SHOCKING AUDIO: Gunman's rampage took only minutes, cop radio calls reveal

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State Police inspect the area near Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Judging by the radio calls, it took only a few minutes for a gunman to snuff out the lives of 20 Newtown school children and six adults.

The first word of the horrifying Newtown school shooting went out over the town’s police radio at 9:36 this morning.

Two minutes later, a dispatcher reported the gunshots had stopped.

UP TO 27 PEOPLE SHOT DEAD AT SCHOOL

“Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there’s someone shooting in the building,” a Newtown dispatcher radioed in the town’s first report of the killings.

Less than a minute later, the dispatcher radioed:

“Units responding to the Sandy Hook School. The front glass has been broken in front of the school They are unsure why ...

“All units, the individual I have on the phone said he is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire."

Amid the confusing situation, officers can be heard reporting a possible second shooter headed for the rear of the school.

“The shooting appears to have stopped,” the dispatcher radioed at 9:38 a.m. “There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown.”

Moments later, an officer apparently at the scene is heard saying: “They’re coming at me through this wood.”

“This is it,” said another.

And after that, at 9:46 a.m., as police searched the school, someone who could not hide the emotion in his voice radioed these haunting words: “I’ve got bodies here. Need ambulances.”

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Florida leads nation in foreclosure activity

Florida led the nation in foreclosure activity for the third month running in November, a dubious distinction that will likely dampen the momentum of the real estate recovery in the coming year, according to RealtyTrac.

Even as foreclosure activity decreased nationally, foreclosure filings in Florida jumped 20 percent in November from a year earlier and rose 3 percent from October, the data firm based in Irvine, Calif., said.

Among the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, seven are in Florida, the firm said. The metro area covering Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach ranked No. 5 among cities, with one in every 260 residences logging some sort of foreclosure activity, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, RealtyTrac said.

The pickup in Florida’s foreclosure activity has emerged since the major settlement last spring of the robo-signing cases.

After 49 state attorneys general filed suit in 2010 against five big mortgage banks over egregious foreclosure procedures implemented amid an avalanche of soured mortgages, foreclosure activity slowed dramatically. With the massive settlement approved in April, lenders now have adapted to the ground rules and have a clearer path forward in pressing foreclosure cases, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

“This is injecting a little reality into the Florida housing market,” Blomquist said of the rising foreclosures. “I don’t think this will crater housing prices, by any means. In markets that are very strong, it may not lower prices at all. It will definitely dampen things. It’ll be a drag on the market.”

One in every 304 Florida residences had some sort of foreclosure filing in November, more than twice the national average, RealtyTrac said.

The rising foreclosure activity in Florida comes as foreclosure activity nationwide fell 3 percent in November from October and plunged 19 percent from November 2011, the firm said. Foreclosure starts hit a 71-month low nationwide.

But in Florida, which is among the states where foreclosures are handled in more time-consuming proceedings in the courts rather than administratively, “we’re seeing a rise in activity across the board,” Blomquist said.

In November in Florida, foreclosure starts rose 7 percent year over year, scheduled auctions jumped 51 percent and bank repossessions rose 15 percent.

Behind Florida, the states ranking highest in foreclosure activity in November were Nevada, Illinois, California and South Carolina, the firm said.

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Family, friends of former U.S. Marine detained in Mexico call for his release

When the mother of a military veteran arrested and detained in a dangerous foreign jail called her congresswoman’s office two weeks ago asking for help, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she had a hard time believing former Marine Lance Cpl. Jon Hammar was in prison for carrying a six-decade-old shotgun into Mexico.

“We said, ‘Surely she must be exaggerating,’ ” recalled Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican.

She wasn’t. Olivia Hammar’s son had been in a state prison in Matamoros, along the Mexican border, for nearly four months.

His parents, who live in Palmetto Bay, tried to resolve the matter quietly, hiring attorneys in Mexico and dealing with the U.S. consulate there. But the effort went nowhere.

Now the family has gone public — so public that even Hammar’s jailors have seen the case in the news.

“What’s going on?” Hammar asked in a late-night phone call Wednesday, according to his parents. “The guards are going crazy down here.”

The story of how Hammar, a 27-year-old who returned from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder and hoped to find peace surfing in Central America, wound up chained to a bed in Mexican prison drew widespread attention after McClatchy, The Miami Herald’s parent company, published a report about the case last week.

In August, Hammar and another ex-Marine who had suffered from PTSD crossed into Mexico in a 1972 Winnebago motor home, planning to drive to Costa Rica. They were detained because Hammar had brought a .410-bore Sears & Roebuck shotgun that once belonged to his great-grandfather.

