Joyce Meyer sued by insurance company

Andy Dunaway / AP With her trademark purple bible in hand, Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries take to the stage on a Friday evening in Atlanta during a summe.

Andy Dunaway / AP With her trademark purple bible in hand, Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries take to the stage on a Friday evening in Atlanta during a summe.

Judge Milton Wharton arranged for copies of more than 100 photos and other material -- including videos of the interrogation of Coleman by detectives and deposi.

April 6, 2011 -- Joyce Meyer makes her way into the Monroe County Courthouse in Waterloo, Ill., to give a deposition in the Coleman murder case. Stephanie S. Cordle scordle@post-dispatch.com ST. LOUIS • An insurance company is asking a federal judge to

Roger Ebert calls Facebook group "lynch mob" in defense of Nathan Kotylak

Film critic Roger Ebert has come to the defense of the Canadian water polo star accused of trying to set two separate fires during the recent Vancouver riots, calling the Facebook group "100,000 strong to ban Nathan Kotylak from the Canada Olympic team" a lynch mob.

On Monday morning Roger Ebert, famed movie critic, tweeted that "Canadians also have lynch mobs. Facebook brings out the worst in those good people," followed with a link to the Facebook group calling on Nathan Kotylak to be barred from representing Canada at the Olympics.

Update:  New video shows possible sexual assault by Nathan Kotylak.

The Facebook group was created in response to 17-year-old Nathan Kotylak's attempt at setting a Vancouver City Police car on fire on June 15th during the riots that followed the loss of the Stanley Cup by the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins in a game seven match.

In video that arose the day after the Vancouver riots, Nathan Kotylak is seen attempting to light a police car on fire with a lighter after having stuffed the gas tank with a shirt sleeve, and in a second video released Sunday he is seen attempting to light a garbage can on fire by shifting the contents and fanning the smoking debris inside with a piece of cardboard.

Nathan Kotylak made a public apology on Saturday calling his actions "dumb" and explaining that he had become "caught up in the moment" which led to his attempt at lighting a police car on fire while thousands of cameras caught his actions.

Kotylak has been suspended from the Canadian water polo program, and has fled with his family from their home after the immense wave of backlash resulted in threats of violence againts Kotylak and his family.

The Facebook group "100,000 strong to ban Nathan Kotylak from the Canada Olympic team" sprung up Sunday night with a clear message and purpose describing itself as "A group dedicated to supporting Canadian values and to denounce the actions of Nathan Kotylak."

Shelly Comeon, the creator of the Facebook group has spoken out against both acts of public vandalism and has called Nathan Kotylak's apology on Saturday "an attempt to deceive the media and the public about his actions."

Says Comeon, "He isn't sorry for what he has done, he is sorry that he got caught - two times now - and that his place on the Canadian national water polo team and his Olympic dreams are in jeopardy."

With the inclusion of Roger Ebert into the debate, Shelly Comeon feels that national exposure will encourage a healthy discussion about what should happen with Kotylak and his future within the Canadian National Water Polo team.

"Roger Ebert is entitled to his opinion," says Shelly Comeon "but from the onset of this group I have maintained that mob like mentality, threats or even posting of private information will not be tolerated.

"As tax payers in Canada, we have a right to demand where those tax dollars are spent and we are asking they do not go to support athletes who act in defiance of Canadian values and morals," asserts Comeon.

Shelly Comeon insists that "We are not here to attack Nathan Kotylak, we are here to make sure our tax dollars are spent in the right place."

Afghan leader says U.S. in contact with Taliban

The United States is in contact with the Taliban about a possible settlement to the war in Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, the first official confirmation of U.S. involvement in negotiations.


U.S. officials would neither confirm nor deny Karzai's assertion on American contacts with the Taliban, which was ousted from power in a 2001 U.S. invasion for hosting al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.


Karzai said an Afghan push toward peace talks, after nearly a decade of war, had not yet reached a stage where the government and insurgents were meeting, but their representatives had been in touch.


"Peace talks are going on with the Taliban. The foreign military and especially the United States itself is going ahead with these negotiations," Karzai said in a speech in Kabul.


