Target: Hackers attacked with stolen credentials

Reuters Photo: Rick Wilking

The sign outside a Target store in Arvada, Colo.

3 hr ago By Jim Finkle and Mark Hosenball of Reuters

Target says cybercriminals who took millions of credit, debit and customer records gained access using stolen vendor credentials.

BOSTON/WASHINGTON — Target Corp. said on Wednesday that the theft of a vendor's credentials helped cybercriminals pull off a massive theft of customer data during the holiday shopping season in late 2013.

It was the first indication of how networks at the No. 3 U.S. retailer were breached, resulting in the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records with customer information such as addresses and telephone numbers.
"The ongoing forensic investigation has indicated that the intruder stole a vendor's credentials, which were used to access our system," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement.
She declined to elaborate on what type of credentials were taken, who the vendor was, or to provide other details.
The company's shares have been hurt since the data breach was announced on Dec. 19, and the incident has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers as well as federal law enforcement and consumer protection agencies.
Target closed at $56.89 per share on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, down 1.7 percent, after reaching its lowest level since July 2012.
Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. spy chiefs called on Congress to draft stricter requirements for how retailers and other private businesses should inform government agencies and customers about big breaches of personal and financial data.
The comments came as Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the Department of Justice was investigating the massive hacking at Target.
Separately, at Wednesday's threat hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, where the National Security Agency is headquartered, asked intelligence chiefs if media leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had affected U.S. cybersecurity efforts.
"Is the impact of the Snowden affair slowing us down in our work to be more aggressive in the cybersecurity area?" Mikulski asked.
FBI Director James Comey said political uproar over surveillance and Snowden's leaks had complicated discussions about how to fight consumer data breaches.
"There is the threat of fraud and theft because we've connected our lives to the Internet," Comey said. "We need to make sure that the private sector knows the rules of the road and how we share that information with the government."
Some U.S. officials with responsibility for cybersecurity have complained privately that, while states have created a "patchwork" of local rules requiring businesses to report breaches of consumer data to authorities and the public, there are no similar federal requirements.
Congress has been wrestling for years with proposals for legislation on data security but has been unable to reach agreement. There is no national standard to govern how and when businesses that suffer consumer data breaches must advise their customers and federal agencies.
HOLDER CONFIRMS PROBE
Holder, testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, said the Justice Department would seek the perpetrators of the Target breach as well as "any individuals and groups who exploit that data via credit card fraud."
"While we generally do not discuss specific matters under investigation, I can confirm the department is investigating the breach involving the U.S. retailer, Target," Holder said.
The Secret Service has taken the lead investigating the breaches at Target and other retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Michaels, the largest U.S. arts and crafts retailer.
Reuters reported on Jan. 23 that the FBI also warned U.S. retailers to prepare for more cyberattacks after discovering about 20 hacking cases over the past year that involved the same kind of malicious software used against Target during the holiday shopping season.

CONGRESS PILES ON
As lawmakers accelerated to gather information about the data breaches, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, took a new tack, asking Target why the company had not yet reported its data breach to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Your failure thus far to provide this information to your investors does not seem consistent with the spirit or the letter of the SEC's financial disclosure rules," Rockefeller wrote in the three-page letter to Target's chief executive.

Democratic members of the Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday asked Neiman Marcus for documents relating to the upscale retailer's recent cybersecurity breach. Last week, the same lawmakers asked Target executives to provide an array of internal documents.

On Thursday, members of the powerful House Oversight Committee, which has broad investigative jurisdiction, will hold a telephone briefing with Target representatives, during which detailed questions are expected to be asked about how and why the data breaches occurred.

Target's Snyder did not provide details about upcoming meetings but reiterated that Target was "continuing to work with elected officials to keep them informed and updated as our investigation continues."
At least three different congressional panels are slated to hold hearings, beginning next week. Target's chief financial officer and a Neiman Marcus official will appear before the Senate Judiciary panel on Tuesday.

Officer shot boy in wrist at Hawaii school: Police

AP Photo: Marco Garcia

Police respond to the campus of Roosevelt High School, after a shooting, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, in Honolulu.

1 day ago By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher of Associated Press

Hawaii is one of 12 states that have not had a school shooting, or someone entering a campus with the intent to shoot.

HONOLULU — A police officer shot a 17-year-old runaway in the wrist Tuesday morning at a Hawaii high school after the teen cut one officer with a knife and punched two others, authorities said.

State Department of Education spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said the boy showed up at Roosevelt High School near downtown Honolulu, and officials there recognized him as a runaway and called police. The boy had been a student at the public school before but wasn't registered for classes there this semester, she said.

Honolulu police Maj. Richard Robinson said officers arrived at the school and tried to take the boy into custody, but he lunged at them.

The teen attacked one of the officers with a kitchen knife, leaving him with a minor cut on his torso, Robinson said. He also hit two other officers, but neither suffered serious injuries.

