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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Report: Congo officers benefit from mineral trade

GOMA, Congo (AP) — An environmental watchdog group says armed groups and high-ranking officers in the Congolese army are continuing to benefit from the illegal mineral trade in eastern Congo, despite international efforts to clean up the supply chain.

The report published Tuesday by Global Witness says that although there are signs of improvement in Congo's tin and tantalum sectors, the "progress remains localized."

The gold trade in particular remains a problem. The report said tons of gold mined in eastern Congo is smuggled to neighboring Burundi every year because it is easily smuggled across borders and proper checks are not carried out by local buyers in Africa's Great Lakes region or by international traders. Laundered through the Burundian local trade, the gold is exported to Dubai where it is bought by international traders.

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Officers in Congo benefitting from mineral trade

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Armed groups and high-ranking officers in the Congolese and Burundian armies are continuing to benefit from the illegal mineral trade in eastern Congo, despite international efforts to clean up the supply chain, according to a report published Tuesday by an environmental watchdog group.

Although there are signs of improvement in Congo's tin and tantalum sectors, the "progress remains localized," said the report by London-based Global Witness.

The gold trade in particular remains a problem. Because gold is easily smuggled across borders and proper checks are not carried out by local buyers in the Great Lakes region or by international traders, tons of the mineral mined in eastern Congo are smuggled to neighboring Burundi every year. Laundered through the Burundian local gold trade, the mineral is then exported to Dubai where it is bought by international traders, said the report.

High-ranking officers in both the Congolese and Burundian armies are benefiting from the illegal trade, as well as local armed rebels who use the cash to buy weapons in order to carry on their fight, according to the research by Global Witness. Moreover, armed groups often fight each other over the control of mines.

Eastern Congo's population bears the brunt of the conflict fueled by the corrupted mineral trade. Last week, two groups fought each other for control of Pinga, in the Walikale territory, a mineral-rich area in the North Kivu province of eastern Congo. Thousands of people fled into the forest to avoid the clashes between the APCLS and Mai Mai Cheka rebels. Eleven employees of international charity Doctors Without Borders went missing.

Senior Congolese officers also abuse their position to benefit from the minerals trade, says the report.

Gen. Gabriel Amissi, the former army chief of staff, used his power to control the Omate gold mine in Walikale, says Global Witness.

"Col. Mundos, a former member of the Presidential guard, manages collection of daily production at the mine site on behalf of the general," says the report.

Gen. Amissi was removed from his post in November 2012, following the revelations in the United Nations Group of Experts report, showing Amissi had provided weapons and ammunition to a local armed group called the Raia Mutomboki. Amissi is still benefiting from the gold trade through the patronage network he was set up, Global Witness says. Amissi, currently in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, has not been charged with a crime.

Although smuggling remains widespread, ongoing international efforts to clean up the trade have led to some improvements, says the report. In October 2012, the Conflict-Free Tin Initiative launched in the Kalimbi mine attempted to set up a system to trace the minerals' journey out of Congo and ensure that the metals mined here do not contribute to the conflict.

"Although localized, these positive developments represent emerging opportunities for responsible sourcing, which the Congolese government, companies and international donors should support and develop," says the report.

Section 1502 of the Dodd Frank law, passed by the United States Congress in July 2010, requires that American companies apply due diligence to make sure that the minerals they are buying from the Great Lakes region are not conflict minerals. The European Commission is currently considering a similar supply chain initiative for European companies.

These initiatives have received mixed reviews, with critics pointing to the little impact they have had on the conflict itself, as well as the harmful, de facto embargo by U.S. companies leading to many local miners losing their livelihood.

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Venezuela challenger says officers imprisoned

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

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Extremists kill 4 police officers in north Nigeria

DAMATURU, Nigeria (AP) — Police in northeast Nigeria say suspected Islamic extremists attacked a police station, killing four officers in a gun battle.

The attack early Thursday morning in Babangida, a small town in Yobe state, is part of a continuing wave violence sweeping the north.

Yobe state police commissioner Rufai Sunusi said Thursday that his officers killed five of the gunmen. Sunusi said two officers also were wounded in the attack.

After the attack, Yobe state's government announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew for citizens.

Boko Haram and other Islamic extremists have been waging a guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings across northern Nigeria. The violence has killed at least 173 people this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

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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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SAfrica police boss endorses officers in killings

MARIKANA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's police chief said Tuesday she stands by her statement praising officers involved in the shooting massacre of 34 striking miners and insisting they were "just doing your work."

Evidence before the judicial commission questioning her Tuesday has indicated some miners were shot in the back as they tried to flee and others were killed when they already were wounded and no threat.

Gen. Riah Phiyega said "I stand by statement." She repeated that after a commissioner asked her if she might feel differently given other evidence that has come to light.

Police said they opened fire after striking miners attacked them. No police were hurt in the Aug. 16 incident at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg, that shocked the nation with its echoes of police brutality under apartheid. It was the worst state violence since that system of white minority rule ended in 1994.

Phiyega, who had been newly appointed, stuck to her story even after evidence leader Mbuyiseli Madlanga read testimony from a police officer who said that he was searching for other suspects when he heard a gunshot from behind, where he had left a group of wounded miners. He said he turned to see a constable putting a revolver back in its holster and, when he asked what was going on, the constable said: "They deserve to die."

Photographic evidence presented to the commission in November showed police may have altered the scene of the killings and planted weapons after they shot 112 miners, killing 34.

Photographs taken by police at night show more weapons by the dead bodies than there were in news photographs taken immediately after the violence.

Video evidence shown to the commission has also indicated that some of the slain miners were handcuffed.

Thousands of miners had been striking for six weeks in Marikana to demand more money. Twelve people had been killed before Aug. 16, including two police officers, in violence blamed on rivalry between two unions, including the government-allied National Union of Mineworkers. The day after the shootings, Phiyega told a gathering of officers, "I want to thank you once more for doing what you did ... All we did was our job, and to do it in the manner in which you were trained. ... Don't feel you are being persecuted as police — you were doing your work."

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