Calif. dad of slain girl unsure why home targeted

Bullet holes are seen in the front window, Monday, May 20, 2013, of the home, where Elvira Campos, 10, was shot and killed in North Highlands, Calif. Campos had been watching television with her parents Saturday night, when at least two gunmen walked up to the door of the home and began shooting. About a dozen shot were fired, killing Campos' and wounding her father and mother. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. (AP) — A devastated father says he has no idea why gunmen targeted his house over the weekend, firing a barrage of bullets that instantly killed his 10-year-old daughter as she watched television from a chair near the front picture window.

With his own wounded arm in a sling, Ernesto Campos came to look for his wallet Monday in a house whose front was scarred by at least a dozen bullet holes. Blood soaked the carpet and front porch, and the stuffing was blown out of the chair where his daughter, Elvira, had been sitting Saturday night.

"I don't know. I don't know," Campos told The Associated Press when asked why someone would target his home 11 miles from downtown Sacramento. "Somebody came here from another place. I don't know."

Both Campos and his wife, Imelda, suffered minor physical wounds, and both are too distraught to return to the home in a tidy working class neighborhood populated with young families with children.

Sacramento County sheriff's officials suspected that a family member had gang ties. A 14-year-old brother was at home at the time of the shooting and a 20-year-old was away. Another brother who is 23 lives in the Mexican state of Michoacan, where the family came from 23 years ago.

"They just don't want to be here. It's too sad for them," said Alejandra Vega, who has a daughter with the Campos' 23-year-old son.

Vega described Elvira as a happy child who was always smiling, just as she was in a portrait framed on top of the television where the family had gathered Saturday night.

Authorities were searching for at least two gunmen whom they believed walked up to the front of the house and opened fire.

"Whoever these gunmen were, they were directly outside the front door," Sacramento County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos said Sunday.

At least a dozen shots were fired from two guns.

"This was not a drive-by. These gunmen approached the house and shot inside," Ramos said.

"You have to be hard pressed to think a 10-year-old girl was the intended target."

The family had lived in the home for less than a year. They are now staying with relatives and are afraid for their faces to be shown.

Sheriff's officials were also investigating a separate shooting Sunday morning that took place not far from the home. The victim of that shooting — a 32-year-old man who survived — was "definitely a gang member" and detectives were looking at the possibility the shootings were related, Ramos said.

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Associated Press writer John Marshall contributed to this report from San Francisco.

Measles surges in UK years after vaccine scare

Associated Press/Owen Humphreys, PA - In this photo Thursday, April 25, 2013 Lucy Butler,15, getting ready to have her measles jab at All Saints School in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, England, as a national vaccination catch-up campaign has been launched to curb a rise in measles cases in England. More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease. (AP Photo/Owen Humphreys, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

In this photo taken on Thursday, May 9 2013, Ellen Christensen poses for a photograph with her six-week-old son Remy at the Ann Tayler Children Centre in east London. More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease. This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON (AP) — More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.

This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.

Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16.

"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," said Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues.

That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major U.K. medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal that published it. Britain's top medical board stripped Wakefield of the right to practise medicine in the U.K., ruling that he and two of his colleagues showed a "callous disregard" for the children in the study. Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them about 5 pounds each ($7.60) and later joked about the incident.

Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the U.K. as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine — from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent. Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son.

Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there's "this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections," Elliman said.

The majority of those getting sick in the U.K. — including a significant number of older children and teens — had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it's unclear if it was the disease that killed him.

The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s, which dramatically cut cases of the rash-causing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case.

Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.

Across the U.K., about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions.

To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the U.K., the rate is still below 80 percent.

Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain's Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination.

Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United States, where the measles vaccination rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, there have been 22 cases, including three that were traced to Britain. In previous years, the U.K. has sometimes exported more cases of measles to the U.S. than some countries in Africa.

Portia Ncube, a health worker at an East London clinic, said the struggle to convince parents to get the MMR shot is being helped by the measles epidemic in Wales.

"They see what's happening in Wales, so some of them are now sensible enough to come in and get their children vaccinated," she said.

