Car bomber kills 5 in Somali capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Five people were killed Sunday morning when a suicide bomber attempted to ram a car laden with explosives into a military convoy escorting a four-member Qatari delegation, an official said.

Gen. Garad Nor Abdulle, a senior police official said the members of the Qatari delegation were unharmed and safely reached their hotel.

Mohamed Abdi, an officer at the scene of the blast, said four civilians and a soldier died in the attack.

Soldiers fired in the air to disperse crowds that had gathered at the blast site at the busy KM4 junction.

The Somali government reopened key roads in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, four days ago which had been closed for security reasons. The road was closed after the government received intelligence that militants were planning attacks, officials said.

KM4 is among the busiest roads in Mogadishu, largely used by government officials and African Union forces. It connects the presidential compound and other government offices to the airport.

The car bombing falls into a pattern of attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has been pushed out of much of the areas it occupied in South and Central Somalia by African Union troops.

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

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Somali's Supreme Court last month that killed 35, including nine attackers.

Somalia's prime minister said that several experienced foreign fighters took part in attack on the Supreme Court, 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. The attack included six suicide bombings and two car bombs.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, including some 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.

In March, an explosives-filled car targeting a truck of government officials hit a civilian car and exploded, setting a mini-bus on fire and killing at least seven.

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Car bomber kills 7 in Somali capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Seven people were killed Sunday morning when a suicide bomber attempted to ram a car laden with explosives into a military convoy escorting a four-member Qatari delegation.

Gen. Garad Nor Abdulle, a senior police official said the members of the Qatari delegation who were being escorted in the interior minister's convoy were unharmed and safely reached their hotel.

Abdulle said the interior minister was not in the convoy.

Mohamed Abdi, an officer at the scene of the blast, said four civilians and a soldier died immediately. Another two people died in hospital and 18 were being treated of wounds from the blast, said Dr. Duniya Mohamed Ali at the Medina hospital.

The Qatari delegates are involved in development projects in Mogadishu, Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.

Mohamud blamed al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab for the attack.

He said "suspects" have been arrested.

After the explosion soldiers fired in the air to disperse crowds that had gathered at the blast site at the busy KM4 junction.

Separately, four Somali soldiers were wounded Sunday when a roadside bomb struck a government vehicle in Deynile district, in Mogadishu's northwest, said Ali Jimale, a captain with the Somali police.

The Somali government reopened key roads in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, four days ago which had been closed for security reasons. The roads were closed after the government received intelligence that militants were planning attacks, officials said.

KM4 is among the busiest roads in Mogadishu, largely used by government officials and African Union forces. It connects the presidential compound and other government offices to the airport.

The car bombing falls into a pattern of attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has been pushed out of much of the areas it occupied in South and Central Somalia by African Union troops.

Condemning Sunday's attack, the U.N. representative to Somalia, Augustine P. Mahiga said cowardly and senseless acts of violence will not undermine the remarkable progress Somalia has made in the past months.

"Attacks against civilians are never justifiable. I call on all parties to renounce violence and contribute positively to peace and stability," he said.

The British government condemned the attack through its Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds.

He said incidents such as these demonstrate the importance of the Federal Government of Somalia and international partners working together to combat violent extremism in Somalia.

Next week's Somalia Conference in London, co-hosted by the British and the Federal Government of Somalia will provide international support to help build Somali capacity to increase peace and stability, said Simmonds.

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

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Somali's Supreme Court last month that killed 35, including nine attackers.

Somalia's prime minister said that several experienced foreign fighters took part in attack on the Supreme Court, 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. The attack included six suicide bombings and two car bombs.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, including some 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.

In March, an explosives-filled car targeting a truck of government officials hit a civilian car and exploded, setting a mini-bus on fire and killing at least seven.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Siad Barre and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos.

President Mohamud was elected by parliament in October at the end of the eight-year U.N.-backed transitional government.

The U.N.-backed political process that resulted in Mohamud's election was condemned by Islamist militants who said it was manipulated by the West. But Mohamud has the support of the international community, which wants him to succeed and bring stability to the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

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Associated Press Writer Cassandra Vinograd contributed to this report from London.