One of the officers then fired two shots, hitting the boy once in the wrist. The teen was taken to a hospital in serious condition, EMS spokeswoman Shayne Enright said. His injuries were not life-threatening.
The incident prompted a lockdown at Roosevelt, which has an enrollment of nearly 1,400.
The officer who fired is administrative leave during an investigation, Robinson said.
Tenari Maafala, president of the statewide police officers union, said the knife posed a clear threat and officers are trained to stop a threat, regardless of the suspect's age.

"They didn't come here looking to shoot somebody," said Maafala, who went to the school as part of the Honolulu police peer support unit.

Noah Powell, a 16-year-old junior, said the shooting happened in a school counselor's office. Powell said he was in a nearby office and heard the struggle and shots but didn't see the 17-year-old or know who he was.
Powell texted his parents afterward to let them know he was OK. He said he also posted on Facebook that he was fine and got quick responses from people saying they were praying for the school.
Kealii Akiona-Soares, a junior, was in a social studies class when he heard a faint shot at about 8:20 a.m.
Then a school bell sounded and students were kept in their classrooms, the 17-year-old said. He said his class continued with a politics lesson, and everyone kept mostly calm.

"I guess it happens a lot in mainland schools, so it's not surprising," Akiona-Soares said.
Several parents, including Carolyn Richardson, gathered outside Roosevelt after word of the shooting spread. Some were visibly upset, and many texted or called their children, who were still on lockdown inside.

"This is really freaking me out," Richardson said.

AP Photo: Marco Garcia

Students look for their parents after they were released from Roosevelt High School after a school shooting on campus, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, in Honolulu.

She said she learned about the shooting around 9 a.m. through a text from her son, CarDarow.
CarDarow, a sophomore, texted her that he heard shots had been fired at the school but he was all right. Richardson then used her cellphone to video chat with her son.
"I gotta hear your voice," she screamed at him.

Faith Kalamau said she rushed to the school as soon as she got an automated call saying the campus was on lockdown.  "I'm very worried," she said. "I heard on the news there were some people shot."
After reuniting with her son, freshman Kahaku King, she said officials took too long to provide details about what happened.

"I was frustrated," she said. "I thought maybe more information should have been told to the parents or at least to the media. This is the first time I've been in this situation."
School was let out for the day at about 10 a.m., and a steady stream of students filed off the campus, near the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific known as Punchbowl. Classes were to resume Wednesday.
"Incidents like this are very rare in Hawaii; however, our partnership with the Honolulu Police Department on safety drills played a major role in the success of today's lockdown," Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said. She commended staff and students for following safety protocols and thanked parents for their patience and understanding.

Hawaii is one of 12 states that have not had someone entering a campus with the intent to shoot, state Education Department officials said.

In 2011, a handgun that a 14-year-old student brought to Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City went off, narrowly missing one student and leaving another with minor injuries.  "I'm really shocked it happened here in Hawaii of all places," said Angie Estrella as she was picking up her son, a freshman, and her daughter, a senior.

The incident comes amid a string of violence in recent months involving students at U.S. schools.
On Monday, a 16-year-old boy set himself on fire at a suburban Denver high school in an apparent suicide attempt. And earlier this month, a seventh-grader opened fire at a Roswell, N.M., middle school gym, wounding a 12-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl.  In Philadelphia, a boy and a girl hanging out with fellow students this month in a high school gym were shot and wounded.
Last month, a student gunman in Centennial, Colo., shot and killed a 17-year-old classmate before killing himself — a day before the one-year anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

Heroin sold in McDonald's Happy Meals: Police

• AP Photo: Eric Risberg

This Nov. 8, 2010 file photo shows a Happy Meal at a McDonald's restaurant in San Francisco, Ca.

6 hr ago By Associated Press

Authorities made the arrest after an informant told them that an employee was selling the drug.

PITTSBURGH — An employee of a McDonald's restaurant in Pittsburgh was charged Wednesday with selling heroin in child-oriented Happy Meals to customers using the coded request "I'd like to order a toy."
Authorities made the arrest after an informant told them that an employee was selling the drug.

Customers looking for heroin were instructed to go through the drive-thru and say, "I'd like to order a toy," said Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. The customer would then drive to the window, hand over the money and get a Happy Meal box containing heroin in exchange, Manko said.
Undercover agents set up a drug buy and arrested Shania Dennis, 26. Dennis denied wrongdoing to reporters as she was being led away in handcuffs.

Authorities said they found 10 bags of heroin in a Happy Meal box and recovered another 50 bags from the suspect.

Poll finds drop in uninsured rate

Reuters: Jim Young

Nurse practitioner Tamara Hauserman-Aggacid examines Marissa Farris in a Minute Clinic in a CVS pharmacy in Chicago, Illinois, August 1, 2013.

16 hr ago By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of Associated Press

Gallup's numbers could be early evidence that core provisions of Obama's healthcare law have started delivering on their promise.

