Cricket-New Zealand to make late decision on bowling attack

By John Mehaffey

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - New Zealand will assess weather and pitch conditions on Thursday morning before making a final decision on whether to field four pace bowlers in the first test against England at Lord's.

On the eve of the first match in the two-test series on Wednesday, captain Brendon McCullum said the final place would go to either Doug Bracewell or left-arm spinner Bruce Martin, who played in the drawn three-match series in New Zealand this year.

Rain is forecast throughout the first four days of the match and the prospect of a shortened game will also influence the selectors' decision with Kane Williamson able to chip in with a few overs of off-spin if Martin is omitted.

Martin bowled well and batted usefully in the first two tests at home after making his debut at the advanced age of 32. But he failed to take a wicket in the third test in Auckland, when New Zealand fell just short of winning the series, and was expensive in the tour match against the England Lions in Leicester.

"We've got 12 at the moment and that's just the balance issue for us," McCullum said. "We're trying to work out whether to play the four seamers or have Bruce and the same setup we brought into the three tests at home. That's something we are going to look at in the morning. Either way we have got good options."

New Zealand made a horrible start to the year when Ross Taylor withdrew from their tour of South Africa after he was replaced as captain by McCullum. They were then bowled out before lunch for 45 on the opening day of the first test.

However, they then had the better of England in the first test at home and eventually drew the series 0-0 after they needed only more wicket to win in Auckland.

HARDER CHALLENGE

"Obviously that series back home was really good for us. We learned a lot as a team. We know that this challenge is going to be a lot different and it's going to be a lot harder as well," McCullum told a news conference.

"We know we are going to have improve as a team on our performance. We know that they (England) are going to be a tough proposition but we believe we have got some guys who will be favoured by these conditions as well."

McCullum said his relationship with Taylor, New Zealand's premier batsman who returned for the home series against England, was fine.

"Ross has been great since we arrived in the UK, he's been outstanding. Ross is determined to perform well throughout this series," he said.

"We had a discussion when we first arrived here and it was a really good discussion. We have some great moments over the last 10 to 12 years and some great moments both on and off the field."

McCullum, now batting at number six after a brief spell as a an opener, scored 248 at an average of 82.67 in the home series in England. His aggressive batsmanship was paralleled by an attacking and innovative approach as captain.

"It's early days," he said. "For us as a group, we know that we are going to struggle to go to go toe to toe with the big boys of world cricket playing our style of game for long periods.

"We have been slow starters, we have tried to address that with our preparation on this tour. But these conditions are more familiar to us than they are on the Indian sub-continent, conditions where we have been caught on the hop." (Editing by Alison Wildey)

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U.S. charges man in Canadian train attack case with visa violations

By Mark Hosenball and Bernard Vaughan

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Thursday announced visa fraud charges against a Tunisian man who prosecutors said had met with a key figure in an alleged plot to blow up a railroad line in Canada that carries Amtrak trains between Toronto and New York.

In a letter filed in federal court in New York, prosecutors said the man, Ahmed Abassi, 26, who had lived in Canada, was recorded by a U.S. undercover agent discussing various "proposed terrorist plots" with Chiheb Esseghaier, another Tunisian suspect. Esseghaier is now being held by Canadian authorities.

Among the plots that Abassi allegedly discussed was "contaminating the air or water with bacteria in order to kill up to 100,000 people," prosecutors said in the letter. But they said that Esseghaier was "dismissive" of that plan and that no steps were ever taken to carry it out.

Instead, Canadian authorities said last month that they had arrested Esseghaier, 30, a doctoral student in nanotechnology at an institute near Montreal, with plotting to derail a train. A second man, Raed Jaser, faces Canadian charges in the same plot.

U.S. authorities said that in interviews with investigators, Abassi acknowledged that he and Esseghaier had discussed both poisoning a water supply and derailing a passenger train.

At a secret arraignment on May 2, Abassi pleaded not guilty to filling out false immigration documents, according to a newly unsealed transcript of the proceedings.

Abassi, wearing a jail jumpsuit, appeared on Thursday afternoon at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan. Standing more than 6-feet tall with a light beard, short black hair and wire-frame glasses, he leaned close to an Arabic interpreter throughout the hearing.

John Cronan, an assistant U.S. Attorney, said evidence would include "many, many hours" of recorded conversations with an undercover FBI agent, as well as statements Abassi made after being read his Miranda rights.

"Discovery will be voluminous," Cronan said.

At the time of their arrests, Canadian authorities said that Esseghaier and Jaser had received "direction and guidance" in the plot from "al Qaeda elements in Iran."

Reuters reported last month that investigators believe that Esseghaier traveled to Iran within the past two years, though they have not said why he went there or who he might have met.

AL QAEDA FIGURES IN IRAN

U.S. national security sources close to the investigation said that they believe one or more of the plotters were in contact with a network of low- to middle-level al Qaeda fixers and "facilitators" based in the town of Zahedan, close to Iran's borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, that moves money and fighters through Iran to support its activities in South Asia.

Canadian police say there is no sign of Iranian government involvement with the suspects.

However, in the letter filed Thursday, U.S. prosecutors said that the American undercover agent had recorded discussions between Abassi and Esseghaier in which Abassi allegedly "discussed his desire to engage in terrorist acts against targets in the United States and other countries."

