By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

RISHON LEZION Israel (Reuters) - Israeli police on Sunday blocked more than 200 far-right Israeli protesters from rushing guests at a wedding of a Jewish woman and Muslim man as they shouted "death to the Arabs" in a sign of tensions stoked by the Gaza war.

Several dozen police, including members of the force's most elite units, formed human chains to keep the protesters from the wedding hall's gates and chased after many who defied them. Four protesters were arrested, and there were no injuries.

A lawyer for the couple, Maral Malka, 23, and Mahmoud Mansour, 26, both from the Jaffa section of Tel Aviv, had unsuccessfully sought a court order to bar the protest. He obtained backing for police to keep protesters 200 metres (yards) from the wedding hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion.

The protest highlighted a rise in tensions between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel in the past two months amid a monthlong Gaza war, the kidnap and slaying of three Israeli teens in June followed by a revenge choking and torching to death of a Palestinian teen in the Jerusalem area.

A group called Lehava, which organized the wedding demonstration, has harassed Jewish-Arab couples in the past, often citing religious grounds for their objections to intermarriage. But they have rarely protested at the site of a wedding.

The groom told Israel's Channel 2 TV the protesters failed to derail the wedding or dampen its spirit. "We will dance and be merry until the sun comes up. We favor coexistence," he said.

'DEATH TO THE ARABS' THREATS CHANTED

Protesters, many of them young men wearing black shirts, denounced Malka, who was born Jewish and converted to Islam before the wedding, as a "traitor against the Jewish state," and shouted epithets of hatred toward Arabs including "death to the Arabs." They sang a song that urges, "May your village burn down."

A few dozen left-wing Israelis held a counter-protest nearby holding flowers, balloons and a sign that read: "Love conquers all."

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, sworn in last month to succeed Shimon Peres, criticized the protest as a "cause for outrage and concern" in a message on his Facebook page.

"Such expressions undermine the basis of our coexistence here, in Israel, a country that is both Jewish and democratic," Rivlin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud bloc, said.

Lehava spokesman and former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari denounced Jews intermarrying with non-Jews of any denomination as "worse than what Hitler did," alluding to the murder of 6 million Jews across Europe in World War Two.

A surprise wedding guest was Israel's health minister, Yael German, a centrist in Netanyahu's government. She told reporters as she headed inside that she saw the wedding and the protest against it as "an expression of democracy."

Arab citizens make up about 20 percent of Israel's majority Jewish population, and the overwhelming majority of Arabs are Muslims. Rabbinical authorities who oversee most Jewish nuptials in Israel object to intermarriage fearing it will diminish the ranks of the Jewish people.

Many Israeli couples who marry out of their faith do so abroad.

Malka's father, Yoram Malka, said on Israeli television he objected to the wedding, calling it "a very sad event." He said he was angry that his daughter had converted to Islam. Of his now son-in-law, he said, "My problem with him is that he is an Arab."

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan)

Police block more than 200 far-right Israeli protesters from storming the wedding hall's gates.
Chants of 'death to the Arabs'

CAIRO (AP) — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Egypt-mediated Gaza truce talks hardened their positions Monday ahead of the expiration of a five-day cease-fire, though both sides appeared reluctant to return to the deadly all-out fighting that has destroyed large parts of the densely-populated coastal strip.

The month-long Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Israel has lost 67 people, all but three of them soldiers.

Since last week, indirect talks have been taking place in Cairo through Egyptian mediators in an effort to broker a substantive end to the war and draw up a roadmap for Gaza.

On Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli delegations resumed the talks following weekend consultations across the Middle East but gaps between the two sides remain wide, with each staking out maximalist positions.

The Gaza blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas militants took control of the strip in 2007, remains the main stumbling block. It has greatly limited the movement of Palestinians in and out of the territory of 1.8 million people, restricted the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports.

A Palestinian negotiator, Qais Abdul Karim, told The Associated Press that on Sunday, Israel pressed for guarantees that Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza would be disarmed, while the Palestinians demanded an end to the blockade without preconditions.

View gallery

Palestinians walk in the rubble of destroyed houses in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood on Aug …

The current five-day cease-fire ends at midnight (2100 GMT) Monday but Ziad Nakhleh, head of the Islamic Jihad faction within the Palestinian delegation in Cairo, said he expects it to be extended if a deal is not reached by then.

"The war is behind us now," he told the AP. "We are not returning to war."

Hamas has repeatedly said it will not give up its weapons, while Israel says it needs to maintain some degree of control over Gaza crossings to prevent the smuggling of weapons and weapons production materials into the coastal strip.

