I'm actually an American citizen. I was born in Puerto Rico, raised Stateside and then married a UK/NZ citizen. We've started our life together in NZ, but I do bounce back and forth quite a bit. No problem with the info, I'm glad you took an interest!

I'm not sure if the sniper shootings would stop as a result of no media attention, but I do not see why we should glorify this man. It's awful. There is definitely a duty to report and keep people safe, but the excessiveness of it all is irresponsible.

The suspicion is that Australia was targeted because of it's support to go to war with the US against Iraq. There is a group here that has connections to Al Qaeda (remember them?), and it is suspected that it was a protest against targeting Iraq. NZ has not supported going to war with Iraq, so NZ is not thought to be a target.

Of course, this is all conjecture at this point, but the evidence does look like it's heading in this direction.