General Norman Schwarzkopf Dies Aged 78

General Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the US-led coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, has died.

The 78-year-old died on Thursday at his home in Tampa, Florida, where he retired after his last military posting as commander-in-chief of US Central Command.

His sister Ruth Barenbaum said he passed away following complications from pneumonia.

Gen. Schwarzkopf was known as Stormin' Norman for his explosive temper

A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Gen. Schwarzkopf was known popularly as Stormin' Norman for a notoriously explosive temper.

Former president George HW Bush, himself sick in intensive care in Texas, was the first to issue a statement mourning the loss of the man he chose to lead the war that came to define both of their careers.

"Barbara and I mourn the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation," his statement said.

The General salutes an Iraqi general to set Gulf War cease-fire terms

"A distinguished member of that Long Gray Line hailing from West Point, General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomised the 'duty, service, country' creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises.

"More than that, he was a good and decent man - and a dear friend. Barbara and I send our condolences to his wife Brenda and his wonderful family."

During the 1991 Gulf War, he became the public face of the coalition troops who ousted Hussein's forces from Kuwait.

After retiring from the Army in 1992, Gen. Schwarzkopf wrote a best-selling autobiography It Doesn't Take A Hero.

He was knighted by the Queen and honoured with decorations from France, Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.

At the peak of his post-war national celebrity Gen. Schwarzkopf - a self-proclaimed political independent - rejected attempts to persuade him to run for high office.

The General receiving the medal of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour

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Gang-Raped Indian Teenager Kills Herself

A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped killed herself after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.

It comes as the 23-year-old Indian medical student who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi arrived at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital for further treatment.

A hospital spokesperson said the patient is in an "extremely critical condition" after the attack on December 16.

She was transferred overseas for better treatment.

The latest case, in the Patiala region in the Punjab, has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

Her death came as it emerged that the names, addresses and photographs of convicted rapists will be posted online by police in India to publicly shame them for their crimes.

Inspector General Paramjit Singh Gill said that the teenager had been "running from pillar to post to get her case registered" but officers failed to open a formal inquiry.

"One of the officers tried to convince her to withdraw the case," Gill, the police chief for the area, told AFP.

Before her death, there had been no arrests over her case although three people were detained on Thursday. Two of them were her alleged male attackers and the third was a suspected woman accomplice.

The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept cash or marry one of her attackers.

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has now been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

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India Gang-Rape Victim 'Struggling Against Odds'

An Indian woman who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi suffered "significant" brain damage and is fighting for her life.

The 23-year-old woman was flown to Singapore for treatment at Mount Elizabeth hospital on Thursday.

The unnamed victim had already undergone three abdominal operations and suffered a cardiac arrest in India prior to her flight.

Hospital chief executive Dr Kelvin Loh said she also has an infection of the lungs and abdomen and "is currently struggling against the odds".

"She continues to remain in an extremely critical condition and is still receiving treatment at the hospital's intensive care unit," he added. 

The announcement comes 10 days after she was brutally attacked by six men on December 16.

The rape has triggered widespread outrage and riots across India.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

In a separate incident, a 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped killed herself after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

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George HW Bush: Condition Worsens In Hospital

The health of former US President George HW Bush has worsened and he is in intensive care with a "stubborn fever".

Mr Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit on Sunday and has been put on a liquids-only diet.

He has been battling bronchitis for the last month and has been in and out of hospital.

Spokesman Jim McGrath: "It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two. It's a stubborn fever that won't go away.

"He's had a series of setbacks now that have landed him in guarded condition in the intensive care unit."

Mr Bush had been making a good recovery early last week, he added.

Mr Bush, a Republican, served a single term in the White House from 1989 to 1993, despite sending US forces to victory in Iraq in the first Gulf War, expelling Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait.

He had previously served as Vice President to Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989. His son George W Bush became president of the United States in 2001, serving two terms.

Mr Bush Snr was first admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on November 7 for bronchitis treatment and released on November 19.

The 88-year-old was readmitted on November 23 after his cough flared up once more.

Doctors had initially hoped to be able to send the elder statesman home for Christmas, but instead he spent the holiday in hospital, where he was joined by his wife Barbara, son Neil and grandson Pierce.

