Two people died a helicopter crashed in central London after it clipped a large construction crane. Security officials say there is no indication of any terrorist involvement.

The helicopter crashed in the city's southwestern district of Wandsworth, close to Vauxhall train station, at about 8 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

London police confirmed that two people had died in the incident, with two others taken to hospital.

Witnesses said the helicopter first hit the crane and then crashed some 400 meters (1,300 feet) away.

"There was a massive explosion. People were shouting and screaming," on eyewitness told the BBC. Another said he had seen the aircraft burst into flames before hitting the ground.

Security officials at London's Counterterrorism Command said there was "nothing to suggest any terrorist link."

The prime minister has refused to confirm or deny claims that he has given cabinet colleagues freedom to campaign for Britain to exit the European Union in a future referendum.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, used the weekly prime minister's questions to challenge David Cameron over reports that he would drop the usual requirement for "collective responsibility" around the cabinet table.

"When it comes to Europe it's the same old Tories: a divided party and a weak prime minister," said Miliband.

In reply, Cameron twice avoided answering the question, instead accusing Labour of avoiding the "issue" of Europe's changing powers and the UK's relationship with the EU. "If you want to take back powers from Europe you vote Conservative; if you want to give away powers to Europe you vote Labour," he said.

Just two days before the prime minister's much-awaited speech on plans to renegotiate the UK membership of Europe and put it to a referendum, probably in 2018, the subject dominated the half-hour session, accounting for all six of the Labour leader's questions.

Germany has said it is sending two transport planes to Mali to help shore up an initial battle against Islamist insurgents. French ground troops already in Mali were set to engage directly with the rebels Wednesday.

The German government on Wednesday pledged two Transall military transport planes to fly troops of the 15-nation west African grouping ECOWAS to the Malian capital Bamako.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the two C-160 planes would depart once technical details had been resolved.

"Germany will provide logistical support based on the situation on the ground," de Maiziere told reporters at a hastily-called press conference in Berlin.

A Russian court on Wednesday rejected Pussy Riot band member Maria Alyokhina's plea to defer her prison sentence until after her 5-year-old son reaches adolescence, despite fears the child will be irrevocably harmed by her absence. By News Wires (text)  

A Russian court has turned down the attempt by an imprisoned member of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band to defer serving her sentence until her pre-school son becomes a teenager.

Maria Alekhina on Wednesday asked the court to let her serve the rest of her two-year sentence after her 5-year-old son turns 14, arguing that separation from her child now will do irreparable psychological damage.

She was convicted last year along with two other band members of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia's main cathedral. One of the women had her sentence suspended on appeal.

Social Democrat Malu Dreyer is the new state premier in Rhineland-Palatinate. The 51-year-old officially took over from Kurt Beck, in office for more than 18 years, after unsurprisingly clearing a parliamentary vote.

Marie-Luise ("Malu") Dreyer won 60 of 100 valid votes in the regional parliament in Mainz on Wednesday - exactly the number of seats held by the ruling Social Democrat (SPD) and Green coalition - confirming that she would succeed Kurt Beck as the state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate.

She thus became the fourth female German state premier, along with Hannelore Kraft in North-Rhine Westphalia, Christine Lieberknecht in Thuringia and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Saarland. Dreyer and Kraft are both Social Democrats, while Lieberknecht and Kramp-Karrenbauer are members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

The new state premier used her acceptance speech to urge cooperation with the Christian Democrat opposition in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Just one in four Russians thinks the body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin should remain ensconced in its dark mausoleum on Red Square, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

The new findings have fuelled speculation that the Russian authorities may bury Lenin's body - a measure that remains highly politically charged 89 years after the Soviet leader's death.

The Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found that 25% of those polled believed Lenin should remain in his mausoleum - a record low since the organisation first began asking the question in 1997. Most of those polled - 34% - said Lenin should be buried in St Petersburg's Volkovsky cemetery, while 19% wanted to see him buried in the Kremlin walls, alongside other Soviet luminaries.