They also said that he had been recorded discussing his desire to provide support and funding to militant groups, including the al Nusrah front, an Islamist group the U.S. says is a front for al Qaeda in Iraq and which is one of the most powerful rebel factions fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Prosecutors said Abassi admitted he may have been responsible for radicalizing Esseghaier, and that he came to the United States in mid-March, where he remained until his arrest on April 22.

In their letter, prosecutors said investigators had briefly questioned Abassi under a "public safety" procedure that allows interrogation of suspects for intelligence purposes without advising them of Miranda rights.

But Abassi, before having a lawyer, on several occasions was advised of, and voluntarily waived his rights while being questioned almost every day by a New York-based Joint Terrorism Task Force.

In a statement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said: "Through our efforts, we assured that at no time did this individual pose an imminent threat to public safety in Canada."

Prosecutors added that Abassi had told the undercover officer about a number of people known to him and his associates who he said he thought would be "willing to engage in terrorism."

A U.S. law enforcement official said that the investigation was continuing and that other possible persons of interest were being looked at.

U.S. authorities said Abassi was under surveillance from the outset of his U.S. stay, and that he maintained regular contact during that time with what authorities described as an "FBI undercover officer."

At Thursday's hearing in New York, Judge Miriam Cedarbaum set June 11 for the next court date. She told Cronan that all of Abassi's statements "should be promptly produced" to his lawyer, Sabrina Shroff.

(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer in Toronto; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Philip Barbara)

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U.S. charges man in Canadian train attack case with visa violations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Thursday filed visa fraud charges against a Tunisian man who prosecutors said had met with a key figure in an alleged plot to blow up a railroad line in Canada which carries Amtrak trains between Toronto and New York.

Prosecutors in New York said the man, Ahmed Abassi, had met in New York with Chiheb Esseghaier, another Tunisian, who is one of two men being held by Canadian authorities in connection with the alleged train plot.

The prosecutors said Abassi was responsible for radicalizing Esseghaier, and that he came to the United States in mid-March, where he remained until his arrest on April 22.

They said Abassi was under surveillance by U.S. authorities throughout his U.S. stay, and that he maintained regular contact during that time with what authorities described as an "FBI undercover officer."

The Justice Department said in a statement the undercover officer recorded conversations between Abassi and Esseghaier in which Abassi discussed his desire to "engage in terrorist acts against targets in the United States and other countries."

The government also said that he had been recorded discussing his desire to provide support and funding to militant groups, including the Nusrah front, an Islamist group which the U.S. says is a front for al Qaeda in Iraq and which is one of the most powerful rebel factions fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Prosecutors added that Abassi had told the FBI undercover officer about a number of people known to him and his associates who he said he thought would be "willing to engage in terrorism."

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Attack kills at least 20 Nigeria police officers

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An ethnic militia killed at least 20 police officers who launched a raid to try and arrest them in central Nigeria, a police commissioner said Wednesday.

The attack in Alakio, a village in Nasarawa state, saw the officers ambushed Tuesday when they tried to stop the gang that was forcing locals to take a blood oath, police commissioner Abayomi Akermale said. Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, has some 250 ethnicities. Such ethnic militias can be major presences in communities, exacting taxes and controlling areas in some places.

Akermale said the death toll in the attack could be higher, as emergency officials and police officers only reached the area on Wednesday. The commissioner declined to offer any other specific details about the attack, other than to say those responsible were not Islamic extremists.

The violence, which occurred in a state bordering Nigeria's central capital of Abuja, comes amid growing insecurity in the oil-rich nation. Islamic extremists, including those belonging to the radical network known as Boko Haram, have been launching increasingly bloody guerrilla attacks throughout the country's predominantly Muslim north.

Ethnic militias, as well as criminal gangs known in Nigeria as "cults," kill at will and kidnap others for ransom. Some gangs use traditional beliefs to instill loyalty from their followers, as well as strike fear into the local population. Such gangs also are known for using extreme violence and conducting rituals involving local witchcraft.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

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Nigeria military: At least 11 killed in new attack

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Authorties in Nigeria say at least 11 people have been killed in violence blamed on Islamic insurgents in the country's northeast.

One attack happened Wednesday night in the fishing village of Gashua in Yobe state. Teacher Fati Umar, who witnessed the violence, said the Islamic extremists attacked a police station in the village and later a prison.

Lt. Eli Lazarus, a military spokesman, said the shootout killed two police officers and five civilians. However, Nigeria's military often downplays casualty figures to avoid the appearance that it is losing control of the region to extremists.

Another attack killed four in Bama, where a recent shootout between the military and extremists in Baga killed at least 187 people. In that attack, residents accused soldiers of killing civilians.

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Nigeria attack recalls other killings by soldiers

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Residents in Nigeria's northeast accused the military of burning down civilian homes in a recent fight with Islamic extremists that left at least 187 people dead, the latest in a series of incidents which authorities have been blamed for the killing of bystanders.

In separate incidents in 1999 and 2001, soldiers in Nigeria shelled villages, opened fire on residents and tortured civilians. While the military has denied abuse allegations surrounding the recent killings in Baga, the West African nation has a history of security forces indiscriminately killing civilians since it became an uneasy democracy after years of military rule.

And as officials hope to woo extremists into possible peace talks, the deaths of civilians and harassment by soldiers could likely betray its efforts. The government often claims its force is used only to combat the extremists, or criminals.