WASHINGTON — The nation's uninsured rate dropped modestly this month as the major coverage expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law got underway, according to a closely watched survey released Thursday.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that the uninsured rate for U.S. adults dropped by 1.2 percentage points in January, to 16.1 percent. The biggest change was for unemployed people, a drop of 6.7 percentage points. That was followed by a 2.6 percentage-point decline for nonwhites. Traditionally both groups are far more likely to be uninsured than the population as a whole.

AP

The survey found no appreciable change among young adults ages 18-34. Members of that coveted, low-cost demographic have been ambivalent about signing up so far.
Based on interviews with more than 9,000 people, the Gallup numbers could be the first evidence that core provisions of Obama's much-debated law have started delivering on the promise of access for nearly all Americans.
The overall drop in the uninsured rate would translate to approximately 2 million to 3 million people gaining coverage.

Major elements of the health care law took effect with the new year. Virtually all Americans are now required to get covered or risk fines. Insurers can no longer turn away people with health problems. New state-based markets are offering taxpayer-subsidized insurance to middle-class households.
Medicaid sign-ups are also rising. That's partly because of a program expansion accepted by half the states and partly as a consequence of previously eligible but unenrolled people now forced to comply with the law's individual coverage mandate.

"The uninsured rate had been expected to come down as the Affordable Care Act was implemented," said Frank Newport, Gallup's editor in chief. "That would be the most reasonable hypothesis."
Nonetheless, Newport said it could take a calendar quarter — three months — to discern a full trend. Other factors could also be behind the shift, including an improving economy.

"It's a drop, but not extraordinary," said Newport. "The glass is half full for proponents of the Affordable Care Act because things are moving in the right direction. But the glass is half empty because things haven't moved much."

The increase in coverage among unemployed people "comports with what the Affordable Care Act was intended to do," he added.

Gallup's numbers are not comparable to various figures cited by the Obama administration, estimates that have ranged as high as 9 million people benefiting.The administration's numbers include people buying coverage in the new insurance exchanges, Medicaid enrollees and young adults who can stay on a parent's plan until they turn 26. But some of those people may have been insured previously; they either had to switch coverage because of the law or they joined a new plan because it turned out to be a better deal.

The coverage rollout has been a wild ride for Obama and congressional Democrats who battled to pass the law four years ago against lockstep Republican opposition.  The federal enrollment website serving 26 states went down when it was launched Oct. 1, and it took two months to make needed fixes. Meanwhile, at least 4.7 million people had their existing individual policies canceled because those plans didn't meet the law's requirements. Republicans hoped "Obamacare" would implode.

The story still could take unexpected turns because open enrollment season doesn't end until March 31. While the technical problems with HealthCare.gov have largely been cleared up, insurers are still reporting glitches. And consumers getting familiar with the new plans are finding that some tightly restrict their choices of doctors and hospitals.

The Gallup-Healthways survey found that the uninsured rate dropped in January across major subgroups. Women saw a decline of 1.9 percentage points, about three times greater than the 0.6 percentage-point drop for men. Uninsured rates also fell all along the income ladder, with those making $36,000-$89,999 seeing the greatest drop, 1.8 percentage points.

The survey was based on telephone interviews from Jan. 2-19 with a random sample of 9,145 adults aged 18 and older in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total national sample, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1 percentage point.

At least three dead in accident involving 15 semis on Indiana freeway

By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

At least three people were killed in a massive pileup on Interstate 94 in Indiana on Thursday in a crash that involved some 15 semi trucks as well as other vehicles, Indiana authorities said.
By evening one person still was pinned beneath the wreckage, state police told NBCChicago.com.
"It’s just a mess out there right now,” LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan told the station.
Sullivan said the victims are a 66-year-old Chicago-area man, who had a dog with him that also died, and a couple from Grand Rapids, Mich. The names were withheld until families are notified.
Twenty other people were hurt and taken to local hospitals, state police said. At least three were in critical condition.
All told, the crash -- which closed busy Interstate 94 for hours -- involved more than 40 vehicles, state troopers said. The freeway was expected to reopen westbound late Thursday.
NBCChicago footage taken from a helicopter showed snowy conditions
Dixie Juchcinski, speaking in stand-still traffic some 4 miles from the crash, told the station the accident occurred in white-out conditions.
"When we first came to a stop, it was a complete white out," Juchcinski said. "It was kind of a surprise to us because we could only see one or two cars in front of us."

More infected in fresh wave of China bird flu

Kate Kelland    Reuter     2 hours ago

LONDON — Another 23 people in China have been infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in recent days, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, adding to at least 24 new cases last week and confirming a fresh surge in the virus.
With many people travelling within the country for upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations on January 31, the United Nations health agency also said people should be aware of the risk that flu viruses might spread more widely.

Among the new H7N9 cases, reported from several different provinces of China, was a 38-year-old man who died on January 9 and a five year-old girl from Guangdong province who became ill on January 14 and is now stable in hospital.  Many of the other new patients were either in a serious or critical condition in hospitals. Several had reported recent exposure to poultry or poultry markets, but the WHO said the source of infections was still under investigation.

