Train plot suspect rejects Canadian law, cites "holy book"

By Allison Martell

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Montreal man accused of helping plan an al Qaeda-backed attack on a passenger train is set for a court hearing in Toronto on Wednesday.

Chiheb Esseghaier, a Tunisian-born PhD student, faces charges that include conspiracy to murder and working with a terrorist group. He and another suspect allegedly hoped to derail a passenger train, perhaps at a bridge near the U.S.-Canada border, with possible heavy loss of life, authorities said.

Esseghaier, 30, along with Raed Jaser of Toronto, were arrested on Monday in separate raids after what police said was a joint Canada-U.S. investigation that started last year after a tip from a member of the Muslim community.

Esseghaier declined an offer of legal representation at a separate procedural hearing in Montreal and sought to explain how the words and facts in police allegations were "only appearances."

Canadian police said the plot involved a passenger train route in the Toronto area but that there had been no immediate threat to rail passengers or to the public. They said the alleged plot had no connection to the Boston Marathon bombings.

But U.S. officials said that the suspects were believed to have worked on a plan to blow up a trestle on the Canadian side of the border as the Maple Leaf, Amtrak's daily run between Toronto and New York, passed over it.

Canadian authorities have linked the two to al Qaeda factions in Iran. But they added that there is no indication the attack plans, which police described as the first known al Qaeda-backed plot on Canadian soil, were state-sponsored.

Two hours before Wednesday's hearing, reporters and TV trucks were clustered outside Toronto's Old City Hall, a clock-tower-topped building of dark red sandstone.

(Writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Philip Barbara)

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Chavez heir barely wins; opposition rejects count

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin victory in Sunday's special presidential election but the opposition candidate refused to accept the result and demanded a full recount.

Maduro's stunningly close victory followed an often ugly, mudslinging campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, while challenger Henrique Capriles' main message was that Chavez put this country with the world's largest oil reserves on the road to ruin.

Despite the ill feelings, both men sent their supporters home and urged them to refrain from violence.

Maduro, acting president since Chavez's March 5 death, held a double-digit advantage in opinion polls just two weeks ago, but electoral officials said he got just 50.7 percent of the votes to 49.1 percent for Capriles with nearly all ballots counted.

The margin was about 234,935 votes. Turnout was 78 percent, down from just over 80 percent in the October election that Chavez won by a nearly 11-point margin.

Chavistas set off fireworks and raced through downtown Caracas blasting horns in jubilation. But analysts called the slim margin a disaster for Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver in the radical wing of Chavismo who is believed to have close ties to Cuba.

In a victory speech, he told a crowd outside the presidential palace that his victory was further proof that Chavez "continues to be invincible."

But in a hint of discontent, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who many consider Maduro's main rival, expressed dismay in a tweet: "The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism. It's contradictory that the poor sectors of the population vote for their longtime exploiters."

At Capriles' campaign headquarters, people hung their heads quietly as the results were announced by an electoral council stacked with government loyalists. Many started crying; others just stared at TV screens in disbelief.

Later, Capriles emerged to angrily reject the official totals: "It is the government that has been defeated."

He said his campaign came up with "a result that is different from the results announced today."

"The biggest loser today is you," Capriles said, directly addressing Maduro through the camera. "The people don't love you."

Armed forces joint chief, Gen. Wilmer Barrientos, called on the military to accept the results.

A Capriles' campaign staffer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the candidate met with the military high command after polls closed. But campaign official Armando Briquet later denied a meeting was held.

Capriles, an athletic 40-year-old state governor, had mocked and belittled Maduro as a poor, bland imitation of Chavez.

Maduro said during his victory speech that Capriles had called him before the results were announced to suggest a "pact" and that Maduro refused. Capriles' camp did not comment on Maduro's claim.

Maduro, a longtime foreign minister to Chavez, rode a wave of sympathy for the charismatic leader to victory, pinning his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize "the incompetence of the state."

Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his 14-year rule.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime — one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates — that the opposition said worsened after Chavez disappeared to Cuba in December for what would be his final surgery.

Analyst David Smilde at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank predicted the victory would prove pyrrhic and make Maduro extremely vulnerable.

"It will make people in his coalition think that perhaps he is not the one to lead the revolution forward," Smilde said.

"This is a result in which the 'official winner' appears as the biggest loser," said Amherst College political scientist Javier Corrales. "The 'official loser' — the opposition — emerges even stronger than it did six months ago. These are very delicate situations in any political system, especially when there is so much mistrust of institutions."

Many across the nation put little stock in Maduro's claims that sabotage by the far right was to blame for worsening power outages and food shortages in the weeks before the vote.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In the Chavista stronghold of Petare outside Caracas, Maria Velasquez, 48, who works in a government soup kitchen that feeds 200 people, said she voted for Chavez's man "because that is what my comandante ordered."

