000 continue to use the old-fashioned pen-and-paper system, which do not do as much to drive away unwanted intruders.

“Each element that you add is a deterrent,” Vesterman said.

In the wake of the Newtown shooting, Vesterman told ABC News his company has been “flooded” with calls to put in place the new system. Back at Middleton, if you pass the background check, you are given a new photo ID — attached to a bright orange lanyard — to wear the entire time you are inside the school. Even parents who come to the school on a daily basis still have to wear the lanyard.

“The rules apply to everyone,” Donegan said.

The security measures don’t end there. Once you don your lanyard and pass through a second set of locked doors, you enter the school’s main hallway, while security cameras continue to feed live video back into the front office.

It all comes at a cost. Donegan’s school district — with the help of security consultant Paul Timm of RETA Security — has spent more than $175,000 on the system in the last two years. For a district of only three schools and 1100 students, that is a lot of money, but it is all worth it, she said.

“I don’t know that there’s too big a pricetag to put on kids being as safe as they can be,” Donegan said.

“So often we hear we can’t afford it, but what we can’t afford is another terrible incident,” Timm said.

Classroom doors open inward — not outward — and lock from the inside, providing teachers and students security if an intruder is in the hallway. Some employees carry digital two-way radios, enabling them to communicate at all times with the push of a button. Administrators such as Donegan are able to watch the school’s security video on their mobile devices. Barricades line the edge of the school’s parking lot, keeping cars from pulling up close to the entrance.

Teachers say all the security makes them feel safe inside the school.

“I think the most important thing is just keeping the kids safe,” fourth-grade teacher Dara Sacher said.

Parents like Charlene Abraham, whose son Matthew attends Middleton, say they feel better about dropping off their kids knowing the school has such substantial security measures in place.

“We’re sending our kids to school to learn, not to worry about whether they’re going to come home or not,” she said.

In the wake of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook last Friday, Donegan’s district is now even looking into installing bullet-resistant glass for the school building. While Middleton’s security measures continue to put administrators, teachers, parents and students at ease, Sacher said she thinks that more extreme measures — such as arming teachers, an idea pushed by Oregon state Rep. Dennis Richardson — are a step too far.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable being armed,” Sacher said. “Even if you trained people, I think it’d be better to keep the guns out of school rather than arm teachers.”

Read More..

U.S. soldier referred to court martial over Afghan slayings

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in two forays from his remote military camp has been referred to a court martial over the slayings and could face the death penalty, the military said on Wednesday.

The trial of Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is scheduled to take place at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, but no date has been set, military officials said in a statement.

Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Bales. They accuse him of gunning down the villagers - mostly women and children - over a five-hour period in March.

His lawyers have not set out an alternative theory to the prosecution's case, but have pointed out inconsistencies in pretrial testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The shootings in Afghanistan's Kandahar province mark one of the deadliest civilian slaughters that the military has blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War. The killings damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

The charges against Bales include 16 specifications of premeditated murder, six specifications of attempted murder and seven specifications of assault, the military said.

Bales is being held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

(Reporting by Laura L. Myers; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Gary Hill)

Read More..

Obama calls for gun violence proposals within a month

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Wednesday set up a task force to frame "concrete proposals" on ending mass shootings by next month and called for new laws, but denied he had been on "vacation" on gun control.

With trauma still raw after the Connecticut school massacre last week, Obama put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of an inter-agency effort on gun control and mental health, saying America had a "deep obligation" to act.

Obama, who failed to put political muscle behind greater gun control after previous mass slaughters, dismissed the notion that the task force would simply be a familiar, toothless Washington policy commission with little impact.

And he said killings of 20 children aged six and seven and six teachers and caregivers in the elementary school in Newtown were so horrific they should provide lawmakers with a potent incentive for action, even when the initial shock fades.

"I would hope that our memories aren't so short that what we saw in Newtown isn't lingering with us, that we don't remain passionate about it only a month later," Obama said at the White House.

"This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms right now.

"I will be putting forward very specific proposals. I will be talking about them in my State of the Union, and we will be working with interested members of Congress to try to get something done."

Obama urged the slow moving Congress to hold timely votes on banning military-style assault weapons like the one used by gunman Adam Lanza in Newtown and also on outlawing the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips.

He also called for new laws to ensure background checks for all gun purchases and signalled an effort to expand mental health care, in an effort to deter psychologically troubled people from turning to mass violence.

"We're going to need to make access to mental health at least as easy as access to a gun. We're going to need to look more closely at a culture that, all too often, glorifies guns and violence."

Biden has a history of framing crime legislation from his years in the Senate, has an affinity with law enforcement services, and also enjoys the kind of cordial links with many top Republicans in Congress that Obama lacks.

Obama, who comforted relatives of Newtown victims on Sunday, bristled when asked by a reporter whether he had been absent on gun control issues, following mass killings in Colorado, Arizona and Texas on his watch.

"I've been president of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don't think I've been on vacation."

Obama, who many conservatives believe wants to take away their guns, also said he supported the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines the right to bear arms in the United States.

"There is a big chunk of space between what, you know, the Second Amendment means and having no rules at all," he said.

Obama also called on the National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun lobby group which piles pressure on lawmakers over gun rights, to consider its priorities, before senior figures hold a news conference on Friday.

"The NRA is an organisation that has members who are mothers and fathers, and I would expect that they've been impacted by this as well, and hopefully they'll do some self-reflection."

The aftermath of the horrific shootings in Connecticut has prompted some pro-gun figures on Capitol Hill to admit that more needs to be done to regulate the sale and use of firearms.

But most evidence of shifting positions has been among Democrats, and there are signs that Republicans, especially those from rural, southern and conservative states may balk at new legislative action.

In another development Wednesday, Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller announced a bill that would require a National Academy of Sciences assessment of links between violent games and violence.

Lanza was reportedly a fan of violent video games including "Dynasty Warriors."

- AFP/de

Read More..

Video of child-snatching eagle an animation student fake

A screen capture from a fake video of an eagle briefly snatching a child.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Alas for those excited by a video seemingly showing an eagle's unsuccessful attempt to carry off a child: it's not real.

"A shadow analysis revealed some pretty severe inconsistencies," said Kevin Connor, president of Fourandsix, an imaging forensics specialist. "It appears to be a fake."

Just as Fourandsix was digging into the matter, a Montreal school said animation students were behind the video. It "was made by Normand Archambault, Loic Mireault, and Felix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design," a statement from the center said. "Hoaxes produced in this class have already garnered attention, amongst others a video of a penguin having escaped the Montreal Biodome."

Fourandsix co-founder Hany Farid has made a name for himself using a collection of methods to discern when imagery has been faked or modified. A shadow analysis looks to see if all shadows in an image could be traced to the same light source, in this case the sun.

"You can clearly see that these shadows are not consistent with one another. The most likely scenario is that the baby and eagle are computer generated and were inserted into a real-world scene," Farid said in a blog post today. "Because this scene is outdoors and illuminated with a single light source (the sun), there is no physically plausible explanation for this inconsistency in shadows."

The video was posted on YouTube yesterday and so far has been watched more than 2.7 million times. Skeptics pounced on the video, though, scrutinizing it closely for problems.

Read More..