BP’s cautious, cryptic statement says firm will ‘take this day by day’, but Louisianans see light at the end of a long tunnel. When the history books come to be written about America’s worst environmental disaster, Sunday 18 July may be seen as the day the cry went up that the oil had permanently stopped spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

But things being the way they are, the announcement came in a cryptic statement from BP that was so shrouded in techno-garble and caveats that its huge significance was perilously close to being lost. "Right now there is no target set to open the well back up to flow," said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, adding: "We’re hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we’ll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed."

Given their importance, Suttles’ words deserve to be translated into plain English. Tests over the weekend on the new cap placed over the broken well suggested that it was working, there were no leaks, the flow had been stopped and – wonder of wonders – it might stay that way until the well is finally and conclusively plugged, probably next month.

It is a sign of how cautious the main parties have become in the wake of numerous publicity gaffes that nobody was prepared even to hint that the nightmare of oil billowing into the clean waters of the Gulf was over. "We will take this day by day," Suttles said.

As for the Obama administration, it said nothing at all. On Saturday its line, delivered through the government’s point man on the disaster, Admiral Thad Allen, had been that it was likely to order BP to open the new containment cap and begin pumping oil up to vessels on the surface as a way of reducing the risk of leakage from the well.

But Allen was notably silent on Sunday, leaving BP to do the talking. And BP pointed out that reopening the cap would inevitably involve more oil spewing out. "Clearly we don’t want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don’t have to," Suttles said.

There were no visible displays of elation in the most heavily affected coastline areas of Louisiana, but there was a new note of optimism. "We see light at the end of the tunnel," said Billy Nungesser, who has been one of the most vocal leaders locally. Even he felt duty bound to add: "It’s a very long tunnel but today we’re making progress."

Two men are dead and four injured from a barrage of gunshots fired around 9 p.m. at a party Saturday night at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah. King County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Urquhart said police had at least six people in custody. Police recovered one gun from the scene, he said, and several more in a car attempting to leave the scene.

Ed Boyle, Swedish Medical Center spokesman, said a 29-year-old man with gunshot injuries was treated at Swedish’s emergency facility in Issaquah, which is close to the entrance to the park, and was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Two other wounded men were also taken to Harborview; the fourth was taken to Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, Urquhart said.

"Our victims, we don’t know if they’re innocent victims, people caught in a crossfire, suspects, or other shooters," Urquhart said. "It’s quite possible there was more than one shooter."

He said officers from four jurisdictions were interviewing those in custody.

At one point, one person was barricaded in a bathroom in the park, Urquhart said. "People were hiding in the bathrooms to get away from the shooting."

Police agencies responding to the incident included the Washington State Patrol, Bellevue and Issaquah police departments.

Urquhart said the park was locked down and would likely remain closed all night.

"Right now we don’t know what caused this shooting," he said. "We don’t really have any details whatsoever. It’s a pretty chaotic scene. It’s difficult for us to sort out what exactly happened."

Police were also interviewing possible witnesses and gathering names of those in the park, Urquhart said.

"We had a nice Saturday night with lots of people in the park when the shooting happened, so we have a lot of work to do."

Lake Sammamish State Park, at the south end of Lake Sammamish in Issaquah, is a popular gathering place for boating and watersport activities.

NEW ORLEANS -  Three police officers charged in the killing of two unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina and a cover-up that followed pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen and Officer Anthony Villavaso stood before a federal magistrate in green prison garb, shackled at the waist and ankles. They will remain jailed at least until a hearing Friday. A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 13.

Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. read the counts — 13 against Bowen, 11 against Gisevius and 10 against Villavaso. Former officer Robert Faulcon made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas, where he was arrested, but has not entered a plea. The charges against the four carry a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, although U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the Justice Department hasn’t decided whether to seek the latter punishment.

The family of two victims — Ronald Madison, who was killed, and his brother, Lance, who survived — sat in the front row of the packed courtroom. Gisevius cried quietly as he stood with his lawyer. "We’ll be able to pick this indictment apart," said Frank DeSalvo, Bowen’s lawyer. "There is a lot of fantasy there."

Bowen, Gisevius and Villavaso were suspended without pay after the indictments were released Tuesday, NOPD spokesman Bob Young said on Wednesday. Five former officers already have pleaded guilty to charges they helped cover up the shootings. Prosecutors have said police fabricated witnesses, falsified reports and plotted to plant a gun to make it appear that the shootings were justified.