"You and I know nowadays the 'Boko Haram syndrome:' Anybody put in the public space as allegedly being killed in the course of fire as suspected Boko Haram persons, most members of the public will not fear it much," said Kemi Okenyodo, the executive director of the CLEEN Foundation, which monitors police and security forces in Nigeria. "Any crime that the public is strongly against it, it is easy to be used as a fluke for extrajudicial killings."

Government officials could not offer a breakdown of civilian, soldier and extremist deaths from Friday's fighting. Many of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition in fires that razed whole sections of the town, residents said. Those killed were buried as soon as possible, following local Muslim tradition.

Authorities also provide contradictory explanations about what really happened, as the military bans access for outside observers to an area officials want to describe as an insurgent stronghold.

Boko Haram members used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault, which Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye said began after soldiers surrounded a mosque they believed was housing Boko Haram members. Extremists earlier had killed a military officer, officials said.

The fighting lasted for hours and the military said extremists used civilians as human shields— implying that soldiers opened fire in neighborhoods where they knew civilians lived. However, local residents who spoke to an Associated Press journalist who accompanied the state officials said soldiers purposefully set the fires during the attack.

Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, on Tuesday declined to immediately answer other questions about the military's conduct and other issues surrounding the killings.

By the time Borno state officials could reach the city Sunday, a local government official said at least 185 people were killed, something not disputed by Edokpaye who accompanied officials on the visit. A spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross said Monday that at least 187 people had been killed, while another 77 were receiving medical treatment.

A statement issued Tuesday by Edokpaye said only six civilians died in the fighting Friday, as well as one soldier and some 30 extremists. The brigadier general also claimed extremist fighters used "anti-aircraft guns" in the attack, arms never seen used before in the three-year-old insurgency. The statement also said the fighting occurred on April 16 — three days before the violence actually happened.

Nigeria's presidency has said the death toll "may be grossly exaggerated," but federal lawmakers have started their own investigations into the killings.

While Nigerian forces have served as peacekeepers in other African conflicts, many in the country remain fearful of soldiers. Nigerian media regularly reports on incidents where soldiers beat civilians in traffic or fight police officers in their own country.

"Fighting in a built-up area is a very difficult operation, but that notwithstanding, there must be standard rules of engagement," Senate President David Mark said Tuesday. "Those rules of engagement would not include mass killings, or extrajudicial killings, in any form."

But extrajudicial killings routinely occur in Nigeria, with police routinely shooting dead suspected "armed robbers," human rights activists say. That same mentality, a hangover from the military era when soldiers would routinely shoot dead prisoners on the then-swampy beaches of Victoria Island in Lagos, persists today.

Speaking Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan promised any soldier or security force member found committing such crimes would be "cautioned and treated in line with our own laws and regulations." But the nation's courts routinely drag out cases and such prosecutions remain rarer still.

"The problem of extrajudicial executions in Nigeria is closely linked to the remarkable inadequacies of almost all levels of the Nigerian criminal justice system," a United Nations report in 2006 on the killings said. The same report described how soldiers often operate without any rules of engagement when facing a civilian population.

There are several major cases in Nigeria's recent history of soldier abuses. In 2001, the military attacked some seven villages in Benue state following ethnic Tiv militants killing soldiers there. Witnesses said some 200 people died in the fighting that saw soldiers ransack villages, shell houses and gun down residents indiscriminately. In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state following the killings of police officers there.

A military raid in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state in 2010 against militants there killed some 150 people, activists said, though soldiers blocked AP journalists from reaching the area at the time. And in October 2012, when extremists killed a military officer in Maiduguri, soldiers killed at least 30 civilians and set fires across a neighborhood in retaliation. The military later denied committing the abuses.

"In such incidents it is assumed by officials that the armed forces acted in 'self-defense' or were otherwise justified in carrying out retaliatory executions of civilians," the 2006 U.N. report reads. "Thus, although the intentional killing of unarmed civilians, whether in situations of armed conflict or otherwise, is a clear violation of both international and Nigerian law, impunity is the reality."

And despite Nigeria's presidency promising an investigation into the Baga killings, the same may continue to happen today.

"There is a consistent pattern in responding to these incidents," the U.N. said. "Major human rights violations are alleged; the authorities announce an inquiry; and either the resulting reports are not published, or the recommendations are ignored."

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Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

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Somalia leader: Foreigners aided attack on court

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia's prime minister said Monday that several experienced foreign fighters took part in the most serious Islamic extremist attack on Mogadishu in years, while other officials indicated the explosive devices were more advanced than normal, a possible indication of greater involvement by al-Qaida.

Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said the presence of foreign fighters during Sunday's two-hour assault on the Supreme Court complex showed that the attack was international in nature. He ordered an investigation into the attack, which included six suicide bombings and two car bombs.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the two-hour barrage. Al-Qaida announced a merger with al-Shabab early last year, but the group has been plagued by internal tensions between nationalist Somali fighters and foreign fighters.

Most of al-Shabab's recent bomb attacks have been small and ineffective. Sunday's was far deadlier than normal.

"We are concerned about the foreign involvement in this attack and this is why we are working so hard with our international partners on security and intelligence sharing. Once again we see that terrorism is an international problem," Shirdon said in a statement. He did not specify the nationalities of the foreign fighters.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday condemned the attacked, and in a statement said they "underline their willingness to take action against those whose behavior threatens the peace, stability or security of Somalia."

The death toll has risen to 35, including the nine attackers, according to a member of parliament. The prime minister said 29 died; it wasn't clear if that total included the attackers.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, including those with from the Middle East with experience in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Al-Shabab also recruits fighters from Somali communities in the United States and Europe.

