Another angry man with too easy access to a gun causes death and chaos in America – A drone strike takes out the head of the Pakistan Taliban – And growing anger catches up with two members of a notorious right-wing party.

A 23-year old man with an assault weapon and 100 rounds of ammunition stormed the security clearance at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), killing a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent and wounding two others before armed Police shot him.  At this writing, he is believed to be in hospital in critical condition.  Passengers were sent scrambling for cover, some pulling luggage on top of them as the bullets flew.  And Mobile Phone cameras were rolling as people ducked for cover.  Because LAX is a major destination and a connecting point for international flights, air traffic across the US was thrown into chaos as hundreds of flights were stalled.

The gunman is identified as Paul Anthony Ciancia, who lived in Los Angeles and came from New Jersey on the other side of America.  Police say he was carrying a note with “antigovernment and anti-TSA ramblings.”  Former classmates at his old high school on the East Coast say he was a regular, quiet kid remarkable only for playing the tuba in the school’s marching band.  His dad, also named Paul Ciancia, owns a mechanics’ shop and is active in the local Police department’s fraternal activities.

Because Los Angeles is a “company town” and LAX is a busy, busy airport, several well-known Hollywood actors and personalities were at or around the airport at the time of the bloodshed. Actor Tim Daly who played a pilot in the 1990s sitcom “Wings” was grounded in the terminal, though out of harm’s way.  Movie star James Franco was stuck on an airplane, the passengers kept from deplaning for their own protection.  Members of the cable TV “Mythbusters” team were there, as was Nick Jonas of the recently separated teenybopper band The Jonas Brothers.

And now the rest of the world..

A US drone strike in Pakistan reportedly killed the leader of the Taliban.  If confirmed, the death of Hakimullah Mehsud would be a major intelligence victory for the US.  The strike comes a week after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to Washington and asked President Barack Obama to kindly knock it off, a sentiment expressed to the President earlier by teenage Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.  Word of the latest drone strike washed away the other big drone story in Washington – Pakistani families this week traveled from troubled North Waziristan to tell congress of civilian casualties and people living in fear.  Five Liberal Democrats attended the hearing, not one other member of congress bothered to show up.

Athens police are investigating the shooting deaths of two members of Greece’s fascist “Golden Dawn” party, shot and killed outside the party’s headquarters.  A government spokesman says the killer will be hunted and prosecuted.  It comes at a time of growing anger at the fascists, who were implicated in the murder of a popular musician.  The government has named the party a “neo-nazi gang” and has taken measures to end its funding. 

Germany and Brazil began circulating a draft resolution at the United Nations, a measure that will call for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy.  It doesn’t specifically mention the United States, which has been embarrassed by revelations of spying on Germany, Brazil, and other countries.  General Assembly resolutions are non-binding – But those that have vast support, as this one is, carry significant moral weight.

The “Arctic 30”, 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists from the Arctic Sunrise ship are being moved to a prison in Saint Petersburg, from the remote facilities in and around Murmansk in which Russia kept them.  They’re charged with “hooliganism” for attempting to board a Russian oilrig in the arctic to protest drilling plans.  It’s not clear why Russia is moving them to the bigger city further west, according to Greenpeace’s lawyers who say the Arctic 30 shouldn’t be in jail at all.

Meanwhile, Russia and China are being blamed for blocking an international agreement to protect almost 3 million square kilometers of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.  It’s the third time the two have blocked the plans, which would have created two vast ocean sanctuaries to protect the pristine wilderness.

Niger is moving to close illegal migrant camps in the northern dessert, after 92 immigrants perished of thirst as they tried to cross the vast and dry Sahara.  This week’s dead are 52 children, 33 women, and seven men, who likely paid huge sums of money to human traffickers who were supposed to get them to Algeria and Europe.  Niger is observing three days of mourning.

Mexico is considering legislation to fight obesity.  President Enrique Pena Nieto is calling for higher taxes on junk food and sugary drinks (No!  Not my Jarritos!?!  Ay Caramba!)  He’s also urging people to start exercising for an hour a day.  Nearly a third of Mexican adults are considered to be obese, 32.8 percent – that’s even more than America’s 31.8 percent obesity rate, and Australia’s 28 percent.