Police swooped but later it emerged that the two were undocumented workers who now face deportation.Worse still, the message delivered by the gunman that morning could not be entirely understood. Officers believe it was recorded on a tape player and played down the phone.On Monday evening, Mr Moose delivered another public message: “The audio was unclear and we want to get it right Call us back so we can clearly understand.”. Edward Shoemaker stood at the end of Julep Avenue, looking in every direction, but focusing mostly on his nine-year-old grandson. William stood a few yards away, playing in the sunshine with his friends beneath falling autumnal leaves. On Tuesday evening, police revealed that the Washington area sniper had left them a $10m (£6.5m) ransom note warning: “Your children are not safe anywhere at anytime.”Police confirmed that the most recent shooting – which fatally wounded Conrad Johnson, a Maryland bus driver,on Monday morning – was indeed the work of the sniper, who has now claimed 13 victims and 10 fatalities. It was also revealed that the gunman had left a second letter for the police at the scene of Tuesday’s shooting.But among the tree-lined streets of Montgomery County, where the neat gardens and white wooden homes could have come straight from the saccharine-dipped brush of Norman Rockwell, people were interested solely in trying to keep their children safe.”I awoke last night to find that my eight-year-old daughter had got into bed with us, she was so scared,” said Barbara Dassing, standing with a couple of other mothers who had seen their children on to the bus. “Someone said their 13-year-old son had got into bed with them.

What do you say to them? You say there is a bad man out there and the police are trying to catch him.”"Basically the kids are fine but they are concerned,” said Doreen Brandes, headteacher at Sligo Middle School in Wheaton, where all the blinds were drawn in line with security advice. “It’s important they come to school for a number of reasons – to preserve a sense of normality and to carry on with their education.”. A key division of the Venezuelan army was put on alert yesterday after 14 dissident officers called for a rebellion against President Hugo Chavez, prompting another round of protests for and against the President. General Nestor Gonzalez, former chief of the army school, accused the left-wing President of seeking to impose “a Castro-style totalitarian regime” in Venezuela.Smaller opposition protests took place in several cities while Chavez supporters, converged on the presidential palace in Caracas.The government said the dissidents, from the army, air force, navy and national guard, were involved in the April coup against the President and were trying again. It insisted that Venezuela was calm and that the military stood firmly behind President Chavez. It also claimed to have foiled two plots to assassinate the President since Saturday.In a message to the dissidents, as well as to troops, Jose Luis Prieto, the Defence Minister, said: “A coup d’etat won’t be accepted by any of us, neither the government sector nor the opposition. Nor will it be accepted by the international community.”Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel said: “We’ve been in contact with every barracks throughout the country, with every command .. and there is absolutely nothing happening.

Every commander totally repudiated these coup plotters who decided to go on an adventure.”The military has been divided since dissident generals ousted President Chavez after 19 people were killed in during an opposition march on 11 April. Troops led by General Baduel saved President Chavez from probable exile in Cuba and restored him to power on 14 April after the interim president, Pedro Carmona, dissolved the constitution. After the coup, President Chavez purged the armed forces of suspect officers and promoted loyalist junior officers to senior posts, causing more unrest in the ranks.On Tuesday, secret police agents raided the home of General Rommel Fuenmayor, former chief of the army’s munitions company. The agents were surrounded by citizens shouting “Leave! Leave!” General Fuenmayor condemned the raid, declaring, “I’m not a coup plotter!”The Organisation of American States, which has tried to broker peace talks, warned against a coup.

Officially, the smash-hit television comedy Friends is in its last season. It has been going for nine years, is generally deemed to be past its best, creatively speaking, and is inexorably beginning to obey the economic laws of diminishing returns because of the dizzy salaries commanded by its six principal actors. “It’s going to come back,” an unnamed network chief was quoted as telling the industry newspaper Variety recently. “There’s going to be too much money involved for everybody to walk away now. NBC’s going to milk this being the final season for all it’s worth, and lo and behold, it will be renewed for another year.”It makes sense for NBC. Friends reigns supreme on Thursday nights and an impressive 30 million people in the United States watched the opening episode of the season a few weeks ago. And then there was the success of Friends at the Emmy awards last month, where it took the prize for best comedy for the first time, along with top acting honours for Jennifer Aniston.”The Emmy validates what they’re doing,” another television executive told Variety “The cast all realises what a great gig this is.