Cabinet resignations deal setback for Egypt's Mursi

Mursi says the constitution and an upcoming vote to re-elect the lower house of parliament will help end squabbling among feuding politicians.

Cabinet resignations deal setback for Egypt's Mursi

Article: Egypt Islamist minister resigns on Mursi PM decision

Henry represents Anglican Christians in Egypt. In a letter published by state media, she said minority groups were not represented properly in the chamber.

Mubarak, who was sentenced to life in prison in June, was moved to an army hospital on Thursday following a fall that raised concerns about his fragile health.

The strife has cast doubt on the government's ability to push through the spending cuts and tax hikes needed to secure a vital $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

CRISIS MODE

Article: Egypt may replace up to eight ministers next week: sources

8 hrs ago

"I have reached a clear conclusion that a lot of the policies and efforts contradict my personal beliefs and I don't see them as representative of our people's aspirations," he said in his resignation letter, which has yet to be accepted by the prime minister.

Egypt's defense chief said the army - which dominated Egypt for decades and has wide ranging business interests - was ready to step in to help the economy.

The 270-seat upper house, or Shura Council, holds legislative authority until a new parliament is elected in early 2013. Opposition figures say they fear the Council could issue laws curbing freedoms.

8 hrs ago

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist minister quit Egypt's government on Thursday, the second cabinet resignation this week, as President Mohamed Mursi tries to shore up his authority and gather support for unpopular austerity measures.

Under pressure to acknowledge Egypt's diversity, Mursi appointed 90 members including Christians, liberals and women to the Council - alongside figures from the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Salafis - last week. Two-thirds of the upper house were already elected in a vote this year.

Neither were major figures in the cabinet but their decision to criticize the substance and style of Mursi's administration suggests his decisions are unnerving not just opponents but also some allies.

Rivals accuse Mursi, who won Egypt's first freely contested leadership election in June, of polarizing society by foisting a divisive, Islamist-leaning constitution on the country and using the autocratic ways of his deposed predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

"The Egyptian economy is going through a very difficult stage," Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA. "The armed forces are keen to participate in development and service projects in all parts of Egypt as part of its promise to serve the great people."

The charter crafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly is meant to be the cornerstone of a democratic and economically stable Egypt after decades of authoritarian rule. The opposition says it does nothing to protect minorities.

Deadly violence preceded a referendum on the basic law, dealing a blow to a struggling economy. Mursi's political rivals refused to accept the result - the text won about 64 percent in the vote - and they reject his call for national unity talks.

"We stress again that the nation should achieve internal reconciliation and forget its differences," the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badei, told Egyptians in his weekly message.

Mursi is also promising incentives aimed at making Egypt - once a darling of emerging market investors - an attractive place to do business again.

In a move that may pre-empt a planned reshuffle, parliamentary affairs minister Mohamed Mahsoub announced he was quitting because he disagreed with the slow pace of reform.

Communications Minister Hany Mahmoud quit earlier this week, citing his inability to adapt to the government's "working culture".

Her resignation underscores fears by Egypt's Christians, who make up about a tenth of its 83 million population, about the gains by Islamists since Mubarak was ousted in 2011.

The Egyptian pound tumbled to its weakest in almost eight years against the dollar this week as people rushed to withdraw savings from banks.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

"Let's work seriously to end the reciprocal wars of attrition. We urgently need to unify ranks and group together and focus our capabilities and assets for the general benefit."

Earlier on Thursday, a Christian member of Egypt's upper house of parliament, Nadia Henry, quit a day after the Islamist-dominated chamber took over legislative authority under the new constitution.

He and his Muslim Brotherhood allies say ordinary people are fed up with street protests that often turn violent and want the government to focus on urgent bread-and-butter issues.

An economic crisis and a battle over a new constitution have underlined bitter divisions between Islamist-backed Mursi and his liberal opponents and delayed a return to stability almost two years since a popular uprising.

The resignations come ahead of a promised cabinet reshuffle. Cabinet sources told Reuters as many as eight cabinet members from second-tier ministries might go next week.

Doing the Lindy for fun and exercise in Moscow

He won't be going alone. The tiny town of Herr?ng in central Sweden is legendary in retro dance circles for its annual festival. "At this point we’re almost famous in Herr?ng," says one dancer, Oleg Rusakov. Like most middle-aged dancers in attendance, his fascination for Western pop culture began with furtive tape exchanges in the Soviet Union.

