At least 23 killed in central Nigeria violence

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Officials say at least 23 people have been killed in separate attacks in central Nigeria, as the nation's embattled president prepares to speak to the nation.

It's unclear what President Goodluck Jonathan's address, scheduled for Tuesday night, will be about. However, he recently cut short a visit to southern Africa to return home amid attacks pitting different ethnic groups against each other and continuing assaults by Islamic extremists.

On Tuesday, an official in the central Nigerian state of Kaduna said gunmen armed with assault rifles and suspected to be Hausa-Fulani cattle herders killed 11 people in a village there. And in Benue state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed on Hausa-Fulani cattle herders there killed at least 12 people.

The violence continues despite increased military and police deployments.

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8 Pakistani soldiers and police killed in violence

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Military operations and insurgent attacks in lawless districts of Pakistan left eight members of the security forces and around 30 militants and criminal suspects dead on Sunday, officials said.

Two soldiers and 16 militants were killed in clashes in the Tirah Valley area of the Khyber tribal region in the northwest, the military said in a statement. Another three soldiers were wounded in the remote mountainous district near the Afghan border.

The army launched an offensive last month into the valley targeting the Pakistani Taliban and an allied group, Lashkar-e-Islam. The military statement said the latest fighting forced the militants to flee from two of their hideouts, leaving behind a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

In the North Waziristan tribal region, another northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, a roadside bomb attack on a convoy killed two soldiers and wounded three, said two Pakistani intelligence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The tribal region is home to both Pakistani and Afghan militant groups, including al-Qaida-linked organizations with significant numbers of foreign fighters. The military conducts sweeps against the insurgents, inflicting losses but not preventing them from striking back with roadside bombs and ambushes targeting soldiers, government-allied militias, anti-militant politicians, and others.

Also Sunday, two members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps were killed in clashes in the Bolan district of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, said government official Waheed Shah. He said the fight also killed 13 "criminals" suspected in kidnappings and robberies.

In the province's Sibbi district, a convoy of an independent candidate running in Pakistan's May 11 parliamentary elections was attacked by two gunmen who killed two of his police guards, said police official Owais Ahmad. He said candidate Sardar Sarfraz Domeki's other guards fired back, killing one of the attackers and wounding the other. He said the police were questioning the wounded attacker.

The southwestern province has seen for years a low-level insurgency by nationalist groups who want a greater share of regional resources of oil and gas. Lawlessness in the region has also allowed sectarian groups and criminal gangs to operate.

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Associated Press Writers Rasool Dawar in Peshawar and Abdul Sattar in Quetta contributed to this report.

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Police: 39 killed in Nigerian ethnic clash

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Police say at least 39 people have been killed in ethnic violence in a rural town in Nigeria.

The attack happened Friday in Wukari, a town in Nigeria's Taraba state.

A state health official and residents said Saturday that others were also injured in the violence that sparked during a funeral service that pitted the Jukun people against the Hausa Fulani. Taraba state police spokesman Joseph Kwaji later said at least 39 people had been killed.

Officials later placed the town on a 24-hour curfew, forcing everyone indoors.

A similar round of violence in February in the town killed more than 20 people.

Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, has more than 250 different ethnicities. Violence can start over politics, business, grazing rights, religion and other issues.

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Pakistani prosecutor in Musharraf case killed

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Gunmen shot to death the Pakistani government's lead prosecutor in a high-profile case involving former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Friday as he drove to court in the capital, Islamabad, police said.

The gunmen fired at Chaudhry Zulfikar from a taxi and hit him in the head, shoulder and chest, said police officer Mohammed Ishaq. Zulfikar then lost control of his car, which hit a woman passer-by and killed her, said another police officer, Mohammed Rafiq.

Zulfikar's guard Farman Ali returned fire in the attack and believes he wounded at least one of the attackers, Rafiq said. Ali also was injured in the attack.