"Given the population movement prior to Chinese New Year and potentially unpredictable behavior of influenza viruses, continued vigilance and close monitoring are needed," the WHO's China office said in a statement on its website.  It advised people "to continue to practice good hygiene and handle food properly" but did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions.

The H7N9 bird flu virus emerged in March last year and has so far infected at least 199 people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing 52 of them, according to an update on Monday from the WHO's spokesman Gregory Hartl.

Several clusters of cases in people who had close contact with an infected person have been reported in China, but WHO reiterated on Monday that "so far, there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission".

Hartl told Reuters last week that the United Nations health agency had noted the recent rapid increase in human H7N9 infections and was keeping a watchful eye.  "So far we haven't seen anything that causes us to change our risk assessment," he said.

2 nabbed at Texas border in Target credit card fraud case

AP Photo: The Monitor, Gabe Hernandez

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez displays dozens of fraudulent credit cards that were confiscated by McAllen police after arresting a man and a woman on fraud charges tied to the December Target credit card breach, Monday Jan. 20, 2014 at the McAllen Police Department in McAllen, Texas.

1 hr ago By Christopher Sherman of Associated Press

Police said the cards used by 27-year-old Mary Carmen Garcia and 28-year-old Daniel Guardiola Dominguez carried the account information of South Texas residents.

McALLEN, Texas — Account information stolen during the Target security breach is now being divided up and sold off regionally, a South Texas police chief said Monday following the arrest of two Mexican citizens who authorities say arrived at the border with 96 fraudulent credit cards.

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Mary Carmen Garcia, 27, and Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, 28, both of Monterrey, Mexico, used cards containing the account information of South Texas residents. Rodriguez said they were used to buy tens of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise at national retailers in the area including Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us.

AP Photo: McAllen Police via The Monitor

This photo provided by the McAllen, Texas police shows Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, 28, of Monterrey, Mexico.  "They're obviously selling the data sets by region," Rodriguez said.  Garcia and Guardiola were both being held Monday on state fraud charges. It was not immediately known whether they had retained lawyers.

Rodriguez said he did not know whether they were the first arrests related to the Target breach. Target did not immediately return phone and email messages left Monday, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday. The Minneapolis-based company said last week that it has stopped more than a dozen operations that sought to scam breach victims by way of email, phone calls and text messages.

AP Photo: McAllen Police via The Monitor

This photo provided by the McAllen, Texas police shows Mary Carmen Garcia, 27, of Monterrey, Mexico.

McAllen police began working with the U.S. Secret Service after a number of area retailers were hit with fraudulent purchases on Jan. 12. The Secret Service confirmed that the fraudulent accounts traced back to the original Target data breach from late last year, Rodriguez said.  Investigators fanned out to McAllen-area merchants and reviewed "miles of video" looking for the fraudsters, he said. From that, they were able to identify two people and a car with Mexican license plates.  A message left for the Secret Service on Monday was not immediately returned.

With the help of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigators confirmed the identities of their suspects from immigration records of when they had entered Texas in the same vehicle. Police prepared arrest warrants last week and waited for them to return.  On Sunday morning, federal officials alerted police that their two suspects were at the Anzalduas International Bridge trying to re-enter the U.S. They were carrying 96 fraudulent cards, Rodriguez said.  Investigators believe the two were involved in both the acquisition of the fraudulent account data and the production of the cards, but only part of what must have been a much broader conspiracy. Rodriguez said investigators suspect Garcia and Guardiola were singling out Sundays for their shopping sprees hoping that the banks would not be as quick to detect the fraud.
With the amount of electronics and other merchandise purchased on Jan. 12, Rodriguez said the two would have needed an "army" to move it all.

Rodriguez also alluded to a link with Eastern Europe or Russia, but did not provide additional details. He said he expected Garcia and Guardiola to eventually face federal charges.
South Texas authorities have seen large-scale fraudulent credit card schemes before, including one in which they seized machines used to upload information to the cards' magnetic strips.
The Target security breach is believed to have involved 40 million credit and debit card accounts and the personal information of 70 million customers.

AP Photo: The Monitor, Gabe Hernandez

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez points at dozens of fraudulent credit cards that were confiscated by McAllen police after arresting a man and a woman on fraud charges tied to the December Target credit card breach, Monday Jan. 20, 2014 at the McAllen Police Department in McAllen, Texas.

—

Pregnant Woman Among 3 Shot on Chicago Expressway

Saturday, Jan 18, 2014  |  Updated 11:57 AM EST

Three people were injured during a shooting on the Dan Ryan Expressway early Saturday morning, offiicals said. Regina Waldroup reports.

Three people were injured, including a pregnant woman, early Saturday morning after a gunman opened fire into an SUV that broke down along a Chicago expressway, officials said.

Illinois State Police said a 2008 Buick SUV broke down just before 1:30 a.m. on a southbound ramp to 71st Street off of Interstate 94.

