FOUR DEAD, TEN WOUNDED IN PITTSBURGH FITNESS CLUB MASSACRE
Police say they’ve confirmed four people were killed in a shooting at a suburban Pittsburgh health club — including the gunman — and at least 10 others were wounded. A hospital reports one other person also has died. Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt says the gunman didn’t say anything and just walked into the room where shooting occurred 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. Debi Wozniak, of Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh, is a regular at the weekly Latin impact dance exercise class. She was running late Tuesday night and didn’t make it, but she said her sister, Joann Gazzam, was in the class. Gazzam told Wozniak that a man came in through the glass double doors at the exercise room’s entrance. He walked to the back of the room near some weights and set down the bag, fumbling with it for a few minutes and came up with what Gazzam said were apparently two guns and began shooting. “She told me, ‘Debi, I seen everything, oh my God, I seen everything. I seen him pull out the guns,'” Wozniak said. [via ASSOCIATED PRESS]
ABBADINAJIBJAB SWORN IN AS IRANIANS RIOT IN THE STREETS
Reporting from Beirut — Iran’s president began a contentious second term today, vowing to strive for “national greatness” as protesters battled police firing tear gas and swinging truncheons in the streets outside the parliament where he was sworn in. Battered by a weeks-long protest movement alleging fraud in his reelection, and weakened by challenges from within his own conservative camp, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would dedicate himself to serving the Iranian people and to bold steps on the world stage. As he spoke, hundreds and possibly thousands of demonstrators tried to push their way into the surrounding Tehran’s Baharestan Square, with thousands of security forces and plainclothes Basiji militiamen on motorcycles chasing and arresting them, according to witnesses and accounts in the reformist online media. [via LOS ANGELES TIMES]
SPIELBERG WINS LIBERTY MEDAL, BILL CLINTON TO DO THE HONORS
Steven Spielberg, the master storyteller whose films Amistad, Empire of the Sun, and Schindler’s List underscore the triumph of freedom over tyranny, will receive the 2009 Liberty Medal on Oct. 8 at the National Constitution Center. The award, along with a check for $100,000, will be presented by former President Bill Clinton, chairman of the Philadelphia center as well as a prior medal recipient, a longtime Spielberg friend, and a partner in activism. The annual award, marking its 20th anniversary, honors those who strive to secure liberty for those without it. Previous winners of the medal include South African President Nelson Mandela, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and U2 singer and social activist Bono. [via PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER]
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