GRAPEVINE, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) — A man dressed as Santa Claus shot and killed six of his family members at a home in Texas on Christmas Day, police said on Monday. He then turned the gun on himself.

The apparent murder-suicide occurred at the Lincoln Vineyards Apartments living complex on Hall-Johnston Road in Grapevine, a Dallas suburb. The bodies of seven people, four women and three men, were found inside along with two handguns.

Police forced their way into the home after receiving a 911 call during which nothing was said, although it was not clear if the recording may have contained the sounds of gunshots. The bodies were found lying in the middle of newly opened gifts and a Christmas tree.

Grapevine police Lt. Todd Dearing said that some of the victims were seated on furniture while others were slumped on the floor, indicating the family was in the midst of opening their Christmas presents. The identities of the victims or the shooter were not immediately released, but their ages were 15, 19, 22, 55, 56, 58 and 59.

News of the tragedy rocked the city, which was recently proclaimed the “Christmas Capital of Texas” by the state’s Senate. “This is obviously a terrible tragedy,” said Mayor William Tate, as quoted by MSNBC.com. “The fact that it happened on Christmas makes it even more tragic.”

Police said the gunman was dressed as Santa Claus and found no signs of forced entry into the home, but the motive behind the killings remains unknown. Reports indicate the gunman had recently split up with a woman and had financial problems, with their home sold in 2010 at a foreclosure auction.

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NEW DELHI (BNO NEWS) — An Indian court on Friday issued a summons to social networking website Facebook, search giant Google, Yahoo!, video-sharing website YouTube and seventeen other websites to stand trial for allegedly publishing ‘objectionable contents.’

New Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar claimed that the websites contain obscene pictures and content offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The court’s order comes just three days after another court restrained these websites in a civil case from publishing any ‘anti-religious’ or ‘anti-social’ content which promotes hatred or communal disharmony.

“It is also evident that such contents are continuously, openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network, irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents,” the court said, as quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Earlier this month, the Indian government vowed to stop what it calls ‘offensive and defamatory’ content on internet websites. However, several major websites immediately rejected the plan and Indian officials complained their requests fell on ‘deaf ears’.

Telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal said on December 6 that the government does not want to interfere with the freedom of the press. However, he said, if the social networking websites are not willing to cooperate, then it is “the duty of the government” to ensure “blasphemous material” does not appear on the internet.

Social networking site Facebook, which has more than 25 million users in the country, said it would remove any content that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity from the service. “We recognize the government’s interest in minimizing the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue,” Facebook said in a statement earlier this month.

Google said it would abide by local laws and take any material off if it violates its policies. “But when content is legal and does not violate our policies, we will not remove it just because it is controversial, as we believe that people’s differing views, so long as they are legal, should be respected and protected,” the company’s spokesperson said, as quoted by PTI.

India has about 100 million internet users, the third-largest number after China and the United States.

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The following are stories BNO News is following as of 4:20 p.m. EST on Friday, December 23rd, 2011.

UNITED STATES

– U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed a two-month extension of a package which includes a payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment benefits into law, according to the White House. U.S. House speaker John Boehner on Thursday agreed to a compromise to get the bill passed.

– The U.S. government on Thursday offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the capture of Yasin al-Suri, who is accused of operating from Iran as a facilitator and financier for al-Qaeda.

– Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States dropped to 364,000 in the week ending December 17, a decrease of about 4,000 when compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported on Thursday. This is the lowest level it has been since April 2008.

INTERNATIONAL

– A Chinese court on Friday sentenced veteran rights activist Chen Wei to nine years in prison, one of the harshest sentences involving a dissident this year. The court in Suining in southwestern Sichuan province found the 42-year-old guilty of ‘inciting subversion of state power.’ Chen published essays online that mentioned the 1989 Tiananmen protests, calling for freedom of speech and reform.

– Buckingham Palace says that Prince Phillip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was taken to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge for ‘precautionary tests’ after experiencing chest pains on Friday.

– A Russian satellite designed to provide communication between vessels, airplanes and coastal stations on the ground, crashed minutes after liftoff Friday, according to local media.

– Two explosions in the Syrian capital have killed more than 40 people, with more than 150 inured, the government says. A General Security Directorate base and another security agency were targeted on Friday. The United States and Russia have both condemned the violence.

– The death toll after a ship carrying Australia-bound immigrants sank off the coast of Indonesia on Saturday evening has risen to at least 95, officials said on Friday. Around 100 people remain missing.

– At least 11 people were killed and 80 others wounded on Friday when a pipeline exploded in western Colombia, Caracol Radio reported on its website. A fire broke out after the blast, damaging more than 100 homes.

– The United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP) on Friday confirmed two of its staff members and a colleague from a partner organization were shot dead in Somalia’s central Hiran region. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killing and expressed condolences to the families of the three humanitarian workers.

– At least 50 people sustained minor injuries early Friday afternoon when two strong earthquakes, measuring 5.8 and 6.0 on the Richter scale, struck off the New Zealand city of Christchurch. Several buildings collapsed, and power outages were reported in the region.

– At least 72 people were killed and more than 200 were injured when a series of explosions hit the Iraqi capital of Baghdad throughout Thursday, according to security officials. The bomb blasts occurred as political turmoil shakes through the Iraqi government and comes days after the last U.S. troops left the country.

– The Turkish government on Thursday suspended all ties with France after the lower chamber of its parliament approved a draft bill which proposes a prison sentence and/or a large fine for those who deny genocides recognized by France. This includes the ‘genocide’ of Armenians by the Ottoman government during World War I, which Turkey has refused to use the word ‘genocide’ for.

BUSINESS

– A U.S. federal judge on Thursday ruled that Texan financier Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly operating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. His lawyers had argued he suffers from memory loss following a prison attack in September 2009.

SPORTS

– Mike Millbury, a former National Hockey League (NHL) player, had his assault and battery on a child charge against him dropped on Friday, according to local media close to the courthouse. The U.S. athlete was previously accused of assaulting a 12-year-old youth hockey player on December 9th.

– World road race champion and Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He is the third cyclist to win, and the first since 2008. Northern Irish horse racing jockey Tony McCoy (also known as AP McCoy) won in 2010.

HEALTH

– The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday urged for global action to prevent the severe malnourishment of as many as one million children in West and Central Africa’s Sahel region. The biggest challenge is to distribute specially developed ready-to-use therapeutic foods to the region. UNICEF appealed for $65.7 million to respond to the crisis earlier this month.

– The Indian government on Thursday put a draft law before parliament which seeks to provide subsidized food to more than half of the country’s 1.2 billion population. Up to 75 percent of the people in rural India would be covered under the bill, which provides ‘priority households’ with 7 kilograms (15.5 pounds) of rice, wheat and coarse grains for just 6 rupees ($0.11 dollar).

– The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it has approved Isentress (raltegravir) for use with other antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in children and adolescents.

ENTERTAINMENT

– Rapper Tyler the Creator was arrested in West Hollywood, California, on Thursday evening, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The entertainer, whose real name is Tyler Okonma, is being charged with felony vandalism after allegedly damaging sound equipment at a venue he had just performed at. He was released on a $20,000 bond.

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CINANGKA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) — Indonesia’s Mount Anak Krakatau is continuing to spew out white smoke clouds and authorities have asked people to stay away from the volcano, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Center (PVMBG) has requested tourists and people in general to stay at a distance of at least two kilometers (1.2 miles) from Mount Anak Krakatau, which is located in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra where volcanic tremors have also persisted.

Anton S Pambudi, Mount Anak Krakatau Observation Post Chief in Banten province, told the Antara news agency that the volcano has been spewing out smokey white puffs during the last two days. The smoke clouds were blown towards the sea by the wind.

Since September 30, the PVMBG has banned people from getting close to the volcano amid increasing activity but kept its alert level at Level III. However, it has allowed local fishermen and residents to continue their daily activities with increased precaution.

Anak Krakatau, which translates as the ‘Child of Krakatau,’ is the famous volcano which had a series of violent eruptions in 1883. On August 27 of that year, four giant explosions were heard as far away as Perth in Western Australia, some 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) away, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) away.

Explosions continued for the next five days, and recordings show that the shockwave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe seven times in total. According to Dutch authorities, the total death toll was 36,417, although some sources have stated that more than 120,000 died.

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CULIACAN, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) — A day of violence left at least 23 people killed in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Wednesday, officials said. Most of the victims were found burned inside pickup trucks.

The state attorney general’s office confirmed a total of twelve bodies were found completely burned inside a pickup truck parked in the Antonio Rosales neighborhood of Culiacán, the capital and largest city of Sinaloa. Neighbors had called police after seeing the truck on fire, which led to the discovery of the bodies in the back of the truck under wooden boxes.

Sinaloa Attorney General Marco Antonio Higuera Gómez said another burning pickup truck was reported a short time later. Police found four bodies inside the vehicle, including one which had been decapitated.

Officials believe that some of the victims could be part of a group of nine people who were kidnapped in the town of Angostura on Monday. The bodies recovered from the two vehicles were taken to the Forensic Medical Service where they will be identified.

In a third and fourth incident, four people were murdered in the town of Los Pericos in northern Sinaloa while three bodies were discovered in the town of Guamuchil. Police are still investigating if all or some of the attacks are related.

The state of Sinaloa is home to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, the Sinaloa cartel which is headed by Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as ‘El Chapo’.

On Tuesday, Mexican authorities said army troops seized more than $15 million in cash believed to belong ‘El Chapo.’ Soldiers found the money on Friday when they carried out a surprise search of a car in the Cumbres de Juárez neighborhood of Tijuana. According to authorities, the $15.3 million in cash was going to be delivered to a center of operations of the Sinaloa cartel.

According to government figures, a total of 15,273 drug-related crimes were reported to authorities in Mexico in 2010, while more than 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderón began his campaign to fight organized crime in December 2006.

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ROME (BNO NEWS) — Hollywood star George Clooney and Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo are among more than 200 witnesses which judges will hear in the so-called “sex trial” of former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the court said on Wednesday.

“They are cited in testimony from an important plaintiff’s witness,” Berlusconi’s defense counselor Niccolo’ Ghedini said, claiming that their time on the witness stand will prove the allegations false. Prosecutors accuse the 75-year-old Berlusconi of paying Moroccan belly dancer Karima el Mahroug for sex when she was under 18.

Karima El Mahroug, better known as Ruby in the media, has verbally testified to seeing Clooney at a party in Berlusconi’s Sardinian villa. She has also testified to spending a night in a hotel with the Real Madrid soccer star, the ANSA news agency reported.

On Tuesday, the ex-premier blasted Milan prosecutors for adding 32 young women who attended his alleged sex parties to the list of civil plaintiffs. “The only thing they did wrong was accept an invitation to dinner from the premier,” he said.

In three ongoing trials and many previous cases, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly left-wing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.

Berlusconi allegedly paid ‘Ruby’ for sex in September 2009 when she was only 16 years old during one of the premier’s parties at his Milan villa. He, however, has claimed he never “laid a finger on her.”

Prosecutors claim that the two had sex at least 13 times when she was 17 years old. Under Italian law, using a sex worker under the age of 18 carries a jail term of up to three years.

The former Prime Minister is also accused of abuse of power in the same case. Prosecutors said that Berlusconi used his influence to get Ruby after she was detained over theft accusations. The ex-Premier said she told him he was a relative of now-ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The abuse of office charge carries a term ranging from six to 12 years in prison. If convicted, Berlusconi faces a maximum of up to 15 years in prison. The next court hearing is scheduled to take place on December 2.

Berlusconi, who won several parliamentary confidence votes during his term, resigned earlier this month. He led Italy as prime minister since May 2008. Before that, he served as prime minister from May 1994 until January 1995 and from June 2001 until May 2006. He also held several positions as minister.

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ANKARA (BNO NEWS) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday apologized on behalf of the Turkish state for the killings of more than 13,000 Kurds in the late 1930s, local media reported.

Erdoğan, the first Turkish leader to apologize for the killings, showed documents dated August 1939 which stated that operations had killed over 13,000 people between 1936 and 1939. The killings occurred during a crackdown by the Turkish military on a Kurdish rebellion in Dersim, which is now called Tunceli province.

The premier further defined the Dersim killings as “the most tragic incident of our near past,” the Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website.

The Turkish government is currently also fighting against Kurdish rebels led by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Prime Minister Erdoğan has called on Turkish Kurds to fight off the PKK, which has increased its attacks in the past few months.

Throughout the year, Turkey has carried out air strikes against suspected PKK targets in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area and in southeastern Turkey. Suspected PKK rebels have killed more than 65 Turkish soldiers since July.

The PKK, which has been labeled as a terrorist organizations by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, was established in 1984 in its efforts to establish the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey as an autonomous Kurdish state.

Over 40,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in violent clashes since the group took arms. The PKK maintains its military bases across the Iraqi border.

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NANNING, CHINA (BNO NEWS) — At least four people were killed on early Wednesday afternoon when an explosion rocked a private fireworks workshop in southern China, local authorities said. Several others were injured.

The blast happened at around 1.08 p.m. local time in Gongguan township in the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang. The workshop was located in a residential house which was completely destroyed by the large explosion, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Local authorities said at least four people were killed while eleven others were rescued and transported to a nearby hospital. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, Xinhua said, adding that rescue work was still ongoing. It did not say if anyone is still missing.

Major accidents involving fireworks are rare but occur more frequently towards the end of the Gregorian calendar’s year when demand for fireworks is high. Many of these accidents happen in China as it is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks.

In late September, three people were killed and two others were injured when an explosion destroyed a fireworks factory in the Yuzhou district of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

And earlier this year, on January 13, as the traditional Chinese New Year’s holiday approached, nine people were killed and four others were injured when a large explosion ripped through a fireworks workshop in northwest China. Police said the firecrackers were being illegally made.

A month earlier, on December 17, fourteen people were killed when a truck carrying fireworks fuses hit a power pole in central China, causing sparks from fallen cables to ignite the fuses. A large explosion as a result destroyed the truck and several houses nearby.

The deadly accident in December came just several days after eight people were killed on December 12 when a room filled with fireworks exploded in a busy street in eastern China. The Chinese government in response pledged to investigate and crack down on the illegal production of fireworks.

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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (BNO NEWS) — A Malaysian mock tribunal has convicted former U.S. President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of ‘crimes against peace’ over the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The symbolic trial began on Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (KLWCC) in the Malaysian capital. It is part of the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, an initiative by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad who is an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.

The tribunal, which has no enforcement powers but has called itself an ‘alternative’ to the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, charged Bush and Blair with ‘crimes against peace’ for planning, preparing and carrying out the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

“The Particulars of the Charge state, inter alia, that on 19 March 2003, the two accused launched a war against Iraq without the sanction of the United Nations and without just cause whatsoever,” the tribunal stated in its ruling. A seven-member panel chaired by former Malaysian Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman presided over the trial, although two judges later recused themselves.

U.S. and British troops, along with troops from several other countries, invaded Iraq in March 2003 and toppled the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein within a month. Coalition leaders said the reasons for the invasion were to disarm Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction, end Saddam Hussein’s alleged support for terrorism and to ‘free’ the Iraqi people.

The tribunal said it notified both Bush and Blair of the charges but received no response and therefore appointed an amicus curiae to represent the two former leaders. The amicus curiae entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Bush and Blair.

“The Prosecution has given us convincing evidence that the drums of war were being beaten long before the invasion. Facts were fixed to support the policy,” the tribunal said in its ruling, referring to intelligence reports that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction even though they were never found. “Further, many statements in the books authored by the two accused implicate them in the diabolical plan. The memoirs of the two accused do not provide justification for the war of aggression against Iraq.”

In its ruling, the judges called the Iraq invasion an ‘international crime.’ “It cannot be justified under any reasonable interpretation of international law. It violates the outer limits of laws regulating the use of force. It amounts to mass murder. Unlawful use of force in Iraq threatens to return us to a world in which the law of the jungle prevails over the rule of law, with potentially disastrous consequences for the human rights not only of the Iraqis but of people throughout the region and the world.”

The judges added: “The two accused took the law into their own hands. They acted with deceit and with falsehood. They acted in flagrant violation of international law of war and peace. We therefore find the charge against the two accused is proved beyond reasonable doubt. The two accused are, therefore, found guilty as charged and the two accused are accordingly convicted on the charge.”

The KLWCC said it will pass its findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to all countries which have acceded to the Rome Statute. The tribunal also plans to hold trials for former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

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LONDON (BNO NEWS) — British Secretary of State for Defense Phillip Hammond and Turkish General Staff General Hulusi Akar signed a military cooperation treaty on Wednesday, officials said.

Hammond and Akar met at the Ministry of Defense in London on Wednesday as Turkish President Abdullah Gül is on a three day state visit to the United Kingdom. The treaty signed by the officials aims to enable greater cooperation between the British and Turkish militaries.

“I was delighted to meet with General Hulusi Akar today, and to sign the Military Cooperation Treaty,” Hammond said following the meeting. “Turkey is an important ally of the United Kingdom, and as NATO partners we are bound by a pledge of collective defense. This bilateral Treaty will take our defense cooperation to a new level.”

Hammond said the British government appreciates the support Turkey provides to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan, as well as its contributions to the recent NATO operation in Libya. Turkey currently has more than 1,800 troops in Afghanistan.

“Turkey’s role in promoting stability, particularly in the Middle East, is invaluable,” Hammond added. “I look forward to the enhanced cooperation with Turkey that this treaty will bring.”

The military cooperation treaty adds to the UK-Turkey Strategic Partnership Agreement which was signed by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2010. The agreements are designed to facilitate greater defense co-operation between the two countries across a range of military activities.

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