Image copyrightReutersImage caption The attack, carried out from the Mandalay Bay hotel, killed 58 people
The man behind the mass shooting in Las Vegas shot and injured a security guard six minutes before carrying out the attack, officials say, in a major change to the timeline of events.
Police initially said the guard interrupted Stephen Paddock as the attack was under way.
The revelation is likely to raise questions why police were unable to locate Paddock earlier.
The attack left 58 people dead and was the worst in modern US history.
Paddock sprayed gunfire from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel on to a concert attended by thousands of people.
The guard – Jesus Campos – had been credited with distracting the gunman from killing more people because he was forced to shoot him through the door of the hotel room.
Police said at the time that after injuring the guard, Paddock stopped firing into the crowd.
But now police say that Paddock shot Campos in the leg at 9:59 pm on 1 October. They say the guard was investigating an alarm that went off in another room on the same floor.
‘Some things were bound to change’
Paddock began firing on the crowd at 10:05 pm, police say, and continued for up to 11 minutes more.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said that police did not realise that the security guard had been shot until they arrived on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. That was the case even though the guard managed to alert the hotel’s security team.
Mr Lombardo said new information had emerged during the investigation and that “some things were bound to change” given its complicated nature.
Police also say that the gunman, 64, was seen on numerous occasions in Las Vegas gambling heavily by himself the night before the shooting, which ended with him killing himself.
Paddock was dead by the time officers entered the room and it is not known why he had stopped shooting.
“This individual purposely hid his actions leading up to this event, and it is difficult for us to find the answers,” Mr Lombardo told a news conference. Paddock’s motives remain unclear.
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Media captionPolice officers who entered the Las Vegas gunman’s hotel room describe what they saw.
Extensive research into the gunman’s mental state found no occurrence in his life that may have triggered such a violent turn of events, police say.
It is suspected Paddock scouted out other locations near open-air concerts in the weeks before the Las Vegas attack.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
Google said it was investigating attempts to “abuse” its systems.
US intelligence agencies concluded earlier this year that Russia had tried to sway the election in favour of Donald Trump.
The Russian government strongly denies the claims and President Trump has denied any collusion with the Kremlin.
The issue is under investigation by US congressional committees and the Department of Justice.
Sources said to be close to the Google investigation said the company was looking into a group of adverts that cost less than $100,000 (£76,000).
Google said in a statement: “We have a set of strict ads policies including limits on political ad targeting and prohibitions on targeting based on race and religion. We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems, working with researchers and other companies, and will provide assistance to ongoing inquiries.”
Microsoft said on Monday it was also investigating whether any US election adverts had been bought by Russians for its Bing search engine or other products.
A spokesman told Reuters it had no further information at the moment.
Facebook said in September that it had uncovered a Russian-funded campaign to promote divisive social and political messages on its network.
It said that $100,000 was spent on about 3,000 ads over a two-year period, ending in May 2017.
American car registration plates have become aluminium works of art and collecting them has never been more popular.
On a quiet street in Arlington, Virginia, one man has squeezed the whole world into his garage.
On one wall, all 50 states of America. Next to it, all 13 of Canada’s provinces and territories.
Most of Mexico is above the garage door, while another wall zips from continent to continent: Montenegro one minute, Micronesia the next.
Andrew Pang has spent 40 years collecting plates, and every sheet of metal tells a story.
Andrew has “between 7,000 and 8,000 plates”. He received his first aged seven while growing up in Virginia.
“My friend and neighbour across the street was from Louisiana, and he would go back every summer,” says Andrew.
“One summer I said ‘bring me something back from Louisiana’. He chose to bring me a licence plate from his grandfather’s car dealership.”
Andrew had “dabbled” in stamp collecting and “had developed an interest in other countries, geography, maps”.
When Louisiana landed in his lap, he decided to start collecting. “I thought ‘everyone collects stamps’,” he says. “This was a little different.”
In the US, licence plates are issued by states / territories
When plates expire, they can be bought and sold by collectors
Some states issue hundreds of types of plates, usually to raise money or awareness for good causes
By the time Andrew was 12, he had a plate from all 50 states. His next challenge was collecting a Virginia plate from every year they were issued.
Virginia has issued plates since 1906.
“It took me 25 years to complete,” says Andrew.
He found the missing piece of the jigsaw when a woman in Fredericksburg, Virginia, sold her deceased husband’s collection. He bought a dozen plates – including the 1906 – for “around $4,000”.
After completing the Virginia set – or “run”, to use the terminology – Andrew looked for new worlds to conquer. Or new states, at least.
He spent four years in Texas, and completed its run. He now wants the set from all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, but admits it will take time.
“I’m very close on DC, Maryland, North Dakota,” he says. “But I particularly focus on quality (the plate’s condition). I could have finished many (runs) if I took anything.”