While the Buick was waiting for help, a black Dodge Charger with orange stripes pulled up and began to shoot inside the Buick, police said.

The 27-year-old driver of the car was shot four times in his upper extremities while two female passengers in the car, one of them pregnant, were struck several times, police said.

A 19-year-old woman in the back of the car was shot six times in her lower body and a 24-year-old pregnant woman was shot three times in her lower body, police said.

The three victims were taken to John H. Stroger Hospital and Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

A fourth passenger in the front seat of the car was not harmed.

The exit ramp to 71st Street was shut down following shooting but was reopened just before 7 a.m.

The Illinois State Police is asking anyone with information regarding the shooting to call the ISP Chicago District at (847) 294-4400.

At least two people have been killed and four others injured in shootings across Chicago since Friday.

4 Dead, 12 Wounded in Weekend Chicago Shootings

Sunday, Jan 19, 2014  |  Updated 5:18 PM CST

At least four men have been killed and 12 other people have been injured in shootings across Chicago since Friday.

The weekend's latest incident took place around 10 a.m. Sunday when a man was shot while shoveling snow on Chicago's South Side.

The man was shoveling snow in his driveway around 10 a.m. in the 8500 block of South Constance Avenue in the Stony Island Park neighborhood when he was approached by two men, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala.

The man, who is in his 20s, exchanged words with the offenders when one of them pulled out a handgun and shot him in the upper left arm, Zala said.

The victim was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition.

Just before 5 a.m. Sunday, two men were found dead in the 9100 block of South Commercial Avenue.

A resident in the area of the shooting called police after a victim staggered to their door and collapsed dead, officials said.

Responding officers discovered two men who were apparently shot to death in what police believe to have been a home invasion.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office could not confirm any details about the deaths.

Late Saturday, a 27-year-old man suffered a graze wound above his left eye, police said.

The man was shot around 11:45 p.m. in the 6500 block of North Fairfield Avenue but police did not have immediate details about what happened during the shooting, Zala said.

Less than an hour earlier, a 35-year-old man was shot in the ankle in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.

The man was standing in an alley in the 5000 block of North Lincoln Avenue around 11 p.m. when he became involved in an argument with several other men. One of the men produced a gun and fired shots at the victim.

The victim was taken to St. Francis Hospital in stable condition, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan.

Just before 3:30 p.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot in the buttocks in the 10100 block of South Parnell Avenue, police said. The shooting is believed to have been gang-related, Sullivan said.

The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in stable condition.

Just two hours earlier, a man was shot while standing on the 5200 block of South Ashland Avenue, police said.

The 31-year-old man was standing on the street when he was shot in the leg, Sullivan said.

He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital where his condition was stabilized.

Around 3:40 a.m. Saturday, two people were shot in a drive-by shooting in the 800 block of North Kedzie Avenue.

An 18-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man were driving down the street when a white car pulled up along the passenger's side and fired shots into the car.

Both victims were shot but managed to drive themselves to the hospital, police said.

The woman was shot in the shoulder and the man was shot in the right arm. Both victims were listed in stable condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Janel Sedevic.

In another drive-by shooting early Saturday morning, three people were injured, including a pregnant woman when a gunman opened fire into their car, which had broken down on an exit ramp off of southbound Interstate 94.

Around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, a 16-year-old boy was dropped off at Mount Sinai Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Police said the boy was shot in the 1800 block of South Central Park Avenue, but was unable to relate what happened due to his injuries.

On Friday, a 19-year-old man was fatally shot while walking with friends around 7:20 p.m. in the 8200 block of South Princeton Avenue, police said.

The teen was walking with his friends when three offenders, one of them armed with a gun, approached on foot.

The two groups began to struggle and the teen was shot in the chest.

He was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead, Sedevic said.

Roughly two hours earlier, a 21-year-old man was found shot dead on the city's Northwest Side.

Police responded to a call of a person shot in the 4900 block of West Huron Street where they found the man fatally shot in the head.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Around 3:30 p.m. Friday, a 15-year-old boy accidentally shot his girlfriend in the chin, police said.

The boy was showing his girlfriend a gun while the two were at his home in the 10000 block of South Perry Avenue. The gun discharged and struck the 15-year-old girl in the chin, according to authorities.

The boy was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon with a defaced serial number, Sedevic said. Both charges are felonies and the teen was turned over to a juvenile court for processing.

Mother Charged With Murder in Deaths of Children

Darcy Spencer

News4's

Darcy Spencer reports on a vigil held for two little children killed in Germantown. Police charged their mother and another woman with the murder.

Vigil Held for Germantown Children

Detectives in Montgomery County, Md., have charged a mother with the deaths of her two children.  

Police charged Zakieya Latrice Avery, 28, of Germantown, with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. She is currently being held without bond.

The deceased children are identified as Norell N. Harris, 1, and Zyana Z. Harris, 2.  The other two children are still hospitalized.  They are identified as Taniya Harris, 5, and Martello Harris, 8.

