Four people are dead after a lone gunman went on a shooting spree in the Espoo shopping centre near Helsinki, Finland Thursday morning 31 December. Another is injured. The man, who reportedly has a criminal record, opened fire on the second floor of the mall. The Times, UK, reports that “there are 1.6 million firearms in private hands in Finland, which has a population of just 5.3 million. It ranks in the top five nations in the world for civilian gun ownership.”

Links to other sites: The Times, UK,

The US Army major who went on a rampage and killed 13 people at a US Army base at Fort Hood, Texas 6 November has been charged with 13 counts of murder. Nidal Hasan has been in hospital since he was shot by police officers, and may be paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the wounds he sustained, according to his defense attorney who saw him in prison. AP, Reuters

A man went on a shooting spree in two towns, Geneva and Samson in Geneva County, Alabama, USA and killed 10 people as he sprayed a series of targets with semi-automatic fire, including his mother, whose house he burned, his grandmother and an aunt and uncle, according to the BBC. CNN