As the evening draws to a close, Sotnikov and his teammates are crowned winners. Yet their sights are already set on the next target – dance camps abroad.

"Sure, we might win," says a sweaty and elated Sotnikov, "but it doesn't matter. These people are my friends, I want to feel that sense of community with the audience."

MUSCOVITES GOING RETRO

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Roman Molkhanov, 24, is of another generation. He and his group of young dancers have traveled to Moscow from Tula, 120 miles south of the capital. Their eyes are also set on the Swedish dance camp. "We really want to go to Herr?ng. We don't have a lot of money but we're working hard to save up money to go."

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Doing the Lindy for fun and exercise in Moscow
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  It's Friday night. The air smells of hairspray. Gym bags line the room – a rehearsal space on the second floor of an anonymous theater just outside Moscow's city center – where about 50 dancers are getting ready. A group of women apply fake eyelashes by a floor-to-ceiling mirror while a young man adjusts a white tie over his black shirt. "A lot of people are inspired by American '40s and '50s culture and want to express that," says the evening's emcee, Nasdiya Murashko, clad in a navy-blue sailor dress with a wide A-line skirt.

  Sergey and Lyudmila, now both 40, dance swing and the Lindy Hop to keep “young and fit.” And they’re far from alone. Dance instructor Olga Moiseeva says she has seen a tenfold hike in the number of Muscovites wanting to twist and shake. Ten years ago, only three pupils would show up to one of her classes. Nowadays she arranges Lindy-Hop parties that draw hundreds of dancers.

  Act follows act as the competition continues, mixing high and low, but mostly the competitors stick to the swing and Lindy Hop.

  As teenagers during the Soviet era, Sergey and Lyudmila Gubarev used to copy American-inspired songs onto cassette tapes that then made the rounds among their friends. The music on the tapes, spanning from the 1940s onward, offered them a peek through the Iron Curtain that closed off Western cultural imports.

  Today, they still love the same American tunes, but it is not such a clandestine affair.

  Recommended: How well do you know global Christmas traditions? Take the quiz

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  Lindy-Hop instructor Moiseeva says Herr?ng is a nice change for Russian dancers. "It's a surprise for them, because we don't really have a dance culture in Russia – we sit and sing more than we get up and dance – so Herr?ng is light-hearted and fun for us. I try to copy Herr?ng here at my dance studio."

  Upstairs, in the dance hall, Pavel Sotnikov is getting ready to compete in a getup of tight jeans and a checkered shirt. His passion is early rock 'n' roll, but tonight it is all about the boogie-woogie. "This music wasn't very popular before, but there are more and more people discovering it, and there's more of a general interest in retro culture than five years ago," Mr. Sotnikov says.

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• Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.
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  Read this story at csmonitor.com

  A few competitors have already performed when Sotnikov and his three partners enter the dance floor. The music starts, and the quartet doesn't have a single step out of beat. The audience rewards them with thunderous cheers as the music wraps up, and the dancers throw kisses in the air in all directions.

  "I'm in the habit of taking two weeks off every year to dance, usually a week in Sweden and the second week somewhere else. That's when I get to meet people from all over the world, which is the best thing about this scene," says Sotnikov.

  "The Lindy Hop is about freedom," Ms. Moiseeva says. "And the music is fantastic. But it's about more than the dance, it's about taking classes, competing and, for some, about the cars and the fashion." A burgundy skirt, discrete pumps, and a champagne-colored rose in her wavy hair sets the glamorous Moiseeva apart from her students during a weeknight beginners' class. But once dancers are ready to compete, they ramp it up in the style stakes.

  Related stories

Snow buries parts of Northeast, flights canceled

Freezing rain - making for treacherous travel conditions - was predicted for parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia while significant rain was likely along the New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland coasts, the weather service said.

The system triggered tornadoes and left almost 200,000 people in Arkansas and Alabama without power on Wednesday.

Eleven inches of snow was forecast for Buffalo, where some 8 to 12 inches of snow fell overnight into Thursday. Prior to that, Buffalo was 23 inches below average for this time of year, the weather service said.

"It feels lovely to have wonderful snow for the kids to play in, and I think it's the kind of snow that's good for making forts and snowmen," said Katryna Nields, a musician in Conway, Massachusetts, who was outside her home shoveling snow.

(Additional reporting by Betsy Pisik in Wayland, Massachusetts, Zach Howard in Conway, Massachusetts, Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Claudia Parsons)

"It's just the kind of snow you want for between Christmas and New Year's," she added.

