Cop Killer in Oakland California kills 4

UNITED STATES - Four police officers were shot dead and a fifth is now brain dead and on life support in the northern California city of Oakland, marking the deadliest day in the department's history.

The shootings started Saturday after a routine traffic stop. Two officers on motorcycle patrol were shot by a man wanted for violating his parole (The gunman was 'on parole for assault with a deadly weapon'). The gunman then fled the scene.

The suspect was later killed by police during an intense manhunt by dozens of Oakland police, California Highway Patrol officers and Alameda County sheriff deputies. Streets were roped off and an entire area of east Oakland was closed to traffic so they could corner the gunman.

At approx. 3:30 pm, officers received an anonymous tip that the gunman was inside a nearby apartment building. A SWAT team entered the building and the gunman opened fire. Two more police SWAT officers were killed and a third officer was grazed by a bullet.

Officers returned fire, killing the suspect.

One witness, said he heard gunshots outside, where he saw two SWAT officers lying on the ground. "I went over to one officer and saw he was bleeding from his helmet pretty bad," he said. "The other officer was laying motionless." He said one officer had gunshot wounds to the jaw and neck.

The man proceeded to administer first aid to the officer until police arrived.

Another wounded officer was treated and released from hospital on Saturday night.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the officers' deaths "tragic", and ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast. Schwarzenegger arrived in Oakland on Sunday to meet members of the police department.

"This is a tragic day for law enforcement officers everywhere," he said in a statement, adding the slain police officers had "dedicated their lives to public safety and selflessly worked to protect the people of Oakland".

The dead gunman had recently got out of prison on parole and had a long criminal record, was identified by police as Lovelle Mixon, 26. Mixon was previously convicted of an armed robbery in San Francisco.

Police said Mixon used different weapons in each incident. One gun was used at first and an assault rifle was used at the apartment building where he was hiding when he killed the SWAT officers.

Police don't know why the officers initially stopped the suspect, but said it apparently was a routine traffic stop, possibly for speeding or erratic driving.

Mixon's family have apologized to the families of the killed officers, saying he was not a monster.

"He's not a monster," his sister, Enjoli Mixon says. "I don't want people to think he's a monster. He's just not. He's just not."

"We're crushed that this happened," said his grandmother, Mary Mixon. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the officers' families ... this shouldn't have happened."

Mary Mixon says Mixon had a feud with his parole officer, and said he was even willing to return to prison so he could get a new parole officer.

Authorities said the Oakland officers killed were Mark Dunakin (40), Ervin Romans (43), Dan Saki (35), and John Hege (41).

It was the first time an officer in Oakland was killed in the line of duty in five years.

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In other news...

1 dies as bikers rampage in Sydney Australia airport

Warring bikers brawled through Australia's largest airport Sunday, beating one suspected gang member to death and brandishing metal poles "like swords" as they rampaged through the main domestic terminal in front of terrified travellers.

Police said a group of suspected gang members was ambushed as they disembarked from an airplane.

"A fight ensued, the fight moved through various parts of the terminal," said Police Detective Inspector Peter Williams. 15 men were involved in the violence, which rampaged from the ground floor up one level to the departures hall before most of the men fled.

One man died in hospital from head injuries after the brawl, the latest sign of a biker war in Sydney.

"They came running through picking up the big metal barrier poles and swinging them like swords at each other," says witness Naomi Constantine. "I saw one of the men lying on the ground and another man came up with a pole and just started smashing it into his head," she says.

Four men were arrested but many others escaped, some of them by hailing taxis and escaping in the confusion.

Authorities fear the gang war brewing in Sydney will get worse, especially following a string of drive-by shootings and an explosion last month outside a fortified Hell's Angels clubhouse.

Canadian foils plot to burn down UK school

CANADA/POLITICS - A Montreal university student is being credited with foiling a firebomb attack on a British high school and says he tried to stall the bomber while he tipped off local police in the United Kingdom.

J.P. Neufeld phoned police in Norfolk, England, after he spotted a posting on an online forum Tuesday that threatened to torch Attleborough High School and the nearly 1,000 students inside.

The entry, on the website newgrounds.com, featured a photo of a gasoline jerry can and the message: "Today at 11:30 GMT I will attack my school with arson and other forms of violence. Those bastards will pay."

By calculating the time-zone difference, Neufeld realized the assault was less than an hour away, so he attempted to slow the website member while trying to identify him.

"So you're gonna walk around the school with a gas can?" asked Neufeld, 21, a moderator for the website.

The member flatly replied: "Pretty much."

Meanwhile, with the help of other users surfing the site that morning, the Concordia University student quickly identified the suspect and phoned Norfolk police.