Two Western officials who spoke to The Associated Press suggested that Sunday's attack may have had broader participation by al-Qaida fighters than more recent suicide bombings in Mogadishu.

One official said the explosive devices were more sophisticated — and numerous — than normal, while a second official said there are signs that al-Qaida is trying to assert itself in Somalia more than in the past. Both officials work on Somalia issues but both demanded anonymity because neither was authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Dahir Amin Jesow, a Somali legislator who heads a security committee in parliament, said Monday that the death toll stood at 35 and that it could rise even further because of the number of wounded. The interior minister said Sunday that nine attackers died, including six who detonated suicide vests.

Shirdon said the victims would be honored with a state funeral.

Al-Shabab once controlled almost all of Mogadishu. African Union and Somali forces pushed the militants out of the city in 2011, but the fighters have continued to carry out bomb attacks.

Inside Madina Hospital on Monday, bleary-eyed nurses walked from room to room to assist the wounded. Nurse Amal Abdi said he has been up since Sunday to attend to victims.

"There are many horrific wounds in the hospital, so there's no time for rest for us," Abdi said as she pushed a wounded man on a stretcher into an operating room.

One of the survivors from Sunday's barrage was the country's chief justice, who stepped out of the besieged court complex and angrily yelled at soldiers, according to an AP reporter who witnessed the exchange. The country's deputy attorney general was not so lucky.

"I was sitting in my office when the men entered and started fighting and killing," said Sheikh Hassan Abdinur, the deputy attorney general, who lay in a hospital bed Monday with bandages on his stomach and hands and a tube connected to his nose. "It was beyond my imagination. There is no safe place."

Abdirashid Hashi, the deputy director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, said the attack shows that al-Shabab can strike the government at will and that the group can come quite close to "decapitating" a vital government arm. The Supreme Court was in session when the attack occurred.

The attack "will force the government to revisit its priorities," Hashi said by email. "Because if it fails to provide security to the citizens in the capital, it will have difficulties justifying its demands in extending its writ to other parts of the country."

Hashi noted that Somalia's intelligence agency and foreign governments had predicted a major al-Shabab attack. Britain's Foreign Office released a statement on Friday saying it believed a terror attack was imminent.

Mogadishu, a seaside capital with whitewashed buildings and pristine beaches, is recovering from decades of war that left the city largely in ruins. Government troops — former militia members — have played a key part in ousting militants from towns near Mogadishu.

But the militants continue to carry out a steady stream of insurgent attacks. In mid-March an al-Shabab suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a civilian bus near a convoy carrying Mogadishu's intelligence chief. Seven people died; the intelligence chief was wounded.

Earlier in March a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a seaside restaurant, killing himself and one diner. A similar attack in February killed only the bomber.

"They are inhumane," Nurto Abdi, a mother whose son's legs were seriously wounded by shrapnel in Sunday's attack, said as she sat close by him. "The so-called national army always gives them the chance. They must declare it publicly if they cannot protect us, because even civilians are legitimate targets now."

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Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

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Somali official: 9 gunmen killed in court attack

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia's interior minister says that nine militants attacked Mogadishu's Supreme Court complex and that all have been killed.

Abdikarim Hussein Guled said that six of the attackers detonated suicide vests and three others were shot and killed during Sunday's assault on the court complex in the Somali capital.

The attack — the most serious in Mogadishu since al-Shabab militants were forced out of the city in August 2011 — lasted several hours and involved running battles with security forces.

Guled said he couldn't immediately provide an overall death toll that included government officials and civilians.

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UN condemns Afghan attack that killed at least 46

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials released harrowing new details on Thursday about an attack in a western province where assailants shot everyone in their path, sending terrified people jumping from windows trying to escape the assailants who killed at least 46 civilians and security forces.

Civilians have frequently been caught up in the fighting between militants and Afghan and U.S.-led combat forces, but the U.N. condemned Wednesday's attack, saying civilians were deliberately targeted at the courthouse and other government offices in Farah province. Two judges, six prosecutors, administration officers and cleaners working at the site were among the dead, the U.N. said.

Also Thursday, NATO reported that an American F-16 fighter jet had crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing the U.S. pilot. The U.S.-led military coalition did not release further details about Wednesday's crash.

"While the cause of the crash is under investigation, initial reporting indicates there was no insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash," the coalition said in a statement.

Illustrating other dangers, an airstrike by U.S.-led forces mistakenly killed four policemen and two brothers as their car was being searched at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said Thursday.

The strike occurred in the Deh Yak district of Ghazni province, according to district chief Fazel Ahmad Toolwak. He said NATO troops were fighting Taliban militants about 10 kilometers (six miles) away, but those killed in the strike were not involved in that battle.

A NATO spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. Adam Wojack, said the international military coalition was looking into the report, adding it "takes all allegations of this type seriously."

According to a recent U.N. report, 2,754 Afghan civilians were killed last year — down 12 percent from 3,131 killed in 2011. But the number killed in the second half of last year rose, suggesting that Afghanistan is likely to face continued violence as the Taliban and other militants fight for control of the country as foreign forces continue their withdrawal.

The U.N. said the Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 81 percent of the civilian deaths and injuries last year, while 8 percent were attributed to pro-government forces. The remaining civilian deaths and injuries could not be attributed to either side.