Police were called to the 19000 block of Cherry Bend Drive Friday morning and discovered the victims. Avery attempted to run from officers, but was apprehended quickly.

“Cases like this are heartbreaking,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims along with the 911 operators, police officers, evidence technicians, and fire and EMS personnel that responded.”

A neighbor called 911 on Friday saying he saw a blue car with its door open and the knife on the sidewalk outside the house. Police who responded to the scene saw a blue car with its door open. The keys were in the ignition and there was blood in the car.

Police also found a knife on the sidewalk outside. Police believe the red-handled knife may be one of the weapons used in the attack.

Officers had to force their way into the home and found the victims inside in a "very bloody" crime scene. The children were found in the bedrooms and may have been asleep at the time of the attack.

Witnesses described seeing the officers bring out the victims. "I did see a police officer holding a child ... it was a little kid," said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

The injured children are being treated in Children's Hospital in northwest Washington.

Russian President Putin links gays to pedophiles

Aleksey Nikolsky / AFP PHOTO / RIA-NOVOSTI - POOL

President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to Russian and foreign journalists in Sochi on January 19, 2014.

By Lynn Berry, The Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered new assurances to gay athletes and fans attending the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics next month. Yet he defended Russia's anti-gay law by equating gays with pedophiles and said Russia needs to "cleanse" itself of homosexuality if it wants to increase its birth rate.
Putin's comments in an interview broadcast Sunday with Russian and foreign television stations showed the wide gulf between the perception of homosexuality in Russia versus the West.
A Russian law passed last year banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" among minors has caused an international outcry.
Putin refused to answer a question from the BBC on whether he believes that people are born gay or become gay. The Russian law, however, suggests that information about homosexuality can influence a child's sexual orientation.

The law has contributed to growing animosity toward gays in Russian society, with rights activists reporting a rise in harassment and abuse.  International worries about how gays will be treated in Sochi have been met with assurances from Russian officials and Olympics organizers that there will be no discrimination in Sochi, and Putin reiterated that stance. "There are no fears for people with this nontraditional orientation who plan to come to Sochi as guests or participants," Putin declared in the TV interview. He said the law was aimed at banning propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia, suggesting that gays are more likely to abuse children.  Making another favorite argument against homosexuality, Putin noted with pride that Russia saw more births than deaths last year for the first time in two decades. Population growth is vital for Russia's development and "anything that gets in the way of that we should clean up," he said, using a word usually reserved for military operations.  Putin accused the United States of double standards in its criticism of Russia, pointing to laws that remain on the books in some U.S. states classifying gay sex as a crime. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled in 2003 that such laws were unconstitutional.  Homosexuality was a crime in the entire former Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. It was decriminalized in Russia in 1993.

The Sochi Winter Olympics run Feb. 7-23.

Priests take lead in revolt against Mexican drug gang

MCT: Tim Johnson

Father Gregorio Lopez, vicar of the diocese in Apatzingan, Mexico, speaks in his parish office on Thursday, a bulletproof vest resting on a chair behind him.

 By Tim Johnson of McClatchy-Tribune News Service

The Mexican drug gang known as the Knights Templar have found a tough new enemy in the form of Catholic priests in the state of Michoacán.

APATZINGAN, Mexico — In medieval times, a powerful Christian military order known as the Knights Templar fought during the Crusades. Today, meth-peddling gangsters have taken the Templar name, and in an ironic twist they are finding Roman Catholic clergy among their fiercest enemies.

In the embattled Mexican state of Michoacan, Catholic priests are openly backing armed vigilante groups that are waging war against the Knights Templar gang.
Some priests allow the vigilantes to ring church bells to summon citizens to meetings. Others use their pulpits to lambaste local and state officials for colluding with the Knights Templar.

The anger of the clergy is aimed with equal vehemence at gangsters and at government officials, who they say have not done enough to rein in crime and extortion. That vexation will get a vast airing at morning Mass this Sunday, when priests across the Apatzingan diocese will read a scathing pastoral letter from Bishop Miguel Patino Velazquez that accuses federal police and soldiers of doing little to capture Knights Templar bosses.
"Their leaders are fully identified and yet no authority stops them," the letter says.
In his letter, Patino evokes the Nazi era, saying Christian believers should not only console the victims but also halt the campaign of killing.

"We ask politicians, the government and the Interior Secretariat to give people of our region clear signals that in reality they want to halt the 'killing machine,' " Patino writes.
Michoacan, a fertile agricultural state along Mexico's Pacific Coast, has been the site of criminal turmoil since the middle of the last decade, when gangsters turned the state into a hub for production of methamphetamine, adding to their marijuana and cocaine smuggling business.

Since February 2013, a vigilante campaign by armed civilians has spread across nearly a third of Michoacan. The vigilantes call themselves self-defense groups or community police, and they have won broad citizen support from nearly everyone, from large farm owners down to tortilla vendors and doormen at public restrooms.

In barely 11 months, the vigilantes have occupied at least 15 townships. In each, they have disbanded municipal police and run off politicians believed linked to organized crime.
On Monday, the country's interior secretary, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, stepped in as the vigilante groups nearly encircled this city of 140,000, the center of the Knights Templar empire, for fear that an attempt to dislodge the gangsters would lead to a bloodbath.

Osorio Chong announced the deployment of more federal police and troops to Michoacan state to quell the violence. He exhorted the vigilante groups to disarm.

Since then, federal police have assumed security duties in 20 townships and rounded up 308 municipal police officers and moved them across the nation to the state of Tlaxcala for ostensible retraining.

But for many priests, that was not enough. They echo vigilante demands that authorities arrest three top cartel leaders. They also reject disarmament of the self-defense groups, saying it would lead gangsters to take vengeance.

"We are fed up," said the Rev. Andres Larios Chavez, a parish priest in Coalcoman, a town in this region. "St. Thomas Aquinas talked about the just war, and one criteria is self-defense."

Like other clergy, Larios said the self-defense groups, while acting outside the law, are bringing peace to towns where they operate, achieving results that state and federal law enforcement do not, sometimes through willful negligence.

"I've told the federal police, 'If you don't act correctly, people will take the stick to you,' " Larios said in a telephone interview.

For Vicar Gregorio Lopez Geronimo of Apatzingan, the sticks are literal. Seated in his parish office, a bulletproof vest resting on a nearby chair, the priest orders a nun to bring in several bundles. When opened, they reveal cudgels. He said he's ordered 1,000 made for citizens to use against those opposing law and order.
If federal police don't act to arrest top gangsters, he said, he will rouse his parishioners to take to the streets, maybe within a few days, to go after the police with the clubs, prepared to pummel and bind them with rope.
"When a horse doesn't move, you dig in the spurs," he said.
The vicar donned his bulletproof vest for a group of foreign reporters, saying he'd been using it "for months" when he celebrates Mass, a sign of security concerns.

The nascent clergy-led rebellion holds echoes of the past.
Following the Mexican Revolution a century ago, anti-clericalism grew and evolved into persecution of Catholics, leading believers to launch a counterrevolutionary movement. Thousands were killed in armed uprisings during the 1926-1929 Cristero War, many of them in Michoacan.

In more recent decades, gangsters in the state have cast their movements in moral and religious terms, seeking obedience from followers. When a faction of the crime group known as La Familia Michoacana splintered off two years ago, it took the name Knights Templar, reaching back in history nearly 900 years.
Despite the crime group's efforts to cast itself as righteous, it has bought off entire city police forces and co-opted officials across Michoacan, Larios said.

"The government and the Templars are the same thing," he said. "The campaigns of the state officials are financed by them."

He criticized Osorio Chong for ordering disarmament of the vigilante groups as a first step, a command that began but was dropped within two days.

"The government did things backward. Instead of disarming the criminal organization, it went into towns that finally had some peace and tried to disarm the self-defense groups," he said.

In Nueva Italia, a town that the vigilantes won after a fierce firefight with Templar gunmen last weekend, parish priest Patricio Madrigal said townspeople had celebrated what they considered as a liberation.
"It was like a relief for many," Madrigal said, adding that extortion vanished.
"If the self-defense groups aren't here, who will protect us?" asked Maria Paz Hernandez, a resident who spoke on the sidelines of a public meeting at the town square.

Larios said the hunger for peace in Michoacan is growing by the day, leaving the clock ticking on government pledges that its latest security plan will succeed.

"If the government wants to avoid a savage massacre here in Michoacan, it better change its strategy," the priest said.

Gun attack on Thai anti-gov't protesters wounds 1

Reuters: Paul Barker

People shout slogans as they wait to donate money to anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Saturday, Jan. 18.

By Thanyarat Doksone of Associated Press

One person was wounded in Bangkok overnight as a gunman opened fire on anti-government protesters trying to oust Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

BANGKOK — A gunman opened fire on anti-government protesters in Thailand's capital, severely wounding one man in the latest violence to hit Bangkok as the country's political standoff drags on, officials said Sunday.
The protesters, who control several small patches of the city, are vying to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government.
The man was shot in the back before midnight Saturday in Bangkok's Lad Prao district, where protesters have taken over a key intersection. He underwent surgery at a hospital and was in an intensive care unit on Sunday, according to Bangkok's emergency medical center. Thai media identified him as a 54-year-old from southern Thailand who was helping guard protesters.

The protests, which are also aimed at derailing Feb. 2 elections that Yingluck called in a bid to quell the crisis, have been peaceful and Bangkok — a city of 12 million people — is calm. But assaults have been reported nightly, including shooting attacks at protest venues and small explosives hurled at the homes of top protest supporters. On Friday, an explosive device hurled at a crowd of marching demonstrators in another part of Bangkok killed one man and wounded dozens of people. Police said the blast was caused by a fragmentation grenade.

