Witness describes killings by Malian army

DJENNE, Mali (AP) — Malian soldiers killed people accused of ties to radical Islamists at a bus stop around the time the French-led military intervention began, a witness told The Associated Press on Wednesday, detailing how the soldiers shot the victims and then threw their bodies into nearby wells.

The account from the witness, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals, came the same day that a French human rights group accused Malian forces of dozens of "summary executions" and other abuses as they confront Islamic extremists.

"They gathered all the people who didn't have national identity cards and the people they suspected of being close to the Islamists to execute them and put them in two different wells near the bus station," he said.

The soldiers later poured gasoline in the wells and set the bodies ablaze, he said.

The man described seeing at least three people killed in the incident at the Sevare bus stop on Jan. 10, a day before the French launched their military offensive following a surge southward by the Islamists into the town of Konna.

The military blocked journalists from reaching the town of Sevare on Wednesday, expanding its security cordon all the way to the town of Djenne. Reporters trying to reach the area, including an Associated Press team, were turned away at checkpoints by soldiers, who cited the national state of emergency and concerns for the journalists' safety.

On Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights, or FIDH by its French acronym, called for the creation of an independent commission to look into the crimes and punish those responsible.

FIDH charged that Malian forces were behind about 33 killings — including of ethnic Tuaregs — since new fighting erupted Jan. 10 along the narrow belt between the government-controlled south and the north, which has been under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants for months.

Malian Army Capt. Modibo Traore said the allegations were "completely false" but declined to comment further.

Human rights groups have long expressed concerns about retaliatory violence against northern Malians or anyone seen as having ties to the Islamists whose capture of the north has divided the country in two.

Asked in an interview Wednesday on France 24 television whether he knew of abuses committed by Malian forces, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said only: "There's a risk."

France is "counting on" the top ranks of the Malian army to help avoid any abuses, Le Drian said.

"Aside from those who let themselves get indoctrinated by terrorists, who we totally condemn ... the Tuaregs are our friends," said Le Drian.

The claims come as international backing continued to pour in for France's intervention in its former colony. Pentagon officials said a United States airlift of French forces to Mali is expected to continue for another two weeks. Hundreds of African soldiers from Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso and Senegal are now joining.

Human rights groups have expressed concern about the situation in Mali — notably the activities of Malian troops. In a statement, FIDH pointed to "a series of summary executions" perpetrated by Malian forces notably in the towns of Sevare, Mopti, Niono and others along the lines of clashes.

In Sevare, at least 11 people were killed at a military camp, near its bus station and its hospital, and "credible information" pointed to about 20 other executions with the bodies "buried hastily, notably in wells," FIDH said.

Malian troops also killed two ethnic Tuaregs in the Niono region, and "other allegations of summary executions continue to come to us," the group said.

Dozens of ethnic Tuaregs in Bamako, Mali's capital far to the southwest, have had their homes raided by Malian forces, and at times been subjected to pillage and intimation, the group said.

All of the victims are accused of being infiltrators or of having ties to the jihadists, of possessing weapons, or of not being able to produce identity papers or "simply targeted because of their ethnicity," it said.

The Islamist fighters have controlled the vast desert stretches of northern Mali, with the weak government clinging to the south, since a military coup in the capital in March last year unleashed chaos.

Egypt's Islamist president has warned that the French-led military intervention in Mali will worsen rather than resolve the conflict. Mohammed Morsi, who is to visit Paris Feb. 1, said the use of force will "make the situation so much worse than before," speaking in Cairo Wednesday.

France launched its intervention on Jan. 11 — a day after Islamic extremists captured the central town of Konna, threatening a possible advance toward Bamako. France has said its forces will stay as long as necessary in Mali, but wants other African countries to the lead in helping Mali. Hundreds of African forces have been pouring in.

The U.S. Air Force is keeping between eight and 10 people at the airport in Mali's capital to help with the incoming and outgoing flights, the Pentagon said late Tuesday. The U.S. has already flown five C-17 flights into Bamako, delivering more than 80 French troops and 124 tons of equipment, it said.