"The peace negotiations between (the) Afghan government and the Taliban movement are not yet based on a certain agenda or physical (meetings), there are contacts established."


In Washington, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden would not confirm any contacts with the Taliban, but said the United States supported reconciliation in Afghanistan.


"I can't confirm any specific interactions, but we continue to support an Afghan-led reconciliation and reintegration process that would bring insurgents in from the cold," Hayden said.


Taliban reintegration was possible "provided they meet the Afghan government's long-standing red lines: renounce violence, break with al Qaeda and live under the Afghan constitution, including respect for the rights of women," she said.


A U.S. official in Kabul said Washington had assisted Afghan-led reintegration initiatives aimed at the Taliban.


"We must help create conditions necessary to enable a political settlement among the Afghan people. This includes reconciling those insurgents who are willing to renounce al Qaeda, forsake violence and adhere to the Afghan constitution," the U.S. Embassy official said.


SANCTIONS MOVE


The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the September 11 attacks, to help oust the Taliban. The Taliban regrouped and has been waging a fierce insurgency for years against the government, U.S. troops and other Western allies in Afghanistan.


President Barack Obama is expected to announce next month how many troops he plans to withdraw from Afghanistan as part of a commitment to begin reducing the U.S. military presence in July and hand over to Afghan security forces by 2014.


There are currently about 100,000 U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, up from 34,000 when Obama took office in 2009.


Karzai was speaking the day after the U.N. Security Council split the U.N. sanctions list for Taliban and al Qaeda figures into two, which envoys said could help induce the Taliban into talks on a peace deal in Afghanistan.


Despite hopes that talks with the Taliban could provide the political underpinning for a staged U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the discussions are still not at the stage where they can be a deciding factor.


Diplomats say there have been months of preliminary talks, but the United States has never confirmed any contacts. So little is known about the exchanges that they have been open to widely different interpretations.


There are many Afghans, among them women's and civil society activists, who fear talks with the insurgents could undo much of the progress they have made in the decade since the Taliban was swept from power.


"We should not give up 10 years of achievements in Afghan women's rights. If that happens, these peace talks will be incomplete and unjust," said Suraya Parlika, head of the All Afghan Women's Union and a senator in the Afghan parliament.


The closest anyone in the U.S. establishment has come to publicly acknowledging efforts to kick-start talks was when Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this month there could be political talks with the Taliban by the end of this year, if the NATO alliance kept making military advances on the ground.

Gadhafi says NATO will not win in Libya

Provoked by renewed daylight NATO bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi raged against the alliance Friday, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up.

Gadhafi spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli's Green Square, at the end of a day when NATO intensified bombing runs across the capital. State television carried the Gadhafi message live, then repeated it a few minutes later.

"NATO will be defeated," he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. "They will pull out in defeat."

The sound of automatic weapons being fired defiantly into the air echoed through the square for hours as carloads of pro-Gadhafi supporters — many with children in tow — crammed the streets leading to the plaza. Although there was a large presence of police and soldiers in the square, many of those popping off rounds wore civilian clothes.

Protesters and foreign journalists in the capital said it was one of the biggest such demonstrations since airstrikes began.

"Everyone in Libya wants Col. Gadhafi, not some traitors," Rajab Hamman, a 51-year-old engineer from Tripoli, said in the square as another demonstrator shot a magazine load of automatic rifle fire into the air a few steps away. "These are the real, true Libyans," he said of the crowd.

East of Tripoli, meanwhile, Gadhafi's forces exchanged intense shelling with rebels who are slowly breaking the government siege on their western stronghold, the port city of Misrata.

Doctors at the Hikma hospital in Misrata said nine rebel fighters and a woman living near the battle were killed and 30 others were wounded. Government casualties were not known.

Barrages of artillery and Grad missiles were landing on rebel lines as they continued trying to advance out of Misrata, 200 kilometres, east of the capital. The heaviest shelling rained down between the towns of Dafniya and Zlitan, west of the Mediterranean port. Rebels were holding their own with return fire from their front about 32 kilometres west of the port.

For weeks rebels had been bottled up in Misrata, one of a handful of toeholds they hold in western Libya. The eastern third of the country is under rebel control from their de facto capital, Benghazi.

As NATO warplanes began stepping up attacks on Libyan government forces, bases and ammunition depots in recent days, the rebels in Misrata used the distraction to start their push out of the city toward Tripoli. Fighting has been intense along that front, with the rebels only able to advance about 32 kilometres.

Explosions in Tripoli

NATO attacked the Libyan capital at midday Friday, pounding a target in the south of the city and sending a thick cloud of black smoke rising high into the air.

A series of explosions rumbled across other parts of the city as fighter jets could be heard flying overhead. Fire engines raced through the streets, sirens blaring.

It wasn't clear what was hit or whether there were casualties. Friday is the main day of rest in Libya, with many people off work.

NATO has been ramping up the pressure on Gadhafi's regime. Though most airstrikes happen under cover of darkness, daytime raids have grown more frequent.

Friday's raids followed a barrage that struck multiple targets late Thursday night.

Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi accused NATO of a "new level of aggression" over the past 72 hours in which he said the military alliance intentionally targeted civilian buildings, including a hotel and a university.

"It has become clear to us that NATO has moved on to deliberately hitting civilian buildings. ... This is a crime against humanity," he told reporters in the capital.

Libya's Health Ministry released new casualty figures that put the number of civilians killed in NATO airstrikes through June 7 at 856. There was no way to independently verify the figure and previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated.

As the new NATO airstrikes Friday blasted the capital, alliance Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said Gadhafi's future at the helm of Libya was what he called a "political decision." Bracken spoke by video conference to reporters in Brussels, NATO headquarters.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States launched the first strikes against Gadhafi's forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It's joined by a number of Arab allies.

In Brussels, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said there were no indications Gadhafi would stop attacking the opposition.

"It is hard to imagine the end to attacks on civilians while the pro-Gadhafi regime is still in power," Lungescu said in Brussels.

"It is unfortunately still the case that pro-Gadhafi forces continue to show shocking determination to harm the Libyan people."

What started as a peaceful uprising inside Libya against Gadhafi has grown into a civil war, with rebels now holding a third of the country in the east and pockets in the west.

Fighting between government forces and the rebels had reached a stalemate until last week when NATO launched the heaviest bombardment of Gadhafi forces since the alliance took control of the skies over Libya.

Larks complete series sweep

The Hays Larks made an early statement in Jayhawk League play.

Improving their record to 6-2 on the year and 3-1 in Jayhawk play, the Larks completed a series sweep of the defending league champion Haysville Heat with a 7-4 victory to cap the series Sunday.

Andy Lewton pitched five innings, allowing three earned runs on eight hits in picking up the victory and Michael Burchett came on in the ninth for the save as Hays won its fourth consecutive game in front of approximately 1,000 fans on hand for "Military Appreciation Night" at Larks Park.

The Larks broke a 2-2 tie in the second inning second inning as Jon Ryan led off with a solo home run and Sloan Soulia scored on a wild pitch. Hays then tacked on three more in the fifth to spread the gap and the pitching staff did the rest. In three innings of relief, Matt Schmit allowed a solo homer in the eighth before Burchett closed the door.

MacKenzie Handel, the Larks' leader in the early going, finished 3-for-3 and reached base four times, scoring two runs. Cam Brown and Ryan each drove in two. Handel's game pushed his early-season average to .542 in seven games started. He now has scored a team-high 11 runs and drove in a team-high 14.

Haysville dropped to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in league play.

Hays hits the road Tuesday and Wednesday for action at the Liberal Bee Jays, before returning home for one game at Larks Park this week, a Thursday game with the Topeka Giants.

SF Bay transit cop convicted in killing released

A white former San Francisco Bay area transit officer convicted in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man that has drawn continuing protest was released from jail early Monday after serving one year of a two-year sentence, officials said.

Johannes Mehserle managed to slip away from the Los Angeles County's Twin Towers jail shortly after midnight unseen by a few protesters in the street as well as waiting reporters.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told The Associated Press that Mehserle was freed from custody at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Mehserle's attorney, Michael Rains, told KTVU-TV on Monday that precautions were taken because there were too many safety concerns to let his client just walk out of jail.

When asked if Mehserle can go home again, Rains said sounded optimistic.

"Well, we don't know. We'll know more about that in the next 10 days to two weeks," Rains said. "We hope he will be able to go home because he has always called Northern California home and he really doesn't want to call any place else home.

"But if he can't go home, he's going to call another place home and he will go there with his family and he will live a productive life."

Mehserle, 29, was convicted last July of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Grant, 22, on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train station platform in Oakland on New Year's Day 2009.

He served his time in Los Angeles after his attention-getting trial was moved to Southern California.

The shooting continues to spark debate, racial tension and occasional protests that have turned violent. Last fall, more than 150 people were arrested in Oakland hours after Mehserle's sentencing.

On Sunday, about 300 protesters held a fairly peaceful demonstration in downtown Oakland as they vented their continued frustration over the shooting and the Mehserle's release.

"The people know it was wrong," said Jabari Shaw, 32, a protester who had also attended Mehserle's trial. "As much as we want justice, we're still not getting it."

A judge ruled Friday that Mehserle should be given credit for time served and good conduct.

The shooting was recorded by bystanders, and video posted online showed the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer firing a bullet into the back of Grant, 22, as he lay face down after being pulled off a train, suspected of fighting.

The videos were subsequently used as evidence during Mehserle's murder trial and posted online, further stoking the racial tensions brought on by the shooting.

Facing a second-degree murder charge and a maximum 14 years in prison, Mehserle tearfully testified at his trial that he meant to use his stun gun instead of his .40-caliber pistol.

Jurors found that while Mehserle didn't mean to kill Grant, his behavior was so negligent that it was criminal. He received a two-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

Grant's uncle, Cephus "Bobby" Johnson, was among those waiting in vain outside the L.A. County jail late Sunday night to witness Mehserle's release.

"There's much rage in our community," he said. "It's a shame that our children still have fear from police officers that come into our communities."

Grant supporters in Los Angeles later Monday plan to march to the U.S. Attorney's office and demand that the Department of Justice look into possible federal civil rights violation.

A civil lawsuit against Mehserle and several other officers involved with Grant's shooting is still pending.

Grant's family attorney, John Burris, on Sunday urged the Oakland crowd before their march downtown to remain peaceful as they exercised their freedom of speech.

"There's still an opportunity for all of us to continue our sense of outrage, our sense of frustration at the (criminal justice) system and do what we can through public speaking, through organizing, community involvement to continue his legacy," Burris said.

Rare suicide attack in Pakistani capital kills 1

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy market in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing at least one person in the first bombing in Islamabad in a year and a half, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Pakistani Taliban have pledged to carry out attacks in retaliation for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month in an army town not far from Islamabad.

The suicide bomber tried to enter a bank in the market but was stopped by a security guard, said Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani. The bomber then detonated his explosives, killing the guard and wounding four others, Durrani said.

The blast ripped through the ground floor of the bank, scattering body parts and pieces of broken glass on the pavement outside. Police worked to keep people from gathering at the scene for fear that there might be a second blast.

Mohammad Shafi, a 45-year-old employee of a nearby marriage hall, said he was on his way to work when he heard a loud explosion. The blast knocked him over, and he quickly jumped up and ran to some bushes for safety.

"There was smoke everywhere," said Shafi.

Ehsan Masih, a 36-year-old security guard at a nearby office, said the blast rattled the windows and doors of his building. "Broken glass hit me and several others," he said.

The last bombing in Islamabad was in December 2009, when a suicide bomber set off explosives hidden under his jacket outside the entrance of Pakistan's navy headquarters, killing one security guard and wounding 11 other people.

But there have been two high-profile assassinations in Islamabad in the past six months. Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, was shot by his bodyguard outside a cafe in January. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's federal minister for religious minorities, was gunned down outside his house in March.

Authorities have set up multiple police checkpoints throughout Islamabad in an attempt to prevent attacks. Analysts have said army operations targeting militant sanctuaries in the northwest have also helped reduce attacks in Islamabad by disrupting the Taliban operations. But other cities throughout Pakistan have suffered frequent attacks in recent years.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a commercial and residential area of the northwestern city of Peshawar around midnight on Saturday, killing 34 people and wounding more than 100 others. Many of the people killed and wounded were police and rescue workers who rushed to the scene in response to a smaller blast minutes earlier.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb struck a military convoy in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and wounding four others, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

South Waziristan was the main sanctuary for the Pakistani Taliban before the military launched a large ground offensive in October 2009. But attacks against security forces have continued in the area.

Firefighting nightshift poses unseen dangers

Firefighter Jay Walter knows the sounds of danger in the pitch black of night -- the crackling of burning embers, the whoosh of flames whipped by wind, the hair-raising thump of a burned tree hammering down on the forest floor.

The 32-year-old from the Phoenix area is a division crew supervisor overseeing hundreds of firefighters working the night shift on a huge eastern Arizona wildfire that's been burning since May. Vigilance on the blaze is around the clock.

It's dangerous during the day, but at night, things get even more dicey for crews protecting towns, putting out hot spots and beating back the blaze to keep it from advancing.

"It's really dark out there," Walter said. "You don't have the ability to see all the land and property around you."

Large trees weakened by fire pepper the forest floor. It only takes one gust to bring them down, sometimes too close for comfort.

"You could be standing out there one minute and all of a sudden you have a tree come down and it can kill us," Walter said, adding that the only warning moments before it falls is the cracking of the trunk. "You want to talk about a sound that will send shivers up your spine."

Scouts fan out into the dark woods ahead of the main crews to spot the fire and report back hot spots to attack. But they don't venture far off the roads because it's too easy to get lost in the dark. They have to stay together.

"We can't see the terrain," Walter said. "You just have to know where you are at all times

"And when the fire's making a run, its putting out good heat and you have to watch the embers," he added, noting that each time one falls behind their line, it must be immediately extinguished or it could light a blaze that traps them.

As the day and night battle to control the blaze continued, firefighters on Sunday expressed the first real sense of hope that they were making progress. Officials allowed roughly 7,000 residents to return to two mountain towns that had been threatened for days by the blaze.

"We've been praying every day to come home," Springerville resident Valarina Walker, 49, said Sunday while chatting with other returning locals outside a convenience store in town.

The bed of her red pickup truck was overflowing with boxes of photo albums and family heirlooms.

"Just took what couldn't be replaced, left the rest behind," Walker said crying. "I'm just so happy and excited to be home. We thank God for those firefighters."

Authorities still cautioned the elderly and those with health problems or very young children to stay away because of lingering smoke causing hazardous air quality, but they said the threat from the fire to the communities was past. Air quality warnings were also issued as far away as Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

About 2,700 other people who live in several Arizona resort communities in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest remained under an evacuation order.

"It's so good to be home and see all the people we missed," said Jane Finch, 51, who had just returned to nearby Eagar and had a tearful reunion with her husband, who stayed behind to keep the Circle K open for firefighters.

Meanwhile, firefighters stopped short of jubilation Sunday but said they were finally gaining ground against the entire 693-square-mile inferno that was running along the New Mexico state line.

"Everything is holding," Fire Operations Chief Jerome Macdonald said. "Compared to what we've been dealing with just two days ago ... we're feeling a lot more confident. We turned a corner."

Macdonald said strong winds have actually helped firefighters as the gusts burned off fuel in the central part of the blaze before it reached their fire lines. Fire containment was at 10 percent by Sunday night.

Just across the border in New Mexico, hundreds of firefighters worked to keep the flames at bay, burning off fuel that could feed the inferno.

Thirty-five homes and cabins have been destroyed since the fire began May 29.

While the blaze remained perilously close -- about four miles away -- to two major power lines that bring electricity from Arizona to West Texas, Macdonald said firefighters were able to burn off most of the fuel in between, lessening the risk of disruption. The fire still threatened the picturesque Arizona mountain towns of Alpine, Nutrioso and Greer, where officials said residents would likely not be allowed back in for up to five more days.

The small New Mexico town of Luna, just across the state line, also remained under threat. About 150 New Mexico National Guard soldiers were assisting crews with evacuations and security.

Officials said about 4,300 people were working to bring the fire under control, and the blaze had so far cost about $27 million to fight.

It is the second-largest in state history, and Macdonald said he didn't it expect it would surpass the state's largest -- the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire that burned 732 square miles (1,895 sq. kilometers) and destroyed 491 buildings.

Protesters burn police vehicles in southern China

Protesters in southern China's manufacturing hub torched emergency vehicles in an outburst of anger against police abuse of migrant workers, eyewitnesses said Monday.

Sunday night's rioting followed three days of steadily growing unrest in the town of Xintang in Guangdong province, the linchpin of China's crucial export industry. Accounts of the violence in state-controlled media have been sparse, but the official Xinhua News Agency says a government team has been sent to the area to quell rumors surrounding the unrest.

While violent protests in China have become frequent over the past decade, recent weeks have seemed particularly turbulent. The vast region of Inner Mongolia last month saw its biggest street demonstrations in two decades, while a man angry over land seizures set off three homemade bombs at government buildings in a southern city, killing three people and wounding at least nine others.

Thousands of protesters attacked government offices in the central city of Lichuan last week following the alleged beating death of a local city council member while in police custody.

Though the triggers for the events are different, most are driven by common resentments over social inequality, abuse of power and suppression of legitimate grievances.

The Chinese leadership has reacted nervously to the turmoil, especially after popular uprisings began sweeping the Middle East and North Africa this year. In recent months, hundreds of government critics have been questioned, arrested or simply disappeared.

The violence in Xintang broke out Friday evening after a pregnant woman was pushed to the ground in a sweep against street vendors, most of whom are migrants from the southwestern province of Sichuan. Such disputes are common and bystanders often side with the vendors and accuse police of heavy-handed tactics.

Crowds soon gathered, blocking traffic and attacking government offices with bottles and bricks, Xinhua said. Police arrested 25 people accused of inciting the unrest, Xinhua said, adding that no deaths or injuries had been reported.

Violence continued to brew and tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday night at a major highway interchange, setting fire to more than two dozen emergency vehicles and fighting with police and paramilitary forces, said a salesman at the Xintang Ruilong clothing factory located close to the scene of the clash.

"It was such a horrifyingly spectacular scene," said the salesman, who gave only his surname, Wang. "You can never imagine what it looked like if you were not there."

Wang said the violence began after police adjuncts known as municipal management officers began beating migrants working as sidewalk vendors, ostensibly on orders from local government officials. Vendors then contacted relatives and friends who arrived in groups and began smashing vehicles and fighting with security forces, he said.

A female worker from the nearby Fengcai clothing factory, also surnamed Wang, said managers barred the 400 migrant workers from leaving the plant Sunday night.

"There were many people out on the streets late last night, shouting and trying to create chaos. Some of them even smashed police vehicles," Wang said.

Video of the protests posted online showed crowds blocking traffic, attacking cars and setting aflame buses, possibly dispatched to transport security forces.

Beijing embassy school's long march ends

BEIJING: The shutting down of a school inside the Indian embassy complex in Beijing on Monday may anger Indian parents whose kids got good education at affordable fees but it marks an endorsement by India of the Chinese capital as a global city.

The school was set up 30 years ago so that embassy employees didn't have to send their children to Chinese schools during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong's decade of purges and pogroms. From the mid-1960s, the 'Gang of Four', that included Mao's last wife Jiang Qing, controlled most Communist Party organs and set out to remodel the education system, taking a cue from Mao's "Learn from the proletariat" slogan. That meant a curriculum rooted in Mao's ideals and hardships like long hours on the farm.

"The school has outlived its original purpose, which was to provide a facility during the Cultural Revolution when there were not enough schools for expats," said ambassador S Jaishankar, as a children's party was on to mark the closure of the school.

Beijing had grown into an international city with educational options. And there were very few children of Indian officials or the larger Indian community studying in the school, Jaishankar said.

But many Indian employees said the decision was bound to affect those who work for companies that refuse to reimburse the high cost of schooling, which is usually higher than $1,500 a month. It would make Beijing a less attractive posting, they said. "I may have to send my child to India as I cannot afford fees in international schools," a parent said. The school inside the embassy premises served kids between the kindergarten and Class IV.

"We requested the embassy to close one class each year so that our educational plans are not disturbed. The parents raised this issue during the meeting with the ambassador. But it was rejected," he said.

Fees at this school were possibly the lowest at about $200 a month compared to other English-medium schools in Beijing that charge about $1,500. The only other low cost-option is a school run by Pakistan Embassy.

The Indian school also served a diplomatic purpose because parents working in embassies of several other countries sent their kids. It also meant substantial saving for the Indian government because it did not pay embassy employees the higher fees charged by other schools till Class IV.

Osama had support system in Pak: US

The US troops were prepared to capture him alive, but his resistance and use of a woman, presumed to be his wife, as shield forced them to kill the al-Qaeda chief.

'I think it's inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in the country that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time,' Deputy National Security Advisor for Counter-terrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan told reporters at a crowded White House news conference here.

'I am not going to speculate about what type of support he might have had on an official basis inside of Pakistan,' he said.
Bin Laden was shot dead yesterday in a pre-dawn helicopter-borne secret US operation in a house just yards away from Pakistan's Military Academy in Abbottabad, raising questions whether the establishment knowingly harboured him.

'We are closely talking to the Pakistanis right now. And, again, we are leaving open opportunities to continue to pursue whatever leads might be out there,' Brennan said responding to questions on how the most wanted terrorist was found in one of the most affluent neighborhoods of Islamabad, which is residences of top retired military officials.

'People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. Clearly, this was something that was considered as a possibility. Pakistan is a large country. We are looking right now at how he was able to hold out there for so long and whether or not there was any type of support system within Pakistan that allowed him to stay there,' Brennan said.

'We know that the people at the compound there were working on his behalf, and that's how we ultimately found our way to the compound. But we are right now less than 24 hours after this operation, so we are talking with the Pakistanis on a regular basis now. And we're going to pursue all leads to find out exactly what type of support system and benefactors that bin Laden might have had,' he said.

Brennan said following the conclusion of the successful operation, a number of senior US officials are in regular contact now with their Pakistani counterparts.

'We are continuing to engage with them. We're engaging with them today as we learn more about the compound and whatever type of support system bin Laden had.'

Brennan said the fact that bin Laden was found so close to the capital raises questions. 'There are a lot of people within the Pakistani government, and I'm not going to speculate about who or if any of them had fore-knowledge about bin Laden being in Abbottabad. But certainly his location there outside of the capital raises questions. We are talking to the Pakistanis about this,' he said.

'But they, at least in our discussions with them, seem  as surprised as we were initially that bin Laden was holding out in that area,' he added.

Brennan said the US troops were prepared to capture bin Laden alive, but his resistance and use of a woman, presumed to be his wife, as shield forced them to kill him.

'If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that. We had discussed that extensively in a number of meetings in the White House and with the (US) President,' he said.

'We were not going to put our people at risk. The President put a premium on making sure that our personnel were protected, and we were not going to give bin Laden or any of his cohorts the opportunity to carry out lethal fire on our forces. He was engaged, and he was killed in the process. But if we had the opportunity to take him alive, we would have done that,' he said.

Brennan said the course of action and the subsequent decisions were made over the course of the last several months.

'It was looked at from the standpoint of, if we captured him, what would we do with him, where would he go. If he was killed, what would we do with him and where would he go?' he added.

Besides bin Laden, the two al-Qaeda facilitators - who were the courier, his son Khalid and a woman presumed to be his wife, died in the operations.