Clinic patient Ellen Christensen, mother of an infant son, acknowledged she had previously had some "irrational qualms" about the MMR vaccine.

"But after reading more about it, I know now that immunization is not only good for your own child, it's good for everyone," she said.

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Online:

Public Health England's Measles website:

http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Measles/

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AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

Witnesses describe deadly Oklahoma tornado: ‘All you could hear were screams’

By Jason Sickles, Yahoo! | The Lookout – 33 mins ago

[Updated at 8:30 a.m. CT]

MOORE, Okla. – The hell he saw was harrowing, but it’s the sounds at Plaza Towers Elementary that Stuart Earnest Jr. says will haunt him forever.

“All you could hear were screams,” Earnest said. “The people screaming for help. And the people trying to help were also screaming.”

Plaza Towers, a pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade school, took a direct hit when a titanic tornado chewed a deadly and destructive 20-mile path through Newcastle, Moore and parts of southern Oklahoma City for 40 minutes Monday afternoon.

State officials have adjusted the number of casualties a few times since the tragedy. Tuesday morning, Reuters quoted Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer at the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office, as saying the death toll had been reduced to 24.

"There was a lot of chaos," Elliott said.

Officials said some of the dead are children. Classes were still in session at Plaza Towers when the twister, estimated to be packing winds of 200 mph or greater, crushed nearly every corner of the school. Teachers’ cars were thrown into the building, and the playground no longer exists.

“I can only hope those little kids killed didn't suffer,” said Earnest, one of many who rushed to the school to help survivors.

[In tornado's wake, worried parents seek out kids]

With several students still unaccounted for, rescuers worked overnight digging through the rubble.

“I just hope they find her,” Shannon Galarneau said of her 10-year-old niece, a Plaza Towers student who was missing as of early Tuesday morning. “You just feel helpless.”

The girl's younger sister, also a student at the school, suffered cuts to her head and bruises on her back. The 8-year-old was still wearing her hospital bracelet while asleep on her grandmother's shoulder in the front seat of a pickup truck just after midnight.

“She said it was probably the scariest day of her life,” Galarneau said.

The child was among more than 150 reportedly injured by the tornado, which some estimated to be greater than a mile wide at times.

Galarneau and her husband could see the twister a mile and a half from their front porch and scrambled to hide.

“It barreled down fast,” said Galarneau, who found refuge in a utility closet.

[How to Help: Oklahoma storms]

President Barack Obama declared several Oklahoma counties disaster areas and pledged to support the area's rescue and recovery. The funnel’s fury crumbled homes for several blocks around the school and in other parts of Moore. Missing street signs and other landmarks made some neighborhoods unrecognizable even to locals.

“It is a barren wasteland,” Galarneau said. “Everything is leveled.”

Allen and JoAnn Anderson huddled under quilts and pillows in their bathtub with their Yorkie, Magand, and cat, Meow, when the tornado came down their street.

“It was like standing in the middle of a train track and having the train go right over you,” said Allen, 63.

They emerged from the tub 15 minutes later to find their brick house gone and cars badly damaged.

“There’s no house. It’s just a pile of rubble,” Allen said.

The couple checked into a motel with their pets late Monday. Chunks of attic insulation were still stuck in JoAnn’s sandy-blond hair, and her legs were partially caked in dried mud.

“It could be worse,” JoAnn said. “We're alive.”

Dozens are confirmed dead, including 20 children, after a huge twister levels homes, businesses and two schools.

Video: Search for victims continue after devastating tornado hits Oklahoma

Boston cardinal skips event over Irish PM's role

BOSTON (AP) — Cardinal Sean O'Malley skipped Boston College's commencement Monday to protest its decision to honor Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who backs legislation to permit abortion, and O'Malley's views were echoed outside the ceremony by a few dozen anti-abortion activists.

The protesters gathered at an entrance to the stadium where Kenny gave the keynote address and received an honorary degree, with some holding signs saying it was a scandal that the Catholic school was hosting Kenny.