Daniel Ivancic, of the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda, said he bought a snowmobile last winter that has sat largely idle with snow totals well below average.

Snow buries parts of Northeast, flights canceled
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BUFFALO, New York (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm pushed through the U.S. Northeast on Thursday, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of airline flights while bringing some holiday cheer to families hoping for snow and lifting spirits at ski resorts in the region.

Heavy snow was falling in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.

"Mother Nature doesn't usually give you two in a row," he said. "We've still got a lot of supplies from last year, so I guess we're ready for it now."

Airlines canceled more than 800 flights on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com, a website that tracks flights.

Article: Factbox: Entergy says 150,000 lack power in Arkansas after storm

The new storm "will bring more snow to areas that received snow from the post-Christmas storm and will bring snow to some areas that got rain or mostly rain," he said, adding that it has the potential to strengthen to a strong nor'easter or blizzard in parts of New England.

The weather service forecast 12 to 18 inches of snow for northern New England, accompanied by freezing rain and sleet, creating hazards on the highways and at airports.

"It's just a reminder, winter is here," said Tom Paone of the National Weather Service in Buffalo.

Wed, Dec 26, 2012

The storm dumped a foot of snow on parts of the United States with the heaviest snow falling across northern New York and New England, the National Weather Service reported.

Tom Olney, a 50-year-old stay-at-home father of two, was making plans to go sledding with his children in their hometown of Wayland, Massachusetts.

"I waited and waited and, no snow. This winter it seemed like the same thing was going to happen until the storm hit," Ivancic said. "I'm just going to take advantage of every minute of it."

"We love snow," Olney said. "What else are you going to do when it's this wet and cold out?"

Authorities said an 81-year-old man died in Georgiana, Alabama after a tree fell on his home.

Police patrolling the New York State Thruway from Buffalo to Albany reported dozens of accidents, mostly involving cars that slipped off snowy roads overnight.

The storm system dumped record snow in north Texas and Arkansas before sweeping through the South on Christmas Day and then veering north.

A inflatable snow man is seen fallen…

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England and coastal flood advisories from New York's Long Island to southern Maine.

Some flights into and out of the three major New York City area airports - Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia - were delayed due to the weather, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.

Western Massachusetts, like much of the Northeast, had an uncharacteristically mild winter last year, but residents such as Olney say they are ready for a more typical cold season.

"A new storm is in the works for portions of New England, the mid-Atlantic and the Ohio Valley," he said.

More snow is headed east, said Alex Sosnowski, senior meteorologist at Accuweather.com.

Shoppers disappoint retailers this holiday season

Mae Anderson in Atlanta and Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report.

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Shopping picked up in the second half of November, but then the threat of the country falling off a "fiscal cliff" gained strength, throwing consumers off track once again.

This year's holiday season was marred by bad weather and uncertainty about the economy in the face of possible tax hikes and spending cuts early next year. Some analysts say the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., earlier this month may also have chipped away at shoppers' enthusiasm.

Shoppers disappoint retailers this holiday season
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In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012,…

In New York, the Macy's location at Herald Square also was buzzing with shoppers. Ulises Guzman, 30, a social worker, said he held off buying until the final days before Christmas, knowing the deals would get better as stores got desperate. He said he was expecting discounts of at least 50 percent.

The SpendingPulse data released Tuesday, which captures sales from Oct. 28 through Dec. 24 across all payment methods, is the first major snapshot of holiday retail sales. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers like Macy's and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

Online sales, typically a bright spot, grew only 8.4 percent from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to SpendingPulse. That's a dramatic slowdown from the online sales growth of 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012,…

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012,…

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He saw a coat he wanted at Banana Republic for $200 in the days before Christmas but decided to hold off on making a purchase; on Wednesday, he got it for $80.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012,…

She found 50 percent off things she bought, including a hoodie and jeans for herself at American Eagle and a shirt at Urban Outfitters. She said she would have bought the clothes if they hadn't been 50 percent off.

"I wasn't looking for deals before Christmas, I waited until after," she said. She bought boxers for her boyfriend, and was looking for a hat but couldn't find one.

Sales for the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent compared with last year, according to a MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report. That's below the healthy 3 to 4 percent growth that analysts had expected — and the worst year-over-year performance since 2008, when spending shrank sharply during the Great Recession.

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy's strength. November and December account for up to 40 percent of annual revenue for many retailers. If those sales don't materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That's a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores' profits.