Lenin's body, displayed in a glass case inside a mausoleum just outside the Kremlin's walls, has become more of a tourist curio than the site of pilgrimage it was during Soviet times. Yet Russia's Communists, the country's second-biggest party after United Russia, as well as their mainly elderly supporters, have fiercely opposed any discussion of moving the body of a man they still revere.

Perhaps that's why Moscow has been awash in rumours that Lenin's body will be moved secretly. A great white tarpaulin went over the mausoleum last month, ostensibly for a four-month renovation to the structure's foundation and back wall. Officials were forced to deny the white bubble was designed to hide secret goings-on inside.

Negotiations on Scotland's position in Europe will take place from within the EU after a referendum on independence next year, said First Minister Alex Salmond.

Following an expected positive outcome, talks between Scottish ministers and EU officials would take place before the transfer of sovereignty, in 2016, Salmond told BBC News on Wednesday (16 January).

"Scotland will still be a member of the UK so negotiations will take place by definition from within the European Union", he said.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has said that any newly formed state would have to reapply for membership from outside the EU.

But Salmond does not believe that will be the case for his country.

Pierre Moscovici says he does not accept the procedure to bulldoze the Dutch finance minister into the job of eurozone chairman; said France does not want to block him (just yet), but seeks written assurance from Dijsselbloem over a number of key points, such as banking union; Moscovici calls him sympathetic but not very experienced; France is now seeking an official procedure to seek out candidates for the job; eurogroup expressed surprise as they had hoped that this appointment had been sealed; Germany supports France in the rejection of the key recommendation of the Liikanen group - the separation of investment banking and commercial banking; Mario Monti declares the financial crisis to be over - it ended, and we are still here, he said; the bad loans ratio of Italian banks has risen last year; thanks to the recession, Italy has recorded a trade surplus for 2012; after the success of the 15 year bond, Italy now considers issuing a 30-year bond; Elisabetta Gualmini argues that the last thing Italy needs now are new elections, especially since the electoral law has not been reformed; Russia warns of another global currency war, criticising Japan's expansionary policies; Germany's economics ministers and Austria's central bank chief disagree with Jean-Claude Juncker's assessment of an overvalued euro; Philipp Rosler also rejects the call by Mariano Rajoy for a stimulus in the economies of the creditor countries; the European Parliament agrees tougher rules for rating agencies;  MEPs also pass a resolution calling for a pooling of sovereign debt through a debt redemption fund; Latin Americans are turning their back on Spain, where net immigration has become negative; Greek political parties are at odds over how to vote on Lagarde list investigation; Megan Greene says the inept handling of the Lagarde list has the potential to bring down the Greek government; the Irish central bank works on a compromise to secure a deal on promissory notes by March; the region of Salzburg found large undisclosed assets in a financial probe; Wolfgang Munchau criticises the SPD's policies on tax evasion; Paolo Manasse says the euro crisis has actually gotten a lot worse;  Ashoka Mody, meanwhile, expects the eurozone core to crack soon.

Germany's government has revised its 2013 economic outlook, expecting slower growth than predicted earlier, ahead of a strong rebound towards the end of 2013. It hopes faltering exports will be offset by domestic demand.

Germany's economy would likely grow by 0.4 percent this year, the government in Berlin said Wednesday, as it cut its original 2013 growth prediction of 1 percent by more than half.

A temporary weakness in the first few months would be overcome by a significant revival in the course of the remaining year, Economics Minister Philipp Rösler told journalists in Berlin.

Rösler also said he expected a return to stronger growth in 2014, when economic activity in Germany would accelerate to an annual rate of 1.6 percent.

On Tuesday, Germany's Federal Statistics Office released preliminary growth data for last year, showing that German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by a feeble 0.7 percent in 2012, after notching up growth of 4.2 percent and 3.0 percent respectively in 2010 and 2011.

Here it comes...

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Goldman Sachs risked stoking the row over City pay on Wednesday by revealing its bankers were paid an average of $400,000 (£250,000) each last year, a rise of more than $30,000 a head on 2011.

