U.S. soldier kills 5 comrades in Iraq, officials say

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier fired on his fellow troops at a counseling center at a base outside Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, U.S. officials said, killing five people in the worst such attack of the six-year-old war.

The shooting occurred at 2 p.m. at a stress clinic at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad International Airport, two senior defense officials said. Though initial reports indicated the attacker was killed in the incident, the U.S. command in Baghdad said late Monday a suspect in the killings was in custody.

Neither the suspect nor any of the victims had been identified, but a defense official with access to the latest reports on the incident told CNN that the suspect had been a patient at the treatment center.

"Any time we lose one of our own, it affects us all," Col. John Robinson, a U.S. military spokesman, said in a written statement. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."

In Washington, the White House said President Obama was "shocked" by the attack.

"The president's heart goes out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this horrible tragedy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "He was shocked by the news of this incident and will press to ensure that we fully understand what happened at the clinic, and that we are doing everything we can to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected."

The president planned to bring up the issue in a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Gibbs said. And Gates expressed his own "horror and deep regret" Monday afternoon. 

"We are still in the process of gathering information on exactly what happened," Gates said. "But if the preliminary reports are confirmed, such a tragic loss of life at the hands of our own forces is a cause for great and urgent concern. And I can assure you that it will get this department's highest priority attention."

Camp Liberty is tightly guarded, and U.S. troops are required to clear their weapons of ammunition while on the base. The only service members who have loaded weapons are those guarding high-ranking officers and military police.

Monday's attack marks the sixth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member since the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

My comment

It's quite madness. The war seems to go to a nonsense situation. There might be many stressful and depressed soldiers like him in Iraq. The war is merely lasting too long but not make any benefit for the people in Iraq or U.S.

Young entrepreneur start up

I want to show these expiring video and share to people.

How representative will the European elections be?

When a pandemic isn't a pandemic

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When the World Health Organization raised its influenza pandemic alert from a Phase 4 to a Phase 5 last week, there was a bit of a gasp heard round the world.

After all, Phase 5 "is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent," according to WHO.

"All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans," the organization's director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan, said Wednesday. "After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."

But the word "pandemic" isn't quite as scary as it sounds, explained David Ozonoff, professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health.

"When people hear the words 'pandemic' and 'flu,' the first thing that comes to mind is 1918, which was a real horror show," Ozonoff said, referring to the flu pandemic that killed some 50 million people 91 years ago.

But you can have a pandemic without a large number of deaths, he said."The word pandemic refers to how widely dispersed a disease is, not to how severe the disease is," he said

Confusion about the meaning of "pandemic" is understandable, Ozonoff said, considering the definition of the word is "not set in stone."

Until Monday morning, the WHO had a definition on its Web site saying that a pandemic flu causes "enormous numbers of deaths and illness." After a CNN reporter pointed this out, WHO spokeswoman Natalie Boudou called back to say the definition was in error and had been pulled from the WHO Web site.

"It was a mistake, and we apologize for the confusion," she said. "(That definition) was put up a while ago and paints a rather bleak picture and could be very scary."

The correct definition is that "pandemic" indicates outbreaks in at least two of the regions into which WHO divides the world, but has nothing to do with the severity of the illnesses or the number of deaths.

Based on lessons from the past, "influenza may cause mild disease in affluent countries, but more severe disease, with higher mortality, in developing countries," Chan said at Wednesday's news conference.

There have been three influenza pandemics in this century, said Andrew Pekosz, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. The other two, in 1957 and 1968, also were caused by new viruses to which no one had immunity, but didn't cause nearly the number of deaths as the one in 1918.

"I think people need to be reminded that this current H1N1 outbreak is going to resemble much more the pandemics in 1957 and 1968, where there was an increase in deaths from other years, but nothing like the millions of deaths we saw in 1918," Pekosz said.

My comment

The news gave a clear definition of the word " pandemic" which might not refer to severe death but a virus that disperse widely. The news compared H1N1 flu with the pandemic in 1918 and 1957. While the swine flu is similar to 1957 which is also cause by new virus, the pandemic in 1918 is worse than swine flu. Once we understand the meaning of the word, we may not act too exaggeratedly to this outbreak. 

Since Taiwan have experienced SARS in 2003, our government and people took action earilier than other places or countries which I feel much confident and less scared the spread of the swine flu.  But still, I would not forget how SARS impacted me. I In 2003, I had to take the entrance exam for senior high school and the exam was delayed very late because of SARS. Many teenagers in my age had to studied and waited for the exam. I was not happy in that time. I felt stressful.  

Royal bus attack: driver was a 'quiet man'

The 38-year-old man arrested for driving his car into the crowd watching a royal parade in Apeldoorn on Thursday, killing five people, was described as a 'quiet' man by neighbours.

The Telegraaf reports that the man, Karst T, worked as a security guard but lost his job several weeks ago.

He had given up his house in the Gelderland village of Huissen because he could no longer afford the rent, the Telegraaf said. New tenants were due to move into the property on May 1. 

My comment

This man might show one of potential worrires that the high unemployement rate and economic recession triggered. And what he have done is terrible and sad. Whenever hard times happen to everyone individuals,we have choices and the ways to get through.  I think the man might feel alone and can not find someone to ask help, so he determine to do this and let everyone know him ro hear his voice.