President Obama is taking his gun control message to Minnesota, a state with an active hunting culture that has also garnered attention for its anti gun-violence-measures. With members of the Minneapolis police department standing behind him, the president told the crowd moments ago that something has to be done to try to prevent mass shootings like that in Newtown in December.

 

　　“We may not be able to prevent every massacre or random shooting. No law, or set of laws can keep our children completely safe. But if there is even one thing we can do, if there is just one life we can save, we’ve got the obligation to try. “This is the first time the president is promoting his gun control agenda outside Washington where he faces stiff opposition by many congressional Republicans.

 

　　Civil rights icon Rosa Parks is being remembered at an exhibit at the museum bearing her name in downtown Montgomery, Alabama on what would have been her 100th birthday. Officials say today’s ceremony are unveiling a US postage stamp in her honor.

 

　　Standing on a street not far from the corner of [Montgomery and Lee], where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on Dec. 1st, 1955, school teacher Kathy Magellan reflected on Park’s life story, saying that it’s one everyone should know. “I think if I had to use a word I say courageous. One man that stood for equality not only for herself, but for others as well.” At the time of the bus boycott, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and a seamstress in a local department store. After the boycott, she moved to Virginia, and later Detroit where she lived until her death in 2005. During her life, Rosa Parks was honored with both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the congressional gold medal.

 

　　A Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for defending girls’ rights says she is getting better day-by-day. Malala Yousafzai released her first video statement since last October’s attack. It was posted today hours after doctors at a British hospital said that they had successfully operated to reconstruct the young woman’s skull. Taliban militants tried to kill Yousafzai on a school bus after she refused to stop promoting education for girls.

 

　　Iraqi militia men are the latest targets of a suicide attack. Police say the bombers struck as pro-government forces were picking up their wages outside the headquarters north of Baghdad. At least 21 people were killed.

 

　　It appears the England’s king Richard the third was laid to rest in a manner that was anything but regal. Today scientists at the university of Leister confirmed that the bones found beneath a municipal parking lot last year were those of the 15th century monarch. They say the discovery ends a 500-year-old mystery [by] the final resting place of the last English king to die in battle.

 

　　Dozens of French fighter jets are continuing air strikes on Islamist militants’ training and logistic centers, and Jihad’s last stronghold in Mali, the mountainous northeast. NRR’s # reports that France’s Foreign minister says it’s now about destroying the militants’ rear basis.

 

　　Speaking on radio this morning, French Foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the militants have taken refuge in the north. But they can only stay there long term if they have ways to replenish their supplies he said. So the army are stopping them from doing so. The extremist fighters who have controlled northern Mali for the last 10 months have fled into the mountains in the Kidal region near the Algerian border after being driven from Malian towns such as Timbuktu. The extremists are believed to be holding seven French hostages, complicating the operation. Fabius said France wants its troops to be rapidly relieved by African forces and said French soldiers could pull out of Timbuktu this week.

 

　　John Kerry has assumed his new role as secretary of state. One of his top priorities he says is to make sure US diplomats are safe. Kerry refers to the Benghazi US consulate attack in which four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens were killed last year. The attack on that consulate in Libya will again be at the forefront of hearings on Capitol Hill. The senate arms services committee says that this Thursday the outgoing defense minister Leon Panetta, general Martin Dempsey, the chair of joints chiefs of staff will testify. The attack last Sep. 11th killed four Americans as we’ve said including US ambassador Chris Stevens.

 

　　At last check on Wall Street. Dow was down 98 points at 13, 911.