MONROE (TIP): Classes resumed on January 3, for the students of the Connecticut school where gunman Adam Lanza last month killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself. It was the second largest school shooting in US history. With their school still being treated as a crime scene, the more than 400 students of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown attended classes in neighbouring town Monroe. Law enforcement officers guarding the new facility called it “the safest school in America”. The school district said parents who wanted to be close to their children were welcome to visit and stay in classrooms or an auditorium. Newtown superintendent Janet Robinson said officials would do their best to make the students feel at ease.

Colorado victims’ kin blast theatre
Relatives of victims killed by a gunman during the premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Denver, Colorado, criticized an invitation to its re-opening as a “ridiculously offensive” publicity ploy. Family members of nine of the 12 victims said the invitation’s timing was particularly painful over the Christmas holiday.