The number of casualties blamed on U.S. and allied forces decreased by 46 percent, with 316 killed and 271 wounded last year. Most were killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes, although that number, too, dropped by nearly half last year to 126, including 51 children.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Farah, the capital of the province of the same name near the border with Iran.

The hospital in Farah was so overwhelmed with casualties that helicopters had to ferry some of the wounded to other hospitals in nearby areas.

Provincial Gov. Akram Akhpelwak said two more people had died from the attack, raising the death toll to 55 — 36 civilians, 10 Afghan security forces and nine attackers. More than 100 people also were wounded, he said.

One of the province's members of parliament, Humaira Ayobi, said one elderly man was found hiding in a bathroom, afraid to come out.

"Farah is a city of sadness," she said in a telephone call after attending a funeral for some of the victims. "The stores are closed. There's no traffic in the streets."

The attack began when two suicide bombers detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near the courthouse, shattering windows and devastating several buildings. Seven others jumped out of the pickup and ran toward the courthouse and attorney general's office, prompting an eight-hour gunbattle that left many buildings pockmarked from bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Ayobi said the attackers went from room to room shooting people, including nearly two dozen people who had taken refuge in a basement. She also said two judges were singled out to be killed in a separate room, and that their bodies were burned.

The attackers were wearing military-style uniforms easily bought in Afghan markets and had painted a pickup in camouflage to disguise it as an Afghan National Army vehicle so it could bypass checkpoints, she said.

An Associated Press photo shows a group of soldiers standing over the body of one of the slain attackers who was lying in a pool of blood and wearing a uniform nearly identical to theirs.

Local officials said Wednesday that they believed the attackers were trying to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were about to stand trial. But Ayobi said the initial target might have been the governor's compound until heavy security there forced the attackers to redirect themselves to the courthouse.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council condemned the attack "in the strongest terms" and called for the perpetrators, organizers and financiers to be brought to justice. The council reiterated its "serious concern at the threats posed by the Taliban, Al-Qaida and illegal armed groups to the local population, national security forces, international military and international assistance efforts in Afghanistan."

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Follow Kim Gamel on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kimgamel

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Taliban attack Afghan courthouse, leaving 53 dead

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A provincial governor says at least 53 people, including nine attackers, have been killed in a daylong gunbattle in western Afghanistan.

Officials say the fighting broke out Wednesday after suicide bombers disguised as Afghan soldiers stormed a courthouse in Farah province in a failed bid to free more than a dozen Taliban.

Provincial Gov. Akram Akhpewak says those killed included 34 civilians, 10 security forces and nine attackers.

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Taliban attack Afghan courthouse, killing 21

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A provincial police chief says an hours-long standoff with Taliban gunmen has ended in western Afghanistan, leaving 21 civilians and nine attackers dead.

Agha Noor Kemtoz says the attackers stormed the courthouse and attorney general's office Wednesday in a bid to free Taliban prisoners who were about to face trial in Farah province, a volatile area near the Iranian border.

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3 Pakistani security officers killed in attack

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Police and hospital officials say attackers threw a grenade at a vehicle carrying paramilitary security officers in Karachi in southern Pakistan, killing three of them and wounding three others.

Police spokesman Imran Shaukat says the attack took place near the headquarters of paramilitary forces called the Rangers in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, the capital of southern Sindh province.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility, saying they targeted the Rangers for working against them.

Dr. Seemi Jamali said the bodies of the three dead officers arrived at her government hospital.

She said three security personnel and one civilian were wounded in the Tuesday attack.

Karachi has a long history of such incidents. It has also been the scene of political and sectarian violence in recent years.

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Canadians in Algeria attack were young, middle class: CBC

By David Ljunggren and Mark Hosenball

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two men from English-speaking Canada who took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January were in their early twenties and from middle-class backgrounds, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp said on Tuesday in an account that was later confirmed by U.S. government sources.

Around 70 people, including the two Canadians, died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant and ended the siege. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said last month it had identified two suspects but gave no details.

CBC named the two men as former high school friends Xristos Katsiroubas, 22, and Ali Medlej, described as being about 24. Both came from London, a town in the central Canadian province of Ontario.

The RCMP declined to comment. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency, which has repeatedly warned of the dangers of radicalized Canadians traveling abroad to cause trouble, did not respond to a request for comment.

But a U.S. government source said U.S. agencies had received information about the Canadian investigation and believed that the CBC report correctly identified the Canadian militants.

Security experts in North America and Europe said that while Canadians traveling abroad to fight with Islamic militants is not a new phenomenon, the fact that men from English-speaking Ontario had joined up with militants in what is traditionally a French-speaking part of Africa was unusual.

U.S. and European counter-terrorism officials have expressed growing concern about the number of English-speaking recruits traveling to dangerous or remote areas in such countries as Pakistan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen to train or fight with militant groups linked to Al Qaeda.

The officials say they worry that such militants will return to their home countries with the motivation and skills to plot attacks.

U.S. officials say they are concerned that militants unknown to Western security agencies can easily enter the United States and carry out attacks. However, they added that the quality and training level of recent recruits - probably including the Canadians killed in the Algeria - had noticeably declined.

CBC cited police sources as saying Katsiroubas, who grew up in a middle-class home with a swimming pool and converted to Islam from the Greek Orthodox faith, was likely the attacker whom survivors described as being blond-haired and speaking fluent "North American English".

CBC said CSIS agents had interviewed family and friends of the two men in 2007. A former friend of the two said a relative had called the police, complaining the pair were "hanging around with weirdos".