Lawmakers have yet to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax hikes kick in and stay in place for months, the Congressional Budget Office says the nation could fall back into recession.

Shopping over the past two months was weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined by 3.9 percent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.4 percent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 percent in the north central part of the country.

Online sales did enjoy a modest boost after the recent snowstorm that hit the Midwest, McNamara said. Online sales make up about 10 percent of total holiday business.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. holiday sales so far this year have been the weakest since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. That puts pressure on stores that now hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending.

Indeed, there was a crowd equivalent to a busy weekend day at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta by midday on Wednesday. Laschonda Pitluck, 18, a student in Atlanta, had held off earlier because she's a student and saving all her money for college. Last year she spent over $100 on gifts but this year she's keeping it under $50.

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In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed bad weather for putting a damper on shopping. In late October, Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, which account for 24 percent of U.S. retail sales.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 percent and 3 percent, still weaker than the 3 percent to 4 percent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

But stores still have some time to make up lost ground. The final week of December accounts for about 15 percent of the month's sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. And the day after Christmas typically is among the biggest shopping days of the year.

"I'm not looking at anything that's original price," he said.

___

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012…

Calif. ban draws interest in using hounds to hunt

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gary Ramey and his adult daughter traveled 2,500 miles to hunt California bears with hounds last month, eager to take part in what he calls a time-honored tradition.

"This may be the last opportunity for them to use hounds to go bear hunting," said Josh Brones, president of California Houndsmen for Conservation, which opposed the new law.

California's bear season was declared closed on Tuesday, 2 1/2 weeks early, after hunters reached their limit of 1,700 bears. Fewer than half were tracked with dogs, according to preliminary figures, about the same as most years. California has an estimated 70,000 bobcats and issued about 4,500 permits to hunt bobcats last year. About 11 percent of the bobcats were killed with the use of dogs.

"The difference is no one feels sorry for pheasants," Heyser said. "They're really pretty, but they're chickens."

Ramey bid on his trip at a charity auction 18 months ago, before the hounding ban was enacted, because "it just sounded intriguing." He had never before seen a bear outside a zoo.

"It was up and down ravines, cliffs, you name it to get there," said Ramey. "It was physically exhausting."

State wildlife officials estimate California's black bear population is about 26,000, an increase from about 10,000 in the 1980s, though some critics question the accuracy of that figure. Brones believes lawmakers will rethink the ban if there is a surge in troublesome bears as the population increases.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec.…

It's one that won't be legal after Jan. 1, when the nation's most populous state outlaws the use of dogs to hunt bobcats and bears.

"We're just relieved and heartened that this is the last bear season where this cruel and unethical practice can be utilized," Fearing said.

Houndsmen use dogs to track a bear and chase it up a tree, where hunters can get a good shot at the stationary target. However, for many houndsmen and their dogs, the thrill is in the chase, and they release the bear unharmed.

California and other states allow the use of hounds to hunt other animals, ranging from birds to feral pigs. A judge in Wisconsin has temporarily banned using dogs to hunt wolves there before he issues a permanent ruling next year, while Nevada game officials are considering a petition to ban hunting bears with hounds.

Holly Heyser, who teaches journalism at California State University, Sacramento, and blogs about hunting, signed up two weeks ago to experience a hunt while she could. She said there is a negative stereotype even among other hunters of lazy people who let their dogs do the work for them.

Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance, whose bill, SB1221, banned the practice, equated killing a bear in a tree to shooting a bear in a zoo. The animals can be chased to exhaustion, packs of dogs can tear apart bobcats, and bears can injure or kill the hounds that pursue them.

He and his daughter, Grace, 20, each killed a bear, but only after sparing three others. It seemed unsporting to shoot a bear that was cornered in a culvert, he said, and they didn't feel right about shooting a mother and young bear treed together.

Lieu and Jennifer Fearing, the Humane Society's California state director, said they aren't surprised by the late surge in interest in the practice.

Seventeen states still permit the use of hounds to hunt bears, while 15 ban the practice. The other 18 do not allow bear hunting at all, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which pushed for California's law.

"When you think about it, hunting with dogs is probably the oldest hunting in history. I'm sorry to see it end," said Ramey of Gainesville, Ga.

She and Ramey said their hunts upended those stereotypes as they followed the baying dogs.

Ramey and Heyser said using hounds to track bears let them be more selective about what to shoot and seemed more sporting than luring a bear with bait, which also is banned in California. Both argued that shooting treed bears let them make clean kills, and in separate interviews each equated it to using dogs to flush pheasants.