The shootings at the Danziger Bridge happened Sept. 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina smashed levees and left the city flooded and in chaos. Bodies floated in filthy flood waters. There were reports of looting and gunshots rang out throughout the blacked-out city. It was in this backdrop that police, desperate to regain control, were called about 9 a.m. that morning after reports of gunfire at the bridge. Seven heavily armed New Orleans police officers stormed the bridge. Prosecutors said they shot at the first people they saw, people they say were crossing the bridge to find food. When it was over, two men were dead and four others lay wounded on the hot concrete.

The indictment claims Faulcoun shot mentally disabled Ronald Madison, 40, in the back as he ran away on the west side of the bridge. Bowen is charged with stomping and kicking Madison while he was lying on the ground, wounded but still alive. Madison’s brother, Lance, was arrested and charged with trying to kill police officers. He was jailed for three weeks before being released without indictment.

Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso also are accused of shooting at an unarmed family on the east side of the bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, who helped investigate the shootings, were charged with participating in the alleged cover-up. Charges against them include obstruction of justice. Kaufman and Bowen "specifically discussed using Hurricane Katrina to excuse failures in the investigation, and thereby to help make any inquiry into the shooting go away," the indictment states.

Kaufman allegedly took a gun from his home and claimed to have found it at the crime scene a day after the shootings, then lied about that gun under oath and in reports, prosecutors said. Dugue is accused of lying to a federal agent when he said he had no concerns about the truth of the officers’ statements. "In fact, he had many ‘red flags’ and ‘question marks’ about the officers’ stories, but he reported the questionable information as fact and relied upon it without qualification," the indictment says.

The charges, unsealed Tuesday, are the culmination of a two-year probe by the federal government. An internal police investigation found no wrongdoing by officers. A state grand jury convened to look into the matter charged seven officers with murder or attempted murder, but a state judge threw out all the charges in 2008.

BEIJING – A typhoon that left scores dead in the Philippines and two in China weakened to a tropical storm as it churned toward northern Vietnam on Saturday, smashing boats in its path and lashing the region with rain and wind. It was expected to make landfall before dark. Authorities said more than 170,000 people were being prepared for evacuation.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said several Vietnamese ships had been wrecked off islands in the South China Sea, but there was no immediate word on whether anyone had died. It quoted a maritime-affairs official on the southern resort island of Hainan, hit Friday, as saying rescue efforts were under way. A man answering the telephone in the maritime bureau said he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media. Typhoon Conson, China’s first typhoon of the year, roared in from the Philippines, where the death toll continued rising Saturday to 65, with 87 missing. Xinhua said a falling billboard killed a motorcycle rider after the storm brushed Hainan, and another toppled and buried a security guard under debris. By 8 a.m. Saturday, Hainan’s meteorological station said Conson was moving northwest over open water again and had weakened into a strong tropical storm. It was expected to hit northern Vietnam by afternoon or evening and was moving at 12 miles an hour.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe will never be released from prison, a High Court judge has ruled. An application was made by the 63-year-old to have a minimum term set to give him the chance of parole. The former Bradford lorry driver received 20 life sentences in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others.

Richard McCann, whose mother Wilma was murdered by Sutcliffe, described the ruling as a "small victory for my mum". Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr McCann, added: "We have been fearing this moment for many years – the fear that he might get released." In making his judgement Mr Justice Mitting said: "This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years." He added: "Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. "Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term." The serial killer, now known as Peter Coonan, is detained at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire. When he was jailed, a judge recommended that he served a minimum of 30 years behind bars.

He used a hammer to attack his first victim on 5 July 1975. Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes – although not all of his victims were sex workers. He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated his victims’ bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife. He has spent nearly all his years in custody at Broadmoor after being diagnosed as mentally ill, but refused treatment until 1993 when the Mental Health Commission ruled it should be given forcibly. A judge recently refused to allow fresh psychiatric evidence, which said he posed a "low risk of reoffending" to be admitted as part of the tariff-setting exercise. In making his ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said he had read statements by relatives of six murdered victims. "They are each moving accounts of the great loss and widespread and permanent harm to the living caused by six of his crimes," he said. "I have no doubt that they are representative of the unspoken accounts of others who have not made statements. "None of them suggest any term other than a whole life term would be regarded by them as appropriate." The main submission made on behalf of Sutcliffe was that the degree of his responsibility "was lowered by mental disorder or mental disability". The judge said a psychiatrist report stated Sutcliffe had been on anti-psychotic medicine since 1993, which had successfully contained his mental illness.