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2,000 protest in C. African Republic capital

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — About 2,000 people have taken to the streets of Central African Republic's capital after rebel fighters fatally shot a motorcyclist.

Thursday's demonstration highlights the growing resentment toward pillaging that is being blamed on members of the Seleka group that overthrew the president several weeks ago.

The march came after witnesses said Seleka fighters killed a man and stole his motorcycle.

Seleka rebels have been accused of stealing numerous vehicles in Bangui, not only from citizens but also from international aid organizations working in the deeply impoverished country.

Longtime President Francois Bozize fled into exile on March 24 after the rebel fighters invaded the capital.

Thousands of armed fighters now patrol the city in pickup trucks emblazoned with the Seleka name on them.

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Talk aside, NKorean capital shows calm, not panic

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Scores of North Koreans of all ages planted trees as part of a forestation campaign — armed with shovels, not guns. In the evening, women in traditional dress danced in the plazas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong Il's appointment to a key defense post.

Despite more warnings from their leaders of impending nuclear war, people in the capital gave no sense of panic.

Chu Kang Jin, a Pyongyang resident, said everything is calm in the city.

"Everyone, including me, is determined to turn out as one to fight for national reunification ... if the enemies spark a war," he added, using nationalist rhetoric common among many North Koreans when speaking to the media.

The North's latest warning, issued by its Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, urged foreign companies and tourists to leave South Korea.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the South Korean puppet warmongers and their moves for a war against" North Korea, the statement said Tuesday.

There was no sign of an exodus of foreign companies or tourists from South Korea.

White House spokesman Jay Carney called the statement "more unhelpful rhetoric."

"It is unhelpful, it is concerning, it is provocative," he said.

The warning appeared to be an attempt to scare foreigners into pressing their governments to pressure Washington and Seoul to act to avert a conflict.

Analysts see a direct attack on Seoul as extremely unlikely, and there are no overt signs that North Korea's army is readying for war, let alone a nuclear one.

North Korea has been girding for a showdown with the U.S. and South Korea, its wartime foes, for months. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.

In December, North Korea launched a satellite into space on a rocket that Washington and others called a cover for a long-range missile test. The North followed that with its third underground nuclear test in February, a step toward mastering the technology for mounting an atomic bomb on a missile.

Tightened U.N. sanctions that followed drew the ire of North Korea, which accused Washington and Seoul of leading the campaign against it. Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills south of the border have further incensed Pyongyang, which sees them as practice for an invasion.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un enshrined the pursuit of nuclear weapons — which the North characterizes as a defense against the U.S. — as a national goal, along with improving the economy. North Korea also declared it would restart a mothballed nuclear complex.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday that he concurred with an assessment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calling the tension between North Korea and the West the worst since the end of the Korean War.

"The continued advancement of the North's nuclear and missile programs, its conventional force posture, and its willingness to resort to asymmetric actions as a tool of coercive diplomacy creates an environment marked by the potential for miscalculation," Locklear told the panel.

He said the U.S. military and its allies would be ready if North Korea tries to strike.

Heightening speculation about a provocation, foreign diplomats reported last week that they had been advised by North Korea to consider evacuating by Wednesday.

However, Britain and others said they had no immediate plans to withdraw from Pyongyang.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who has sought to re-engage North Korea with dialogue and humanitarian aid since taking office in February, expressed exasperation Tuesday with what she called the "endless vicious cycle" of Seoul answering Pyongyang's hostile behavior with compromise, only to get more hostility.

U.S. and South Korean defense officials have said they've seen nothing to indicate that Pyongyang is preparing for a major military action.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said there was "no specific information to suggest imminent threat to U.S. citizens or facilities" in South Korea. The U.S. Embassy has neither changed its security posture nor recommended U.S. citizens take special precautions, he said.

Still, the United States and South Korea have raised their defense postures, as has Japan, which deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo on Tuesday as a precaution against possible North Korean ballistic missile tests.

In Rome, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the tensions as "very dangerous" and said that "any small incident caused by miscalculation or misjudgment" may "create an uncontrollable situation."

Also Tuesday, citing the tension, North Korea pulled out all 53,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which combines South Korean technology and know-how with cheap North Korean labor. It was the first time that production was stopped at the complex, the only remaining product of economic cooperation between the countries that began about a decade ago when relations were much warmer.

Other projects from previous eras of cooperation such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain have been suspended in recent years.

Though the North Korean Foreign Ministry advised foreign embassies to evacuate, tourism officials are continuing to welcome visitors.

National carrier Air Koryo's daily flight from Beijing was only half full on Tuesday. Flight attendants in red suits and blue scarves artfully kept in place by sparkling brooches betrayed no sense of fear or concern.

Tourist Mark Fahey, a biomedical engineer from Sydney, said he thought a war was "pretty unlikely."

Fahey, a second-time visitor to North Korea, said he booked his trip to Pyongyang six months ago, eager to see how the country might have changed under Kim Jong Un. He said he chose to stick with his plans, suspecting that most of the threats were rhetoric.

"I knew that when I arrived here it would probably be very different to the way it was being reported in the media," he told The Associated Press at Pyongyang airport. He said his family trusts him to make the right judgment, but "my colleagues at work think I am crazy."

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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Matthew Pennington, Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's Korea bureau chief on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean.

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No sense of panic in NKorean capital

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Scores of North Koreans of all ages planted trees as part of a forestation campaign — armed with shovels, not guns. In the evening, women in traditional dress danced in the plazas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong Il's appointment to a key defense post.

Despite another round of warnings from their leaders of impending nuclear war, there was no sense of panic in the capital on Tuesday.

Chu Kang Jin, a Pyongyang resident, said everything is calm in the city.

"Everyone, including me, is determined to turn out as one to fight for national reunification ... if the enemies spark a war," he added, using nationalist rhetoric common among many North Koreans when speaking to the media.

The North's latest warning, issued by its Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, urged foreign companies and tourists to leave South Korea.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the South Korean puppet warmongers and their moves for a war against" North Korea, the committee said in a statement carried by state media on Tuesday.

There was no sign of an exodus of foreign companies or tourists from South Korea.

White House spokesman Jay Carney called the statement "more unhelpful rhetoric."

"It is unhelpful, it is concerning, it is provocative," he said.

The warning appeared to be an attempt to scare foreigners into pressing their governments to pressure Washington and Seoul to act to avert a conflict.

Analysts see a direct attack on Seoul as extremely unlikely, and there are no overt signs that North Korea's army is readying for war, let alone a nuclear one.

North Korea has been girding for a showdown with the U.S. and South Korea, its wartime foes, for months. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war.

In December, North Korea launched a satellite into space on a rocket that Washington and others called a cover for a long-range missile test. The North followed that with an underground nuclear test in February, a step toward mastering the technology for mounting an atomic bomb on a missile.

Tightened U.N. sanctions that followed drew the ire of North Korea, which accused Washington and Seoul of leading the campaign against it. Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills south of the border have further incensed Pyongyang, which sees them as practice for an invasion.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un enshrined the pursuit of nuclear weapons — which the North characterizes as a defense against the U.S. — as a national goal, along with improving the economy. North Korea also declared it would restart a mothballed nuclear complex.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday that he concurred with an assessment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calling the tension between North Korea and the West the worst since the end of the Korean War.

"The continued advancement of the North's nuclear and missile programs, its conventional force posture, and its willingness to resort to asymmetric actions as a tool of coercive diplomacy creates an environment marked by the potential for miscalculation," Locklear told the panel.

He said the U.S. military and its allies would be ready if North Korea tries to strike.

Heightening speculation about a provocation, foreign diplomats reported last week that they had been advised by North Korea to consider evacuating by Wednesday.

However, Britain and others said they had no immediate plans to withdraw from Pyongyang.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who has sought to re-engage North Korea with dialogue and humanitarian aid since taking office in February, expressed exasperation Tuesday with what she called the "endless vicious cycle" of Seoul answering Pyongyang's hostile behavior with compromise, only to get more hostility.

U.S. and South Korean defense officials have said they've seen nothing to indicate that Pyongyang is preparing for a major military action.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said there was "no specific information to suggest imminent threat to U.S. citizens or facilities" in South Korea. The U.S. Embassy has neither changed its security posture nor recommended U.S. citizens take special precautions, he said.

Still, the United States and South Korea have raised their defense postures, as has Japan, which deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo on Tuesday as a precaution against possible North Korean ballistic missile tests.

In Rome, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the tensions as "very dangerous" and said that "any small incident caused by miscalculation or misjudgment" may "create an uncontrollable situation."

Also Tuesday, citing the tension, North Korea pulled out more than 50,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial park, which combines South Korean technology and know-how with cheap North Korean labor. It was the first time that production has been shut down at the complex, the only remaining product of economic cooperation between the two countries that began about a decade ago when relations were much warmer.

Other projects from previous eras of cooperation such as reunions of families separated by war and tours to a scenic North Korean mountain have been suspended in recent years.

Though the North Korean Foreign Ministry advised foreign embassies to evacuate, tourism officials are continuing to welcome visitors.

National carrier Air Koryo's daily flight from Beijing was only half full on Tuesday. Flight attendants in red suits and blue scarves artfully kept in place by sparkling brooches betrayed no sense of fear or concern.

Tourist Mark Fahey, a biomedical engineer from Sydney, Australia, said he thought a war was "pretty unlikely."

Fahey, a second-time visitor to North Korea, said he booked his trip to Pyongyang six months ago, eager to see how the country might have changed under Kim Jong Un. He said he chose to stick with his plans, suspecting that most of the threats were rhetoric.

"I knew that when I arrived here it would probably be very different to the way it was being reported in the media," he told The Associated Press at Pyongyang airport. He said his family trusts him to make the right judgment, but "my colleagues at work think I am crazy."

___

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Matthew Pennington, Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's Korea bureau chief on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean.

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Haiti historian who chronicled capital dies at 88

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — George Corvington, a prominent Haitian historian who was best known for his exhaustive study of the Caribbean nation's capital of Port-au-Prince, has died at age 88.

Fellow historian and longtime friend Georges Michel says that Corvington died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday at his home in the capital he wrote so much about. Michel says the cause of death was heart failure.

Corvington's eight-volume "Port-au-Prince Through the Ages" chronicled the political and social history of Port-au-Prince, from its founding under French colonial rule in 1749 to the departure of President Paul Magloire in 1956.

Corvington also wrote books about the National Palace and National Cathedral. Both buildings were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake that devastated the better part of Port-au-Prince.

Details about his survivors were not immediately available.

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Rebels patrol Central African Republic capital

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Teams of rebels patrolled the capital of Bangui on Tuesday after aid groups said their facilities had been looted and robbed in the aftermath of the weekend coup that ousted Central African Republic's president of a decade.

The efforts to restore order to the city of 700,000 came as a rebel leader declared himself the new president and announced he would stay in power for three years.

Continuing violence in Central African Republic was preventing critically wounded patients from getting the help they needed, said the French medical aid group, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

"MSF condemns the looting and robberies of our facilities and reminds all parties that medical personnel must be respected and protected and must be granted all available help in the performance of their duties," said Serge St. Louis, MSF head of mission in Bangui.

More than 1,000 armed rebels attacked the capital on Saturday, forcing longtime President Francois Bozize into exile in neighboring Cameroon. The fierce fighting left at least 13 South African soldiers dead and an untold number of civilian casualties.

It was the latest political turmoil to destabilize Central African Republic, a country where leaders since independence from France in 1960 have come to power or been ousted in a series of coups and rebellions.

On Monday, rebel leader Michel Djotodia made his first public declaration since overthrowing Bozize, stating that he planned to stay in power until 2016.

The leader of the rebel coalition known as Seleka justified the coup by saying that Bozize had veered into dictatorship during his 10 years in power.

"Through us, it was the entire population of Central African Republic that rose up as a single man against the president," Djotodia said, according to Radio France Internationale.

Meanwhile, French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint, said the French Defense Ministry.

The cars, carrying Indian and Chadian citizens, continued despite warning shots. Two Indian citizens were killed, and the wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care, the defense minister said in the statement Monday.

France is investigating the shooting, the statement said.

The rebels' advance started last week when they pushed past Damara, a town 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the northeast. Damara had marked the line of control drawn by regional forces in January, following an accord signed in Libreville, the capital of neighboring Gabon.

The rebels broke that accord last week, claiming that Bozize's government had failed to make good on a series of promises, including sending back the South African troops guarding the capital.

The South African troops came under an onslaught of fire from the Seleka rebels, who shot and killed 13 South African soldiers over the weekend, in their fight to take the capital.

Seleka is a loose coalition of fighters, many of whom fought in previous rebellions. They joined forces last fall, beginning their advance toward the capital in December.

The Seleka fighters benefited from the growing dissatisfaction with Bozize, who came to power in 2003, at the helm of a column of a different rebel group which also invaded the capital and toppled the former leader.

Bozize is accused of growing cronyism, and in the last election in 2011, around 20 of Bozize's family members and close associates including former mistresses, won posts in the government, according to Louisa Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the University of California, Berkeley.

"There was the sense that governing was being carried out by a tighter and tighter circle of people around Bozize," says Lombard, who has been travelling to Central African Republic for the past 10 years for research.

"And although all sorts of technocratic procedures were in place to make the government more inclusive, it was in fact less and less inclusive. The more technocratic people got sidelined. Those who held positions of power did not have much education, much background in their chosen field. There was a disregard for any kind of merit in governing."

Lombard cautions, however, that the Seleka coalition is very loosely held together. Already on Monday, a different rebel leader, 26-year-old Nelson N'Djadder who is based in Paris, said that he does not recognize Djotodia as their new president.

"Seleka is a very heterogeneous group. That is something we noticed since the beginning, when it first emerged," said Lombard. "Holding it together will be a big problem."

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Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal. Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.

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Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

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Rebels advance toward C. African Republic capital

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Rebels in Central African Republic are advancing on the capital, Bangui, after taking the town of Damara on Friday, a rebel spokesman said.

By seizing Damara the rebels crossed the boundary line drawn by regional forces in January, when the same rebel group threatened to take the capital if their demands were not met.

The rebels, known as Seleka, attacked the town of Bossangoa early Friday, before taking Damara later in the day, said Eric Massi, a Paris-based spokesman for the rebels.

He claimed that his fighters had already covertly infiltrated the capital, Bangui, and are waiting for their fellow fighters to join them.

Panic spread throughout the capital, with the neighborhoods closest to the northern gate of the city emptying out, as frightened residents locked up their shops, packed their bags and yanked their children out of school. Banks and government offices closed early.

National radio announced Friday afternoon that President Francois Bozize had returned from a meeting in South Africa.

The country's prime minister, meanwhile, had sought refuge at a military base for regional forces known as FOMAC, according to soldier Jean-Pierre Sadou.

"Bossangoa fell without a fight. And as you know, Bossangoa is the fief of President Francois Bozize. We took Bossangoa in the morning and by early afternoon, our elements were in Damara," Massi said by telephone.

"They are now marching on the capital," said Massi. "We are calling on the population and on the military to put down their arms. And we are calling on our soldiers to prove that they are disciplined, to refrain from pillaging, so that we can avoid unnecessary combat."

The United Nations Security Council scheduled emergency closed consultations on Friday to discuss the latest developments in Central African Republic.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda also expressed alarm about the situation.

"I am deeply concerned about reports of the worsening situation in the Central African Republic and allegations of the commission of serious crimes in the context of the on-going conflict," Bensouda said. "I remind all parties to the conflict in CAR that ICC has jurisdiction in CAR and my office will not hesitate to investigate and prosecute all those alleged to be committing these crimes."

In January, an international force made up of soldiers from the countries neighboring Central African Republic rushed to the front, creating a new line of control in Damara. The rebels stopped just before Damara, before entering into talks with the government, culminating in a Jan. 11 peace deal signed in Libreville, the capital of Gabon.

In Bossangoa, resident Marien Nambea confirmed the town had fallen to the rebels, and in Damara, Sadou from the regional force known as FOMAC said the rebels had pushed through their defenses. It was not immediately clear if the FOMAC soldiers had strategically retreated in order to better protect the capital, or if they had fled.

"Since the signing of the deal in Libreville, President Francois Bozize has spent his time trying to put the brakes on the application of the accord. The humanitarian situation has become significantly worse. It's starting to frustrate the people of the Central African Republic and it's why the soldiers of Seleka took this decision," Massi said.

Central African Republic, a nation of 4.5 million located at the heart of the African continent, remains one of the world's poorest nations, with most people dying before their 49th birthday, according to data from the World Bank. It has weathered repeated coups and rebel invasions, which have become part of the nation's political DNA.

In power since 2003, Bozize is himself the result of a rebel occupation. After years as a high-ranking military officer, Bozize launched a rebellion in 2001, taking Bangui two years later, when the then-president was out of the country.

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Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. AP Writer Edith Lederer contributed from the United Nations.

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Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

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Photos: Working-class beach for Peru's capital

LIMA , Peru (AP) — While Lima's elite passes its summer weekends in gated beach enclaves south of the Peruvian capital, the working class jams by the thousands on a single municipal beach of grayish-brown sands and gentle waves.

The only barrier to entry to Agua Dulce beach is two dollars, the price of bus fare to and from the beach some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the city center.

"There are Sundays when it's just packed to the gills," says Carlos Vergara, a portrait photographer who has been working Lima's beaches for 50 years.

Until the mid-20th century, Lima's lower classes couldn't afford beach-going, said Juan Pacheco, a historian of the city. Road-building to the coast solved that, and the rich began to largely abandon Lima's beaches to the poorer set.

On some weekends during the Southern Hemisphere summer, which runs from December until March, as many as 40,000 people a day visit the half-mile-long (kilometer-long) strip of Agua Dulce. Beachgoers arrive in groups of 20-30, hauling enormous pots of fragrant chicken and rice.

Some from Andes mountain communities are getting their first glimpse of the gray-green sea, a color it takes from the Lima sky and the sand of the beach.

"I thought the ocean was blue, but it's gray," said Dolores Silva, 72, smiling as she adjusted a brown cloth hat she'd brought from home, the interior state of Apurimac.

As she speaks, Vergara and other photographers take instant portraits of cooing couples, soldiers on leave, fathers parading first-borns. Other vendors pick their way through the throngs selling candy apples, hot baked bread and plastic inflatable versions of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Children dig holes in the sand and bury each other up to their necks.

As the sunset spreads an orange glow over the Pacific, mothers rinse the sand and salt off their children at the fresh-water fountain fed by a spring that gives the beach its name.

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High-tech search for snake in SAfrica capital

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The Pretoria Zoo says it's turning to technology with infra-red cameras to search for a two-meter-long (6.5-foot-long) black mamba snake that escaped from its enclosure a week ago.

Marketing manager Craig Allenby of the zoo in South Africa's capital said Thursday the missing snake probably is in the roof of a service building behind its terrarium. That has not stopped fearful callers to radio talk shows discussing the nearly always fatal results of a bite from one of the world's fastest and most venomous snakes.

Zookeepers realized last week that the mamba's enclosure was empty. They have been unable to search the roof area where they suspect it is preparing to hibernate.

The cameras to be used detect infra-red radiation emitted by bodies and objects, even cold-blooded reptiles.

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AP PHOTOS: Working-class beach for Peru's capital

LIMA , Peru (AP) — While Lima's elite passes its summer weekends in gated beach enclaves south of the Peruvian capital, the working class jams by the thousands on a single municipal beach of grayish-brown sands and gentle waves.

The only barrier to entry to Agua Dulce beach is two dollars, the price of bus fare to and from the beach some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the city center.

"There are Sundays when it's just packed to the gills," says Carlos Vergara, a portrait photographer who has been working Lima's beaches for 50 years.

Until the mid-20th century, Lima's lower classes couldn't afford beach-going, said Juan Pacheco, a historian of the city. Road-building to the coast solved that, and the rich began to largely abandon Lima's beaches to the poorer set.

On some weekends during the Southern Hemisphere summer, which runs from December until March, as many as 40,000 people a day visit the half-mile-long (kilometer-long) strip of Agua Dulce. Beachgoers arrive in groups of 20-30, hauling enormous pots of fragrant chicken and rice.

Some from Andes mountain communities are getting their first glimpse of the gray-green sea, a color it takes from the Lima sky and the sand of the beach.

"I thought the ocean was blue, but it's gray," said Dolores Silva, 72, smiling as she adjusted a brown cloth hat she'd brought from home, the interior state of Apurimac.

As she speaks, Vergara and other photographers take instant portraits of cooing couples, soldiers on leave, fathers parading first-borns. Other vendors pick their way through the throngs selling candy apples, hot baked bread and plastic inflatable versions of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Children dig holes in the sand and bury each other up to their necks.

As the sunset spreads an orange glow over the Pacific, mothers rinse the sand and salt off their children at the fresh-water fountain fed by a spring that gives the beach its name.

View the original article here

String of attacks in Somali capital slows progress

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Isaq Ahmed lifted his head from his hands, his eyes clouded with tears, as he looked at the crowd gathered near the twisted wreckage from a car bomb blast that ripped open buildings and killed at least seven people in Somalia's capital this week.

As smoke filled the air, the 30-year-old car washer recalled another suicide blast that rocked a restaurant last year where he also works and killed more than 15 people.

"I'd been feeling that peace was almost achieved, but I was wrong," the grief-stricken Ahmed said before shuffling off to wash another car, despite the destruction nearby. "I don't think I can keep working, because horrible images and agony are really weighing me down."

Mogadishu has seen a relative period of peace the last 18 months, after African Union troops forced al-Shabab militants out of the city in August 2011. The city has moved past a recent history of running street battles involving mortars, rockets and tanks.

But a recent series of suicide blasts has residents worried that Mogadishu's version of peace will be upended by regular bombings.

An al-Shabab suicide car bomb attacker targeting a convoy with Mogadishu's intelligence chief rammed his vehicle into a civilian bus on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding the intelligence chief.

In early March, a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a seaside restaurant in Somalia's capital, killing himself and one diner. In mid-February a bomber attacked a restaurant next to the Indian Ocean; only the bomber was killed.

The African Union forces' ousting of the al-Qaida-linked fighters from the capital and surrounding regions brought back to life Mogadishu's seaside for the first time in 20 years. Schools, shops and markets have reopened. The city government has repaired potholed streets and installed streetlights. Turkish Airlines now makes weekly flights, the first time in decades a reputable international carrier has regular flights here.

Mogadishu has also seen a revival in the arts, sports and business over the last year. Residents dance at weddings. New restaurants have opened, and construction is up. But the violence is holding back progress.

Beach-goers once flocked to Mogadishu's sandy shores. On a recent morning, dozens of people strolled along the waterfront, dipping their feet in the water, but the nearby restaurants were mostly empty.

"Because of the attacks, our business has suffered a sharp decline," said Hassan Ali, a manager at a beachfront restaurant in Mogadishu called Village close to where the restaurant attacks took place. "More than 50 percent of our customers haven't returned after the attack. It's hugely damaging to our earnings."

Outgunned and on the defensive, al-Shabab are still battling the African Union forces, but the group has resorted to roadside bombs, suicide attacks and assassinations, instead of infantry street battles which cause high casualties.

"What's happening is a setback to the security gains in Somalia by the government," said Mohamed Sheikh Abdi, a Somali political analyst. "But in comparison to what has been achieved thus far in terms of security, what is happening is merely a hiccup, rather than a game changer in the long run."

Somalia's prime minister said this week that the attacks will have no long-term effect.

"We have made far too much progress to regress to the bad old days," said Abdi Farah Shirdon.

However, in another worrying security sign, al-Shabab fighters in the last week recaptured Hudur, a town in southwestern Somalia, after Ethiopian and Somali troops left it. The retreat has raised fears that the Ethiopian troops who control several towns in western Somalia will make a more extensive pullout.

"They (al-Shabab) have greeted us with beheadings of two residents upon their arrival," said Ali Daud, a resident in Hudur, by phone. "We don't know why the Ethiopians have made that surprise departure."

Hassan Yaqub, a member of al-Shabab, said: "If the Ethiopian Christians have abandoned two towns for now, then why don't you expect more territorial gains?"

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Kenya: Results sent for manual tally in capital

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Election officials across Kenya transported their local election results to be tallied in the capital Wednesday after the preliminary electronic vote counting system broke down, while the coalition of a top presidential candidate levied charges of meddling against Britain's high commissioner.

The coalition of Deputy Prime Minster Uhuru Kenyatta — the candidate that faces charges at the International Criminal Court and is the son of Kenya's founding president — accused the British high commissioner of "shadowy, suspicious and rather animated involvement" in efforts to get the election commission to decide that rejected ballots should still be counted in the overall vote total.

Kenyatta's party also asked the high commissioner, Christian Turner, to explain what it called "the sudden upsurge of British military personnel" in Kenya. British troops attend a six-week training course near Mount Kenya before deploying to Afghanistan. A new battle group arrived the week before Kenyans voted.

Britain's Foreign Office said claims of British interference "are entirely false and misleading." The British soldiers in Kenya are part of a regular training program planned nine months ago "completely unrelated to the Kenyan elections." It said Britain has no position on the rejected votes, saying that the election commission or the courts should decide.

"We have always said that this election is a choice for Kenyans alone to decide," the Foreign Office said, adding: "We urge all sides to ensure calm, avoid inflammatory statements, and to take any disputes to the courts."

Kenyans on Monday held their first presidential vote since the nation's disputed election in 2007 spawned violence that killed more than 1,000 people. Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Kenyatta are the top two contenders.

Kenyans were growing increasingly frustrated that the announcements of public vote tallies ceased close to 48 hours after polls closed. The breakdown of the electronic vote system has meant less than half of preliminary results were released. Officials — who have been working to ensure violence doesn't break out this election — are calling for patience.

"The delay is giving rise to conspiracy theories. People are panicking about the delay in the results of the elections. But unlike last election there is a level of restraint," said Kevin Muriunge, a 25-year-old student.

Referring to long voting lines during Monday's vote, Alojz Peterle, a former president of Slovenia and the chief observer in the European Union observer mission, said that Kenyans have demonstrated they are capable of great patience.

"But even more patience is called for now," he said.

The election commission chairman announced late Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of ballots that were rejected for not following the rules would be counted in the overall vote total. That makes it very difficult, given the tight race, for either top candidate to reach the 50 percent mark needed to win outright.

Election observers from around the world said Wednesday that Kenya carried out a credible election Monday, but the groups reserved final judgments until the election process is completed. Some observers said it appeared a runoff between Odinga and Kenyatta is likely.

The partial preliminary results on Tuesday had shown an early lead for Kenyatta. Odinga's camp told supporters that the votes from his strongholds had not yet all been tallied.

The statement from Kenyatta's coalition Wednesday implied that the British high commissioner pressured the commission to make the decision on the spoiled ballots, thus ensuring a runoff.

John Stremlau, an election observer with The Carter Center, the body run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said that it might be better for Kenyatta's coalition to use "foreign powers" as a whipping post than attacking Kenyans.

"It does seem to me to be a mindset of the old colonial era that the foreign powers would be dictating to the (election commission) in any way," Stremlau said, adding later: "There are going to be accusations in every election ... and they must be backed by evidence. Show the proof and let the judges decide and we'll all be better off."

Franklin Bett, an official in Odinga's party, echoed that statement. "Talk is easy. Let them come with the evidence," he said.

William Ruto, Kenyatta's running mate, on Tuesday had also blamed "foreign missions" for swaying the electoral commission on its ballot decision. The decision "is meant to deny us a first-round win," Ruto was quoted as saying.

Kenya is the lynchpin of East Africa's economy and plays a vital security role in the fight against Somali militants. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya is the largest in Africa, indicating this country's importance to U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. has warned of "consequences" if Kenyatta is to win, as have several European countries. Because Kenyatta is an ICC indictee, the U.S. and Europe have said they might have to limit contact with him, even if he is president.

Aisha Abdullahi, the commissioner for political affairs at the African Union, said it was good that Kenyan officials had planned for a backup system — the physical tallies of votes — given the breakdown in the electronic transmission system. He blamed the break-down on a failure of central computer servers.

"Yes, we in Africa are trying to catch up with you guys with electronic things. We are not yet as proficient as Western Europe or North America," said Festus Mogae in response to a question from a European reporter. Mogae is a former president of Botswana and head of the Commonwealth observer mission.

"That it's failed is no surprise to me. It often does in our countries."

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Associated Press reporter Rodney Muhumuza contributed to this report.

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