Other supporters reported an increase in interest in the final months of the practice that critics contend is cruel and unsportsmanlike.

Calif. ban draws interest in using hounds to hunt
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Egypt's government sets priorities after charter

"I congratulate the Egyptian people on behalf of the government for the passing of the constitution of the second republic, which establishes a modern democratic state where the people's voices are heard and where injustice, dictatorship, repression, nepotism and corruption take a back seat," Cabinet Minister Mohammed Mahsoub, who hails from the Islamist Wasat Party, told the session.

But the 270-member council is boycotted by the largely liberal and secular opposition groups —which has also rejected the presidential appointments to the upper house.

Members of the constitutional assembly…

Members of the constitutional assembly…

The dispute over the constitution deeply polarized the country, reigniting mass street protests that turned deadly at times.

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Christian activist Mona Makram…

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In its first act, the Shura Council convened to swear in the 90 new members appointed by Morsi.

"We have now moved from conflict in the streets between political forces and the regime to a new phase of legal disputes over legislation and control of state institutions," said Nasser Amin, the head of the Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession. "This is the most critical phase...and the battle won't be very clear to regular people."

The opposition will be watching the Shura Council to see whether new legislation increases civil liberties and addresses poverty and social inequalities — or increases the ability of the state to crack down on its critics and impose an Islamist rule, as many fear.

Speaking to the council, Mahsoub, the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, said the government will prepare new legislation for parliament to discuss, including a law to regulate the upcoming parliamentary elections, anti-corruption laws, and laws to organize Egypt's efforts to recover money from corrupt officials from the era of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Mahsoub said such bills can be ready as early as next week, when the council convenes again for its regular working session.

"Egypt constitution (is) void as it conflicts (with) certain peremptory norms of international law," such as freedom of belief and expression, opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei said on his Twitter account Wednesday.

Essam el-Erian vice chairman of…

But the new appointments maintained the hold of Islamists on the house.

The largely secular and liberal opposition who opposed the constitution fear it enshrines a prominent role for Islamic law, or Shariah, in governing the country's affairs and reinforces Islamists' hold on power. They say it constitution restricts freedoms and ignores the rights of women and minorities.

The opposition also refused to attend a national dialogue hosted by Morsi's vice president, saying the agenda for the talks are not clear and the disputed constitution was already rushed through. Instead, it says it will contest the upcoming parliamentary elections and hopes to achieve a sizeable representation to challenge the constitution.

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He said the government also wants to draft laws to revise maximum and minimum wages, expand social insurance coverage and regulate the media, as well as institute Egypt's first freedom of information act.

The government used the session to set its priorities for the coming period.

In this image released by the Egyptian…

Morsi appointed 90 members to the council on the last day of the referendum on the constitution, in a bid to make it more representative. The other two-thirds of the members were elected last year with no more than seven percent of eligible voters.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's government set legislative priorities for parliament on Wednesday as it convened for the first time since a new constitution was passed, asking lawmakers to focus on setting rules for upcoming elections, regulating the media and fighting corruption.

Egypt's government sets priorities after charter Related Content prevnext

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Under the new constitution, the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, the traditionally toothless upper house, was granted temporary legislative powers and began its work a day after the official results of the referendum said the charter passed with nearly 64 percent. It will legislate until elections for a new lower house are held within two months.

The official confirmation Tuesday that the Islamist-drafted constitution passed in a referendum ushered in a new chapter in Egypt's two-year transition from authoritarian rule, likely to be characterized more by legal battles and less by street protests.

"The court now will constitute little danger to the legislation to be passed in the coming period," Nasser said. "After the end of the street battle, and after the constitution and new legislature, (the government) will make all the amendments it wants through the law."

Amin, the judicial expert, said the constitution will also reduce the number of judges sitting on the country's top court, the Supreme Constitutional Court, from 19 to 11. This was seen by some as a way to get rid of some of the most critical judges of Islamists. Some of them were appointed during the Mubarak era, and Morsi viewed them as holdovers who tried to undermine his authorities.

The main opposition group has questioned the legitimacy of the charter itself, saying it was rushed through without national consensus.

Morsi has had legislative powers for months since a court dissolved the law-making lower house of parliament. He will address the nation later Wednesday to formally hand over legislative powers to the Shura Council.

"At this critical time for the nation, this respected council is required to pass a set of laws for the state to complete building its institutions," he said.

The constitution's supporters, including Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his government, had argued it would pave the way for more stability in Egypt and the building up of state institutions.

Motive a mystery in NY ambush deaths of 2 firemen_1

The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.

Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other."

Associated Press writers Chris Carola, George Walsh and Mary Esch in Albany contributed to this report.

A handwritten sign says, "Thanks for protecting us, RIP." Two candles were lit to honor the dead.

On Monday, Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze, town police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.

Grieving firefighters declined to talk to reporters. At an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening, about 100 people stood in the cold night air, some holding candles. A fire department spokesman made a brief appearance, thanked them all and told them to go home and appreciate their families.

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

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Authorities did not offer a possible motive.

A friend said Spengler hated his sister. Roger Vercruysse lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.

But two months ago, William Spengler's mother died, leaving the 62-year-old ex-con in a Lake Ontario house with his sister, who he "couldn't stand," a friend said.

Spengler had been living in the home in Webster, a suburb of Rochester, with his mother and sister since his parole in 1998. He had served 17 years in prison in the beating death of his 92-year-old grandmother in 1980, for which he had originally been charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. His mother, Arline, died in October.

Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

A Monroe County Sheriff's Department…

"We have very few calls for service in that location," Pickering said. "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, remained in guarded condition Tuesday at Strong Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

"It's sad to see that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation," O'Flynn said.

Spengler set a car and a house in his neighborhood ablaze early Monday, and then killed two responding firefighters, wounded two others and injured a police officer while several homes burned around him, police said. Spengler then killed himself. His sister, Cheryl, was missing.

"Volunteer firefighters and police officers were injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call of duty," Cuomo said in a statement. "We as the community of New York mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays without their loved ones."

WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — A man who set his house on fire, then lured firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of flames and bullets, had attracted little attention since he got out of prison in the 1990s for killing his grandmother, authorities said.

A police armored vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it removed 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.

The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.

Kaczowka's brother, reached at the family home Monday night, said he didn't want to talk.

"He loved his mama to death," said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.

"Thank God my husband slept through the first alarm and didn't get up until the second one went off," she said.

Lake Rd. residents are evacuated…

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

O'Flynn lamented the violence, which comes on the heels of other shootings including the massacre of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Motive a mystery in NY ambush deaths of 2 firemen Related Content

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About 100 people attended an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening in Webster, a suburb of Rochester. Dozens of bouquets were left at the fire station, along with a handwritten sign that said, "Thanks for protecting us. RIP."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire early Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or fully auto."

Spengler lay in wait outdoors for the firefighters' arrival, then opened fire probably with a rifle and from atop an earthen berm, Pickering said. "It does appear it was a trap," he said.

At West Webster Fire Station 1, there were at least 20 bouquets on a bench in front and a bouquet of roses with three gold-and-white ribbons saying, "May they rest in peace," ''In the line of duty" and "In memory of our fallen brothers."

Authorities used an armored vehicle to help residents flee dozens of homes on the shore of Lake Ontario a day before Christmas. Police restricted access to the neighborhood, and officials said it was unclear whether there were other bodies in the seven houses left to burn.

Cathy Bartlett was there with her teenage son, who was good friends with Kaczowka. Bartlett's husband, Mark Bartlett, has been a firefighter there for 25 years but missed the call this morning.

The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

Police: NY Gunman Set ‘Trap’ for Firefighters

Police: NY Gunman Set ‘Trap’ for Firefighters

(WEBSTER, N.Y.) — An ex-con gunned down two firefighters after luring them to his neighborhood by setting a car and a house ablaze early Monday, then took shots at police and committed suicide while several homes burned.

Authorities used an armored vehicle to help residents flee dozens of homes on the shore of Lake Ontario a day before Christmas. Police restricted access to the neighborhood, and officials said it was unclear whether there were other bodies in the seven houses left to burn.

The gunman’s sister, who lived with him, was unaccounted for. The gunman’s motive was unknown.

William Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze in Webster, a suburb of Rochester, town police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.

Spengler lay in wait outdoors for the firefighters’ arrival, then opened fire probably with a rifle and from atop an earthen berm, Pickering said.

“It does appear it was a trap,” he said.

Spengler had served more than 17 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old paternal grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980 at the house next to where Monday’s attack happened, Pickering said. Spengler, 62, was paroled in 1998 and had led a quiet life since, authorities said. Convicted felons are not allowed to possess weapons.

