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GUNMAN KILLS 2, SELF IN ORE. MALL ATTACK

PORTLAND, ORE. - A gunman opened fire in a suburban shopping mall here Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said.

PORTLAND, ORE. -

A gunman opened fire in a suburban shopping mall here Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as a gunman wearing some sort of camouflage outfit and what looked like a hockey mask fired rounds from a military-style rifle near the food court at Clackamas Town Center.

Parents with children joined other shoppers rushing to stores' backrooms for safety as teams of police officers began entering the mall to find the shooter.

Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes said later that the gunman was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A shopper told KATU-TV that he had seen a man next to him lying on the floor with a gun.

Authorities went store-to-store to confirm that there was only one shooter and to escort hiding shoppers outside, Rhodes said.

Master sitar player Ravi Shankar dies at 92

NEW DELHI - Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s after hobnobbing with the Beatles and who introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over an eight-decade career, has died. He was 92.

Labeled "the godfather of world music" by George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music.

He also pioneered the concept of the rock benefit with the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. To later generations, he was known as the estranged father of popular American singer Norah Jones.

As early as the 1950s, Shankar began collaborating with and teaching some of the greats of Western music, including violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

His close relationship with Harrison, the Beatles lead guitarist, shot Shankar to global stardom in the 1960s.

Hiring looks promising

WASHINGTON - U.S. employers advertised more jobs in October than September, a hopeful sign that hiring could pick up in the coming months.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings rose by 128,000 to 3.68 million. That's the most since June.

The number of available jobs is slowly climbing back to the roughly 4 million that were advertised each month before the recession began in December 2007.

With nearly 12.3 million people unemployed in October, there were 3.3 unemployed people, on average, competing for each open job. That's the lowest ratio since November 2008. Still, in a healthy economy, the ratio is roughly 2 to 1.

In one positive sign, the number of available construction jobs jumped to 130,000, from 82,000 in September. That's the most in more than four years. Job openings also rose in manufacturing, retail, and hotels and restaurants. Professional and business services, a category that includes engineers and accountants as well as temporary jobs, also posted more openings.

- Daily News wire services