Goldman's annual financial results show the bank has set aside $13bn to cover the salaries, bonuses and perks for the 32,400 it employs around the world. Details of the payroll come just a day after the bank was forced to back down from plans to defer bonuses until April so that its highly paid staff could avoid the 50% tax rate.

The size of the bill to pay staff is 6% higher than a year ago. However, the average individual payouts to staff are higher as the number of employees has fallen by 3%.

Staff will find out in the coming days what their bonuses for 2012 will be. Some of them will be expecting to receive millions of pounds .

Pressure from Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King - who said he found it "depressing" that highly paid staff might attempt to avoid the highest rate of income tax - forced Goldman to abandon plans to defer part-payment of bonuses from 2009, 2010 and 2011 which were due to be handed to staff this year. The top rate of income tax falls to 45% on 6 April, the start of the new tax year.

Companies in the euro area are poised to cut dividends to the lowest level in four years as chief executive officers stockpile cash to weather the region's sovereign-debt crisis.

Payouts to shareholders in the Euro Stoxx 50 Index (SX5E) will fall by 3.3 percent to a combined 115.48 euros a share this year, according to more than 500 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Reducing them by that much would cut the dividend yield to 4.3 percent from 6.3 percent in September 2011, even after cash on balance sheets climbed to the highest since 2008, the data show.

The forecasts suggest more companies will follow Royal KPN NV and Enel SpA in reducing payouts as the debt crisis pushes unemployment in Spain and Greece to more than 25 percent and China's economy cools.

The forecasts suggest more companies will follow Royal KPN NV and Enel SpA in reducing payouts as the debt crisis pushes unemployment in Spain and Greece to more than 25 percent and China's economy cools. Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

The forecasts suggest more companies will follow Royal KPN NV and Enel SpA (ENEL) in reducing payouts as the debt crisis pushes unemployment in Spain and Greece to more than 25 percent and China's economy cools. Analysts are cutting estimates amid a rally that has sent the Euro Stoxx 50 to a 17-month high as central-bank measures hold down bond yields.

"Within Europe, it's excess cash on balance sheets" that attracts investors, said Bank of America Corp.'s John Bilton, European investment strategist at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit in London. "The current levels of dividend yield are not sustainable."

The world is on the brink of a fresh "currency war," Russia warned, as European policy makers joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising exchange rates.

"Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow," Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, said at a conference today in Moscow.

The alert from the country that chairs the Group of 20 came as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained of a "dangerously high" euro and officials in Norway and Sweden expressed exchange-rate concern.

The push for weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The risk is as each country tries to boost exports, it hurts the competitiveness of other economies and provokes retaliation.

Yesterday "will go down as the first day European policy makers fired a shot in the 2013 currency war," said Chris Turner, head of foreign-exchange strategy at ING Groep NV in London.

Moody's Investors Service cut its 2013 outlook for all of U.S. higher education to negative, citing mounting pressure on revenue sources.

"Most universities will have to lower their cost structures to achieve long-term financial sustainability and fund future initiatives," Moody's said today in a report, led by analyst Eva Bogaty.

The ratings company previously had a stable rating for market-leading research institutions and a negative rating for other U.S. universities and colleges since 2009. The cost to attend college has increased faster than the rate of inflation over the past four decades, with some private institutions topping $60,000 a year.

Price sensitivity is having a greater impact on student demand because of a "prolonged period of depressed family income and household net worth," and because the number of high school graduates has been declining since the 2007-2008 academic year, Moody's said.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama called upon Congress on Wednesday to toughen America's gun laws to confront mass shootings and everyday gun violence, betting that public opinion has shifted enough to support the broadest push for gun control in a generation.

At a White House event at noon, Mr. Obama announced plans to introduce legislation by next week that includes a ban on assault weapons, limits on high-capacity magazines, expanded background checks for gun purchases and new gun trafficking laws to crack down on the spread of weapons across the country.

He also promised to act without Congressional approval to increase the enforcement of existing gun laws and improve the flow of information among federal agencies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and others who shouldn't have them.

rench troops have begun direct ground combat against fighters belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Dine group in Mali.

