More funerals for victims of Newtown shooting

(CBS News) NEWTOWN, Conn. - In Newtown, Connecticut, more children and a teacher -- victims of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- were laid to rest Wednesday.

Daniel Barden, 7, a victim in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012.

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Rex Features via AP Images

Firefighters from across the northeast came to honor seven-year-old Daniel Barden. He wanted to be a firefighter someday.

"The firefighters were here in tribute to this young child and all the souls that were lost in this community" said Eddy Bowls of New York.

Newtown massacre: Teacher Vicki Soto's heroics remembered
Complete coverage: Elementary School Rampage

Sandy Hook's fire department also stood at attention for Caroline Previdi's funeral procession. She loved to draw and dance.

Victoria Soto, a first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who was killed while protecting her students from a mass shooter on Dec. 14, 2012.

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Sandy Hook

And at teacher Vicki Soto's funeral, the crowd was so large that people stood outside. Inside, singer Paul Simon performed "The Sound of Silence."

"It was just heartbreaking when you see the small casket," said family friend Joseph Secola. "You think the girl is six years old. But she obviously was a lovely girl who gave joy to a lot of people, and that is what they have to hold on to."

Charlotte Bacon, the seventh student to be laid to rest since the shooting, was remembered for her love of animals and the color pink.

There is still no clear evidence as to what triggered Adam Lanza's rampage. The medical examiner is bringing in a geneticist to see if Lanza might have had a medical condition that could have played a role in the shooting.

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Scammers Could Profit Off Sandy Hook Tragedy

Scammers may be looking to cash in on the public's generosity following the Sandy Hook massacre, the Better Business Bureau warned.

"It is a challenge to be on guard because public sympathy and emotions are running high," said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a group that helps charitable donors make informed decisions.

Weiner said it's difficult for scams to be detected in the first week following every national tragedy, however he suspects unscrupulous people are already out there, eager to cash in on the massacre.

How to Help Newtown Families

False websites or phone calls soliciting help for the victims' families are two of the easiest and most common scams Weiner said he sees.

"They're hard to identify because people don't know they've been taken and they're not going to know until down the road," he said.

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images

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After the Sandy Hook massacre, countless Facebook pages for the victims, listings on crowdfunding sites and community drives have been established to solicit donations.

Timeline: Tragedy At Sandy Hook

While many of them may be legitimate, Weiner warns people to do their research.

"You really have to be watching out for newly created things. There may be some well-intended effort, but you have no way to look at their track record," he said. "I can tell you from experience there are some cautions associated with it."

Any fundraising effort that makes vague statements, such as "we're going to help the victims and families," is another red flag to watch out for, Weiner said.

Whether it's fundraising for the Aurora theater victims or a local terminally ill child, Weiner said the BBB sees these kinds of scams "time and time again" and actively investigates them.

"It is a challenge to be on guard after a tragedy," he said. "But you shouldn't give to any organization without checking them out first."

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Benghazi inquiry slams "grossly inadequate" security

WASHINGTON: A long-awaited inquiry into a deadly militant attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi late Tuesday slammed State Department security arrangements there as "grossly inadequate".

But the months-long probe also found there had been "no immediate, specific" intelligence about a threat against the mission, which was overrun by dozens of heavily armed militants on September 11 who killed four Americans.

"Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," the damning report said.

The Accountability Review Board (ARB) also concluded "there was no protest prior to the attacks, which were unanticipated in their scale and intensity."

The attack has become fiercely politicized, with Republicans skewering the US administration for security failings as well as a possible cover-up over Al-Qaeda's role.

In the unclassified section of their report, the five-strong board added they believed every effort had been made to rescue ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attack -- the first US envoy killed on duty since 1979.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she accepted "every one" of the 29 recommendations made by the ARB, which has spent the last three months investigating the events of that night.

She also said the State Department was working with the Pentagon to "dispatch hundreds of additional Marine Security Guards to bolster our posts".

Repeated requests for additional support from embassy staff in both Benghazi and the Libyan capital Tripoli had been ignored, the report said.

The inquiry "found a pervasive realization among personnel who served in Benghazi that the Special Mission was not a high priority for Washington," the report added.

The Benghazi mission was also hampered by poor resources, and the reliance on armed "but poorly skilled" local militiamen from the February 17 Martyrs Brigade as well as local unarmed staff hired by a British company, Blue Mountain, was "misplaced", it said.

Clinton has now entrusted Deputy Secretary Tom Nides with heading up a team which met for the first time Tuesday to implement the report's recommendations.

The classified findings of the investigation were on Tuesday sent to members of two House and Senate committees.

ARB chairman, veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering, and team member Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will brief lawmakers on Wednesday behind closed doors.

The Benghazi report was sent by courier to Clinton at home on Monday, and she has read the highly-anticipated findings. But she will not be testifying herself this week after falling ill and being told by doctors to rest.

