1. Fort Hood shooting

2. Specialist Ivan Lopez went from one building at the Fort Hood military base in Texas to a second, firing a.45 caliber handgun -- killing three people and wounding 16 more. Then the 34-year-old Iraq vet died by a self-inflicted gun shot wound, taking with him the reasons for his actions. According to reports he was plagued by multiple mental health issues (he was receiving treatment and medication for depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders). Lopez carried out the killings with a privately owned gun that was not registered on base-- a.45 caliber Smith and Wesson semiautomatic pistol. The exact sequence of events is not entirely clear. But around 4 p.m., Lopez walked into a building at the base and opened fire. He then got into a car, fired from the vehicle, walked into another building and fired again. Authorities could not say whether Lopez knew his victims. This is the second mass shooting to occur at Fort Hood. 13 people were killed and another 32 were injured on November 5, 2009.

3. In Other News A 63-year-old woman is presumed to have been "taken" by a large shark while swimming off the coast of Australia Thursday. Christine Armstrong was swimming with a group of friends off a beach in Tathra in New South Wales when she opted to head back to shore. The rest of the group continued on and then swam back to the beach club, but found no trace that Armstrong made it back. A witness on some nearby rocks spotted a large shark attacking something in the water roughly 150 yards offshore, which he believed to be a swimmer. An extensive search of the area failed to find Armstrong or signs of the shark. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) said it would step up defenses for its eastern members due to increased tensions with Russia. Russia's move to annex the Crimea region from Ukraine last month has sparked the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, and raised fears among its eastern European neighbors. At a meeting this week, NATO foreign ministers decided the alliance would draw up plans for reinforcing NATO's defenses following Moscow's move -- which the West deems illegal. These would possibly include measures such as sending NATO soldiers and equipment to allies in eastern Europe, holding more exercises and ensuring NATO's rapid-reaction force could deploy more quickly. It could also include a possible review of NATO's military plans. NATO's military chief warned Wednesday that Russian troops could begin moving on Ukraine within 12 hours of being given an order, amid fears that Moscow could seek to invade its eastern region. Microsoft announced its new mobile search assistant…Cortana, its version of Siri and Google Now.