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Two firefighters, one of whom also was a town police lieutenant, died at the scene, and two others were hospitalized. An off-duty officer who was passing by also was injured.

Another police officer, the one who exchanged gunfire with Spengler, “in all likelihood saved many lives,” Pickering said.

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he “could see the muzzle flash coming at me” as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting “firefighters are down” and saying “got to be rifle or shotgun — high powered … semi or fully auto.”

Spengler lived in the house with his sister, Cheryl Spengler, and his mother, Arline Spengler, who died in October. He had originally been charged with murder in connection with grandmother Rose Spengler’s death but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

A friend said William Spengler didn’t seem violent but hated his sister. Roger Vercruysse lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.

“He loved his mama to death,” said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago. “I think after his mama passed, he went crazy.”

Vercruysse also said Spengler “couldn’t stand his sister” and “stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other.”

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire early Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn said.

The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn’t because of flying gunfire.

A police armored vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it removed 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.

The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department’s public information officer; and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a “lifetime firefighter” with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a “tremendous young man.”

Kaczowka’s brother, reached at the family home Monday night, said he didn’t want to talk.

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in guarded condition in the intensive care unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

(PHOTOS: Portrait of a Firefighter)

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

At West Webster Fire Station 1, there were at least 20 bouquets on a bench in front and a bouquet of roses with three gold-and-white ribbons saying, “May they rest in peace,” ”In the line of duty” and “In memory of our fallen brothers.”

A handwritten sign says, “Thanks for protecting us, RIP.” Two candles were lit to honor the dead.

Grieving firefighters declined to talk to reporters. At an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening, about 100 people stood in the cold night air, some holding candles. A fire department spokesman made a brief appearance, thanked them all and told them to go home and appreciate their families.

Cathy Bartlett was there with her teenage son, who was good friends with Kaczowka. Bartlett’s husband, Mark Bartlett, has been a firefighter there for 25 years but missed the call this morning.

“Thank God my husband slept through the first alarm and didn’t get up until the second one went off,” she said.

The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

“We have very few calls for service in that location,” Pickering said. “Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous.”

O’Flynn lamented the violence, which comes on the heels of other shootings including the massacre of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“It’s sad to see that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation,” O’Flynn said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.

“Volunteer firefighters and police officers were injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call of duty,” Cuomo said in a statement. “We as the community of New York mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays without their loved ones.”

Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.

Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

Botched housing application calls out for accountability in Clackamas County government

Botched housing application calls out for accountability in Clackamas County government
From the outset, it looked like a winner: Take a World War II-vintage housing complex and convert its 100 rundown public units to 283 new, energy-efficient homes for a mixed population of Clackamas County's needy and lower-income citizens. The $88 million project, known as Clackamas Heights, involved a thorough and fruitful community outreach as part of the planning and was to have snagged more than $21 million in federal grant funds to move it forward.
But U.S. officials had something terrible to report, The Oregonian's Yuxing Zheng found: The county's application for the grant was configured improperly, and so federal officials were withdrawing their consideration -- this following two years of groundwork and the expenditure by the county of about $600,000 in mostly federal money.

On the final application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Clackamas housing officials miscalculated the number of units that would be considered public. The federal formula required 118, but the application called for only 100.

One Clackamas housing administrator called the error "an oversight."

We'd call it a costly blunder for which there remains no administrative account.

No, the federal grant was not a dead-sure thing. But some county commissioners, Paul Savas among them, had thought it likely and were counting on it. And, no, the project isn't dead. The smart overhaul of a public asset in use can move forward with alternative streams of funding, but it will take more time. That's as some 2,700 Clackamas County citizens go homeless this holiday season, about 1,200 of them children.

The botched application represents government slippage of the kind that just won't do in a time of fewer and fewer social service dollars. The problems running beneath the Clackamas Heights setback, however, are both political and administrative.

Outgoing county Commissioner Ann Lininger, whose portfolio of county operations includes housing, learned of the faulty application and HUD's decision more than a year ago. Yet she remained pitched about it in an interview on Friday: "I'm mad about how this turned out. From the day I heard about this, I advocated to have a stronger (administrative) response.... I'm picky and demanding and think we can do better in government."

But nothing happened. Nothing changed at the Housing Authority of Clackamas County, authors of the error. That, to our mind, tarnishes government.

Sometimes, it's enough to say Oops! But in this case -- a longterm project with millions of dollars aimed at meeting an acute public need -- that or anything close to it is the wrong response. Citizens, meanwhile, and especially those withstanding the current three- or four-year wait for public housing in Clackamas County, would be right to sometimes doubt their concerns are met by true professionalism in government.