Mr McGrath said: "I wouldn't say he was able to celebrate it in the traditional sense.

"His family was with him, and he's conscious and he's able to engage in humorous banter with his doctor."

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US Snow Storm Heads East After Hitting Midwest

A severe US snow storm is threatening more devastation as it heads east after pounding the Midwest, killing six people.

Up to 18 inches of snow is forecast inland on Thursday, from western New York to Maine, before tapering off into a mix of rain and snow closer to the coast.

It follows snowy gusts of 30mph and an outbreak of 34 tornadoes on Tuesday in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – causing travel chaos and power cuts.

More than 1,600 flights were cancelled or delayed on Wednesday while scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts. The storms left more than 100,000 in the region without power.

The storm has blanketed the Midwest

The major storm system, which spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day and an historic amount of snow in Arkansas, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and moved into the Northeast.

By Wednesday night, The National Weather Service said spotters had reported up to a foot of snow in some Pennsylvania counties.

And a mix of snow, sleet and rain accompanied by high winds had arrived in western Massachusetts.

"The way I've been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that's sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex," said John Kwiatkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

Snow and rain is expected to hit New York City

Two passengers in a car on a slippery Arkansas road died when the vehicle crossed the centre line and struck a sport utility vehicle.

In Oklahoma, a 76-year-old woman died when a truck crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the car she was in. A 28-year-old woman was killed in another crash.

The storm's winds were also blamed for toppling a tree onto a truck in Texas, killing the driver, and a tree onto a house in Louisiana, killing a man.

Cameras captured the approach of the large funnel cloud in Mobile, Alabama, the biggest city hit by numerous twisters.

A large section of the roof on the city's Trinity Episcopal Church was missing, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church.

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Netflix Blames Amazon For Xmas Eve Outage

The online film streaming service Netflix is blaming Amazon after millions of people were unable to access its service on Christmas Eve.

Netflix says a problem at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which rents out computing power in data centres in the internet "cloud", left more than 27 million of its members unable to get the films they wanted.

The Netflix issue began in California on Monday afternoon and lasted late into the night, according to the company.

No problems were reported with viewing offerings at Amazon's rival online film service.

In a message on Twitter, Netflix referred to the problem as "terrible timing". It noted that users in Europe were not affected.

"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices on Christmas morning could watch TV shows or movies and apologise for any inconvenience caused Christmas Eve," the company said in a separate statement.

"We are investigating the cause and will do what we can to prevent reoccurrence."

Netflix allows customers to access films online

Amazon told the AFP news agency that the Netflix outage was due to "issues with the Elastic Load Balancing service" that affected some AWS customers in the United States.

Reports in the US suggest the problem stretched from Brazil to Canada.

AWS began recovering late on Christmas Eve and was back in proper working order on Christmas Day, according to Amazon.

The outage exposed a risk inherent in the trend towards depending on "cloud" servers for services ranging from web-based email to digital news publications and business tasks which have traditionally been the responsibility of on-site IT departments.

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Firefighter Ambush Shooting: Killer Left Note

The gunman who ambushed two firefighters as they approached his burning house left a note saying he wanted to torch the neighbourhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people".

Gerald Pickering, police chief in Webster, New York state, said 62-year-old William Spengler armed himself with three weapons and set his house on fire to lure emergency services into a death trap.

Spengler killed two volunteer firefighters - Mike Chiapperini, 43, and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka - and shot two others before taking his own life in the small town on Monday morning.

Police believe human remains found in the burnt-out home are those of the gunman's 67-year-old sister, Cheryl, who has been missing since the blaze. The remains will be examined before identity is confirmed.

The full contents of the two-page, typed note - which police said does not reveal a motive - have not been published, but Mr Pickering said it clearly shows the killer's "intent".

Victims: Michael Chapperini (left) and Tomasz Kaczowka

One of the guns used was a semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle, the same type of gun used in the December 14 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. Mr Pickering said Spengler was "equipped to go to war".

Mr Chiapperini's full-time job was as a public information officer with the Webster police department. He was named firefighter of the year for 2012.

Mr Kaczowka worked as an emergency call dispatcher and Mr Pickering described him as "a tremendous young man".