Quoting Sanda Ould Boumana, spokesman for Ansar al-Dine, Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reported from Bamako on Wednesday that the French forces had moved 400km north from the Malian capital and were shelling Diabaly, a town in central Mali.

She quoted Ould Boumana as saying that "the fighting is happening 2km from the centre of Diabaly, away from the civilians".

"Military sources in the Malian army have told Al Jazeera that French special forces are fighting in the town," she said.

Edouard Guillaud, France's military chief of staff, said the French ground operations in the West African country began overnight.

At least 28 people have been killed and more than 200 others injured in attacks across Iraq, with at least two of them aimed at Kurdish targets in the country's north.

In Wednesday's deadliest attack, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Kirkuk, apparently targeting an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

They struck in the centre of the ethnically mixed northern Iraqi city, located 240km north of Baghdad.

At least one blast appeared to target a compound housing local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish regional president.

The two car bombs killed at least 26 people and wounded 190, Sadiq Omar Rasul, provincial health chief, said.

"Both explosions inflicted massive destruction," Brigadier-General Sarhad Qader of Kirkuk police said.

"Our forces are still trying to remove corpses from the rubble" of the first attack.

The Venezuelan vice-president, Nicolás Maduro, has given a brief state-of-the-nation address in place of his ailing boss, Hugo Chávez, who has not been seen in public since going to Cuba for cancer surgery more than a month ago.

Maduro stood in for Chávez with a 10-minute speech to Congress in which he defended the president's decision to rule the Opec nation from a hospital bed in Havana despite opposition calls for him to step aside and name a temporary leader.

"We are following the constitution in an impeccable manner," Maduro, Chávez's heir apparent, told MPs, holding up a copy of the 1999 charter Chávez helped write.

The brevity of the speech, in sharp contrast to Chávez's nine-and-a-half-hour address last year, came as a surprise following Maduro's month-long effort to impersonate Chávez's bombastic charisma.

Maduro offered no new information about the president's cancer, which threatens to upend Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution and convulse the political order of a country that holds the world's biggest oil reserves.

On January 13, The New York Times reported that air pollution levels in Beijing, China were elevated to a point "beyond indexing". The readings help form the Air Quality Index (PDF), which is used to determine levels of harmful particulate matter, and topped out at 755 ppm at a monitoring station at the U.S. Embassy (on a scale of 500).

The folks at NASA have posted two satellite images that show what the entire Beijing region looks like with and without a shroud of smog:

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Last year's drought increased the spread of a carcinogenic mold called aspergillus (Aspergillus flavus), a fungal pathogen that poisons cattle, kills pets and has infected the 2012 corn crop, rendering significant portions of the harvest unfit for consumption.

Whereas the deadly organism mainly affects countries like China and developing African nations, many U.S. states have experienced an increase in corn contamination since 2011. Farmers are likely to see more of the carcinogen as temperatures continue to rise and droughts become more frequent.

"It's really a climate variable issue," says Barbara Stinson, founding and senior partner of Meridian Institute, a public policy organization. "We're probably looking at an increase in aflatoxin as a result of that."

A. flavus releases toxic spores that can be fatal when ingested, prompting symptoms that include jaundice, liver cancer and internal bleeding. The poison is so deadly that in 1995 Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein confessed to weaponizing the mold spores for use in biological warfare. The high toxicity of the mold means crops with more than 20 parts per billion--the equivalent of about 100 kernels in a truckload of corn--can't cross state lines, says Ronnie Heiniger, professor of cropping systems at North Carolina State University.

Jan. 15, 2013 -- In addition to causing smoggy skies and chronic coughs, soot -- or black carbon -- turns out to be the number two contributor to global warming. It's second only to carbon dioxide, according to a four-year assessment by an international panel.

The new study concludes that black carbon, the soot particles in smoke and smog, contributes about twice as much to global warming as previously estimated, even by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"We were surprised at its potential contribution to climate," said Sarah Doherty, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist and one of four coordinating lead authors. The silver lining may be that controlling these emissions can deliver more immediate climate benefits than trying to control carbon dioxide, she said.