But he said he did not accept that any reduction from a whole life term would be appropriate on the ground of "exceptional progress". The husband of one of Sutcliffe’s surviving victims, Olive Smelt, who was attacked as she walked home in Halifax in 1975, said the ruling was the correct decision for Sutcliffe’s own good but that they rarely thought about the killer now. Mrs Smelt, 81, was hit twice on the head with a hammer and needed brain surgery but later made a full recovery. Harry Smelt said: "I think it’s as well for him that he does have to remain in." "Olive is severely disabled now and wheelchair-bound – the last thing she worries about is Peter Sutcliffe," he added.
 

Three British soldiers have been killed by an Afghan soldier in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the incident was believed to have been deliberate. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has apologised to the UK after the incident which took place in the Nahr-e Saraj district on Tuesday.

An investigation is under way and no further details have been released – next of kin are being informed. There is a helpline number in the UK for concerned relatives – 08457 800900. It is understood there will not be any confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the incident until the next of kin are informed. An Afghan defence ministry spokesman said the attack was carried out with a rocket-propelled grenade, and that four other British soldiers were also injured in the attack.  He said an Afghan soldier was being sought following the incident.

New Mexico authorities said a former employee shot and killed five people at a business Monday in Albuquerque before turning the gun on himself.Police said officers responded to a 911 call at 9:26 a.m. (11:26 a.m. ET) that multiple shots had been fired. When officers entered the building, they found a total of 10 people shot — four were dead, including a man believed to be the shooter, officials said. Two have since died as a result of gunshot wounds; two are in stable condition and two others are receiving emergency medical attention, police said.

“We believe this incident to be a domestic-violence workplace situation,” Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said.

KAMPALA, Uganda - Simultaneous explosions tore through crowds watching the World Cup final at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant. 64 people were killed including one American. Police feared an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group was behind the attacks.

Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among overturned chairs at the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people watched the game between Spain and the Netherlands late Sunday. The attack on the rugby club, where crowds sat outside watching a large-screen TV, left 49 dead. Fifteen others were killed in the restaurant explosion.One American was killed in the blasts, said Joann Lockard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala. Several Americans from a Pennsylvania church group were wounded in the restaurant attack including Kris Sledge, 18, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

“I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running,” Sledge said from the hospital. His right leg was wrapped and he had burns on his face. “I love the place here but I’m wondering why this happened and who did this … At this point we’re just glad to be alive.”

Kampala’s police chief said he believed Somalia’s most feared militant group, al-Shabab, could be responsible for the attack. Al-Shabab is known to have links with Al Qaeda, and it counts militant veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts among its ranks. Simultaneous attacks are also one of Al Qaeda’s hallmarks.The explosions came just two days after an al-Shabab commander, Sheik Muktar Robow, called for militants to attack sites in Uganda and Burundi — two nations that contribute troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. A senior police official at the scene who said he could not be identified said that 64 people had been killed — 49 from the rugby club and 15 at the Ethiopian restaurant.

A head and legs were found at the rugby club, suggesting a suicide bomber may have been to blame, an AP reporter at the scene said.,Police Chief Kale Kaihura said he suspected al-Shabab had carried out the attack. The group’s fighters, including two recruited from the Somali communities in the United States, have carried out multiple suicide bombings in Somalia. In Mogadishu, Somalia, Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, an al-Shabab commander, told The Associated Press early Monday that he was happy with the attacks in Uganda. Issa refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible for the bombings.

“Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah’s anger be upon those who are against us,” Sheik said.In addition to Uganda’s troops in Mogadishu, Uganda also hosts Somali soldiers trained in U.S. and European-backed programs White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. was prepared to provide any necessary assistance to the Ugandan government.

“The president is deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks, and sends his condolences to the people of Uganda and the loved ones of those who have been killed or injured,” Vietor said.
Kenya’s foreign minister, Moses M. Wetangula, told The Associated Press last week that enough veteran militants from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts have relocated to Somalia to spark worry inside the international community.International militants have flocked to Somalia because the country’s government controls only a few square miles of the capital, Mogadishu, leaving most of the rest of the country as lawless territory where insurgents can train and plan attacks unimpeded.