Police official Yasin Farooq said the attackers fled after killing Zulfikar, and that a massive search has been launched to find them.

A motive for the killing was unclear, but Zulfikar was involved in two particularly high-profile cases. He was the government's lead prosecutor in a case related to the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack in 2007, said Ishaq.

Government prosecutors have accused Musharraf of being involved in the murder and not providing enough security to Bhutto. Musharraf, who was in power when she was killed, has denied the allegations. He blamed the assassination on the Pakistani Taliban at the time of the attack.

Zulfikar was also the government's lead prosecutor in a case related to the 2008 terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people. The attack was blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Pakistan has put seven men on trial on charges they assisted in the Mumbai siege, but the trial has made little progress. India has criticized Pakistan for not doing more to crack down on the militants blamed for the attack. Hafiz Saeed, the head of a group believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, remains free, and many believe he enjoys the protection of the government. Lashkar-e-Taiba was founded years ago with the help of Pakistani intelligence to put pressure on India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Musharraf returned to Pakistan in March after four years in self-imposed exile to make a political comeback despite Taliban death threats and a raft of legal cases against him. But his fortunes have gone from bad to worse since he arrived.

Judges barred him from running in the May 11 parliamentary election not long after he arrived because of his actions while in power. A court in the northwestern city of Peshawar went further this week and banned Musharraf from running for public office for the rest of his life — a ruling the former military strongman plans to appeal.

Musharraf is currently under house arrest on the outskirts of Islamabad in connection with several cases against him, including the Bhutto case. He also faces allegations of treason before the Supreme Court.

Zulfikar was headed to a hearing related to Musharraf and the Bhutto case at a court in Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad, when he was killed, said Ishaq, the police officer.

Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 when he was serving as army chief and ruled for nearly a decade until he was forced to step down in 2008 because of growing discontent with his rule.

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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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Canadian priest killed in snatch and grab shooting in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A Canadian missionary was shot to death on Thursday as he left a bank in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, according to local media reports.

The priest, Richard Joyal of Manitoba, was shot three times in the back by a man on a motorcycle who snatched a bag the priest was carrying, the reports said.

Joyal had previously worked in the Philippines and Ivory Coast, according to a source familiar his activities in Haiti.

The Canadian government recently issued a travel advisory for its citizens visiting the Caribbean nation, warning them to "exercise a high degree of caution due to high crime rates in various parts of the country and ongoing political tensions."

(Reporting by Susana Ferreira, Writing by David Adams; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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Red Cross: At least 187 killed in Nigeria violence

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Fighting between soldiers and Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria killed at least 187 people, the worst single incident of violence in the region since an insurgency there began three years ago, an aid agency said Monday.

Nigeria's military blocked access for relief officials to enter the town of Baga, which sits along the shores of Lake Chad in the nation's far northeast, said Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a Red Cross spokesman. Another 77 people are receiving medical care there in the ruins of a town where some 300 homes burned down, he said. Local residents blamed angry soldiers for burning down neighborhoods where they knew civilians were hiding.

"Our volunteers are on standby," Nwakpa said. "We are yet to be provided clearance."

The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community. 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 a brigadier general who attended the visit.

Officials could not offer a breakdown of civilian casualties versus those of soldiers and extremist fighters. 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.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed shock and sadness at the high civilian casualty toll and large number of homes destroyed and called on extremist groups to cease their attacks, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"The secretary-general reiterates his firm conviction that no objective sought can justify this resort to violence," Nesirky said. "He underscores the need for all concerned to fully respect human rights and safeguard the lives of civilians."

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who appeared at an event Monday on the nation's power supply at the Aso Rock presidential villa in the country's capital, did not comment on the killings there. A few hours after Ban's statement, Jonathan's office issued a release saying he had ordered "a full-scale investigation into reports of high civilian casualties."

The "administration will continue to do everything possible to avoid the killing or injuring of innocent bystanders in security operations against terrorists and insurgents," the statement read. "Rules of engagement for the military and security agencies are already in place for this purpose and the investigation ordered by President Jonathan into the incident in Baga is to amongst other things, determine whether or not these rules were fully complied with."

The statement also said "casualty figures being reported by the foreign media may be grossly exaggerated." The statement did not offer any tolls for the injured or dead, nor did it explain what military officials already had told the presidency about the fighting.

Members of the Islamic extremist network Boko Haram used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault Friday, 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 military said extremists used civilians as human shields during the fighting — 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. Violence by security forces in the northeast targeting civilians has been widely documented by journalists and human rights activists. A similar raid in Maiduguri, Borno state's capital, in October after extremists killed a military officer saw soldiers kill at least 30 civilians and set fires across a neighborhood.

Eric Guttschuss, a researcher with Human Rights Watch who studies Nigeria, said his organization continued to study what happened, though it already had deep concerns about the allegations surrounding the soldiers' conduct.

"We are investigating this extremely serious incident," he said. "In the past, Nigeria has simply denied or tried to cover up security force abuses."

The Islamic insurgency in Nigeria grew out of a 2009 riot led by Boko Haram members in Maiduguri that ended in a military and police crackdown that killed some 700 people. The group's leader died in police custody in an apparent execution. From 2010 on, Islamic extremists have engaged in hit-and-run shootings and suicide bombings, attacks that have killed at least 1,548 people before Friday's attack, according to an AP count.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, has said it wants its imprisoned members freed and Nigeria to adopt strict Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. While Jonathan has started a committee to look at the idea of offering an amnesty deal to extremist fighters, Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has dismissed the idea out of hand in messages.

Friday's violence marked the worst attack linked to Nigeria's Islamic insurgency. In January 2012, Boko Haram launched a coordinated attack in Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city, that killed at least 185 people, the previous worst attack. However, casualty numbers remain murky in Nigeria, where security and government officials often downplay figures.

Despite the deployment of more soldiers and police to northern Nigeria, the nation's weak central government has been unable to stop the killings. Meanwhile, violent atrocities committed by security forces against the local civilian population only fuels rage in the region.

Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima, who visited Baga on Sunday, did not directly implicate the military for the killings in this attack, though anger could be heard in his voice.

"If the harassment continues, I will personally relocate from Maiduguri to here and let me be harassed along with the rest of the people," Shettima said at the time.

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Associated Press writers Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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

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Student killed at marathon remembered as bright

BOSTON (AP) — Earlier this week, Lu Lingzi sent an exuberant email to a professor after learning she had passed part of a major exam. She had spent the entire year preparing for the test.

Less than 24 hours later, she was killed in the Boston Marathon explosions that claimed two other lives.

Lu was a graduate student at Boston University studying statistics. She also attended the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Lu is being described as an exceptional student and bright young scientist.

Tasso Kaper, the chair of BU's mathematics department, says Lu loved flowers and the springtime.

She only had one course left to complete in order to graduate.

She was standing with two friends when the bombs went off. One was seriously injured.

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Consulate: Chinese national killed in Boston

NEW YORK (AP) — The Chinese Consulate in New York says a Chinese national was among those killed in the marathon bombings in Boston, but did not identify the person. Boston University said the victim was one of its graduate students.

The Consulate also said in a statement Tuesday that another Chinese citizen was wounded and was in stable condition following surgery.

Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings, a Hong Kong-based broadcaster with ties to the Chinese government, said the deceased was a woman from the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang who was a graduate student in statistics at Boston University.

A team led by Deputy Consul General Ruiming Zhong was in Boston to investigate the situation and assist relatives of the victims, the consulate's statement said.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that relatives have requested that the deceased not be identified.

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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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5 UN troops, 7 others killed in South Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Armed rebels that South Sudan believes are backed by Sudan opened fire on a U.N. convoy on Tuesday, killing five U.N. peacekeepers from India and at least seven civilians, officials said.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, blamed the attack on fighters led by David Yau Yau, a rebel leader South Sudan's military has battled for months.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, said in a statement that five peacekeepers and seven civilians working with the U.N. mission were killed. She said at least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured and some remain unaccounted for.

Aguer said the attack took place on a convoy traveling between the South Sudanese towns of Pibor and Bor on Tuesday morning.

"Definitely this attack was carried out by David Yau Yau's militia," Aguer said. "They have been launching ambushes even on the SPLA for about six months now," he said, using the acronym for South Sudan's military.

South Sudan ended decades of civil war with Sudan in 2005 and peacefully formed its own country in 2011. But the south is still plagued by internal violence and shaky relations with Sudan. Leaders in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, deny that they are arming Yau Yau.

Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of India's Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, India, said the convoy, which included 32 Indian soldiers, was attacked by rebels in Gurmukh in the volatile state of Jonglei. He said the casualties are being brought to the capital of South Sudan, Juba, and the injured will be sent to the U.N. mission hospital. The Indian embassy will work with the U.N. to bring the bodies back to India, he said.

India has about 2,200 Indian army personnel in South Sudan. They are in two battalions. One is based in Jonglei and the other is in Malakal, in the Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

The Indian embassy said it will inform families before releasing the names of the soldiers killed.

The top U.N. envoy in South Sudan, Johnson, sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

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George reported from New Delhi. Associated Press reporter Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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11 killed in central Nigeria village attacks

JOS, Nigeria (AP) — Officials in central Nigeria say at least 11 people have been killed in ongoing fighting between Christian and Muslim villagers in the region.

The attacks centered around the volatile city of Jos, where thousands have been killed since Nigeria became a democracy in 1999.

In the first attack Saturday, Tarok Christian people living in the Karkashi village say people from a neighboring Muslim Hausa-Fulani village raided their homes. Military spokesman Capt. Mustafa Salisu said Sunday that seven people were killed in that attack.

Later, in Zango, a Hausa-Fulani village, a community leader says four attackers from a Tarok settlement were killed. At least five people were also injured.

Religion, politics, grazing rights and economic power all play a role in the violence in Nigeria's fertile central belt region.

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At least 36 killed in southwest Nigeria bus crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An official says at least 36 people have been killed in a bus crash in which a gasoline tanker exploded in southwest Nigeria.

The explosion happened Friday afternoon in Nigeria's Edo state.

Federal Road Safety Corps spokesman Jonas Agwu said three people survived the collision between the large bus and the tanker. Agwu said the crash resulted in a fire that burned for hours, making it difficult for officials to know how many people died in the crash.

Nigeria has some of West Africa's worst roads, despite its oil wealth. Massive potholes and poor paving, coupled with aggressive drivers, are blamed for many crashes. World Health Organization data shows Nigeria suffers from one of the world's highest traffic fatality rates.

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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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18 killed in head-on bus crash in central Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities say 18 people have been killed in a head-on collision between two buses in central Nigeria.

Jonas Agwu, a spokesman for Nigeria's Federal Road Safety Corps, said the crash happened early Wednesday morning near Gwagwalada, a town outside of Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Agwu said investigators suspect the driver of a smaller, older bus fell asleep behind the wheel, causing the vehicle to drift into the other lane and hit a large touring bus. He said at least nine others were injured in the crash.

Nigeria has some of West Africa's worst roads, despite its oil wealth. Massive potholes and poor paving, coupled with aggressive drivers, are blamed for many crashes. World Health Organization data shows Nigeria suffers from one of the world's highest traffic fatality rates.

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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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South Sudan military says 163 killed in clashes

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A battle between South Sudan soldiers and rebels allegedly backed by neighboring Sudan killed 163 people, most of them rebels, government officials said Thursday.

South Sudan's military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said government forces also captured an airstrip in the town of Okello, which he claimed the rebels have been using to import most of their military supplies. Okello is in South Sudan's southeast Pibor County, where rebel leader David Yau Yau hails from.

"This airstrip has been used by Khartoum (Sudan) intelligence to transport and supply arms and ammunition to David Yau Yau. Some of the arms that were being dropped by Antanovs were captured, AK-47s. Some are broken, some are in good condition," Aguer said.

He said 143 rebels led by Yau Yau died in the battle Tuesday, and that 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.

South Sudan peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 but is still dealing with violence inside its own borders. Military battles and fights between tribes kill dozens of people with alarming frequency. After decades of war with Sudan, the country is flooded with assault rifles.

Death tolls are almost impossible to verify without months of investigations, given how remote the country is and the complete lack of infrastructure. In late December 2011 and early January 2012, cattle raid attacks between tribes killed at least 600 people in Jonglei. A government disarmament campaign afterward collected more than 10,000 weapons.

Aguer said South Sudan's military will continue to "deal with the militia group" and that it would be a matter of time before Yau Yau's rebels are cleared from Pibor County.

South Sudan accuses Sudan of arming the rebellion to block South Sudan's plans to build an oil pipeline eastward through Ethiopia to a port in Djibouti.

A dispute with Sudan over oil transit fees led South Sudan to shut down its oil industry last year and look for alternative ways to transport its crude. The two governments recently reached an agreement that is supposed to restart South Sudanese exports through Sudan's oil pipelines.

Sudan has repeatedly denied having any ties to the rebels. It accuses South Sudan, in turn, of supporting rebels in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Yau Yau first rebelled against South Sudan after he failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 2010 general elections. He accused the ruling party of rigging the vote. In 2011 he accepted an amnesty offer and was promoted to a general. But last year he fled to Sudan and started a rebellion in Pibor against South Sudan's government.

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UN : At least 35 people killed by Congo fighters

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The United Nations mission in Congo says at least 35 people were killed after hundreds of militia fighters attacked the southeast mining center of Lubumbashi, before surrendering.

The U.N. says at least 54 people had also been injured and were transferred to hospitals, among them the Mai Mai fighters.

The statement by the U.N. on Sunday welcomes the surrender of 245 Mai Mai fighters.

U.N.-run Radio Okapi on Saturday reported that fighters — armed with bows and arrows and machetes — had surrendered to the U.N. peacekeeping force. Children were reportedly among the militia when it attacked the city.

The Mai Mai militiamen are seeking to secede from Katanga province. Eastern Congo is home to a myriad of rebel groups who terrorize civilians, though most attacks are further north.

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Notorious Ivory Coast militia leader killed

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A regional official says a notorious militia leader accused of enlisting child soldiers for cross-border raids from Liberia into western Ivory Coast was killed during fighting Saturday.

Claude Koffi Yao Kan, sub-prefect for the western town of Blolequin, said Sunday that Oulaï Tako, known as "Tarzan of the West," was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to the attack. Ivory Coast's United Nations mission says two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on a village 15 miles (25 kilometers) outside Blolequin.

A report last year from Human Rights Watch implicated Tako in a series of raids on villages in western Ivory Coast dating back to July 2011, with witnesses saying he had been involved in the recruitment and training of child soldiers.

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5 Pakistanis killed in robbery outside Cape Town

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police say two robbers stealing a safe shot and killed five Pakistani men and wounded a sixth in a ghetto outside the tourist resort of Cape Town.

Spokesman Col. Tembinkosi Kinana said the attack took place in a house believed used as a bakery late Tuesday.

The attackers took off with the safe. Kinana said police arrested a 28-year-old South African who had a gun and the safe. He would not say what was in the safe.

The robbery was particularly brutal even by the standards of violent crime that have become a norm in South Africa. Kinana said the attackers shot six people, all Pakistani citizens. Four died at the scene, another at the hospital and the sixth victim is in critical condition.

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