The paper was made freely available online Jan. 15 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres

The world's most widely used insecticide has for the first time been officially labelled an "unacceptable" danger to bees feeding on flowering crops. Environmental campaigners say the conclusion, by Europe's leading food safety authority, sounds the "death knell" for the insect nerve agent.

The chemical's manufacturer, Bayer, claimed the report, released on Wednesday, did not alter existing risk assessments and warned against "over-interpretation of the precautionary principle".

The report comes just months after the UK government dismissed a fast-growing body of evidence of harm to bees as insufficient to justify banning the chemicals.

Bees and other pollinators are critical to one-third of all food, but two major studies in March 2012, and others since, have implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in the decline in the insects, alongside habitat loss and disease. In April, the European commission demanded a re-examination of the risks posed by the chemicals, including Bayer's widely used imidacloprid and two others.

Scientists at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), together with experts from across Europe, concluded on Wednesday that for imidacloprid "only uses on crops not attractive to honeybees were considered acceptable" because of exposure through nectar and pollen. Such crops include oil seed rape, corn and sunflowers. EFSA was asked to consider the acute and chronic effects on bee larvae, bee behaviour and the colony as a whole, and the risks posed by sub-lethal doses. But it found a widespread lack of information in many areas and had stated previously that current "simplistic" regulations contained "major weaknesses".

In an unprecedented move, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today retroactively re-categorized 47 Japanese nuclear reactors from "in operation" to "long-term shutdown" in its Power Reactor Information System. Thus, the global number of nuclear reactors listed as "in operation" drops from 437 to 390, a number not seen since Chernobyl-year 1986, when 391 operating units were on the list. Without a doubt, the step is a unique revision of world operational nuclear data -- not to mention a solid recognition of the industrial reality in Japan.

However, numerous questions remain. Though the agency officially defines its reactor-status categories, the actual specifics related to the handling of these categories remain unclear. Units can remain in the long-term shutdown category for many years, without any apparent limit. With today's change, Japan now has a total of 48 units listed under this category -- the Monju Nuclear Power Plant, a fast breeder reactor that has not been generating electricity since a sodium fire severely damaged the plant in 1995, was the only unit that the agency qualified for long-term shutdown before today's reshuffling.

Jan. 15, 2013 -- A team of researchers from Université Laval, CHU de Québec, and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has discovered a way to stimulate the brain's natural defense mechanisms in people with Alzheimer's disease. This major breakthrough, details of which are presented January 15 in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), opens the door to the development of a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness.

One of the main characteristics of Alzheimer's disease is the production in the brain of a toxic molecule known as amyloid beta. Microglial cells, the nervous system's defenders, are unable to eliminate this substance, which forms deposits called senile plaques.

The team led by Dr. Serge Rivest, professor at Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine and researcher at the CHU de Québec research center, identified a molecule that stimulates the activity of the brain's immune cells. The molecule, known as MPL (monophosphoryl lipid A), has been used extensively as a vaccine adjuvant by GSK for many years, and its safety is well established.

In mice with Alzheimer's symptoms, weekly injections of MPL over a twelve-week period eliminated up to 80% of senile plaques. In addition, tests measuring the mice's ability to learn new tasks showed significant improvement in cognitive function over the same period.

Jan. 14, 2013 -- Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, are the first to show chimpanzees possess a sense of fairness that has previously been attributed as uniquely human. Working with colleagues from Georgia State University, the researchers played the Ultimatum Game with the chimpanzees to determine how sensitive the animals are to the reward distribution between two individuals if both need to agree on the outcome.>

The researchers say the findings, available in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) available this week, suggest a long evolutionary history of the human aversion to inequity as well as a shared preference for fair outcomes by the common ancestor of humans and apes.

According to first author Darby Proctor, PhD, "We used the Ultimatum Game because it is the gold standard to determine the human sense of fairness. In the game, one individual needs to propose a reward division to another individual and then have that individual accept the proposition before both can obtain the rewards. Humans typically offer generous portions, such as 50 percent of the reward, to their partners, and that's exactly what we recorded in our study with chimpanzees."

