Around 20 dead, 42 injured in Orlando gay bar attack: officials

ORLANDO, Florida - An estimated 20 people were killed at a gay nightclub after a heavily armed gunman seized hostages early Sunday, prompting a police SWAT team to storm the venue, officials said.

"Unfortunately there are people who died from gunshot wounds, maybe around 20, inside the night club," FBI special agent Ron Harper told a media briefing.

He said around 42 injured were taken to three area hospitals.

The gunman has been identified as an citizen of Afghan descent, US television networks reported on Sunday.

Quoting law enforcement sources, CBS News named the shooter as Omar Mateen, who was born to Afghan parents in 1986 and lives in Port St Lucie, Florida.

The network reported that Mateen -- who died in a shootout with police after the hostage siege -- has no apparent criminal history and that authorities are investigating whether he had ties to Islamic extremism.

Police have yet to officially identify the gunman.

'Hostage situation'

"This did turn into a hostage situation," Orlando police chief John Mina said. "At approximately 0500 hours (0900 GMT) this morning, the decision was made to rescue hostages that were in there."

It was unclear whether all the victims were killed by the gunman or if some died in the ensuing shootout with police.

Police said earlier in a Twitter message that there were "multiple injuries". Local media reported that from seven to as many as 20 people had been shot at the Pulse nightclub, but had no further details.

The nightclub urged patrons to "get out" and "keep running" in a post on its Facebook page.

Several patrons had posted on social media that a gunman was holed up inside and holding hostages. One man who said he was inside the club posted that the shooting broke out around 2 a.m. and that he heard about 40 shots being fired.

Police said they had carried out a "controlled explosion" at the club hours after the shooting broke out, but did not say why that was done. They described the scene as a "fluid situation".

Video posted online showed a large number of police and emergency vehicles outside the nightclub. Bomb sniffing dogs were also on the scene, CNN reported.

The nightclub shooting occurred just a day after a man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot Christina Grimmie, a rising singing star who gained fame on YouTube and as a contestant on "The Voice", while she was signing autographs after a concert in Orlando.

source: interaksyon.com

CBS News puts '60 Minutes' star on leave over false Benghazi report

WASHINGTON DC - CBS News on Tuesday put a correspondent for flagship program "60 Minutes" on leave over flaws in a critical report about last year's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Lara Logan, a South African, also abruptly canceled her scheduled appearance as the host Tuesday of the Committee to Protect Journalists' awards dinner in New York.

In a memo to employees confirmed by AFP, CBS News chairman Jeff Fager said the network had failed in vetting the story on the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack. The assault killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and President Barack Obama's handling of the incident quickly triggered criticism from his opponents.

"I have asked Lara Logan, who has distinguished herself and has put herself in harm's way many times in the course of covering stories for us, to take a leave of absence, which she has agreed to do," Fager wrote.

"I have asked the same of producer Max McClellan, who also has a distinguished career at CBS News," he wrote.

A spokesman for "60 Minutes" declined to elaborate, saying only that the news magazine has conducted a review and "we are implementing ongoing changes."

Logan earlier apologized to viewers over the October 27 report, in which an ex-security officer named Dylan Davies gave a harrowing account of what he said happened during the attack, including his own supposed confrontation with one of the attackers.

But Davies, who wrote a book published by a division of the CBS Corp., separately told US officials that he did not go to the compound until the day after the attack. Fager, in his memo, said that "60 Minutes" should have known of and been alarmed by the disparity in accounts. The publisher has also since withdrawn Davies' book.

Fager also faulted Logan, who asserted in her report that Al-Qaeda carried out the attack, for earlier publicly accusing the US government of misrepresenting the threat of the extremist network.

"From a CBS News Standards perspective, there is a conflict in taking a public position on the government's handling of Benghazi and Al-Qaeda, while continuing to report on the story," Fager wrote.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Scott Pelley, a fellow CBS News journalist who anchors the network's evening broadcast and is a correspondent for "CBS News," was replacing Logan as host of the awards dinner in New York.

"Given the circumstances, Lara Logan did not want the fact that she was hosting the dinner to take attention away from our award winners," said Sandy Rowe, chair of the media rights group.

The organization will present awards to four journalists who are "confronting severe reprisals" for their work including prominent Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Van Hai, who is in prison, and Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef, whose television program was canceled after his barbs against both the ruling military and the ousted Islamists.

The other recipients are Janet Hinostroza, a television journalist who has reported threats in Ecuador, and Nedim Sener, an investigative journalist in Turkey who faces prison time for allegedly trying to destabilize the government.

source: interaksyon.com