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20 years after Long Island Rail Road massacre, survivors reflect on their changed lives
• MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) -- Before Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora and Newtown, there was the Long Island Rail Road.
• On Dec. 7, 1993, a gunman opened fire on a train car filled with commuters leaving New York City. By the time passengers tackled Colin Ferguson, his fusillade had left six people dead and 19 wounded.
• Though other massacres have far superseded it in terms of casualties, there are aspects of the railcar shooting that, even two decades later, make it stand out in the sad pantheon of rampages that have horrified the nation.
• "In a mall or a school or a movie theater, there is at least some opportunity for hiding or escaping," said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston. "These people had nowhere to go."
• And then there was the trial. Ferguson defended himself in court, cross-examining the very people he terrorized.
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American teacher killed in Libya was heading home for Christmas; students say he inspired them
• TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- An American chemistry teacher shot to death while jogging in Benghazi was looking forward to his first Christmas in the United States with his wife and toddler son.
• Ronald Thomas Smith II shared his excitement with his students, and sent his wife and child home while he stayed in Libya a few more weeks to help the young people in his class complete their end-of-semester exams.
• His death on Thursday shattered those dreams and highlighted the tenuous security in the eastern Libyan city where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed last year.
• But to Smith's students, this was more personal. He was a teacher who offered free private tutoring when others had given up, they said. Smith pushed them, demanding hard work and success.
• More than anything, though, he talked and laughed with them, and loved their country.
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