Police officer dies in another Virginia Tech shooting

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - A gunman killed a Virginia Tech police officer Thursday at a campus parking lot and then apparently shot himself to death nearby in an attack that shook the school nearly five years after it was the scene of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

The shooting took place on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a government fine over their alleged mishandling of the 2007 bloodbath where 33 people were killed. Before it became clear that the gunman in Thursday's attack was dead, the school applied the lessons learned during the last tragedy, locking down the campus and using a high-tech alert system to warn students and faculty members to stay indoors.

"In light of the turmoil and trauma and the tragedy suffered by this campus by guns, I can only say words don't describe our feelings and they're elusive at this point in time," university president Charles Steger said. "Our hearts are broken again for the family of our police officer."

The officer, identified late Thursday as 39-year-old Deriek W. Crouse of Christiansburg, was killed after pulling a driver over in a traffic stop. Police said a gunman - who was not involved in the traffic stop - walked into the parking lot and ambushed the officer.

Shortly after, police found in a parking lot a man with a gunshot wound and a gun nearby. Authorities said he is suspected in the officer's slaying.

"The second victim is observed on the in-car video camera system with a weapon at the time of the initial encounter with the officer," state police Major Rick Jenkins said.

State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators are trying to determine why the deceased suspect was wearing different clothing than that worn by the individual in the video and described by eyewitnesses.

Authorities said they did not know what the motive was and were investigating whether the officer was specifically targeted.

World/Nation briefs

New accord on euro will include 23 countries

BRUSSELS - The president of the European Council says a new treaty will include 17 euro states plus 6 other EU states - but not all 27 EU members.

Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said the countries would provide up to $268 billion in extra resources to the International Monetary fund.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said early Friday he would have preferred a treaty among all the members of the EU, but he could not because of the British position. He said the new accord should be ready by March.

Sarkozy said the British proposed that they be exempted from certain financial regulation. "We could not accept this" because a lack of sufficient regulation caused the current problems, Sarkozy said.

Obama: no break until payroll tax cut extended

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama vowed to delay Congress' year-end vacation as well as his own Thursday for "as long as it takes" to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits, his second challenge in as many days to conservative Republicans.

Obama stated his position as the House GOP leadership put the finishing touches on legislation that meets White House specifications in important areas but also contains at least one provision the president has pledged to veto.

A vote in the House is likely early next week, and party officials said the president's threatened veto, which relates to a proposed oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, had made it easier to round up support from conservatives eager to be seen defying Obama.

"Frankly, the fact that the president doesn't like it makes me like it even more," said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a leader of House conservatives, who added he had supported an earlier version, as well.

Romney, allies up their attacks on Gingrich

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican Mitt Romney opened a broad and newly abrasive assault on rival Newt Gingrich on Thursday, dispatching surrogates and staff to cast him as unworthy of the GOP nomination and unfit to be president. Romney's allies also readied a blistering new ad in Iowa that says Gingrich has spent "30 years in Washington flip-flopping on issues."

The former Massachusetts governor is aiming to undermine his rising rival on both personal and professional fronts ahead of the 2012 campaign's opening contest Jan. 3 in Iowa - a reversal by the one-time front-runner who had previously all but ignored his Republican foes.

Romney allies, for their part, announced a $3.1 million TV ad campaign in Iowa beginning today that includes the new commercial assailing Gingrich on a host of fronts.

- The Associated Press