CBC also said two former schoolmates of the pair had traveled overseas with Katsiroubas and Medlej. The network cited intelligence sources as saying CSIS did not have the two men and their friends under surveillance when they left Canada last year.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said nations such as the United States, Sweden and Britain were struggling to deal with the same problem.

"Canada is far from the only country that has had to deal with this challenge of radicalization ... my colleagues and I will be discussing the issue in the days and weeks ahead," he said in a conference call from the United Arab Emirates.

Christian Leuprecht, a terrorism expert, said the two men appeared to have become radicalized by themselves rather than having joined a militant cell in Canada.

"Much or all of the activity in which they would have been engaged while in Canada would likely have been perfectly legal. So these cases are difficult to detect, even harder to stop, and harder yet to convict," said Leuprecht, who works at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

CSIS is aware of dozens of Canadians in their early twenties who have traveled or tried to travel overseas to take part in terrorism-related activities, the agency's director told a parliamentary committee in February.

U.S. officials have said that as many as two dozen American citizens or residents have been involved with the Somali-based al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab. A smaller number of men from Britain, some of Somali extraction but some from other ethnic backgrounds, have also been involved with that group.

British recruits have also traveled to fight or train with militants in post-Gadaffi Libya, but U.S. and European sources say that the Algerian gas plant siege is one of the first cases in which English-speaking militants have fought with a group more solidly based in French-speaking Africa.

The hottest battlefield for would-be Islamic militants today is Syria, where European officials say between 70 and 100 recruits from Britain are fighting with the militant group al Nusrah. Last week, U.S. authorities arrested and charged Eric Harroun, a former U.S. Army soldier who had traveled to Syria to fight with al Nusrah.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Galloway)

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Suicide attack kills 6 in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Police say a suicide bomber attacked a security convoy in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least six people, including two women.

Police official Dost Mohammed Khan says the attacker was targeting Abdul Majeed Marwat, the head of a paramilitary police force called the Frontier Constabulary. Marwat was not hurt in the attack, which occurred on Friday in the main northwest city of Peshawar.

Khan says the dead included three members of the security forces and three civilians. Two of the civilians were women. Over 15 people were wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility.

Peshawar is located on the border with Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country. The Pakistani Taliban have carried out many bombings in the city targeting both security forces and civilians.

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Police confirm second Canadian linked to Algeria gas plant attack

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Saturday that they had identified a second Canadian among the dead suspects in a January attack and hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant.

Around 70 people died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant near the town of In Amenas and ended the siege. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said at the time that a Canadian gunman had coordinated the operation.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were dispatched to Algeria to investigate. A spokesman for Canada's national police force said in an e-mail on Saturday that a second Canadian had been identified from the remains of the alleged attackers.

"Our investigation into this matter continues and no further information will be given at this time," the spokesman said.

U.S. intelligence officials had said in January that signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by Islamist militants were of great concern to American authorities.

The possibility that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the facility in the Algerian desert raised concerns among security officials about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Police confirm second Canadian linked to Algeria gas plant attack

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Saturday that they had identified a second Canadian among the dead suspects in a January attack and hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant.

Around 70 people died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant near the town of In Amenas and ended the siege. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said at the time that a Canadian gunman had coordinated the operation.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were dispatched to Algeria to investigate. A spokesman for Canada's national police force said in an e-mail on Saturday that a second Canadian had been identified from the remains of the alleged attackers.

"Our investigation into this matter continues and no further information will be given at this time," the spokesman said.

U.S. intelligence officials had said in January that signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by Islamist militants were of great concern to American authorities.

The possibility that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the facility in the Algerian desert raised concerns among security officials about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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C. African Republic president flees rebel attack

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize fled the capital early Sunday, hours after hundreds of armed rebels threatening to overthrow him invaded the city, an adviser said.

The rebel alliance, known as Seleka, issued a statement referring to Bozize as the country's "former president."

"Central African Republic has just opened a new page in its history," said the communique, which was signed by Justin Kombo Moustapha, secretary-general of Seleka.

"The political committee of the Seleka coalition, made up of Central Africans of all kinds, calls on the population to remain calm and to prepare to welcome the revolutionary forces of Seleka," it said.

The rebels had reached the outskirts of Bangui late Saturday. Heavy gunfire echoed through the city Sunday as the fighters made their way into the heart of downtown and seized the presidential palace, though the country's leader of a decade was not there at the time.

"Bozize left the city this morning," said Maximin Olouamat, a member of Bozize's presidential majority. The adviser declined to say where the president had gone.

Coverseas Worldwide Assistance, a Swiss-based crisis management firm that has contacts on the ground, said it believed Bozize was headed toward neighboring Congo.

Bangui is located along the Oubangui River that separates the two countries.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende, however, said he had no knowledge of Bozize crossing into Congo.

Rebels from several armed groups that have long opposed Bozize joined forces in December and began seizing towns across the country's sparsely populated north. They threatened at the time to march on Bangui, but ultimately halted their advance and agreed to go to peace negotiations in Libreville, the capital of Gabon.

A peace deal was signed Jan. 11 that allowed Bozize to finish his term that expires in 2016, but the rebels soon began accusing the president of failing to fulfill the promises that were made.

They demanded that Bozize send home South African forces who were helping bolster the country's military. And they sought to integrate some 2,000 rebel fighters into Central African Republic's armed forces.