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Many states and territories use their plates to advertise their attractions
When Andrew started collecting plates, the hobby was an “oddity”, he says. But two things have changed that: the internet, and the trend for colourful, well-designed plates.
“Many of the plates in the old days were very, very boring,” he says. “At the time their only reason was for identification: two colours, no pictures, no designs.
“With a few notable exceptions, the first real foray into more interesting graphics was 1976 for the US bicentennial (the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence).
“At that time, quite a few states offered very specific bicentennial plates to everyone.”
The next marker, says Andrew, was in 1986. After the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Florida issued a plate with a rocket design to raise funds for the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.
States began to realise the potential of plates, and the era of brighter, distinctive designs began. Oregon’s plates have a fir tree, for example. North Dakota’s have a bison. Florida’s have two oranges.
The effect, when driving on American roads, is twofold. On one hand, the country seems vast: it’s not uncommon in DC to see plates from California, 3,000 miles away, for example.
On the other, it makes the country seem smaller, more interesting, and more united: oh look, there goes someone from Maine, or Michigan, or Montana. We’re all Americans here.
Image copyrightAndrew PangImage caption Plates design began to change in the 1970s – as seen in these examples from 1970 and 1996
There is, of course, another reason for the rise in well-designed plates.
“The American population is very mobile,” says Andrew, a 47-year-old accountant. “This summer we drove 6,000 miles across the country, and that’s not unusual.
“The states realised, ‘here’s my person from Virginia, people are going to see his licence plate, let’s do something’.
“If you’re in Florida, you’re nowhere near a mountain, but you see a car from Colorado and they have the snow-covered peaks on the plate.
“South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and many others put their tourism website on their licence plate. In many ways they have replaced the bumper sticker. It’s free advertising.”
Massachusetts issued the first licence plate in the US in 1903
American plates have been made from materials including porcelain, copper, and fibreboard
Among the rarest plates are 1913 Mississippi and 1921 Alaska. “When they change hands, it’s in the low five figures,” says Andrew
The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association began in 1954. It has almost 3,000 members from all 50 states and 19 countries.
Around 500 people attend its annual conventions, and there are smaller, regional meetings too. Jeff Minard became a member in the 1960s, aged 15.
“Your member number is related to when you joined,” says Jeff. “My number is 495. There are very few three-digit members alive.”
Jeff says licence plate collecting has become “enormous”, although he distinguishes between “serious” collectors, such as the association’s members, and those who may have a dozen or so in their garage.
“I’m not dismissing them at all (the less serious collectors),” he says. “But we’re a little more academic, if I can put it like that.”
One collector in Florida has 50,000 license plates. “Unbelievable,” says Jeff.
Jeff himself has 500, after downsizing his collection from 5,000. “I sold a lot,” he says. “I’m finding homes for them. I don’t want someone (else) to have to do that.
“We just hope they don’t get recycled for aluminium.”
Image caption Part of Andrew’s international collection – including the Monaco plate (0000)
Back in Arlington, Andrew Pang looks at the international plates on his garage wall. In between Albania and the Bahamas is a 1998 plate from Monaco, still in a plastic wrapper.
“I wrote to the prince, asking for a plate,” he says. “I didn’t expect anything to happen, but it arrived in the post a few weeks later.”
Most of Andrew’s plates, however, are bought online, rather than from royalty.
He has plates from former countries, such as East Germany, disputed territories, such as South Ossetia in eastern Europe, and moments in history, such as when Iraq occupied Kuwait.
He even has a plate from the pacific island of Vanuatu. It is made from wood.
Andrew is missing plates from around 40 countries and territories. The Pitcairn Islands – a tiny British territory in the south Pacific – are proving tricky, while the Vatican City is “tightly controlled”.
Could you buy one, if money wasn’t an issue?
“Probably, but you’re talking high hundreds (of dollars), maybe low thousands,” he says.
Image caption Andrew has plates from most countries
Despite having walls covered in plates, does Andrew still glance at every back bumper he passes?
“I am afflicted with that,” he admits.
“Just yesterday I saw a vehicle in a parking lot from Puerto Rico, and that’s quite unusual. In this area [near DC] I look for diplomatic plates.
“What really excites me is if I see a US diplomat that’s coming back from another country, but they’re back such a short period of time, the plates from the other country are still on the vehicle.”
And what does his wife make of it all?
“My wife is less of a hobbyist than I am,” says Andrew, smiling.
“While she has grown to understand it and live with it… she doesn’t necessarily embrace it.”
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
She said she had a direct line to the White House but did not want to “cause any kind of jealousy”.
The first Mrs Trump is promoting her book Raising Trump, to be released on Tuesday.
She was married to Donald Trump in 1977 but they divorced in the 1990s over his affair with Marla Maples, who became his second wife.
Ivana and Donald had three children – Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump.
Ivana Trump told GMA she spoke to her former husband about once a fortnight.