Reynaldo Ramos, a 60-year-old construction worker, said he "voted for Chavez" before correcting himself and saying he chose Maduro. But he could not seem to get his beloved leader out of his mind.

"We must always vote for Chavez because he always does what's best for the people and we're going to continue on this path," Ramos said. He said the government had helped him get work on the subway system and helps pay his grandchildren's school costs.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed the backing of state media as part of its near-monopoly on institutional power.

Capriles' camp said Chavista loyalists in the judiciary put them at glaring disadvantage by slapping the campaign and broadcast media with fines and prosecutions that they called unwarranted. Only one opposition TV station remains and it was being sold to a new owner Monday.

At rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves.

Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he earlier accorded Chavez.

Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

The opposition contended Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy his re-election with government handouts. It also complained about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles said would end if he won.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit is equal to about 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Maduro focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez." And he promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

He will face no end of hard choices for which Corrales, of Amherst, said he has shown no skills for tackling.

Maduro has "a penchant for blaming everything on his 'adversaries' — capitalism, imperialism, the bourgeoisie, the oligarchs — so it is hard to figure how exactly he would address any policy challenge other than taking a tough line against his adversaries."

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses.

Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples.

The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

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Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, E. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia contributed to this report.

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Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

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Radical Islamic group rejects Nigeria peace effort

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The leader of the Islamic extremist network Boko Haram apparently has refused to take part in any possible amnesty deal offered by Nigeria's government to stop the guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings now plaguing the country.

An audio recording obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday features a man who sounds like Abubakar Shekau strongly objecting to any possible deal with Nigerian officials. The comments come after Nigeria's government has floated the idea of possibly setting up a government committee to examine offering some sort of deal to stop the violence that's killed hundreds over the last year.

The recording, first passed by intermediaries of Boko Haram to journalists in northern Nigeria, features the man talking about the possibility of an amnesty deal, first discussed last week. The man in the recording, speaking in the Hausa language of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, calls the amnesty deal "surprising."

"We are the one to grant them pardon. Have you forgotten their atrocities against us?" he says.

Boko Haram, which sends messages through spokesmen and communiques at times of its choosing, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The man in the recording later threatens the lives of anyone claiming to be a representative of Boko Haram saying the network wants to accept a peace deal. A self-proclaimed Boko Haram leader said he could offer a ceasefire in northeast Nigeria on behalf of the group in January, though the violence continued unstopped.

The idea of an amnesty, discussed in some corners by analysts, came to a head in March when the Sultan of Sokoto, one of the country's top Muslim leaders, called for it. While the sultan did not speak in specifics, others have suggested offering an amnesty deal in lines with one previously given to militants in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta in 2009. That deal offered cash payments and job training to fighters in return for them giving up their weapons and halting attacks on foreign oil companies. The sultan is the highest ranking official so far to publicly endorse such a plan for Islamic extremists, many of whom fight as part of Boko Haram and its splinter groups.

The 2009 amnesty deal, however, did not stop attacks in the delta, nor halt the rapidly growing theft of crude oil from pipelines there that has caused serious environmental damage. The militants there also attacked the commodity that fills the nation's coffers while typically not killing civilians. Meanwhile, Boko Haram is blamed for killing at least 792 people last year alone, according to an AP count, and its attacks occur hundreds of miles away from the nearest oil well. So far this year, violence by Islamic extremists has killed at least 173 people, according to an AP count.

No Nigerian government officials have publicly said the government is creating a committee to study a possible amnesty deal for Islamic extremists, giving wiggle room to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for a possible denial later in case the idea is dropped. Jonathan, a Christian from the oil delta, has faced increasing public criticism for being unable to stop the killings.

Boko Haram says it is fighting to free its imprisoned members and install an Islamic government over Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," has conducted its guerrilla fight across Nigeria's north over the last three years. The group's command-and-control structure remains unclear, though it appears to have sparked several splinter groups.

A group of men who said they belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven French tourists from northern Cameroon late February — a first for the group. Meanwhile, a Boko Haram splinter group known as Ansaru has claimed the recent kidnappings and killings in northern Nigeria of seven foreigners — a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino — all employees of a Lebanese construction company called Setraco.

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, human rights groups and local citizens blame both Boko Haram and security forces for committing violent atrocities against the local civilian population, fueling rage in the region.

Early Thursday morning, suspected Islamic extremists attacked a police station in Babangida, a small town in Yobe state, Yobe state police commissioner Rufai Sunusi said. Sunusi said four of his officers died in the attack, while two others were wounded. Police killed five of the gunmen, he said.

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

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Associated Press writers Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, and Mohammed Abubakar in Damaturu, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

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

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Canadian judge rejects total media ban in dismemberment case

By Leila Lemghalef

MONTREAL (Reuters) - A Canadian judge rejected on Tuesday a request to ban the press and public from the pre-trial hearing of a Montreal man accused of murdering and dismembering a Chinese student, eating parts of the corpse and posting an online video of the grisly crime.

