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resident Barack Obama on Sunday described the mass shooting in California an "act of terrorism", vowed to "destroy" the Islamic State group and branded its fighters "thugs and killers", in a rare address from the Oval Office, four days after the California mass shooting by a couple of Pakistan origin.

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"They had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs. So this was an act of terrorism," Obama said in a rare televised address, only his third, delivered from the White House Oval Office. "We will destroy ISIS and any other organization that tries to harm us. The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it", he added.

The Pakistani-origin couple gunned down 14 people at a social service agency that was celebrating the upcoming holidays in the US with an office party. Over a dozen other people -- many of them disabled -- were injured in the shooting.

One shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook, was an American citizen of Pakistani descent, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, was a Pakistani-born legal resident of the U.S.

Obama said the Muslim couple who mounted the attack "had gone down the dark path of radicalization and had embraced a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West."

Obama outlined the various steps the US will take to combat terrorism.

Referring to the manner in which the woman attacker in San Bernadino was allowed into the US, Obama said "...we should put in place stronger screening for those who come to America without a visa so that we can take a hard look at whether they've traveled to war zones." The government is working members of both parties in Congress "to do exactly that," he added.

CHENNAI: Full four days after the pounding it received from record rains, Chennai started its journey back to normalcy on Sunday despite some politicians standing in its way.

Power was being restored, the airport reopened, outgoing trains restarted, cell phones were on and queues in petrol bunks and shops were shorter.

Rescue was over but relief was on in full swing. From government agencies through corporates to NGOs and good Samaritans, everyone was pitching in. In some areas there was a glut of relief material - largely food, milk packets and so on that were going waste.

Without a nodal agency, NGOs were rushing in wherever a need was felt. Some neighbourhoods were going without food while in others people were complaining they could eat only so much curd rice or lemon rice.

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Banks were working on Sunday to clear the backlog and ATMs had come back to life, restoring money supply.

But, along with semblance of normalcy came ugly politics. Politicians wanted to leave their individual mark. There were reports of local party bosses stalling relief work by NGOs, and worse, some wanted their palms greased before allowing relief workers into their areas. The state government was quick to deny an allegation that social welfare minister B Valarmathi stalled supplies sent by employees of an IT major. The company too denied there was a problem.

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As the day wore on, it was clear that the cracks in civic infrastructure that were papered over and which residents had put up with had become gaping holes. Many neighbourhoods like Thiruvanmiyur and Velachery were still waterlogged.

Though TNEB officials pointed out that many of their employees haven't slept in days, power was still a problem in many places.

They said unless water was drained they couldn't risk switching on supply for fear of electrocutions from live, open cables. Corporation officials said those areas that couldn't be drained out had to wait for the water to dry out, adding to people's anger.

READ ALSO:Tamil Nadu government keeps Army waiting, Chennai rescue operations suffer

While locals hope normalcy returns on Monday, the Met department forecast moderate to heavy rains for four days. Schools and colleges, closed for the past four days, that had been shut for nearly a monthwill be closed on Monday, too.