Midday Roundup: Sydney police end standoff with ideology-fueled terrorist

Terror in Sydney. Police in Sydney, Australia, today stormed a chocolate shop after a 16-hour standoff with a terrorist who had taken shoppers hostage. Local media identified the gunman as Man Haron Monis, an Islamist with a record of violence and hate. Monis had previously been charged with writing offensive letters to the families of soldiers who died in Afghanistan, being an accessory to his wife’s murder, and sexually assaulting a woman. Monis’ former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, called him a “damaged-goods individual,” saying, “His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness.”

Gun fight. The families of nine of the 26 victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting have sued the maker of the semi-automatic rifle used by attacker Adam Lanza. The lawsuit claims Bushmaster negligently marketed a military-grade weapon, the AR-15 assault rifle, to a civilian population not trained to use it. The gun can fire about 45 rounds per minute and was the primary weapon Lanza used in the shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. The families are also suing a gun distributor and the store where Lanza’s mother bought the weapon.

Cheney on torture. In response to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation, former Vice President Dick Cheney told Meet the Press on Sunday the CIA did not torture al-Qaeda terror suspects. The Senate report dominated Sunday’s network talk shows. Cheney blasted what he called the report’s “moral equivalence” of comparing al-Qaeda terrorism to the CIA’s interrogation tactics. “Torture to me is an American citizen on a cell phone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York City on 9/11,” Cheney said.

Funded. The Senate approved a last-minute, $ 1.1 trillion spending bill over the weekend. The measure averted a government shutdown, but not before some verbal jousting between Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Cruz said voting to fund the president’s executive action on immigration was unconstitutional because the action itself is unconstitutional and “in direct conflict with the immigration laws passed by Congress.” But Reid dismissed Cruz’s objection, saying it had no merit. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voted against the funding bill. He told CBS the Senate would run more smoothly when Republicans assume leadership next month. “The reason why we’re in the debacle we’re in is because we refuse to pass any of the appropriations bills, so you end up all jammed up at the end of the year. The reason why I voted against it last night, here’s a trillion-dollar bill with a few hours of debate,” McCain said.

Gender violence. A 19-year-old U.S. Marine is in jail in the Philippines, charged with killing a transgender person. Prosecutors say Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton met the victim, Jeffrey Laude, while barhopping with fellow Marines in October. Pemberton did not realize Laude was a man until they had checked into a hotel room together. Laude died of strangulation. Prosecutors say Pemberton confessed the killing to friends later that night. Pemberton, who is charged with murder, is in custody under American guard in a Philippine military camp.

The Associated Press and WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry contributed to this report.