Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the US army officer alleged to have gone on on a shooting spree at a military base in Texas, killing 11 people and wounding more than 30 others, is alive but wounded, officials have said.

The announcement came hours after it was reported that Maj Hasan had been shot dead by the authorities after he allegedly walked into a training centre and opened fire on fellow soldiers who were having last minute medical check-ups before being deployed to Afghanistan.

Maj Hasan was in custody and was in a stable condition, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said. The death toll from the shooting remains at 12.

Lt Gen Cone offered little explanation to reporters at a news conference as to why the suspect was believed dead, saying only there was confusion at the hospital.

The massacre took place at the sprawling Fort Hood base, the largest American military installation in the world. It is not clear if the attack was an act of political terrorism.

Sources said Maj Hasan had been due to be deployed to Iraq shortly and was an army psychiatrist. He is believed to have been in his late 30s and from Virginia.

It was reported that he did not want to go to Iraq.

Ten of the victims were soldiers and one was a civilian police officer. Two other injured soldiers were in a “very serious” condition in hospital.

Gun fire later erupted around the base as two alleged accomplices, also US soldiers, were captured and police said there may have been more than one gunman.

One of them had barricaded himself in a traumatic brain injury unit where he was surrounded by SWAT teams. Four police officers were wounded before he was arrested.

More than 500 soldiers were deployed to lock down Fort Hood as helicopters hovered overhead.

Base commander Lieutenant General Bob Cone said: “It has been a terrible tragedy, it’s stunning. We have a terrible, tragic situation here. Soldiers, family members and the civilians that work here are absolutely devastated.

The army has confirmed there was just one shooter.

The attack took place in the Soldier Readiness Centre, a former sports dome, where soldiers go for final checks before being sent overseas.

As well as soldiers about to be deployed, those returning and undergoing medical screening would have been there.

It happened shortly before a graduation ceremony for soldiers was due to start at the base.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Washington, said it was a “horrific outburst of violence.”

He said: “These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times, give their lives to protect us.

“It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave men and women overseas. It is horrifying when we lose them on American soil.”

Fort Hood is one of the US’s premier installations for training heavy forces and tens of thousands of soldiers go through every year, many heading to Afghanistan.

It covers an area of 340 square miles near Killeen, some 50 miles from Waco, Texas.

There are up to 65,000 people, including families, on the site at any one time.

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said: “Our dedicated military personnel have sacrificed so much in service to our country and it sickens me that the men and women of Fort Hood have been subjected to this senseless, random violence.”

Local congressman John Carter said: “I had a man on the scene, who is the former chaplian at Fort Hood. He was waiting to go to a graduation ceremony when a soldier came running up to him saying somebody was shooting. He heard small arms and some rifle fire.”

Fort Hood has also been working to rehabilitate many soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, Mr Carter said.

George Stratton said his son, George Stratton III, was five feet away from the shooter and suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder.

He said: “I talked to him right before surgery. He said, ‘Dad, I’m getting ready to go into surgery. I love you.”

Base commanders and the Pentagon said they had no early indication of a motive for the shootings.

The base has seen other violence in recent years. In September last year a 21-year-old 1st Cavalry Division soldier shot his lieutenant to death and then killed himself.

Five American soldiers died in Baghdad earlier this year in a shooting by one of their comrades at a combat stress clinic. It had been set up by the Pentagon following criticism that the US military had not done enough to treat soldiers who had undergone repeated tours of duty.

Iwan Wibisono shares his view

Aftermath in Vailoa Sliding Rock Coast

French “Spiderman” Alain Robert was arrested Tuesday after successfully scaling Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, in his third attempt on the nation’s tallest structure, police said.

The 46-year-old began climbing the 88-storey (452m) building before dawn and reached the top before being discovered by security officials, Kuala Lumpur police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman told AFP.

Indonesian police have shot dead a man suspected to be leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body, police sources said on Saturday.

A raid was still going on at a remote house in rice fields in Temanggung where three to four suspected militants were thought to be holed up.

After an overnight standoff and sporadic exchanges of gunfire, shots and explosions could be heard as TV footage showed heavily armed black-clad police from the anti-terrorism unit creeping toward the house, some sheltering behind shields.

Local TV network TVOne quoted an unnamed police source as saying that Top may still be in the house after being shot and wounded.

Separately, police said they had killed two suspected militants and found up to 500 kg of bombs during a raid on a house in the Bekasi area near the capital Jakarta.

Malaysian-born Top is a prime suspect thought to be behind the near simultaneous suicide attacks on two luxury Jakarta hotels.

The July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed nine and wounded 53, including Indonesians and foreigners, and broke a four-year lull.

Police have launched a series of raids since Friday and a police source close to the investigation into the hotel attacks told Reuters the man suspected to be Top was killed during a raid on a workshop in Temanggung, over 250 miles southeast of Jakarta.

