1 of 2. U.S. President Barack Obama (3rd L) hugs Sarah Davino (L) and Mary Davino (2nd L), as he awards the Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously to their family member Rachel Davino, a teacher who gave her life in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in December, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, February 15, 2013.

WASHINGTON | Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:53pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama marked a poignant moment in his push to curb gun violence as he awarded presidential medals posthumously on Friday to six educators killed in the Newtown school massacre, saying they gave their lives to protect "the most innocent and helpless among us."

Consoling tearful relatives as they stepped on stage at the White House, Obama paid homage to the four teachers and two administrators killed in the December 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a tragedy that sparked nationwide calls for tighter gun control laws.

Though Obama made no public mention of his gun-control drive, the solemn ceremony unfolded against the backdrop of vocal resistance from gun advocates and their supporters on Capitol Hill to any new restrictions. In private, however, the president was said to have assured victims' relatives: "We're really trying to get something done."

As Obama handed out the Presidential Citizens Medals, the nation's second-highest civilian honor, he focused on the slain women's courage. Twenty first-graders were also killed in the attack, which was carried out by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

They came to school that morning with "no idea that evil was about to strike," Obama told the audience. "And when it did they could have taken shelter by themselves, they could have focused on their own safety, on their own well-being, but they didn't."

"They gave their lives to protect the precious children in their care and gave all they had for the most innocent and helpless among us. That's what we honor today."

Obama, who has called the day of the mass shooting the worst of his presidency, is moving swiftly to try to build momentum for gun control legislation. He even used his otherwise policy-heavy State of the Union address on Tuesday night to make an impassioned appeal for lawmakers to act.

But he faces an uphill battle against a powerful pro-gun lobby and a strong U.S. tradition of hunting and gun ownership. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and teachers Rachel D'Avino, Lauren Rousseau, Anne Marie Murphy and Victoria Soto were killed in the attack.

SPECIAL ATTENTION TO NEWTOWN FAMILIES

At the same time as Obama paid tribute to the Sandy Hook educators, he honored a dozen other Americans in fields that included child development, gay rights, military veterans assistance, immigrant outreach and helping disabled women. They were selected from among nearly 6,000 nominations.

But he gave special attention to the Newtown victims, wrapping mothers and daughters in his arms as the families stood one-by-one to accept the medals.

Hochsprung's mother wiped away tears as she was handed the award. The 47-year-old principal was shot dead reportedly when she sought to confront the shooter after hearing gunshots.

D'Avino's sister, Sarah, who recounted Obama's closed-door comment, said his meeting with the families contrasted with his visit to grief-stricken Newtown in December in the aftermath of the massacre, when he carefully avoided discussing the fraught politics of gun control.

"What he said today is that we're really trying for you," she told reporters after the ceremony in the East Room. Her 29-year-old sister provided behavioral therapy at the school.

D'Avino acknowledged the political hurdles but insisted they could be overcome.

"I don't think anyone is insinuating we're trying to take away every single gun in the country. But there is no reason this kid was able to fire off as many rounds as he did, in as little time as he did," she said. "Nobody is protecting their home with a Bushmaster and a 30-round clip, I'm sorry. They are not."

Sherlach's husband Bill blew a kiss toward the heavens and patted his heart as he stood with Obama. "There needs to be a number of things addressed - gun safety, mental health, school safety and parenting," he said later outside the White House.

With a packed second-term agenda that includes immigration reform and climate change, Obama - who has pledged to use the full power of his office to secure tougher gun laws - is seeking progress on the issue before painful memories of December's shooting fade from the public's consciousness.

His push for reinstatement of a ban on assault rifles is seen as possibly the toughest sell in a country where many Americans see gun control as an infringement of their rights.

Obama's call for criminal background checks for all gun buyers is seen having the best chance of winning over Republicans, but that proposal also faces opposition.

The influential National Rifle Association has launched a major advertising campaign against Obama's gun proposals and deployed its lobbyists in force on Capitol Hill.

(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Vicki Allen and David Brunnstrom)

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1 of 6. Police stand near a crime scene in the Swiss village of Daillon near Sion January 3, 2013.

DAILLON, Switzerland | Thu Jan 3, 2013 7:28am EST

DAILLON, Switzerland (Reuters) - Three women were killed and two men were wounded late on Wednesday when a gunman opened fire in the Swiss village of Daillon, Swiss police and prosecutors said on Thursday.

The 33-year-old gunman, who has not been named, threatened police when they tried to arrest him and was shot in the chest before being arrested and taken to hospital, police in the Swiss canton of Valais said. No police officers were wounded.

Gun ownership is widespread in Switzerland and voters rejected a proposal in February 2011 to tighten the country's liberal fire arms laws.

The women killed in Daillon were aged 32, 54 and 79. They were all shot at least twice, in the head and chest. The youngest was married to one of the injured men and they had young children together, regional public prosecutor Catherine Seppey told a news conference.

The injured men were aged 33 and 63.

The gunman was a local resident who had been in psychiatric care in 2005 and was unemployed and living on welfare benefits, police said. His only previous conviction was for marijuana use.