The deal unraveled more than a week ago, with the rebels again taking control of two towns and threatening to advance on the capital.

Late Saturday, Bangui was plunged into darkness after fighters cut power to much of the city. State radio went dead, and fearful residents cowered in their homes.

An unspecified number of French citizens have taken refuge in the French Embassy, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named according to Foreign Ministry policy.

"For us, there is no other solution than the departure of Francois Bozize," Eric Massi, a rebel spokesman, said from Paris by telephone late Saturday.

Massi said the rebels were securing the city, and he called on residents to remain calm and avoid looting amid the chaos.

South African Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, the country's military spokesman, said there had been "intense" fighting this weekend between the rebels and South African forces.

"Our base was attacked by the rebels as they were advancing toward the capital," he said. South African forces suffered casualties from the fighting Saturday night, he said.

"We have suffered some casualties," he said. He declined to provide the number of casualties, pending the outcome of an investigation.

He said the situation for South African forces was "relatively calm" on Sunday afternoon.

"There are no threats at this moment," he said.

The growing unrest is the latest threat to the stability of Central African Republic, a nation of 4.5 million that has long been wracked by rebellions and power grabs.

The president himself took power in 2003 following a rebellion, and his tenure has been marked by conflict with myriad armed groups.

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Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia in Johannesburg and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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Police confirm second Canadian linked to Algeria gas plant attack

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Saturday that they had identified a second Canadian among the dead suspects in a January attack and hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant.

Around 70 people died when Algerian troops stormed the Tigantourine desert gas plant near the town of In Amenas and ended the siege. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said at the time that a Canadian gunman had coordinated the operation.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were dispatched to Algeria to investigate. A spokesman for Canada's national police force said in an e-mail on Saturday that a second Canadian had been identified from the remains of the alleged attackers.

"Our investigation into this matter continues and no further information will be given at this time," the spokesman said.

U.S. intelligence officials had said in January that signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by Islamist militants were of great concern to American authorities.

The possibility that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the facility in the Algerian desert raised concerns among security officials about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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History shows NKorean pattern: wait, then attack

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Recent Korean history reveals a sobering possibility: It may only be a matter of time before North Korea launches a sudden, deadly attack on the South. And perhaps more unsettling, Seoul has vowed that this time, it will respond with an even stronger blow.

Humiliated by past attacks, South Korea has promised — as recently as Tuesday — to hit back hard at the next assault from the North, opening up the prospect that a skirmish could turn into a wider war.

Lost in the headline-making North Korean bluster about nuclear strikes on Washington in response to U.N. sanctions is a single sentence in a North Korean army Supreme Command statement of March 5. It said North Korea "will make a strike of justice at any target anytime as it pleases without limit."

Those words have a chilling link to the recent past, when Pyongyang, angry over perceived slights, took its time before exacting revenge on rival South Korea. Vows of retaliation after naval clashes with South Korea in 1999 and 2009, for example, were followed by more bloodshed, including attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

Those attacks three years ago "are vivid reminders of the regime's capabilities and intentions," Bruce Klingner, a former U.S. intelligence official now at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, wrote in a recent think tank posting.

Almost a mirror image of the current tensions happened in 2009, when the U.N. approved sanctions over North Korean missile and nuclear tests, and Pyongyang responded with fury. In November of that year, Seoul claimed victory in a sea battle with the North, and Pyongyang vowed revenge.

In March 2010, the Cheonan, a 1,200-ton South Korean warship, exploded and sank in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors. A South Korean-led international investigation found that North Korea torpedoed the ship, a claim Pyongyang denies.

The Cheonan sinking may have been retaliation for the naval defeat four months earlier, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University.

In November 2010, North Korea sent a warning to South Korea to cancel a routine live-fire artillery drill planned on Yeonpyeong Island, which is only seven miles from North Korea and lies in Yellow Sea waters that North Korea claims as its own.

South Korea went ahead with the drills, firing, Seoul says, into waters away from North Korean territory. North Korea sent artillery shells raining down on the island, killing two civilians and two marines.

South Korea responded with artillery fire of its own, but the government of then-President Lee Myung-bak was severely criticized for what was seen as a slow, weak response. Lee, a conservative who infuriated North Korea by ending the previous liberal government's "sunshine policy" of huge aid shipments with few strings attached, vowed massive retaliation if hit again by the North.

The government of newly inaugurated President Park Geun-hye, also a conservative, has made similar comments, though she has also said she will try to build trust with North Korea and explore renewed dialogue and aid shipments.

South Korea's Defense Ministry on Tuesday repeated that it would respond harshly to any future attack from the North. Spokesman Kim Min-seok said there were no signs that North Korea would attack anytime soon, but warned that if it did, it would suffer "much more powerful damage" than whatever it inflicted on South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday visited artillery troops near disputed waters with South Korea and urged them to be on "maximum alert" because war could break out anytime, according to Pyongyang's official media.

If war broke out, the United States would assume control of South Korea's military because of the countries' decades-old alliance that began with the U.S.-led military response to North Korean invaders in 1950. But South Korea has made clear that it has a sovereign right, and a political necessity, to respond strongly to future North Korean attacks.

A clue to when North Korea might attack may be in the timing of the current threats. North Korea is furious over ongoing annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that will continue until the end of April.

Pyongyang is highly unlikely to stage an attack when so much U.S. firepower is assembled, but analysts said it might hit South Korea after the drills end.