“He was shot dead,” the source said, adding that raids in the area had led police to the house in Bekasi, just east of the capital, where bombs had been found. A Reuters correspondent in Bekasi heard a loud blast from the cordoned-off area.

A source in Indonesia’s anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 also said police believed Top had been killed.

“I think this is very significant. Hopefully the person in Temanggung is Noordin,” said national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna.

Two men had been shot dead in Bekasi after throwing a pipe bomb at police — one a suspected bomb-maker and the other linked to a 2004 attack on the Australian embassy, said Soekarna.

He said two other suspects believed to be involved in recruiting suicide bombers were still on the run.

National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said police had captured three men in Central Java and three men in Jakarta during the raids.

He said the bombs appeared to have been prepared for use in a car bomb attack on “a very particular target,” but did not elaborate.

RiP to the Taco Bell Chihuahua

President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the NAACP that the sacrifice of others “began the journey that has led me here.” The nation’s first black president bluntly warned, though, that racial barriers persist.

“Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America,” the president said in honoring the organization’s 100th convention.

White House aides said the President had been working on the speech for two weeks. Obama urged African-Americans to be realistic about some of the difficulties they may face, but to remember that “your destiny is in your hands.”

“We’ve got to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. That’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school,” he said. “No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands – and don’t you forget that.”

“No excuses. No excuses,” Obama added, verging off his prepared remarks. “You get that education. All those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes, we can.”

Painting himself as the beneficiary of the NAACP’s work, Obama cited historical figures from W.E.B. DuBois to Thurgood Marshall to explain how the path to the presidency was cleared by visionaries.

Obama’s remarks, steeped in his personal biography as the son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, challenged the audience — those in the room and those beyond — to take greater responsibility for their own future. He told parents to take a more active role and residents to pay better attention to their schools.

Rousing up a friendly crowd, Obama made his first speech so directly linked with race since he took office; the White House says he worked on it for about two weeks. Implicit in his appearance: He is seeking the backing of the powerful NAACP and its members for his ambitious domestic agenda.

The president said that in the current down economy, blacks are suffering high unemployment and are afflicted with more diseases but are less likely to own health insurance. He said that the African-American child is about five times as likely as a white child to be sent to jail.

Obama touted education as essential to improving the lives of all children. He said the state of schools is an American problem, not an African-American one.

“You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob,” Obama said. “It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential.”

“We have to say to our children, `Yes, if you’re African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not,’” Obama said, returning to his tough-love message familiar from his two-year presidential campaign.

“But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school,” he said. “No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands and don’t you forget that.”

Obama expanded his message of equal rights beyond the black communities. He said many Americans still face discrimination.

Racism, he said, is felt “by African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”

Obama also pressed for NAACP members to encourage their young people to find new role models beyond sports or music.

“I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers,” Obama said. “I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States.”

To bolster his argument that it’s within their reach, he cited his own biography, growing up with a single mother.

“I don’t come from a lot of wealth. I got into my share of trouble as a kid. My life could easily have taken a turn for the worse. But that mother of mine gave me love; she pushed me, and cared about my education; she took no lip and taught me right from wrong,” Obama said. “Because of her, I had a chance to make the most of my abilities. I had the chance to make the most of my opportunities. I had the chance to make the most of life.”

Michael Jackson’s body is taken from the Ronald Regan Medical Center to a coroner in LA where an autopsy will take place..

New unreleased footage taken in 1984 shows the fateful moment that Michael Jackson’s hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial.

The now infamous incident which put Michael Jackson in hospital for treatment for serious burns to his head, is often credited as the point at which Jackson started acting strangely, from bleaching his skin white, through to a full range of other behavior that earned him the tag “Whacko Jacko.”

The new footage obtained by UsWeekly shows Jackson from behind: the first scene shows Jackson performing the first take for the commercial and the pyrotechnics being fired safely. The second scene shows the fateful sixth take with the pyrotechnics going off early and Jackson’s hair catching fire, and the delay between the fire starting and being put out.

The following Michael Jackson Pepsi Commercial Hair on Fire video is disturbing and may not be suitable for younger views.

Bomb blasts went off in two luxury hotels that are popular with Americans within minutes of each other in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, according to media reports from BBC, Reuters and CNN.

The blasts struck the Ritz-Carlton and the 30-story J.W. Marriott in the city’s central business district, killing at four people believed to be foreigners. The latest Associated Press story says that the blasts killed six and injured 18.

The Marriott hotel that was just struck is the same one that was attacked in 2003 in an explosion that killed 12 people, the AP report says. Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed in that blast, but anti-terror officials have since cracked down on the group. It has been more than three years since a major terrorist attack in Indonesia, the AP story says.

“There were explosions heard from two separate places, one the J.W. Marriott, the other in the Ritz Carlton,” South Jakarta Police Chief Firman Santyabudi told AP, according to the BBC report.

Pres. Obama has been notified of the bombings, CNN’s Anderson Cooper just said.