- AFP/al

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Sources: Report on Benghazi attack to cite security

By Elise Labott, CNN

updated 8:54 PM EST, Tue December 18, 2012

Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya

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Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya

Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya

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Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bureau of Diplomatic Security to get the blame, two sources say


• Senior management "does not come out well at all," a source says


• An unclassified version of the report is expected to be released

Washington (CNN) -- An independent review of the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi criticizes the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security for its work in Libya before the event in which four Americans were killed, two sources who have read the report told CNN Tuesday.

The senior management in charge of diplomatic security "does not come out well at all," said one of the sources.

Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell is head of diplomatic security and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb oversaw State Department decisions on security at the diplomatic outpost. Lamb testified before Congress about the security precautions; documents show Lamb denied repeated requests for additional security in Libya.

The review has been sent to Capitol Hill, and an unclassified version was expected to be released as well.

State Department: Clinton not dodging Benghazi hearings

The Accountability Review Board completed its investigation into the matter this week and sent a copy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for review. A classified version of the report was delivered Tuesday afternoon to members and staff of the committees on Capitol Hill that have jurisdiction over the State Department.

Veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, both members of the review board will brief members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees in a classified setting about the report on Wednesday.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Tuesday that Clinton, who is home recovering from a stomach virus and concussion, wrote a letter to members of Congress that will accompany the report being sent to Capitol Hill.

Clinton ordered the review in the aftermath of the attack, which claimed the lives of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Such reports are mandated by Congress when Americans working on behalf of the United States government are killed overseas.

It was expected to present a detailed examination of the events that led to the attacks along with a set of recommendations on improving security at U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world.

Read more: Benghazi attack back in the spotlight

In a notice sent to all State Department employees Tuesday, the department explained how the report would be implemented once it was released.

"To implement the Board's recommendations, the Secretary has directed the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources to lead the implementation team, supported by the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the Under Secretary for Management, the Director General of the Foreign Service, the Executive Secretary and the Deputy Legal Advisor," the notice said.

Employees were told the implementation team met Tuesday and would continue to do so regularly to implement the recommendations of the board.

The politics surrounding the events that led to the report have claimed one political casualty, with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice last week pulling her name from consideration to succeed Clinton. Some Republican senators had said they would put a hold on her nomination if President Barack Obama had submitted it, based on comments Rice made in the days after the attack.

In place of Clinton, Deputy Secretaries of State William Burns and Thomas Nides will testify before the House and Senate committees Thursday.

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Texas school district encourages armed teachers for protection

HARROLD, Texas -- There's at least one school that welcome firearms to class.

It believes nothing makes a school safer than teachers who are armed,

The Harrold Independent School District is one building with 103 students. It's 20 minutes away from the nearest sheriff's station. Superintendent David Thweatt created what he calls a "guardian plan" after the attack at Virginia Tech.

"These people that go in and do these horrible acts, they're evil. But they're not that crazy -- they always know where they are going to get resistance," Thweatt said.

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Teachers and administrators here carry concealed handguns. They won't say how many faculty members are armed. They get extra training, but the district would not give us details.

Some people are horrified when he starts talking about putting guns in schools with children, but Thweatt said it's important to be safe.

"Sure, but it's a pretty horrific thing that happened the other day." Thweatt said. "And quite a few people are not horrified. Quite a few people we have in our district, since we have a high-transfer district, people bring their students to us for that protection."

Texas law allows concealed weapons in schools with a district's permission. Harrold was the first district to do it. A similar proposal was vetoed by Michigan's governor Tuesday.

Thweatt says allowing the firearms into the school will dissuade anyone who wants to hurt the kids.

"That's the bottom line," he said.

Since the shootings in Connecticut, Superintendent Thweatt has gotten calls from districts around the state and as far away as Missouri from school administrators asking whether they might be able to implement similar plans.

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Can Cops Read Shooter's Sabotaged Computer?

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza may have tried to sabotage his own computer before going on a murderous rampage that claimed the lives of 20 children, but experienced investigators said today that law enforcement forensic experts could still recover critical evidence from the damaged drives.

Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance revealed Monday that a computer crimes unit was working in conjunction with a forensics laboratory to "dissect" any evidence relevant to the case, but he declined to comment further on what type of evidence was involved and in what condition it was in. Later that day, law enforcement officials told ABC News that police recovered a badly damaged computer from Lanza's home that appeared to have been attacked by a hammer or screwdriver.

Sources said if they can still read the computer's hard drive, they hope to find critical clues that may help explain Lanza's motives in the killing.

Former FBI forensic experts told ABC News that in cases similar to this one, damage to the computer does not necessarily mean the computer files cannot be accessed.