The two injured volunteer firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, remain in hospital. They are said to be awake and alert and are expected to recover despite suffering "significant" injuries.

Webster is northwest of New York City

Spengler was released from prison in 1998 after serving 17 years for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980.

Authorities have said he lived a quiet life and had done nothing to bring himself to police attention since his parole.

Spengler's mother Arline, who had lived with her two children, died in October, leaving Spengler on his own with his sister whom he "couldn't stand", according to neighbour Roger Vercruysse.

Spengler "stayed on one side of the house and [Cheryl] stayed on the other," Mr Vercruysse said.

Dozens of people turned out on Monday night for an impromptu vigil to mourn the firefighters, leaving bouquets and messages of condolence at the local fire station.

One man left a crate of beer, the local newspaper told Sky News.

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Government Bombing In Northern Syria Kills 20

Shelling in Syria's northern Raqqa Province has killed some 20 people, with at least eight children among the dead, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has published a video of the aftermath of the bombing.

The video shows rows of blood-stained bodies laid out on blankets, and the sound of crying relatives can be heard in the background.

The shelling hit the village of al-Qahtania in Raqq Province. It remains unclear when the attack happened.

More follows...

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Tornadoes Hit US As Christmas Storms Kill Three

At least three people have died after a major winter storm system swept through the southern US, triggering tornadoes and heavy snowfall.

A driver was killed when a high winds knocked down a tree, crushing his pickup truck and a 53-year-old Louisiana man died after a tree fell on his house.

A 28-year-old woman died after crashing her car on a snowy highway.

The National Weather Service said a tornado struck Mobile, Alabama, a city with a population of about 200,000. Homes were damaged and power lines and trees were toppled.

Firefighters carried out door-to-door checks in the affected areas but did not find any serious casualties.

Storm clouds head towards the East Coast

A large section of a church roof was missing and the front wall of the parish wall was gone, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church in the Midtown section of the city.

Another apparent tornado caused damage in the west Alabama town of Grove Hill, about 80 miles (130km) north of Mobile.

Near McNeill, Mississippi, a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

At least three tornadoes were reported in Texas, although only one building was damaged, according to the National Weather Service.

The storms also contributed to a 21-vehicle pile-up that shut down a major highway in Oklahoma and caused thousands of power cuts.

A man is put in an ambulance after a tornado in Mobile

More than 400 flights nationwide were cancelled by Tuesday evening, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. More than half of those were either in or out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which saw several inches of snow.

The snowstorm pushed out of Oklahoma as Christmas Day ended, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 10 inches (25cm) of snow was forecast.

Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 30 mph (48kph) whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity.

Blizzard conditions were also possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky with predictions of four to seven inches (10 to 17.5cm) of snow.

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Pope Benedict Celebrates Christmas Mass

The Pope has marked Christmas with a Mass in the Vatican and asked if people still have room for children, the poor and God in their technology-driven lives.

The pontiff also prayed that Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and freedom, and asked the faithful to pray for strife-torn Syria as well as Lebanon and Iraq.

The ceremony began at 10pm local time on Christmas Eve with the blare of trumpets, meant to symbolise Christian joy over the news of Christ's birth in Bethlehem.

As midnight neared, church bells tolled throughout Rome, while inside the basilica, the voices of the Vatican boys' choir resounded joyously.

Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican traditionally began at midnight, but the start time was brought forward years ago to give the 85-year-old pontiff more time to rest before his Christmas Day speech.

A smiling Benedict, dressed in gold vestments, waved to applauding church-goers as he glided up the St Peter's Basilica aisle toward the ornate main altar on a wheeled platform guided by white-gloved aides.

In his homily, Benedict urged people to reflect upon what they find time for in their busy lives.

He said: "The great moral question of our attitude toward the homeless, toward refugees and migrants takes on a deeper dimension. Do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?

"The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have.  And God? The question of God never seems urgent."

He continued: "Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom."

Benedict also mentioned his hope for progress in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Hours before the basilica Mass, Benedict lit a Christmas peace candle at his studio window overlooking St Peter's Square to mark the end of a service for the unveiling of the Vatican's crib.

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