The U.S. is not providing direct aid to the Malian military because the democratically elected government was overthrown last March in a coup.

French officials confirmed Tuesday that Malian forces, backed by French air power, retook the key towns of Diabaly and Douentza. Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months and is located 195 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali's narrow central belt. French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza on Monday to find that the Islamists had retreated from it.

Diabaly, 195 kilometers (120 miles) west of Mopti, was retaken Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French air strikes.

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After shootings, states rethink mental health cuts

LA teacher accused of sex abuse of up to 20 kids

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police say a fourth-grade teacher in the classroom for nearly 40 years has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing 20 students and one adult.

Police said in a statement that Robert Pimentel of Newport Beach, a teacher at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary in the Wilmington area, was arrested Wednesday and was being held on $12 million bail.

Police say he's been charged with 15 felonies, and is expected to be charged with misdemeanors for the remaining incidents.

The Los Angeles Unified School District said in a statement that when the investigation began last March, Pimentel was immediately removed from campus and parents and state credentialing authorities were informed.

The district says Pimentel retired before he could be fired. He had worked for LAUSD since 1974.

NKorea warns of nuke test, more rocket launches

In crisis, Greeks turn to wood-burning _ and choke

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2013, file photo a haze of smoke hangs over the western suburbs of Athens. A steep increase in heating costs has forced many in crisis-hit Greece to switch from heating oil to wood-burning for warmth. But there's a catch. Illegal loggers are slashing through forests devastated by years of summer wildfires, air pollution from wood smoke is choking the country's main cities and there has been an increase in blazes caused by carelessly attended woodstoves. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Fireplaces were long a status symbol for Greece's up-and-coming middle class, like the second car and the flat-screen TV. Now, they are increasingly their owners' only defense against the encroaching winter cold.

A steep increase in heating costs has led many Greeks to switch from heating oil to wood-burning. But the price of using cheaper fuel is growing.

Illegal loggers are slashing through forests already devastated by years of summer wildfires. Air pollution from wood smoke is choking the country's main cities. And there has been an increase in blazes caused by carelessly attended woodstoves.

Three children died in a northern village last month when a fire gutted the home of their grandparents, who had recently changed from oil-fueled central heating to a wooden stove to save money.

In Athens, the capital, officials have warned of severe health risks from the low-lying smog that smothers the city at night, when fireplaces and woodstoves burn at full blast in poorly insulated homes. Greece's leading medical association is demanding urgent action to clean the air. But those warnings have largely been ignored for a simple reason: Burning wood provides the same warmth asheating oil, for roughly half the cost.

For the past three years, the country has been wracked by its worst financial crisis since the end of World War II. Living standards have plummeted, pensions have been slashed and a quarter of the workforce is unemployed, following deeply resented cutbacks demanded in return for international bailouts shielding Greece from total ruin.

The heating crisis was triggered by taxation changes, and made desperate by financial woes. For years, fuel for vehicles was taxed more heavily than heating oil. That encouraged crooked traders to sell heating fuel for use in vehicles and pocket the difference.

Hoping to boost faltering revenues and foil tax fraud, the government this year harmonized taxes on vehicle fuel and heating oil, which now costs about 40 percent more than last winter, although lower-income residents of colder areas get a rebate. Critics say the move backfired due to a drastic decline in sales.

"The fact that the price of petrol has greatly increased, while incomes are shrinking to an unbearable extent, creates a vast problem with heating in Greece," said lawmaker Thomas Psyrras from the Democratic Left party — a junior partner in Greece's conservative-led coalition government. "People who live abroad imagine that we have sunshine all year round, but that's not the case."

Temperatures have dropped below freezing in much of the country this winter, while snow fell in central Athens this month.

Stratos Paradias, head of the Hellenic Property Federation that represents property owners, says many city dwellers have been left without any central heating. "There are some who are completely unable to pay the costs due to the crisis," he said.