"If he took a hammer to the outside, smashed the screen, dented the box, it's more than likely the hard drive is still intact," said Al Johnson, a retired FBI special agent who now works privately examining digital evidence and computer data. "And even if the hard drive itself is damaged, there are still steps that can be taken to recover everything."

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Brett Harrison, a former FBI computer forensics expert who now works with a D.C. consulting firm, said that authorities have a great deal of technology at their disposal to retrieve that data. How much is recovered, he said, will depend entirely on how much damage was done to the well-insulated "platters" -- discs lodged deep inside the machine -- where Lanza's every digital footstep was recorded.

It is likely, he said, that Lanza's computer has been moved to a "clean room" where, if the discs are intact, they could be removed and then carefully re-inserted in a fresh hard drive. If the calibrations are done correctly, investigators would still be able to unlock the clues on the discs.

If the discs aren't in perfect condition, Harrison said, "There is equipment they can use to read the data off a record even if a portion of it is damaged."

Johnson said it is tedious work done in a clean environment because the tolerances of the discs is so precise – even a particle of dust could destroy crucial evidence.

"We're talking about a tolerance of less than a human hair," said Johnson, who now does computer forensics for a South Carolina-based investigative firm.

Police have not said exactly what they expect to find on the computer's hard drive, but the former FBI experts said typically there could be record of visits to violent web sites, or to online stores that sell ammunition, or to email that might reveal if Lanza shared any hints of his plans with others.

"I'm not big on speculation," Harrison said, "but you're talking about potentially finding all the normal things that people do with their computer – Facebook pages, internet activity, email, you name it."

For now, the FBI is keeping mum on what kind of computer forensic help it could be offering in the case.

"At this time, in deference to the ongoing investigation being conducted by the CSP, the FBI is not releasing information regarding operational or forensic assistance provided in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting," an FBI spokesperson said.

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Fungal frog killer hops into crayfish

Crayfish are vulnerable to the same fungus that is killing frogs all over the world. The discovery helps explain how the disease spreads even after all the amphibians in an area have been wiped out. Worryingly, chemicals released by the fungus may alone be enough to kill.

Taegan McMahon of the University of South Florida, Tampa, and colleagues discovered infected crayfish in field surveys in Louisiana and Colorado. They found that up to 29 per cent of the animals carried the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Lab studies proved that crayfish can become infected and die, the first time this has been shown in non-amphibians.

Infected crayfish can pass the disease to tadpoles, and crayfish exposed to water from which the fungus had been filtered still died. McMahon says the distribution of crayfish around the world may explain why the fungus is so widespread.

She adds that it is "is certainly possible" that other invertebrates might carry the fungus. Her team are currently investigating this and are working on possible ways to stop the spread of the toxin.

"It's very compelling, their evidence for crayfish as a disease vector and for a toxic effect secreted in the water," says Trenton Garner at London's Institute of Zoology.

PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200592110

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Asian markets mostly higher on US fiscal hopes

HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, taking a lead from Wall Street as dealers grow confident US lawmakers will reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.

Continued weakness of the yen helped send Japanese shares surging for a second straight session as Shinzo Abe prepares to take over as prime minister, vowing to press a more aggressive policy of monetary easing.

Tokyo rose 1.02 per cent, Sydney climbed 0.78 per cent, Hong Kong added 0.19 per cent, Seoul was up 0.17 per cent and Shanghai was flat.

Traders were reacting to news progress was finally being made in talks on a new deficit-cutting budget to replace the tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect at the start of January and which would likely tip the US economy into recession.

President Barack Obama hosted top Republican lawmaker John Boehner in the White House for 45 minutes Monday in the latest effort to avert going over the so-called fiscal cliff.

The meeting follows news that Boehner had changed his position on not allowing any more taxes, saying at the weekend that he would agree to some hikes for people earning more than $1 million.

Although Obama has said he would only agree to rises on people earning more than $250,000, analysts say the development shows the outline of a tentative deal is being formed.

Wall Street ended on a high, with the Dow closing up 0.76 per cent, the S&P 500 gaining 1.19 per cent and the Nasdaq adding 1.32 per cent.

Japanese shares continued to be supported by the falling yen, which helps the country's exporters, as dealers bet on fresh central bank moves to boost the economy.

The election of Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday was widely expected and investors now expect the Band of Japan to unveil a further loosening of monetary policy at the end of its two-day meeting on Thursday.

In early Tokyo trade, the dollar bought 83.86 yen, compared with 83.88 yen in New York late Monday. The dollar has risen about 5 per cent against the yen since Abe made his vow to press for more BoJ measures last month.

The euro edged up to $1.3171 and 110.60 yen, compared with $1.3161 and 110.40 yen.

Oil prices rose, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January rising 35 cents to $87.57 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for February delivery advancing 51 cents to $108.15.

Gold was at $1,698.40 at 0200 GMT compared with $1,690.10 late Monday.

- AFP/ck

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