"They took me quite seriously the first time I called them, they didn't even bother to ask 'Who are you? Is this a hoax?'," says the Canadian.

The police force swiftly alerted Attleborough high school, where teachers detained a 16-year-old inside the school office until police officers arrived.

The arrest was made about 40 minutes after Neufeld placed the call. The teenager was caught carrying a knife, matches and a container of flammable liquid inside his bag.

Police confiscated the computer belonging to the teen, who is being held under the Mental Health Act and cannot be identified due to his age.

"Given the fact that he had all that stuff with him it was obviously a very serious incident - or had the potential to be very serious," says investigator John Dack. "I know (the school is) extremely grateful to the young person from Canada who called us."

The police chief in Norfolk, about 170 kilometres northeast of London, plans to send Neufeld a letter thanking his effort.

Neufeld said he had noticed the user on the website many times, mostly because the member's online signature features a still frame from a cafeteria tape of Columbine High School. The image shows the time and date of the 1999 massacre that left 15 people dead - including the two shooters - and 23 wounded. He evidently thought of the Columbine murderers as heroes.

"There's always the risk that it's going to be a waste of time, but I knew I couldn't take the chance since all the school shootings that have happened recently," says Neufeld.

"It's just something you don't fool around with anymore."

Question: Does Attleborough High School have an anti-bullying program that could have prevented this incident entirely?

Eleven die in Alabama shooting spree

POLITICS - Authorities grappled today for the reason a 27-year-old Alabama man shot dead 10 people, including his mother, before killing himself after a gun battle with police and a car chase down a rural highway.

Michael McLendon, who lived with his mother, killed five of his victims in yesterday's shooting spree at a mobile home in Samson, in south-eastern Alabama, according to a local coroner and Wynnton Melton, mayor of nearby Geneva.

The victims at the mobile home included the wife of a local deputy sheriff and her child. He also killed two people at a convenience store and a man in a pickup truck who died during a car chase as Michael McLendon apparently fired at random.

"We sent 11 bodies to Montgomery (the state capital)," said Robert Preachers, the coroner in neighbouring Coffee County who said he knew most of the victims including the killer.

"He (McLendon) was a nice quiet kid, no trouble. He was always polite and nice," Preachers said. Asked about a possible motive, he said: "He carried it with him to the grave."

Rural south-eastern Alabama, which borders Florida, is a largely agricultural area with many low-income families.

Mass shootings have become more frequent in the United States in recent years. Guns are widely available for purchase in the United States, a country that prides itself on the right to own weapons for self defence and hunting.

Michael McLendon was armed with a large collection of both pistols and assault rifles.

The shooting spree began in Kinston, a small town in Coffee County, and continued to Samson, where McLendon killed his grandmother, uncle and others.

It ended after a car chase and gun battle in Geneva, the county seat about 12 miles away, they said.

"Officer Ricky Morgan rammed his car to distract him and was rewarded with a hail of bullets .... One bullet grazed the shoulder of police chief Frankie Lindsey," said one of the investigators.

A police officer in Geneva said the gunman "shot at several vehicles on the highway and then he shot at Wal-Mart and Piggly Wiggly," a grocery store.

Michael McLendon also shot the family's dogs, Preachers said. "He killed her (his mother) and her dogs. He shot the dogs in the head. Then he piled them up and gassed them (poured gasoline on them and lit it). He laid the dogs next to her," he said.

According to police Michael McLendon kept a list of co-workers, teachers and family members who had upset him. The list also included several companies including Kelley Foods, a sausage factory where McLendon worked until last week, and Reliant Metals, a factory where he worked in 2003.

McLendon's murderous spree ended at Reliant Metals where he was cornered by police and shot himself in the head.

German highschool student kills 15

POLITICS - A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany today, killing at least 13 people there and another two elsewhere, before police shot him to death, German state officials said.

The teenager killed nine students, three teachers, and a passer-by outside Albertville high school in Winnenden, authorities said.

Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, let the passengers go and drove about 40 kilometers before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg Gov. Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.

Police have identified the gunman as Tim Kretschmer, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.

It was the country's worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.

"He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said police Chief Erwin Hetger. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."

The gunman entered the school in the town 20 kilometers northeast of Stuttgart and opened fire, shooting at random, police said.

Right: The 9-mm Beretta that Tim Kretschmer used in the killings.

Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the school building. Concerned parents quickly swarmed around the school, which was evacuated.

It was about four hours later that authorities said the gunman had been killed, but it was not immediately clear at what time police shot him.

The German government was "deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree," Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.

In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.

Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.