There is no shortage of people trying to do the right thing, in and out of Clackamas County government. But a new Clackamas County Commission holds its first session in January. And it should make as a top priority full accountability from the county government's many offices, all supported by tax dollars.

Clackamas Heights still can and should be a winner. So, too, can elected leaders who demand staff excellence and evidence of it.

Amid China tensions, Southeast Asia looks to India

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The dozens of vehicles that roared into northeast India this week on a rally from Indonesia symbolize deeper ties between the South Asian giant and Southeast Asia, but the dreadful roads along several parts of the 8,000 km (5,000 mile) journey also show how much remains to be done.

The caravan crossed jungles and mountains in eight nations before reaching the remote Indian state of Manipur, bordering Myanmar, in an event promoting a high-level meeting between India and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday.

"The roads crumbled to begin with and then ceased to exist," said participants Bijoy Kumar and Vinod Nookla in a blog published by Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian company that supplied the XUV 500 vehicles that participated.
"In place of tarmac there were boulders and the road started becoming narrower by the kilometer."

The meeting in New Delhi will mainly be a ceremonial affair to mark 20 years of cooperation, India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told Reuters. But it is held against the backdrop of Chinese assertiveness in the potentially oil and gas-rich South China Sea.

Some ASEAN countries contest claims by China in the waters, making it the biggest potential flashpoint in the region. The United States has called for calm, but some ASEAN nations are also looking to India, the other regional heavyweight, to get involved.

"They want India to play a larger role. Those concerns are only increasing given the uncertain situation that is emerging," said C. Raja Mohan, a strategic affairs expert at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

For India, improved relations with Southeast Asia will give it entry into one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the world and a source of raw materials needed for its own growth.

But the broken-down roads between India and the nations to its southeast, a shortage of direct flights and constraints such as India's tiny diplomatic corps - comparable in size to New Zealand's - mean India trails China in relations with the region.

Trade between India and the 10-member ASEAN was up to $80 billion last year compared with $47 billion in 2008. An agreement on free trade in services and investment could be signed at the New Delhi meeting.

Direct flights from Delhi to Myanmar on Indian airline SpiceJet are due to begin in the next few weeks.

But India's role in the region is dwarfed by that of China, which enjoyed trade worth a record $363 billion with ASEAN countries in 2011 in an already established free trade area.

"What we need is far greater connectivity," Khurshid said in an interview, mentioning roads, railways and flights as areas needing work.
"There is still a lot that can done, and we hope that over the next few months and years we will see considerable improvement," said Khurshid, who also described a 10-year plan to double the number of diplomats to reflect India's growing global ambitions.
PARTICIPANTS

The first meeting of ASEAN leaders in India is a watershed in India's efforts to build ties with Southeast Asia.

The prime ministers of Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the presidents of Myanmar and Indonesian, and the vice president of the Philippines are scheduled to attend. The other nations in the group are Thailand, Laos, and Brunei.
India walks a delicate line to balance its increasingly close partnership with Washington as President Barack Obama steps up the U.S. presence in Asian, and the reality of living next door to China, Asia's fastest-growing superpower.

Khurshid played down the possibility of any tension with China and reiterated that India had no territorial claims in the South China Sea.

"I don't think this is something that will reach hostility or conflict, there are differences obviously - China has a very clear perception about its sovereignty and it also has a very clear idea of how it wants to resolve these issues.

"It's not something that cannot be resolved, it is certainly not something in which we are directly involved, we've said categorically that there should be compliance and respect for the law of the sea."

But India's "Look East" policy and a need to lock down energy supplies for its rapidly growing industrial sector are pushing it to gradually step up military activities in the region with more joint exercises and visits.

This month, India's navy chief said his force was ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there if needed.

India is exploring an oil and gas block with Vietnam in the disputed waters and in future is likely to bring more liquefied natural gas through the Malacca Straits. Khurshid said that along with counter-terrorism, energy security was among India's top foreign policy priorities.

"We have become far more resource orientated because development is of course heavily dependent on resources. We import 80 percent of our fuel," Khurshid said.

Ian Storey, senior fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said India had yet to impress many ASEAN partners, despite strong ties to Vietnam,

"India is not a serious player in Southeast Asia, it has aspirations to be a player, but it has a long way to go," he said.

"A common view is that India talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk."