Six wounded in US shooting, suspect dead

A SHOOTER described as being armed with an assault rifle and having bullets strapped across his chest "like Rambo" opened fire at a FedEx station outside Atlanta, wounding at least six people before police found the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Police rushed to the centre after someone called to report an active shooter at 5.54am local time.

After surrounding the perimeter and working to clear the building, officers found the suspect dead, Cobb County police spokesman Michael Bowman said.

There were no immediate reports anyone else had been killed.

FedEx clerk Liza Aiken said she was working inside when she heard something, dropped, looked to her left and saw the gunman.

"He had bullets strapped across his chest like Rambo, a huge assault rifle and he had a knife," Aiken said in a parking lot where employees were gathering not far from their workplace.

Before she could continue, a woman wearing a FedEx jacket told Aiken to stop talking and led her away.

Six people wounded at the FedEx station were taken to nearby Wellstar Kennestone hospital, where spokesman Tyler Pearson said one victim was rushed to surgery with potentially critical injuries. Others were less serious.

"A lot of them were able to walk off the ambulance," Pearson said.

David Titus, a FedEx truck driver, said he was just coming to work when he saw someone walk up and shoot a security guard in the abdomen outside the building.

He said he could hear more gunshots after the gunman went inside.

"It was chaos," Titus said.

"Everyone was running ducking and hiding, trying to get out of there."

FedEx said the facility about 40km north of Atlanta is a hub where packages are sorted and loaded onto vehicles for delivery.

09.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Goodyear posts 1Q loss of $US58m

GOODYEAR has reported a $US58 million ($A62 million) loss for the first quarter largely due to Venezuelan currency charges.

The loss was compounded by the extreme winter weather across the US that hurt tyre sales, the company said on Tuesday.

The Akron, Ohio, tyre maker's losses added up to 23 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31.

It made $US26 million, or 10 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

After one-time charges, including $US132 million in charges related to the situation in Venezuela, Goodyear earned 56 cents per share.

Its adjusted earnings still were below Wall Street estimates, and Goodyear shares fell five per cent, to $US25.94 in early trading on Tuesday.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected 60 cents per share for the quarter.

Revenue dropped eight per cent to $US4.47 billion from $US4.85 billion, just short of projections for revenue of $US4.81 billion according to FactSet.

"We delivered solid performance in our developed markets, led by North America, which reported a 23 per cent increase in earnings," Chairman and CEO Richard Kramer said.

"Growth in North America and Europe offset headwinds in emerging markets where we continue to navigate foreign currency and economic challenges."

Revenue in North America fell 13 per cent to $US1.9 billion for the quarter despite a 23 per cent jump in earnings, to $US156 million.

The overall number of tyres sold in North America edged lower to 14.6 million, from 14.8 million, because of the rough winter, the company said.

Kramer said the company remains confident in its full-year outlook despite labour and economic trouble in Venezuela.

The company expects two per cent to three per cent in volume growth for the year.

Shares of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co have been on a steady rise over the past year and hit a 52-week high of $US28.48 last week amid declining raw material prices.

09.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Collette misses out on Tony Award nod

THERE will be no Tony Award for Toni Collette.

The Australian actress, along with her high-profile cast mates Michael C. Hall, Marisa Tomei and Tracy Letts in the play The Realistic Joneses, were among the high-profile snubs when nominations for Broadway's biggest awards night were announced on Tuesday.

Despite strong reviews, Collette was bumped out of the best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play category by Tyne Daly (Mothers and Sons), LaTanya Richardson Jackson (A Raisin in the Sun), Cherry Jones (The Glass Menagerie) and Audra McDonald (Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill).

The American Theatre Wing was not swayed by Hollywood star power in deciding its nominees, with Denzel Washington, Daniel Radcliffe, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Rebecca Hall, James Franco and Zachary Quinto also among the casualties.

The big winner ahead of June 8's 68th annual Tony Awards was the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, with a leading 10 nominations.

In other categories, the Harlem nightclub revue After Midnight, Disney's Aladdin, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder will compete for best musical.

The Realistic Joneses was also left out of best play, with Act I, All The Way, Casa Valentina, Mothers And Sons and Outside Mullingar scoring the nods.

No even a surprise appearance by Jackman at the nomination ceremony could lift Collette to a second Tony nomination, after the Sydney actress scored a leading actress in a musical nomination in 2000 for her performance in The Wild Party.

"I'm sorry to hijack your show," Jackman, carrying an empty coffee mug and then reminding viewers the Tony Awards were on June 8, told nomination ceremony hosts Jonathan Groff and Lucy Liu after he strolled on stage.

09.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Knox and Sollecito 'both stabbed Kercher'

BRITISH student Meredith Kercher was stabbed by both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, Italian judges said, as they explained what led them to issue guilty rulings in the 2007 murder case.

US student Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Sollecito were handed jail terms of 28 and a half years and 25 years, respectively, in January, after the case had been reopened following previous innocent verdicts.

In Italy it us customary for judges to file written explanations months after their rulings.

Kercher was stabbed in the neck by "two different knives" - a longer one wielded by Knox, a smaller one by Sollecito - judges from the Florence Court of Appeal wrote.

It was Knox who dealt the fatal blow, they added.

The court said on Tuesday Knox, Sollecito and Rudy Guede, an Ivory Coast-born small-time drug dealer who was tried separately and handed a final guilty ruling carrying a 16-year jail term, had jointly taken part in the murder.

They suggested that Kercher was killed following an argument between her and Knox which got out of hand, and also led to Guede sexually assaulting the victim and keeping her immobilised while the others stabbed her.

Judges said "it was not at all credible" to presume that Kercher was murdered because she backed out of taking part in a group sex game, as had been suggested in a first instance ruling on the case, in 2009.

"This reconstruction does not fit with the personality of the English girl," judges wrote.

Kercher shared a flat with Knox in Perugia, a central Italian town with a university for foreign students.

She was found on November 2, 2007, half-naked and with multiple stab wounds, inside her locked bedroom.

The court said Knox and Meredith "did not like each other", and suggested that, on the night she died, the victim confronted her US flatmate about the "uncivilised conduct" of Guede, who had been let into the house by Knox.

Police found Guede's unflushed faeces in a toilet.

Knox and Sollecito have always professed their innocence.

In a long legal saga, they were: arrested days after the crime, as prime suspects; convicted in 2009; acquitted and freed two years later; put on trial again in September, after a top court found procedural faults in their acquittal; and convicted again in January.

That judgment is not final, as it can be challenged again before Italy's top appeals body, the Court of Cassation.

But Knox has since returned to the US and indicated she would battle any extradition request.

Sollecito had his travel documents confiscated to prevent him from also fleeing abroad.

However, he is still free as, in Italy, jail sentences are normally not put into effect until all appeals procedures are exhausted.

09.52 | 0 komentar | Read More