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Fort Hood mourns shooting's victims

FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Fort Hood, Texas, observed a day of mourning Friday to honor the victims of a shooting at the Army base's Soldier Readiness Center, base officials said.

A 13th massacre victim died in a hospital after being shot and wounded by alleged gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who pulled out two handguns and began firing on soldiers as they prepared to deploy, Col. John Rossi, deputy commanding general at Fort Hood, said Friday during a news conference.

Of the 30 people injured, 28 remain hospitalized, Rossi said. One civilian was among the 13 who died and several civilians were among the injured, he said.

Hasan was shot four times by a civilian police officer and remained hospitalized on a ventilator, the colonel said.

The female civilian police officer who shot and wounded Hasan was hospitalized in stable condition, Col. Steven Braverman, base hospital commander, said.

Rossi said FBI and military law enforcement personnel were investigating the incident, including a possible motive.

Rossi said he unaware of an initial confrontation between Hasan and other people.

"We really don't want to get into speculating what he was doing," Rossi said.

In the nearby town of Killeen, a SWAT team and FBI agents searched Hasan's apartment for clues to what led to the shooting, CNN said

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Alleged shooter wanted out of military

FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 people at Fort Hood, Texas, feared going to Iraq and resented being harassed for being Muslim, his relatives said.

Possible motives for the Thursday massacre, which also left 31 wounded at the sprawling Army base, remained elusive as a sketchy, often puzzling portrait of the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, began to emerge.

Hasan, 39, had spent more than half his life in the military. He signed up for the Army out of high school, over his parents' objections, after growing up in Arlington, Va., and the military paid his way through college and medical school, family members said.

Yet by Thursday, he had spoken openly against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and appeared to want out of the military desperately.

His aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., told The Washington Post he had been harassed about his Muslim faith since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and had sought a discharge from the Army for several years.

"Some people can take it, and some cannot," she said. "He had listened to all of that (harassment), and he wanted out of the military, and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay" for his medical training.

Hasan graduated in 1997 from Virginia Tech University, where he was an ROTC member, and received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He completed his residency at Walter Reed Medical Center and worked there until being transferred to Hood this year.

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Israel concerned over Abbas' resignation

JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced his resignation, Israeli officials expressed concern for the peace process, officials said.

After Abbas' broadcast announcement from Ramallah, West Bank, Thursday evening, Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the Palestinian leader to remain. Peres said Abbas' departure would deprive the Palestinian people of an independent state, Haaretz said.

The newspaper said Peres told Abbas if he leaves, "the situation in the region would deteriorate. Stay for the Palestinian people's sake."

While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refrained from publicly commenting on the situation, behind closed doors he reportedly told officials it was in Israel's interest to have a strong Abbas who could move negotiations forward, the paper said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he hopes Abbas' decision will not damage attempts to resume peace negotiations, the paper said.

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India bus crash kills 30 passengers

NEW DELHI, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An overcrowded passenger bus crashed into a ravine Friday in India, killing at least 30 passengers, police said.

Forty-eight other passengers were injured in the incident near Haripur in the northern mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, the Press Trust of India reported.

The bus was traveling to Dehra from Nagrota Suriyan when its driver lost control of the vehicle which then plunged into a 100-foot deep ravine, a police official said.

The injured were taken to a nearby hospital. Rescue workers at the scene said the death toll was expected to rise.

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Ida soaks Nicaragua, nearing Honduras

MIAMI, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Former Hurricane Ida was drifting northward to the border of Nicaragua and Honduras early Friday after dropping almost 20 inches of rain, U.S. forecasters said.

At 7 a.m., Ida was at tropical depression status with winds of 35 mph, moving northward at 6 mph about 65 miles west-southwest of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua/Honduras border, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Further weakening was anticipated Friday while the system was over land, but computer models suggested Ida could regain strength during the weekend as it enters the eastern Caribbean Sea and then moves further north into the Gulf of Mexico.

The projections show Ida could impact the coastal U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Florida in about a week.