But Quebec court Judge Lori Renee Weitzman left intact the customary ban on publication of evidence brought forward in such preliminary hearings.

In the hearing, prosecutors will seek to persuade the court in Montreal that they have enough evidence against small-time porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta for the case to go to trial.

In an unusual request, Magnotta's lawyer had asked the judge to exclude reporters and the public from the proceedings entirely, arguing that this would prevent leaks of the evidence and guarantee Magnotta's right to a fair trial.

Weitzman said her ruling took into account the competing rights of freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial and she believed journalists would abide by the publication restrictions.

She said she would revisit the defense's request if necessary.

The killing of Chinese student Jun Lin in the early summer of 2012 shocked Canadians and grabbed headlines around the world, sparking an international manhunt that led to Magnotta's arrest in Germany last June.

A self-styled porn actor, model and gay escort with an extensive online presence, Magnotta, 30, is accused of killing Lin, a student in Montreal, posting a video on the Internet of the stabbing death and defiling the body and eating parts of it.

Lin's hands and feet were mailed to the offices of political parties in Ottawa and schools in Vancouver. His torso was found stuffed into a suitcase in a pile of garbage behind Magnotta's Montreal apartment, and his head was later discovered in a nearby park.

Lin's family flew to Montreal from China for the hearing and his father, Diran Lin, sat silently in the back row of the courtroom on Tuesday for part of the session.

"(He's here) to honor his son, to witness how our judicial system works," the family's lawyer, Daniel Urbas, told reporters.

"He believes that he trusted our society with his son once and he wants to see whether and how he can trust our society with the judicial process that's going to lead to some resolution of the criminal charges related to his son's death."

Magnotta has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including first-degree murder, indignities to a body and publishing obscene materials.

Magnotta sat in a glass box on Tuesday, the second day of the hearings. He wore a white T-shirt and purple pants and faced the front of the room, closing his eyes occasionally.

(Writing by Louise Egan; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Peter Galloway and Eric Walsh)

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Conservation body rejects polar bear trade ban

BANGKOK (AP) — A proposal by the United States to ban cross-border trade in polar bears and their parts was defeated Thursday at an international meeting of conservationists, marking a victory for Canada's indigenous Inuit people over their big neighbor to the south.

Delegates at the triennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, rejected Washington's proposal to change the status of the polar bear from a species whose trade is merely regulated, not banned.

The proposal fell far short of the two-thirds needed to pass, garnering 38 votes in favor, 42 against and 46 abstentions. A similar proposal was defeated three years ago at the last CITES meeting.

While support for most of the meeting's 70 proposals covering the trade in other species fell along predictable lines, the U.S. proposal made for some odd bedfellows. Russia endorsed Washington's proposal, which was also supported by a cluster of animal humane societies. Canada was joined in opposition by some of the larger conservation organizations, including the CITES Secretariat and the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, better known as TRAFFIC.

The worldwide population of polar bears is estimated to be 20,000-28,000, with about two-thirds in Canada.

The United States had contended that climate change was dangerously shrinking the bears' habitat, and that pre-emptive measures were needed to save them.

The Inuit, on whose lands many of the animals dwell, contended that polar bear populations were not declining, and that Canada was regulating the hunting of the bears in sustainable numbers. The tribal group said their way of life and livelihoods would be threatened by a ban.

"What it means to the Inuit people is that it is confirmation that the Inuit are managing the polar bear in a very responsible manner and that the world agrees with us, and it's a proud moment for the Inuit," Terry Audla, head of an Inuit rights group, said after the vote.

Audla earlier contended that the threatened ban was only the latest action that failed to heed the needs of the Inuit community.

"The world bans the seal trade, not based on science, but based on their bleeding hearts, right? Because 'it's so cruel,'" he said. "But we've lived off the seals for centuries, and the population is quite healthy. So that was taken away from us. Now the ivory trade, we have the walrus tusks and the narwhal tusks, and that trade was important to us as well. That was taken away from us. Now they're saying the polar bear should be taken away from us as well."

The U.S. delegation said it was disappointed that the trade ban proposal had failed.

"We will continue to work with our partners to reduce the pressure that trade in polar bear parts puts on this iconic arctic species, even as we take on the longer-term threat that climate change poses to polar bears," Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes said in a prepared statement.

"Limiting commercial trade in this species would have addressed a source of non-climate stress to polar bear populations and contributed to long-term recovery," said the statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Each year, an average of 3,200 items made from polar bears - including skins, claws and teeth - are reported to be exported or re-exported from a range of countries. Polar bear hides sell for an average of $2,000 to $5,000, while maximum hide prices have topped $12,000."

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Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

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