Co-author Frans de Waal, PhD, adds, "Until our study, the behavioral economics community assumed the Ultimatum Game could not be played with animals or that animals would choose only the most selfish option while playing. We've concluded that chimpanzees not only get very close to the human sense of fairness, but the animals may actually have exactly the same preferences as our own species." For purposes of direct comparison, the study was also conducted separately with human children.

Two top Japanese airlines grounded their Boeing's 787 Dreamliner fleets for safety checks on Wednesday, after one was forced to make an emergency landing in the latest of a catalogue of safety and engineering failures plaguing the new jet. By Rochelle FERGUSON (video)
News Wires (text)  

Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, heightening safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation.

All Nippon Airways Co said it was grounding all 17 of its 787s and Japan Airlines Co said it suspended all 787 flights scheduled for Wednesday. ANA said its planes could be back in the air as soon as Thursday once checks were completed. The two carriers operate around half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date.

Wednesday's incident follows a series of mishaps for the new Dreamliner. The sophisticated plane, the world's first mainly carbon-composite airliner, has suffered fuel leaks, a battery fire, wiring problem, brake computer glitch and cracked cockpit window in recent days.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Dengue is the world's fastest-spreading tropical disease and represents a "pandemic threat", infecting an estimated 50 million people across all continents, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes, the disease is occurring more widely due to increased movement of people and goods - including carrier objects such as bamboo plants and used tires - as well as floods linked to climate change, the United Nations agency said.

The viral disease, which affected only a handful of areas in the 1950s, is now present in more than 125 countries - significantly more than malaria, historically the most notorious mosquito-borne disease.

The most advanced vaccine against dengue is only 30 percent effective, trials last year showed.

"In 2012, dengue ranked as the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease with an epidemic potential in the world, registering a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past 50 years," the WHO said in a statement.

Late last year, Europe's suffered its first sustained outbreak since the 1920s, with 2,000 people infected on the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira.

There's a good chance you spend more than a quarter of each week reading and answering those emails. 

That factlet comes courtesy of the McKinsey Global Institute, which broke down how so-called "interaction workers" spend their days. They describe these as people whose jobs require "complex interactions with other people, independent judgment, and access to information." I'm interpreting it as consultant speak for "office stiff." 

The upshot: we spend 13 hours a week, or 28 percent of our office time, on email. Assuming two weeks vacation, that multiplies out to 650 hours a year. 

Just look at all the rules that relate to firearms:

• Everyone 13 years and older "shall annually demonstrate proficiency with the rifle of his/her choice by hitting a man-sized steel target at 100 yards with open sights at the Citadel range."
  
• They must also "annually demonstrate proficiency with a handgun of choice by hitting a man-sized steel target at 25 yards with open sights at the Citadel range."
  
• "Every able-bodied Patriot of age within the Citadel will maintain one AR15 variant in 5.56mm NATO, at least 5 magazines and 1,000 rounds of ammunition." An individual mandate!
  
• "Every child attending Citadel schools -- with parental discretion for maturity -- shall have as part of every semester's class curriculum basic marksmanship and firearms safety training leading to the proficiency test on the child's 13th birthday as a 'Coming of Age' rite of passage."
  
• "All Patriots, who are of age and are not legally restricted from bearing firearms, shall agree to remain armed with a loaded sidearm whenever visiting the Citadel Town Center. Firearm shall be on-the-person and under the control of the Resident, not merely stored in a vehicle."

I am glad I live in a country where people who want to live under rules like this are free to buy between 2,000 and 3,000 acres of private land, enclose 640 of those acres behind walls and towers, and pursue their heavily fortified version of happiness. Along with the rules related to guns, there would be mandatory participation in a militia for defensive purposes, biannual town defense drills, and a mandate that every household "remain stocked with sufficient food, water, and other preparedness essentials to sustain ... every member of the household for one year."

Presumably, to the surounding farmland?

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman