Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman said Tuesday that Gulf leaders must stand up to Iran, as Yemeni rebels backed by Tehran attacked a Saudi border town with mortar shells.

Salman's call came at a meeting of Gulf monarchs in Riyadh that was also attended by French President Francois Hollande, who said his country was "by the side" of Gulf nations.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit came amid mounting international concern about the impact on civilians of Saudi-led air strikes targeting Yemeni rebels.

In a clear reference to Iran, Salman spoke of the need to confront an external threat that "aims to expand control and impose its hegemony", threatening regional stability and creating "sectarian sedition".

Soon afterwards, the Saudi-led coalition carrying out air raids in Yemen said mortar shells fired by Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels from across the border had struck the Saudi town of Najran.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri told Saudi television that hospitals, schools and houses had been hit.

"Air and ground forces will respond in the right way to these hazardous acts and will not allow them to be repeated," Assiri said.

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A Yemeni woman in Taez on May 4, 2015, as she reportedly presents herself to join the Popular Resist …

The Saudi military had already deployed Apache combat helicopters to target the rebels in the border area, he added.

Hollande, the first Western leader to attend a GCC summit, said France shared the dangers facing the region and he had come "to affirm the commitment of France to be by your side".

The Riyadh summit brought together leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All but Oman are in the Saudi-led Sunni coalition that on March 26 launched air strikes in Yemen against the Huthi rebels and their allies who have seized large parts of the country including Sanaa.

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Riyadh when the rebels advanced on his southern refuge Aden.

Concern has mounted over the air campaign, which has continued despite the coalition announcing late last month it was moving on to a new phase.

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Supporters of Yemen's Southern Separatist Movement keep position near Aden airport on May 3, 201 …

- Humanitarian crisis -

The United Nations says at least 1,200 people have been killed in Yemen since March 19, and has repeatedly warned that the already impoverished Arabian Peninsula state faces a major humanitarian crisis.

Saudi Arabia has said it is considering temporary halts in air strikes to allow aid deliveries.

Hollande told the summit France supports coalition efforts "to ensure the stability of Yemen".

His visit comes as Paris strengthens its political and economic relations with the oil- and gas-rich Gulf monarchies.

He arrived in Riyadh from GCC member Qatar after attending the signing of a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) deal between French aerospace firm Dassault and Qatari defence officials.

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Yemeni volunteers in Sanaa on May 4, 2015 collect rubbish from the city's streets, where garbage …

The agreement includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets, with an option on a further 12.

On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris and Riyadh are also discussing 20 economic projects worth "tens of billions of euros".

Hollande's visit comes as US President Barack Obama prepares to host GCC leaders for talks next week.

Most GCC countries are also part of a US-led air coalition targeting the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.

- Tight security -

Security was high in Riyadh Tuesday after IS threats to attack the kingdom, with green-bereted Royal Guards manning checkpoints and a sniffer dog checking vehicles.

Both Paris and Washington have sought to reassure the Gulf states about an international accord being finalised over Iran's nuclear programme.

The Gulf fears Iran could still develop an atomic bomb under the deal that would limit its nuclear capabilities in return for lifting crippling international sanctions.

Tehran denies trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

"I know that Iran is at the heart of your preoccupations," Hollande said.

The only other foreign leader invited to a GCC summit was Iran's then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2007.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Saudi Arabia this week before security talks in France.

On Monday after Hollande met Salman, a joint French-Saudi declaration "stressed the need to achieve by June 30, a robust (nuclear) agreement that is lasting, verifiable, indisputable and binding for Iran" which must "ensure" it would not develop an atomic bomb.

On Yemen, they stressed the importance of implementing a UN Security Council resolution calling on the rebels to withdraw from all areas they have seized since July 2014.

A source familiar with the situation said France has provided the Saudi-led coalition with satellite imagery of Yemen.

WABC – NY
NYPD Officer Brian Moore, shot in Queens, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — A 25-year-old police officer shot in the head while attempting to stop a man suspected of carrying a handgun died Monday from his injuries, the third New York City officer slain on duty in five months.

Brian Moore, who was in a coma after undergoing brain surgery following the Saturday evening shooting, was pronounced dead at a Queens hospital with his family, including his police officer father, uncle and cousin, at his bedside.

Hundreds of uniformed officers stood at attention outside the hospital and lined up down the block to salute the ambulance carrying his body. Afterward, many could be seen crying and consoling one another.

"He proved himself to be an exceptional young officer," Police Commissioner William Bratton said, noting Moore had made more than 150 arrests in less than five years on the job and earned meritorious service medals.

Moore and his partner were in plainclothes and in an unmarked police car when they approached Demetrius Blackwell in a quiet Queens neighborhood after they saw him adjusting his waistband, a move that made them suspicious he had a handgun, authorities said.

The officers pulled up next to Blackwell, 35, and exchanged words before the man suddenly turned, pulled out a weapon and fired at least twice at them, striking Moore in the head and face, according to court documents.

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Police officers salute as the body of Brian Moore leaves Jamaica Hospital in New York, Monday, May 4 …

Blackwell has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes. He is being held without bail and has not entered a plea. His attorney has denied the charges.

He will be charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors said.

Investigators discovered the five-shot silver Taurus used in the shooting under a box near a backyard grill along the route Blackwell fled following the shooting, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

The gun, which had two live rounds still in the chamber, was one of 23 weapons reported stolen in October 2011 from a bait and tackle shop in Perry, Georgia, he said. Ten of those weapons have since been recovered — nine of them in in New York.

Mayor Bill de Blasio mourned Moore's death.

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NYPD officers salute as an ambulance carrying the body of NYPD officer Brian Moore leaves Jamaica Ho …

"He risked his life for a very simple notion — to keep everyone else safe, to keep our society safe, to keep order," the mayor said at an evening news conference. "This is what he wanted to do."

Patrick Lynch, who heads the rank-and-file police officers' union, joined Moore's family at the hospital and told reporters afterward that the city's police force would pay their respects, and then return to their posts patrolling streets, stairwells and subways.

"They may have sadness in their eyes, but they have bravery in the hearts," he said.

Moore had been on the job since July 2010, officials said. Flags at police headquarters were flying at half-staff Monday.

He is the first city officer to be killed on duty since two uniformed police officers were slain in December in Brooklyn.

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NYPD officers embrace after the body of NYPD officer Brian Moore leaves in an ambulance from Jamaica …

Officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot at close range as they were sitting in their patrol car Dec. 20. The gunman, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, then ran into a nearby subway station and fatally shot himself.

Before the ambush, Brinsley posted on an Instagram account that he was planning to shoot two "pigs" in retaliation for Eric Garner's death in an apparent police chokehold.

Officials have said Blackwell made no such postings and had an extensive criminal history, including serving five years in prison on an attempted murder conviction.

___

Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.

The keynote speaker at a controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, where two gunmen were killed Sunday night, was on an al-Qaida hit list that included Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier, who was gunned down with 11 others in an attack French satirical publication's Paris offices in January.

Geert Wilders, a right-wing Dutch politician who gave a 20-minute speech at the event in Garland, appeared alongside Charbonnier and Salman Rushdie on the 2013 list published by Inspire magazine under the headline: “Wanted: Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam.”

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A wanted list was published by Inspire magazine in 2013.

An unarmed security guard was also wounded in Sunday’s shooting, which occurred outside Curtis Culwell Center in North Garland around 7 p.m., when the two men got out of their car and opened fire. The guard was treated and released, Garland police said. None of the 200 attendees were hurt.

According to ABC News, FBI agents raided an apartment in Phoenix where one of the gunmen, identified as Elton Simpson, was believed to have lived.

