Health-club shootings in suburban Pittsburgh

Health-club shootings in suburban Pittsburgh

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. — A gunman burst into an exercise class at a health club in suburban Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and started spraying bullets. A television station reported at least four people were dead, including the shooter, and a hospital reported another death later.

Area hospitals were treating at least nine other victims, including two in fair condition.

KDKA reports the killings were at the L.A. Fitness Center in Bridgeville, a community of about 5,000 residents not far from downtown Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh International Airport.

Allegheny County police tell The Associated Press a person called them Tuesday evening and said someone was shooting inside.

A witness tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette she was in an exercise class when a man came in a back door and started shooting. Ashley Ogordowski says a friend of hers was among the wounded.

Gym member Lauren Dooley tells the Post-Gazette she heard 12 to 15 shots.

Taliban attacks at airport

KABUL — Taliban militants unleashed a wave of rockets at Kabul’s international airport and government buildings Tuesday in an attempt to shatter the sense of security in the Afghan capital less than three weeks before presidential elections.

The rockets missed their targets, lightly wounding a girl and a man with flying glass, but a Taliban spokesman said the group would soon launch more attacks in Kabul, which has been largely spared the violence roiling the south and east of the country.

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai made a rare campaign appearance in the heavily Pashtun east to appeal for votes from the ethnic group that provides most of the support for the insurgents. He told a crowd of several thousands in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, that Western forces must release suspected Taliban supporters and fighters held without charge for months and even years.

Fatah leader urges support of peace talks

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday urged members of his aging and rivalry-ridden Fatah movement — meeting for the first time in two decades — to give peace talks with Israel a chance, despite many setbacks and few achievements.

Abbas hopes formal endorsement of his policies by Fatah will strengthen his hand against his Islamic militant Hamas rivals and Israel’s hard-line prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Many of the nearly 2,000 delegates seemed ready to back Abbas, since his proposed political program is vague enough to get even hard-liners on board.

Cost of rearing child to age 17 put at $221,000

ST. LOUIS — It’s no secret that rearing children can be expensive, but how about nearly a quarter of a million dollars expensive?

A government report released Tuesday says a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 rearing that child through age 17.

The report by the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion identified housing as the largest single expense, followed by food and child care/education costs. The $221,000 in expenses rises to about $292,000 when adjusted for inflation.

Antigua has Mount Obama

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua — Antigua’s highest mountain officially became “Mount Obama” on Tuesday as the small Caribbean nation celebrated the American president on his birthday and saluted him as a symbol of black achievement.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer presided over the re-christening ceremony at the base of the mountain, unveiling a stone sculpture and plaque honoring the president as an inspiration in the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda and throughout the Caribbean.

Russian subs off U.S. coast

WASHINGTON — Two nuclear- powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days, in activity reminiscent of the Cold War, defense officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Northern Command would not comment on the Russian submarines’ movement. But in a prepared statement, Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek acknowledged the patrols and said the U.S. has been monitoring the two submarines.

Two senior U.S. officials, however, said the submarines had been patrolling several hundred miles off the coast and so far had done nothing to provoke U.S. military concerns. The officials provided details on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence reports.

Associated Press