The sandy hook shooting, which killed 26 people including educators and children aged 5-6 from an armed man’s assault on the school, left the United States and its citizens shocked from the attack. Today, the school resumes classes in a nearby refurbished school in the town of Monroe, with officials planning the first day of school to be an “ordinary school day” for most of the students.

School officials and parents of the children will be driving with school buses going to the middle school in Monroe. The Chalk Hill Middle School had been closed since a year and a half and was refurbished and reconstructed within three weeks since December 14. It was renamed to Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The refurbished building now has a new and much effective security system. Monroe Police Department officers will be patrolling the grounds and all hallways and areas of the school are monitored via surveillance cameras and microphones. Officials plan to make the school the “safest school that America has”, as said by Lieutenant Keith White at a press conference Wednesday.

Still parents who are worried are allowed by the school to accompany their children. Children in kindergarten to grade 4 can be accompanied and parents can stay in the school for as long as they like.

Adam Lanza, the gunman of the Sandy Hook shooting, still leaves officials puzzled about his intentions in attacking a school. He was initially diagnosed having Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. He had earlier killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, before attacking the school. He committed suicide as the police entered the school

Source: Yahoo News

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano’s dissolving of the Italian legislature after the austerity budget for Italy has been passed pushes the election date likely on February 17, 2013. However, ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi and the conservatist Freedom Party insists on pushing the date to February 24, arguing that candidates have not drawn up their proper lists for Parliamentary candidates and the party needs time to study the legislation.

Italian Premier Mario Monti will also be resigning after the Italian austerity measures are put in place. He replaced Berlusconi, who left his Premier position after the widespread financial troubles in Italy and his case regarding paying an underage girl for sex. Berlusconi announced that he will not run for premier if Monti would also be running for the position.

Berlusconi stresses that “unnecessary stress due to an inconsiderate deadline” will take its toll on the candidate’s choices for Parliament and may affect many decisions of candidates once election day comes.

In the latest polls of local Italian media, Berlusconi’s popularity is greatly falling. Italians have stated that Berlusconi’s time had already come and gone. However, the Italian media-empire “king” is quite confident that he has gained popularity while watching in the political sidelines and that he could head as much as 40% in the elections.

Aside from his underage legal rap, Berlusconi is also appealing for his sentence from his case in 2009 regarding tax fraud.

Source: USA Today

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Financial Ombudsman Chief Natalie Ceeney says that why claims management companies receive at least 50% of the PPI claims compensation package is because banks were not doing their job properly. The Financial Services Authority early this year had tasked banks to call on customers who are potentially mis sold PPI. These includes employees who are protected by employers with sickness repayment funds, not just those ineligible for the insurance policy. However, banks did not perform their job well, having them play into the hands of claims management companies like PPICo.co.uk.

Even if CMCs are subject to public scrutiny, many consumers who were contacted by the companies evaluate if they do have mis sold PPI. About 7 out of 10 cases of mis sold PPI submitted by CMCs to the FOS are claims where the bank’s decision was not satisfactory for the customer. Most people working with CMCs are those who are working or have no time to make a claim, or supposedly those with multiple PPIs sold on loans and mortgages.  The FOS boss sees that CMCs actually help by “alerting all customers” while she discourages “cold” calls and text messages.

Natalie Ceeney states that banks are still “dragging their feet” to address the situation, which prompted the customer-bank relations organization to boost their manpower to 3,000 and expanding their work spaces at Canary Wharf. The FOS has also proposed a no-claim payout to allow customers to receive compensation automatically without having to make a claim.

Confederation of British Industry director general John Cridland called for a deadline for making PPI claims, believing that the scandal can get more expensive and time consuming. However, the proposal is still in debate given that banks have not written to customers who they believe have been mis sold PPI and that the volume of PPI mis sold is estimated by experts to be around 34 million for the entire United Kingdom.

The Violation Documenting Center, a group that makes documentation of all the casualties of the ceasefire between the Syrian government and the rebels, has tallied that at least 407 people were killed during the celebration of Eid holiday up to Wednesday. The total number of death upon the over a year civil war has now reached 32,013.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani stated that the Syrian regime is waging a “ war of extermination” even against Syrian civilians. The Qatar president also blamed the UN for just “idling” while the Syrian government killed hundreds during the four-day ceasefire.

UN-Arab League Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi was the one who proposed the ceasefire for Eid, which started on Friday and ended on Monday. However, it became evident to many Arab countries that the ceasefire was never fully observed. Qatar’s Prime Minister pointed out that Syria did comply with the truce with a special condition, that it would respond to “anything that took place on the ground”.

Brahimi recently met with Chinese and Russian officials to discuss solutions about the Syrian civil war. China has declared its support to Brahimi’s idea of having a political solution to the entire situation. China and Russia are well-known opponents who have vetoed more than once stronger actions proposed by the UN Security Council.

Source: CNN