Peshawar School Siege.. Sydney Hostage Crisis.. Putin's Troubles

Dozens Of School Children Killed In Taliban Attack At least 135 people were killed and scores were injured Tuesday when Taliban gunmen attacked a military-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan. More than 100 of the dead were children, officials said. Pakistan Horror #IllRideWithYou Sydney Siege Victims Lauded For Their Courage And Kindness She was a brilliant lawyer who taught young students how to prepare for mock trials. He was the beloved manager of a chocolate shop and cafe who was known for putting his staffers' needs first. Both of their lives ended in a hail of bullets inside a Sydney cafe after a disturbed gunman took them hostage along with 15 others. Continue reading Gunman In Sydney Siege Had Troubled Past But Wasn't On Terror Watch List Tearful Australians laid mounds of flowers at the site where two of 17 hostages were killed Tuesday when police swooped into a cafe to rescue them from a gunman — an Iranian-born self-styled cleric described by the prime minister as a deeply disturbed person carrying out a "sick fantasy." Continue reading Russia's Ruble Slides To Historic Lows The Russian ruble faced intense selling pressure Tuesday, falling at one stage by a whopping 20 percent to historic lows despite a massive pre-dawn interest rate hike from the country's central bank. Continue reading Around 180 Soldiers And Jihadis Killed In Battle For Syrian Base Around 100 Syrian soldiers and 80 Islamist fighters were killed during a two-day battle in which insurgents took the Wadi al-Deif military base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Tuesday. Continue reading Ukraine's President Hails First Full Overnight Truce In Rebel East Ukraine's separatist east passed the night into Tuesday without any shooting, President Petro Poroshenko said, hailing the first such stretch of calm as a positive signal for the next steps in a peace plan. Continue reading With Just 40 Gun Murders In Australia In 2012, Sydney Hostage Crisis Looms Large Australia was rocked by a rare episode of gun violence on Tuesday, when a tense hostage siege in Sydney came to an end after police pushed into a downtown cafe and exchanged gunfire with the suspect. The gunman, reportedly armed with a pump-action shotgun, was killed by police, who entered the store after gunfire was heard inside. Two hostages also died, though it was unclear whether they were killed by the hostage-taker or by police who sought to free them. Continue reading