“I have the direct number to White House, but I no [sic] really want to call him there because Melania is there,” she said.
“I don’t want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I’m basically first Trump wife. I’m first lady, OK?”
Melania Trump responded with a barbed statement through her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.
“Mrs Trump has made the White House a home for [their son] Barron and The President,” it read.
“She loves living in Washington, DC and is honoured by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books.
“There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise.”
The exchange is thought to be the only public row between a US first lady and a president’s former wife.
Before Mr Trump, Ronald Reagan was the only divorcee president.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
The EPA under President Barack Obama said the Clean Power Plan could prevent up to 150,000 asthma attacks in children and 6,600 premature deaths.
But according to US media, a leaked draft of the repeal proposal disputes the health benefits touted by the previous administration.
The draft also reportedly argues the country would save $33bn (£25bn) by dropping the regulation.
The Clean Power Plan required states to devise a way to cut planet-warming emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Eliminating the rule would make it difficult for the US to fulfil its promise to cut emissions as part of the Paris Climate accord, a 2015 international agreement which President Obama signed with nearly 200 other countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.
But the move was largely viewed as symbolic as no nation seeking to leave the pact can officially announce an intention to withdraw until 4 November 2019.
The process of leaving then takes another year, meaning it would not be complete until just weeks after the US presidential election in 2020.
The planned repeal of the Clean Power Plan has sparked outrage among environmental groups.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) threatened to sue the EPA if the plan is repealed while the Sierra Club has indicated it would fight any new rule that does not comply with the country’s air pollution laws.
Mary Anne Hitt, the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement the Trump administration was “putting the safety of our communities at risk, and making it crystal clear they have no intention of safeguarding people from the very real, immediate dangers of climate change”.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
A lecturer with Kaduna State University (KASU), Dr Terhemba Wuam, has advised Nigerian government to institute economic policies with human face to quell the brewing agitations that may evolved into revolution in the country.
Wuam, the Head of History in the university gave the advice in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria while interacting with journalists at a sideline of a Two-Day National Conference organised by the university entitled, “Socialism and Capitalism in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Reflection on the 2017 Russian Revolution and its Legacies.”
Wuam explained that the underlining conditions of autocratic rule by the ruling class, the remnants of feudalism and poverty of peasant and the working class made socialist revolution in 1971 possible in Russia.
According to him, the ideological architect of the revolution was Karl Marx, when he described capitalism as exploitative and inherently evil against the working class and the masses, adding that such system must be done away with.
“Following the 1917 revolution, the Bolshevik took over Russia; introduce socialism and abolished capitalism and private property for the first in world history,” he explained.
He stressed that through socialism, Russia, known then as the Soviet Union, from 1917 until its collapse in 1989, was able to guarantee education for all, healthcare for all, and work for all.
He added that the success of socialism in Russia and China over the years has forced United State of America and other capitalist countries to reform capitalism and gave it a human face.
“The capitalist countries leant that if they don’t treat their masses and workers well, they would revolt like what happened in Russia.
“So they introduced minimum wage and other welfare packages, as a result of agitations by Marx and socialism, thereby reducing it exploitative nature, “he added.
Wuam said that Nigeria could learn from this by making her own kind of capitalism to be more humane, by particularly taken care of the poor people, provide free education and health care services from the benefits of capitalism.
He said: “October 2017 marked 100 years since socialism was introduced and a socio-economic and political system and we felt expedient to take a look at the event and see what lesson it has to offer for Nigeria and Africa.
“This is because, although, we can say that Marx was a whistleblower against the evils capitalism, capitalism is a good system for producing wealth, but the question has been; who enjoys the wealth it produced?
“Therefore, various agitations from different part of the country could be address if Nigeria’s economic policies have a human face, through introduction of welfare packages and equitable distribution of wealth.”
Earlier, KASU Dean of Post Graduate School, Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa, said that capitalism has eroded welfare system, ended free education and cheap housing and was equally responsible for the massive unemployment across the globe.
According to him, though socialism has collapsed in 1991, the Russian Revolution should not be forgotten, but we should draw on its many lessons in order to strengthen our struggle against capitalism as a system
“The system is daily proving less and less capable of meeting even the most basic needs. In fact, the struggle by America to sustain this system by all means was is a major factor in today’s global conflicts,” he added.
Also speaking, the KASU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mohammed Tanko, urged the government to look at the social ills that prompted the peasants and workers in Russia to rise up against the ruling class.
“If we have similar conditions that relate to the 1917 Russian Revolution, then the federal government and the capitalist in the country must ensure that the wealth of the society is equitably distributed.
“Not only that, the country must also ensure that the common man is taken care off through ensuring that socio-economic safety nets exist for the most poor and the vulnerable in the society.
“Taken step to work for the good of the masses will be laying the foundation to prevent similar revolutions in the twenty-first century witnessed in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and the Middle East,“ he observed.
Image copyright Reuters 