The bill Kenny supports allows abortion only if a doctor authorizes it to save a woman's life. But opponents say it would lead to widespread abortions because of a provision that permits it if a woman threatens suicide.

Protester C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League called that "the proverbial Mack truck loophole" and said Boston College's decision to honor Kenny undermines the church's anti-abortion teachings.

"What rational person can reasonably be expected to take seriously Catholic opposition to abortion when our own Catholic institutionshonor someone who's trying to legalize abortion in his country?" he said.

Kenny didn't mention the controversy during his keynote address.

Afterward, Kenny told reporters the bill does nothing to change an 1861 Irish law that makes abortion a crime punishable by life in prison.

Instead, the bill "is setting out clarity and legal certainty, that is intended to save lives, not to end them," he said.

In 1992, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled abortion should be legal if doctors determine it's needed to save the woman's life. In 1992 and 2002, voters rejected two referendums to allow abortion to stop a physical threat to a woman's life, not including suicide.

The current bill is being debated following last year's death of a woman who was hospitalized at the start of a protracted miscarriage during her 17th week of pregnancy. Doctors refused her request for an abortion and she died of massive organ failure.

The bill permits a single doctor to authorize an abortion if the woman's life is in immediate danger. Two doctors must approve if a pregnancy poses a potentially lethal risk. The approval of three doctors is required if the woman is threatening suicide.

O'Malley announced he'd skip Boston College's graduation earlier this month, saying Irish bishops had concluded the bill "represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law," and noting that U.S. bishops have asked Catholic institutions not to honor officials who promote abortion.

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said Monday that Kenny' s invitation was unrelated to the controversial legislation and was offered solely because of historical ties between his country and a school founded by an Irish Jesuit to serve Irish immigrants.

He said the invitation to Kenny in no way erodes the school's anti-abortion stance.

Myanmar Muslims jailed for killing Buddhist monk

A Muslim man is escorted by police officers following a trial at a township court in Meikhtila, central Myanmar, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. A court in Myanmar sentenced seven Muslims to terms ranging from life to two years in prison Tuesday for the killing of a Buddhist monk during sectarian violence that is posing a serious challenge to President Thein Sein's reformist government. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

A horse carriage run by buildings damaged during sectarian violence in Meikhtila, central Myanmar, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — A Myanmar court sentenced sevenMuslims to prison Tuesday — one of them to a life term — in the killing of a Buddhist monk amid deadly sectarian violence that was overwhelmingly directed against minority Muslims but has not led to any criminal trials against members of the country's Buddhist majority.

As the country tries to rebuild democracy after decades of military rule, the issue poses a dilemma for politicians who would lose support if they embraced justice for the unpopular Muslim minority. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest under the former ruling junta but now hopes to bring her party to power, spoke of the law but not of sectarian tensions when asked about the verdict.

At least 44 people were killed and 12,000 displaced, most of them Muslim, in more than a week of conflicts with Buddhists that began March 20 in the central Myanmar city of Meikhtila. A dispute at a Muslim-owned gold shop triggered rioting by Buddhists and retaliation by their Muslim targets, and the lynching of the monk after the gold shop was sacked enflamed passions, leading to large-scale violence.

While the violence is now contained, questions are arising over whether minority Muslims can find justice in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar. Hundreds more Muslims have been killed, and tens of thousands have been made homeless, in violence across the country over the past year.

The sectarian strife has tarnished the image of Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been criticized for failing to speak out strongly in defense of the country's Muslims despite her long commitment to human rights. Her supporters, especially abroad, fear she is afraid to take a politically unpopular stand now that her party will mount a bid for power in the next general election in 2015. Prejudice against Muslims is widespread in Myanmar, and it is hard to find public figures willing to speak in defense of the Muslim community.

In a press conference Tuesday in the capital, Naypyitaw, she did not directly address the plight of the Muslim minority. Instead, she spoke in familiar terms about the rule of law when asked about the verdict.

"There is no transparency in Myanmar's justice system and there is too much influence from the administrative branch," she said, echoing the opinions of many human rights groups. "The judicial system has to be independent to be credible."

Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to take a strong stand on attacks last year against the Muslim Rohingya community in western Rakhine state. Mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of homes, leaving hundreds dead and forcing 125,000 people, mostly Muslims, to flee,

When asked whether she was concerned about her reputation over the issue, she said she wasn't worried. "If I had to be concerned about my image, I should not have become a politician right from the beginning," she said.

The issue of ethnic strife also marred this week's Washington trip by President Thein Sein, a trip otherwise filled with accolades for the first leader of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years.

President Barack Obama praised Thein Sein on Monday for his efforts to lead his country back on the path to democracy, but also said he expressed concern to his counterpart about violence against Muslims. "The displacement of people, the violence directed toward them needs to stop," he said.

Thein Than Oo, a lawyer defending the men sentenced Tuesday, said one of his clients, Myat Ko Ko, was given life in prison for murder. Myat Ko Ko was also sentenced to an additional two years for unlawful assembly and two for religious disrespect.

Of the remaining defendants, one received a two-year sentence while the others received terms ranging from six to 28 years. Four of them, including a minor tried in a separate court, were convicted of charges including abetting murder. Two were convicted only on lesser counts. Mandalay Advocate General Ye Aung Myint confirmed the sentences.

"It's not fair!" shouted one of the convicted men shouted from inside a prison van as they were being driven away after the trial.

But members of a crowd of about 30 people outside the court house expressed unhappiness over the verdict for a different reason: They said they wished the death penalty had been applied against those who were convicted of killing the monk. Myanmar has the death penalty for premeditated murder, but the defendants were charged under a different murder category.

Thein Than Oo said he would await his clients' instructions on whether to appeal the verdicts.

The lynching of the Buddhist monk enflamed passions in Meikhtila, especially after photos circulated widely on social media of what was purported to be his body after he was pulled off a motorbike, attacked and burned. Monks are highly respected both for their religious devotion and as community leaders.

Entire Muslim neighborhoods were engulfed in flames, and charred bodies piled in the roads. The government declared a state of emergency and deployed the army to restore order, but the unrest later spread to other parts of central Myanmar.

In parliament in Monday, Religious Affairs Minister Hsan Hsint gave the official figures for casualties and damage from March 20 to 28: 44 people killed, 90 injured, 1,818 houses, 27 mosques and 14 Islamic schools destroyed. He said 143 people were arrested in connection with the violence, out of which 47 have been formally charged. Parliament on Tuesday formally approved the state of emergency.

The gold shop owner and two employees, all Muslims, were sentenced in April to 14 years in prison each on charges of theft and causing grievous bodily harm.

Hsan Hsint did not break down arrests and charges by religion, but no major cases involving Buddhist suspects have been announced.

Asked why only Muslims have faced trial in Meikhtila, Ye Aung Myint, the advocate general, said the courts were starting with the initial incidents that triggered the violence, and those involved in later incidents would be tried subsequently.

"There is no discrimination in bringing justice. We dealt with the first two cases and 11 more cases involving Buddhists will be dealt with very soon," he said, adding that about 70 people will face charges for murder, arson and looting.

Thein Sein's administration, which came to power in 2011 after half a century of military rule, has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslims or stop the violence from spreading since it began with clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya last year.

In a speech Monday at a university in Washington, Thein Sein vowed to ensure an end to the violence and justice for the perpetrators. He also called for a new era in U.S.-Myanmar relations.

Rights groups have criticized Thein Sein's U.S. visit, saying human rights injustices are still rampant in Myanmar despite progress made in freeing political prisoners, and in granting more freedom to political opponents and the media, among other changes.

U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights released a report Monday detailing a gruesome massacre carried out by Buddhist mobs who hunted down and killed at least 24 Muslim students and teachers from an Islamic school as Meikhtila descended into anarchy in March. The report, based on interviews with survivors, accuses state authorities and police of standing idly by while the killings were carried out.

Richard Sollom, the report's lead author, called for Thein Sein to support an independent investigation into the killings and speak out more forcefully against anti-Muslim violence.

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AP writers Aye Aye Win in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, and Matthew Pennington and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.