Simpson, who had been the subject of a previous terrorist investigation, was a known sympathizer of the Islamic State terrorist group and is suspected of publishing a tweet with the hashtag #TexasAttack prior to the shooting.

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The editor of the French satirical magazine killed in a terrorist attack in Paris on Wednesday had b …

“This is an attack on the liberties of all of us,”Wilders said.

In February, a gunman attacked a free speech forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, featuring Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist whose depictions of Muhammad landed him on the same list.

The Garland event, hosted by the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative, was offering $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said it was not immediately clear whether the shooting was connected to the contest.

But the controversial organizer of the contest said she had no doubt it was.

“The Islamic jihadis are determined to suppress our freedom of speech violently,” Pam Geller, AFDI’s president, told CNN. “They struck in Paris and Copenhagen recently, and now in Texas.”

Two gunmen killed in Texas outside Prophet Muhamma …Play video

View image on Twitter Follow Geert Wilders ✔@geertwilderspvv Picture taken just before #garlandshooting . Thank God the heroes of SWAT-team prevented the worst. 9:50 PM - 3 May 2015 1,4971,497 Retweets 1,1351,135 favorites

In 2012, Geller, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “the anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead,” fought for the right to run anti-Muslim ads in New York City’s subways. (“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man,” the ads read. “Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”)

Sunday’s incident, Geller said, “shows how much needed our event really was. The freedom of speech is under violent assault here in our nation. The question now before us: Will we stand and defend it, or bow to violence, thuggery and savagery?”

The hashtag #JeSuisTexas, a nod to the “Je Suis Charlie” tribute that went viral after the shootings in Paris, was trending on Twitter late Sunday.

Wilders told AFP that he is traveling back to the Netherlands on Monday but plans to return to the United States next week for another speaking engagement.

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's president denounced western countries for taking pride in arms sales Tuesday, after France signed a warplanes deal with Qatar, saying weapons agreements add to Middle East instability.

Although he did not name France, Hassan Rouhani's comments came after it agreed a 6.3-billion-euro ($7-billion) contract with Qatari defence officials in Doha.

French President Francois Hollande was at the signing ceremony prior to a Gulf Cooperation Council leaders' meeting in Riyadh, the first time a western head of state has attended a GCC summit.

"Good choice," Hollande said on Monday as the deal, which includes an order for 24 Rafale fighter jets with an option on a further 12, was signed.

However Rouhani, in a speech carried live on state television, said that given the turmoil wracking the region, large military equipment or arms deals would not help the situation.

"The world should not smile at the problem of our region. Some American or European nation should not be proud of selling more weapons to this or that country," he said.

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Iranian soldiers march past Hassan Rouhani (left) during the annual parade marking the anniversary o …

"They create insecurity in the region and unjustly make regional countries scared of each other, preparing the ground for a weapons market."

The France-Qatar deal involves the French aerospace firm Dassault. Having struggled for years to sell any Rafales abroad, Dassault has recently scored lucrative high-profile contracts with Egypt, India, and now Qatar.

However, Rouhani, again not naming France or Hollande, criticised arms deals involving foreign countries that will end up being used in conflicts elsewhere.

"They come to the region and are proud of having sold billions of dollars or euros of weapons to these countries," he said.

"Is this the way to create employment in western countries? For someone to be employed in an arms factory while people are killed in Baghdad, Damascus or Sanaa?"

The last city Rouhani named -- the Yemeni capital -- is at the centre of Iran's dispute with Saudi Arabia, which for more than one month has been bombing Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Iran, the region's dominant Shiite power, which provides military aid and support to several Palestinian groups and Hezbollah in Lebanon, supports the Huthis and opposes the daily raids by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies, including Qatar.

Iran has denied arming the Huthis and has called for peace talks in Yemen. The conflict there is increasingly seen as a proxy war between Tehran and Riyadh.

The Riyadh summit brings together the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

While Yemen is expected to dominate, Gulf leaders are also likely to voice concern over a potential final nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers led by the United States.