Hammar had been instructed by U.S. authorities to fill out registration papers for the shotgun, suitable to shoot birds, his family said. But Mexican authorities dismissed the paperwork and charged Hammar with possession of a weapon restricted for use by Mexico’s armed forces — a serious crime. A conviction could carry a sentence of three to 12 years.

Days after Hammar arrived in prison, his parents received phone calls from other inmates involved with a drug cartel demanding extortion money, the Hammars said.

They didn’t pay. U.S. diplomats got Hammar pulled out of the general inmate population and into solitary confinement. There, Mexican officials have said that Hammar is periodically chained to a bed or a wall to prevent him from attempting to flee, Ros-Lehtinen told reporters in her Miami office Thursday morning.

Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson have spoken about Hammar on the floor of the U.S. Capitol. More than two-dozen members of Congress have signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano drafted by Ros-Lehtinen’s office.

“I’m optimistic that everything’s going to work out,” said Ros-Lehtinen, who was joined by Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, himself a former Marine, and other elected officials. “In these few days before Christmas, we’re going to bring Jon Hammar home.”

Hammar’s friends from his alma mater, Westminster Christian School, and from his church, Old Cutler Presbyterian, both in Palmetto Bay, have also rallied, together with his younger sister Katie’s swimming buddies. They have created a pair of online petitions asking for Hammar’s release. As of Thursday afternoon, the two petitions had garnered more than 12,000 signatures.

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iPhone 5 hits China as Apple market share slips

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The China release of its iPhone 5 on Friday should win Apple Inc some respite from a recent slide in its share of what is likely already the world’s biggest smartphone market, but its longer-term hopes may depend on new technology being tested by China‘s top telecoms carrier.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has been in talks about a tie-up with China Mobile for four years. A deal with China’s biggest carrier is seen as crucial to improve Apple’s distribution in a market of 290 million users – which is forecast to double this year.

China is Apple’s second-largest and fastest-growing market – it brings in around 15 percent of total revenue – but the company’s failure to strike a deal with China Mobile means it is missing out on a large number of phone users. As the China pie grows, Apple’s sales increase, but without China Mobile, it’s losing ground at a faster rate compared to other brands.

“In absolute terms, this (iPhone 5) launch will certainly result in strong sales for Apple in China. However, in relative terms, I don’t believe it will move the needle enough in market share,” said Shiv Putcha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Ovum, a global technology consultant.

China Mobile and Apple initially said they were separated only by a technical issue – as the Chinese carrier runs a different 3G network from most of the world – but that has evolved into a broader and more complex issue of revenue-sharing.

“China Mobile and Apple still have to solve many issues, such as the business model, articles of cooperation and revenue division, but I believe we will reach an agreement eventually,” China Mobile CEO Li Yue was reported by Chinese media as saying in Guangzhou last week.

Apple China declined to comment. China Mobile said it had no update to the Apple discussions.

STRONG PRE-ORDERS

Apple’s ranking in China’s smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September, according to research firm IDC, [ID:nL4N09G1QK] but investors, primed to look to China product launches for an uptick in Apple’s quarterly sales, have good headline numbers to digest – more than 300,000 iPhones pre-ordered on one carrier alone. But it’s the lack of a deal with the No.1 carrier that prevents those numbers being stronger.

The iPhone is currently sold through Apple’s seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom – which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

“Apple’s market share declined because of the transition between the iPhone 4S and 5. Their market share will recover (with the iPhone 5), but if you don’t have China Mobile, the significant market share gains will be very difficult,” said Huang Leping, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong.

TD-LTE: STILL DISTANT

Cutting a deal with a Chinese state-owned carrier may be less optimal than the deals Apple is used to in other markets, and analysts note that China Mobile wouldn’t necessarily open the flood gates for Apple.

Ovum’s Putcha believes Apple and China Mobile will eventually strike a deal – though this would be for an iPhone running on China Mobile’s next-generation network rather than its current 3G network.

Of China Mobile’s 704 million subscribers, only 79 million are on its 3G network, and Apple has been reluctant to sign up to China Mobile’s under-utilized, homegrown TD-SCDMA technology. “Apple likely doesn’t see the return-on-investment in extending themselves for TD-SCDMA,” Putcha said.

China Mobile is currently trialling its next-generation network, TD-LTE, which could be of more interest to Apple, but full-scale commercial use – and an iPhone tie-up – could still be years away.