But even those who can afford oil, or the slightly cheaper natural gas, can be left shivering, due to the communal nature of each apartment block's central heating. It means that if enough owners want to go without, their decision is binding for all residents.

While electric heating is another option, most consumers perceive wood as cheaper — especially since household power bills are set to increase about 10 percent this year.

It's hard to estimate how many people have abandoned heating oil for wood. Distributors say sales ofheating oil are nearly 80 percent down this winter, and new firewood yards have mushroomed all over Athens.

"I used to have the only shop with firewood around here. Now another four have opened this year," said Grigoris Athanassakis, who has sold firewood for the past 15 years in the Athens district of Tavros.

"What's unprecedented this year is that we started selling firewood in August," he said. "People were terrified at the coming rise in fuel prices, and rushed to get their supplies in early."

Costas Tsakoyiannis, who runs a yard on a busy highway near a central cemetery, says he's seen a 20 percent rise in demand this season.

"It used to be middle-class people who bought firewood, but now it's much more widespread," he said. "Many who only had fireplaces in their flats for decoration now use them for heating. Others have bought woodstoves."

The heating crisis has spawned some ingenious solutions, such as stoves in northern Greece that burn fuel as unlikely as peach stones and olive pits.

Officials say all the wood smoke poses a considerable public health risk. The state Center for Disease Control & Prevention warned that a single fireplace emits 30 times more dust particles than oil-burning central heating for 25 flats.

The problem gets much worse when instead of firewood people burn salvaged wood or broken-up furniture that contains noxious varnishes or synthetic coatings.

A University of Thessaloniki study found that the concentration of fine particles in the air of the country's second-largest city was on average twice the safety level from mid-November to mid-December 2012 — and considerably higher than a year earlier. Fine dust is particularly dangerous as it seeps deep into the lungs, potentially causing respiratory problems.

The Thessaloniki study estimated that the increase in pollution would lead to an extra €40 million ($52 million) burden in public health costs.

In Athens, the crisis had initially helped to improve air quality as high gasoline costs discouraged the use of private transport. That changed this winter, as people rushed to buy firewood — and the immediate outlook is bleak.

"We expect that as temperatures go down in January and February use of fireplaces will increase and the phenomenon will rise," said Evangelos Gerassopoulos, research director at the National Observatory.

The Environment Ministry said this month that while the smog "creates a serious problem for public health ... at this point the situation is not so acute as to allow taking emergency measures."

The Athens Medical Association, however, responded with an urgent appeal for action.

"We can't wait any longer," it said in a statement. "We have enough cancers in our country. The cost of treating people sickened from the effects of the smog will be much greater than that of (fully) subsidizing natural gas and heating oil."

The government has ruled out an expansion of the current heating oil rebate system. Meanwhile, the vast appetite for wood has encouraged extensive illegal logging — by local residents for private use but also by organized gangs. Reports of clandestinely felled trees have come in even from the suburbs of Athens and a town park in central Greece.

Forestry services, hit so severely by cutbacks that they sometimes lack enough gasoline for car patrols, face the daunting task of policing some 6.4 million hectares (16 million acres) of forest.

Georgios Amorgianniotis, a secretary for forests at the environment ministry, said illegal logging only became a serious problem during the crisis.

He said legal actions against clandestine loggers doubled in 2012 compared to the year before, although that's partly due to stricter policing. In the area of Mount Olympus, mythical home of the ancient Greek gods, 300 people were arrested last year for illegal logging — a five-fold increase from before the 2009 eruption of Greece's crisis.

In 2011, officials confiscated more than 6,500 tons of illegally cut firewood. That number doubled last year to 13,100 tons while more than 400 vehicles were impounded.

Forestry workers have even been attacked by illegal loggers wielding axes or guns.

After a shooting incident last year, a foresters' union weighed in with this judgment: "It's clearly turning into a Far West-style situation."

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Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki contributed.