"They are quiet when tension is high and state-of-the-art (U.S.) weapons are brought to South Korea for the drills," said Chon Hyun-joon, an analyst at the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

If history is any guide, the most likely flashpoint is the Yellow Sea, where North Korea has complained about sea boundaries since the 1950s. The U.S.-led U.N. Command drew the so-called Northern Limit Line after failed attempts to negotiate a border after the Korean War, and Pyongyang says it clearly favors the South by boxing in North Korea close to its shores.

Bloody sea battles in 1999, 2002 and 2009, and North Korea's artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, took place weeks after annual drills by South Korea and the United States, Chon said. In those cases and in the current drills, North Korea's state media reacted to the war games with harsh criticism, calling them preparations for a northward invasion.

North Korea sometimes takes months to follow through on its occasionally cryptic threats or warnings, but it also has acted quickly.

North Korea has attempted a military provocation within weeks of every South Korean presidential inauguration dating back to 1992, according to Victor Cha, a former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush, and Ellen Kim at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. South Korea's new president was inaugurated Feb. 25.

"Expect a North Korean provocation in the coming weeks," Cha and Kim wrote Thursday.

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AP writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report from Seoul.

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Insider attack kills 2 US troops, 2 Afghans

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A police officer opened fire on U.S. and Afghan forces at a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, sparking a firefight that killed two U.S. troops and two other Afghan policemen. The attacker was also killed in the shootout, officials said.

In a second incident, outside Kabul, U.S. troops fired on a truck approaching their military convoy, killing two Afghan men inside.

The shooting in the eastern Wardak province was the latest in a series of insider attacks against coalition and Afghan forces that have threatened to undermine their alliance at a time when cooperation would aid the planned handover of security responsibility to local forces next year.

The attack also comes a day after the expiration of the Afghan president's deadline for U.S. special forces to withdraw from the province.

U.S. officials have said that they are working with Afghan counterparts to answer President Hamid Karzai's concerns and maintain security in Wardak. Most of the U.S. troops in Wardak are special operations forces.

In Monday's attack, an Afghan police officer stood up in the back of a police pickup truck, grabbed a machine gun and started firing at the U.S. special operations forces and Afghan policemen in the police compound in Jalrez district, said the province's Deputy Police Chief Abdul Razaq Koraishi.

The assailant killed two Afghan policemen and wounded four, including the district police chief, before he was gunned down, Koraishi said.

The U.S. military said in a statement that two American service members were killed in the shooting. A U.S. defense official in Washington said early reports indicate that 10 Americans and at least 12 Afghans were wounded in the attack, in addition to those killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the attack with reporters.

U.S. forces were holding five Afghan police officers for questioning, Koraishi said.

Karzai ordered U.S. special operations forces to leave Wardak province, just outside the Afghan capital, because of allegations that Afghans working with the U.S. commandos were involved in abusive behavior. Karzai gave them two weeks to leave, and the deadline expired Sunday.

On Sunday, Karzai accused U.S. forces of working with the Taliban to stage two suicide bombings over the weekend during the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. In a speech, Karzai said the Americans want to scare Afghans into allowing them to stay.

That brought a sharp rebuke from the U.S. ambassador Monday, as news of the insider attack in Wardak emerged.

"The thought that we would collude with the Taliban flies in the face of everything we have done here and is absolutely without foundation," Ambassador James Cunningham said in a statement. "It is inconceivable that we would spend the lives of America's sons, daughters, and our treasure, in helping Afghans to secure and rebuild their country, and at the same time be engaged in endangering Afghanistan or its citizens."

The Wardak shooting is the third insider attack this year.

Afghan soldiers opened fire on U.S. forces at a joint base in eastern Afghanistan last Friday, killing one U.S. contractor and injuring four U.S. troops. A U.S. military official confirmed Monday that the attackers were Afghan soldiers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NATO investigation was not complete.

The pace of incidents is much slower than in 2012, when coalition troops were hit with 46 insider attacks that killed 64 coalition troops and wounded 95, according to a senior coalition intelligence officer. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly identified. By AP's count, at this time last year, there had been eight attacks. In 2011, 21 insider attacks killed 35.

U.S. officials attribute the drop in incidents to measures like better vetting of Afghan security forces, and devoting more resources to counterintelligence — watching the ranks for discontent. They have also taken steps like dividing U.S. and Afghan forces when stationed on the same bases, and when located together, posting sentries to watch their own sleeping troops.

U.S. forces are also conducting far fewer joint patrols with Afghan troops ahead of the 2014 transition, so there are fewer opportunities for the two to interact.

In the convoy shooting, U.S. forces spokesman Jamie Graybeal said the Afghan driver failed to heed instructions to stop as his truck came close to the American convoy near Kabul.

"The convoy took appropriate measures to protect themselves and engaged the vehicle, killing two individuals and injuring one," Graybeal said in an email. He said an assessment is underway.

Associated Press video shows a U.S. major cursing at one of his soldiers and slapping him over the head with his cap as Afghans pulled dead bodies from the truck. In the video, the major appears to be upbraiding the soldier for not using a laser warning device to signal the approaching truck.

The two dead men were employees of a company that repairs police vehicles, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. Another man was wounded in the shooting, said Col. Mohammad Alim, the police commander overseeing Kabul highways.

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AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed. AP National Security Writer Bob Burns contributed from Washington.

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Follow Vogt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HeidiVogt and Dozier at http://twitter.com/KimberlyDozier

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