ANDROID THREAT

Meanwhile, rivals are circling, eating away at Apple’s smartphone market share. Samsung Electronics, Lenovo Group and little-known Chinese brand Coolpad held the top three slots in the third quarter, according to IDC.

All three have relationships with China Mobile and offer smartphone models at different price points. Apple competes exclusively at the high-end, and even there, rivals are rolling out models with China Mobile. Last week, Nokia said it planned to release its latest Lumia smartphone with China’s top carrier, which is also expected to launch Research in Motion’s new Blackberry 10, analysts predict.

“The threat will still come more from the Android camp where they have many vendors already working with China Mobile and offering high-end phones,” said TZ Wong, a Singapore-based IDC analyst.

While these smartphones don’t generate the buzz of a new iPhone, Chinese buyers are not known for their brand loyalty, and this could siphon away users considering an Apple upgrade.

“I’ve used a Blackberry, Android and iOS and, personally, I want to try the Windows 8,” said Andy Huang, a 37-year-old fund manager, who owns most iPad models, an iPhone 4 and a 4S. “I think the Windows 8 is very innovative.”

With a China Mobile deal looking some way off, Apple could always boost market share by offering cheaper models – the basic iPhone 5 will cost 5288 yuan ($ 850) without a contract – though this appears an unlikely route for a high-end brand.

“If they want to expand market share, probably the only way to do it here dramatically would be to put out a lower cost phone,” said Michael Clendenin, managing director at RedTech Advisors. “It’s really uncertain if they’d decide to go that route … Apple’s a mystery in that regard.”

($ 1 = 6.2518 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom and Jane Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Ian Geoghegan)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Hugh Jackman Gets Star on Walk of Fame

Good news just keeps coming for Hugh Jackman. Fresh off the heels of his SAG and Golden Globe Awards nominations his presence was required to accept his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

RELATED: 2013 Golden Globe Nominees

ET's Christina McLarty congratulated Jackman for today's early-morning announcement, naming him as a Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

"We got in at about two o'clock in the morning from New York, so I had kind of just gotten off to sleep but it's probably the best way to be woken up ever," said the Les Miserables star, who was also nominated for a SAG Award on Wednesday.

Jackman was "humbled" by the appearance of big names such as Anne Hathaway and Jay Leno, who showed up to support him outside of Madame Tussauds on Hollywood Blvd., but it was his family's presence that touched him the most.

"I do genuinely have the coolest wife, the coolest kids," said Jackman. "It's the greatest thing in my life. They've always been a priority for me, and all of this is all the more meaningful because of them."

You can see Jackman in Les Miserables starting Christmas Day.

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Gambino crime family associate known as 'Seven-Second Bandit' cried when he was busted: defense

This mobster turned rat has one heck of a sob story.

Known as the “Seven-Second Bandit,” Gambino crime family associate and speedy serial bank heists Jack Mannino had 24 New York bank stick-ups under his belt — enough to earn him life behind bars — when the FBI caught up to him.

But the feds had no idea the wannabe wiseguy was also a crybaby.

“The day you were arrested by agents, you actually started to cry. Is that right?” defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio asked the broad-shouldered ex-con.

“Yes,” the mob associate answered.

Mannino was on the witness stand in Brooklyn federal court today testifying as a government witness against his alleged accomplice in his final bank robbery — the one that got both of them arrested earlier this year.

Handout Photo

Jack Mannino

A serial bank robber who was in continual debt to loansharks, Mannino admitted that he decided to flip after his arrest and became a government witness.

Yesterday he gave the jury a detailed account of the Bensonhurst bank robbery and said he planned and executed it with the man standing truial — reputed mob associate Gary Fama.

Despite careful planning by the two experienced stick-up men, unexpected events marred their efforts.

A dye pack exploded inside the bag of money they had stolen from the bank, and the transmission blew out of their getaway Lexus as they tried to speed away when the sound of sirens grew louder.

Just three months after the robbery, Mannino said was holed up in a hideaway on Staten Island, broke and running low on food.

FBI agents eventually tracked him down with the help of belongings he abandoned in the ailing getaway car — including his wallet filled with ID and credit cards and cellphone.

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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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State investigates foster father in Jackson South case

State child welfare administrators are investigating a Miami foster parent who may be implicated in an alleged scheme to abduct a newborn child from the nursery at Jackson South Community Hospital.

The foster father, who has not been identified, brought his family to the Jackson nursery and visited with a baby that had been taken into state care by the Department of Children & Families, said Esther Jacobo, DCF’s top Miami administrator, on Wednesday.