He used at least two firearms - an old Swiss army carbine and a rifle capable of firing lead shot - even though his weapons had been seized and destroyed in 2005, and he was not currently listed as having any guns.

He began firing from his apartment, shooting at people in the street and in neighboring buildings, but later came out into the street, police said, adding that he appeared to have fired more than 20 shots.

Swiss website 20minutes.ch quoted villagers as saying the gunman had been drinking heavily. It also said he was armed with an assault rifle, but the public prosecutor did not confirm that information.

The village is close to the town of Sion, the capital of the canton - or region - of Valais.

A shooting in the regional parliament in the canton of Zug in 2001 stirred debate over gun control in Switzerland, where - according to some estimates - at least one in every three of its 8 million inhabitants holds a gun.

Many are stored in people's attics, a legacy of Switzerland's policy of creating a citizen army that can be mobilized quickly to defend its neutrality.

(Writing by Tom Miles; Additional reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Mohammad Zargham/Ruth Pitchford)

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1 of 3. Fatima, 13, holds a picture of her mother Narges Rezaeimomenabad, suspected of killing a U.S. contractor at a police headquarters, at her home in Kabul December 26, 2012.

KABUL | Wed Dec 26, 2012 10:42am EST

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan policewoman suspected of killing a U.S. contractor at police headquarters in Kabul suffered from mental illness and was driven to suicidal despair by poverty, her children told Reuters on Wednesday.

The woman was identified by authorities as Narges Rezaeimomenabad, a 40-year-old grandmother and mother of three who moved here from Iran 10 years ago and married an Afghan man.

On Monday morning, she loaded a pistol in a bathroom at the police compound, hid it in her long scarf and shot an American police trainer, apparently becoming the first Afghan woman to carry out such an attack.

Narges also tried to shoot police officials after killing the American. Luckily for them, her pistol jammed. Her husband is also under investigation.

Her son Sayed, 16, and daughter Fatima, 13, described how they tried to call their parents 100 times after news broke of the shooting, then waited in vain for them to come home.

They recalled Narges's severe mood swings, and how at times she beat them and even pulled out a knife. But the children said she was consistent in bemoaning poverty.

"She was usually complaining about poverty. She was complaining to my father about our conditions. She was saying that my father was poor," Sayid said in an interview in their damp, cold two-room cement house.

On the floor beside him were his mother's prescriptions and a thick plastic bag filled with pills she tried to swallow to end the misery about a month ago. On another occasion, she cut her wrist with a razor, Sayed said.

"My father was usually calm and sometimes would say that she was guilty too because it wasn't a forced marriage. They fell in love and got married."

There was no sign in their neighborhood of the billions of dollars of Western aid that have poured into Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, or of government investment.

RAW SEWAGE, STAGNANT WATER, DIRT ROADS

The lane outside their home stank of raw sewage.

Dirty, stagnant water filled holes in dirt roads nearby, where children in tattered clothes played and butchers stood by cow's hooves in shops choked by dust.

Afghanistan is one of the world's poorest nations, with a third of its 30 million residents living under the poverty line.

The sole distractions from the daily grind appeared to be a deck of playing cards and a compact disc with songs from Iranian pop singers, scattered on the floor of a room where Narges would lock herself in and weep, or sit in silence.

At times, Narges would try to focus on building her children's confidence, telling them to be guided by the Muslim holy book, the Koran, to tackle life's problems.

Sayed and Fatima said she never spoke badly of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan or of President Hamid Karzai's government.

Neighbor Mohammad Ismail Kohistani was dumbfounded to hear on the radio that Afghan officials were combing Narges' phone records to try to determine whether al Qaeda or the Taliban could have brainwashed her into carrying out a mission.

But he was acutely aware of her mental problems and often heard her scream at her husband, whose low-level job in the crime investigation unit of the police brought home little cash.

Kohistani, who operates a small sewing shop with battered machines, never imagined his neighbor could be accused of a high-profile attack that raised new questions about the direction of an unpopular war.

"I became very depressed and sad," said Kohistani, sitting on the floor few feet from a tiny wood-burning stove in Narges's home, alongside family photographs and a police training manual.

Fatima would often seek refuge in Kohistani's house when her mother's behavior became unbearable. "She did not hate us, but usually she was angry and would not talk to us," said Fatima, her eyes moist with tears.

Nevertheless, she missed her mother. The children were staying with a cousin.

"I ask the government to free my mother, otherwise our future will be destroyed," said Fatima.

Officials described it as another "insider shooting", in which Afghan forces turn on Westerners they are meant to be working with to stabilize the country. There have been over 52 such attacks so far this year.

The shooting at the police headquarters may have alarmed Afghanistan's Western allies. But some Afghans have grown numb to the violence.

Kohistani's 70-year-old father Omara Khan, who sports a white beard, sat twirling prayer beads beneath a photograph of Narges in a black veil beside one of her husband.

Asked what he thought of the attack, he laughed.

"This is common in Afghanistan," said Khan, who lived through decades of upheaval, including the 10-year Soviet occupation and a civil war that destroyed half of Kabul and killed some 50,000 civilians.

"People are killed every day."

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

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