It is unclear who is behind the unrest. But prolonged violence, even on a small scale, increases the chance that the military would stage a coup. Such a scenario would benefit protesters, who have called on the army to take sides and do not have the numbers to bring down the government on their own.
Thailand's army has staged about a dozen successful coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
The Southeast Asian nation has been wracked by repeated bouts of unrest since the military ousted Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in 2006 amid charges of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy, which he denies.

The coup touched off a societal schism that in broad terms pits the majority rural poor who back the Shinawatras against an urban-based elite establishment supported by the army and staunch royalists who see Yingluck's family as a corrupt threat to the traditional structures of power. Yingluck's opponents — a minority that can no longer win at the polls — argue the Shinawatras are using their electoral majority to impose their will and subvert democracy.

The crisis boiled over again late last year after the ruling party attempted to push through an amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return from self-imposed exile.

Body found in trunk of car linked to Christmas Eve killings

A car connected to a man missing since the deadly Christmas Eve shooting of his fiancée and brother outside a San Diego mall was found in Riverside, Calif., on Friday, officials confirmed. Inside the trunk, police found the body of a yet-to-be-identified man.

According to the San Diego Police Department, the 2004 green Toyota Camry tied to missing Tierrasanta resident Gianni Belvedere, 24, was found at 12:30 p.m. in the 19500-block of Van Buren Boulevard by Riverside police officers.

See original report at NBC San Diego The Riverside County Medical Examiner's office confirmed Friday night that the person in the trunk was 24 years old and the victim of a homicide. The man's name has not yet been released.  

Police said a passerby called authorities around 11:45 a.m. and told dispatchers a vehicle was parked in the area and there was a foul odor coming from the trunk area.  When officers arrived on scene, they met with the caller, who pointed out the vehicle. When officers popped open the trunk, they the man's body inside.  After running the license plates on the vehicle, officers learned the car was connected to the missing person case of Gianni Belvedere out of San Diego.  

San Diego Police Department homicide detectives were called to the city north of San Diego County to investigate. They are now working alongside the Riverside Police Department on these latest developments.

As of 8:30 p.m. Friday, police had not yet released the identity of the man inside the trunk, nor the specific manner of his death. That information will be officially released at a later time by the coroner's office, police said.

On Dec. 24, 2013, at around 1:15 a.m., San Diego residents Ilona Flint and Salvatore Belvedere were critically shot by an unknown suspect in a parking lot outside a Macy’s department store at Westfield Mission Valley Mall.
Flint was shot in the head but still managed to call 911 to report the shooting, telling dispatchers she was injured near the mall. Salvatore was shot in the head and torso.

Officers located the wounded duo inside a vehicle in the 1600-block of Camino Del Rio North. Flint was pronounced dead at the scene shortly thereafter, while Salvatore was transported to a local trauma center with life-threatening wounds.

  His death was confirmed by the SDPD and Belvedere family on Dec. 27.

Both Flint and Salvatore were 22 years old. Flint was Gianni's longtime girlfriend-turned-fiancée, while Salvatore was Gianni's younger brother.  Following the shooting, police released a vague description of a possible shooting suspect described as a man wearing tan pants, between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11. Police also said a possible vehicle of interest in the case is a 2008 to 2011 dark gray Honda sedan.

A couple of days later, police and the Belvedere family confirmed that Gianni was missing and that loved ones hadn't heard from him since the fatal shootings of Flint and Salvatore.
San Diego police said Gianni has been missing since the night of Dec. 23 and was last seen at his Tierrasanta home just hours before shooting. The Belvedere family has said that Gianni may have been at the mall with Flint and Salvatore in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve.
Over the last few weeks, police have said there was no trace of the missing man. On Jan. 9, SDPD Lt. Mike Hastings confirmed Gianni’s cell phone and credit cards had not been used since he vanished.

At that time, Lt. Hastings also told NBC 7 that police had been in constant contact with the Belvedere family as investigators continued searching for leads in both the slayings and Gianni’s disappearance.

The Belvedere family has pleaded for Gianni’s safe return too, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their loved one.

Police issued a missing person bulletin for Gianni describing him as an Italian-American man with brown hair and brown eyes. He’s 6 feet tall, 165 pounds and likely driving a four-door, dark green 2004 Toyota Camry XLE with the Utah license plate B154VZ.
On Friday, police confirmed the car featured in that missing person bulletin was the vehicle discovered in Riverside. Detectives had not yet determined how long the car had been parked in that lot.
Meanwhile, San Diego police have yet to name a suspect in the slayings of Flint and Salvatore but investigators have said it does not appear the mall parking lot shooting was tied to any sort of robbery.
Last week, Lt. Hastings told NBC 7 that this is one of the most unusual cases he’s seen in his 20-year career. Though the Belvedere brothers and Flint are originally from Utah, Lt. Hastings said he had no reason to believe that Gianni had ever left California.