An unidentified Jackson employee had told the foster father the baby was available for adoption, and the foster father could pick up the child.

The incident, which occurred in October, ended up with Jackson announcing on Tuesday the termination of two Jackson South managers, the chief nursing officer and maternity ward director. Jackson spokesman Edwin O’Dell said they were offered the opportunity to resign and they did so. Jackson did not identify the employees.

DCF sheltered the baby after the agency received a call to the state’s child abuse hotline and investigated the child’s welfare, Jacobo said. The agency placed a hold on the baby, meaning the child could not be released back to his or her birth mother. DCF was called back to the hospital within a day or two amid rumors that “people were selling a baby.”

An investigation showed that a high-level Jackson employee was friendly with the foster father, who was seeking to foster or adopt another child. He allowed the foster father, Jacobo said, to bring his family to visit with the newborn.

On the day the newborn was to be discharged, the foster father appeared and tried to take the baby with him, Jacobo said. A Jackson nurse stopped him before he was able to leave the hospital with the infant. The nurse said that, without a valid DCF identification badge, the father could not take custody of the baby.

A source told The Herald the father currently has only one child in his custody.

In the wake of the incident, Jacobo said, DCF agreed to perform a series of training sessions at Jackson involving dependent children.

“We are not placing any other children” in the home of the foster father, Jacobo said. “We are in the legal process of figuring out what to do with his licensure.”

Jacobo said the agency is looking at all its options, including attempting to pull the foster father’s license.

O’Dell said Jackson executives first learned about the problem about Oct. 9. They started an investigation, which led to the resignations on Oct. 15, but Jackson Chief Executive Carlos Migoya did not notify county leaders and board members until he released a memo on Tuesday — shortly before WTVJ-NBC 6 reported the problem at Jackson South.

In the memo, Migoya wrote: “While no patients were harmed as a result of this incident, we concluded that Jackson policies were indeed violated. Consistent with our culture of accountability, employees were terminated or otherwise disciplined. Appropriate reports were made to regulatory agencies.”

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Justin Bieber Rep Reacts to Murder Plot

Following news that two New Mexico men have been suspected of plotting to murder pop sensation Justin Bieber, a rep for the singer has released an official statement to ET.

RELATED: N.M. Men Plotted to Kill Justin Bieber

"We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans," says the rep.

According to a police report obtained by ET, a New Mexico prisoner named Dana Martin, serving out two life sentences for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, enlisted the help of former fellow inmate Mark Staake and his nephew Tanner Ruane to carry out four murders. Two of the reported targets were Justin Bieber and his bodyguard.

The papers then state that what ultimately foiled the plot was Martin himself inexplicably turning in his co-conspirators. Staake was reportedly arrested in Vermont on outstanding warrants, while his nephew made it to New York, where police reports allege he was arrested with "murder tools and pruning shears."

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2-year-old Bronx toddler saved by Good Samaritan after wandering into traffic

An adorable 2-year-old Bronx girl dodged death today after wandering alone out of her home and walking into a traffic-heavy street — where she was scooped up by a quick-thinking Good Samaritan.

“As a father, this is nuts!” fumed Pepsi deliveryman Martin Rodriguez, 32, who spotted Samira Dawson teetering barefoot across busy White Plains Road in Parkchester wearing just a onesie and diaper. “I have a little girl the same age and it crushed me to see this.”

At 9:10 a.m. today, Samira somehow escaped her family’s apartment on Guerlain Street undetected, walked outside and strolled across White Plains Road.

“She was at the double line in the middle of the street!” Rodriguez said.

“She dropped her little bookbag in the middle of the street, and that’s all she was worried about.”

Then, “A lady grabbed her,” Rodriguez said. The unidentified woman gave Samira to a Parkchester public safety sergeant, who called cops.

“She appeared like a bubbly child,” said Police Officer Harry Kwan, who draped his coat around Samira. “She appeared nervous but obviously enjoyed being held.”

Samira’s worried-looking brother, Davante Valentine, 20, showed up at the scene at 9:39 a.m.

“I don’t know what happened,” Valentine told The Post. “All I know is I was sleeping and my [18-year-old brother] was supposed to be watching her and he left the house without telling me.”

His and Samira’s mom Ingrid Dawson — who told cops she had gone to the pharmacy that morning — showed up just before 10 a.m. and yelled, “Oh my God!” after seeing her daughter.

“You were supposed to be watching her!” Dawson, 38, snapped at Valentine.

Both police and child-protective services workers are probing the incident. No charges had been filed as of last night.

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