Karim, the Palestinian negotiator, said Egyptian mediators have pressed the Palestinians to present compromise proposals on the border crossing issue. The Palestinian delegation was in a meeting in the early hours Monday over it but the outcome was not immediately known.

In a possible move to pressure Hamas to soften its positions on the blockade and related issues, Norway's foreign minister said Monday that his country and Egypt are planning to co-host a donor conference in Cairo for the reconstruction of Gaza. Boerge Brende said invitations will be sent out once there is an agreement in the Egypt-mediated truce talks with Israel.

View gallery

Palestinians stand in what is left of the home of Amer Abu Aisheh, one of three Palestinians identif …

Also on Monday, Israeli troops demolished the homes of two militants suspected in the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers whose deaths sparked the war in Gaza, and sealed up the home of a third.

The demolition is standard Israeli military procedure in dealing with militants suspected of major crimes. According to the police, there were 250 policemen at the scene, along with dozens of Israeli soldiers. Minor clashes were reported during the demolition, with Palestinian youths hurling rocks and stones at armored Israeli vehicles.

The three teens — Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel — were slain in June in the West Bank. Their killings were followed by the slaying of a Palestinian youth in what was a likely revenge attack.

The teens' deaths also led to wide-ranging Israeli raids in the West Bank and precipitated the Gaza war, which began on July 8 with an Israeli air campaign. Nine days later, Israel sent in ground troops to destroy Hamas' underground cross-border tunnels constructed for attacks inside Israel.

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Enav reported from Jerusalem.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — After a week of violent clashes between police and protesters, Missouri authorities leading the investigation into the police shooting death of an unarmed black teenager are increasingly facing questions about whether their eventual findings can be seen as credible among residents who are highly distrustful of those in charge.

The coming days and weeks will be crucial as grand jurors began hearing evidence that will help determine whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson is charged with a state crime for the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a separate civil rights investigation, which could mean there are two decisions about whether to charge Wilson, who is white.

The state's case is being overseen by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, who is white, and remains in charge despite mounting pressure to step aside from some local residents and black St. Louis area officials who believe he cannot be impartial.

In some other prominent cases — most notably, the 2012 racially charged shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida — special state prosecutors have been appointed to determine whether to pursue charges. That sometimes has occurred only after the local authorities took no action.

But under Missouri law, it "would be highly, highly, highly unusual" for a prosecutor to step aside merely because of racial tensions in a high-profile case, said Peter Joy, a Washington University law professor who directs the school's Criminal Justice Clinic. That's because in Missouri, "the buck stops with the head prosecutor" in each county.

Missouri law allows two avenues for outside prosecutors. The local prosecutor can ask for help from the governor, who can appoint the state attorney general's office to the case, or a court can appoint a special prosecutor if the elected one has a conflict of interest.

Police shootings don't automatically qualify as conflicts of interest and often are handled by local prosecutors.

"Just because the case is really hot and really controversial would not be a reason why I would seek a special prosecutor," said Eric Zahnd, a Kansas City-area prosecutor who is a past president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

Police say Brown failed to move out of the center of the street when Wilson asked him to, and a scuffle ensued before he was shot. Witnesses say Brown had his hands up as Wilson fired multiple rounds.

Wilson, a six-year police veteran who had no previous complaints against him, has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting and the department has refused to comment on his whereabouts. Associated Press reporters have been unable to contact him at any addresses or phone numbers listed under that name in the St. Louis area.

In the predominantly black St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where the shooting occurred, many residents say they have long been harassed and intimidated by the police department, which has just three black officers on its 53-member force. They also have no confidence in McCulloch, who has been prosecutor since 1991.

"He's not going to prosecute the police officers," said Robert Fowler, a 48-year-old electrician. "In the ghetto ... every police officer, he's letting go free. They call it justifiable homicide."

Part of the skepticism stems from McCulloch's past. He comes from a family of police officers, and when McCulloch was a 12 years old, his father was fatally shot while responding to a call in 1964. Others point to a 2001 case, where McCulloch brought no charges against two officers who fired 21 shots into a vehicle, killing two black men during an attempted drug arrest.

A McCulloch spokesman told The Associated Press the prosecutor has no plans to step aside from the Brown case.

"The people of this county have placed their trust in me," McCulloch told TV station KMOV. "I've been as fair and impartial and done as thorough of a job as we could."

U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and state Sens. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Jamilah Nasheed — all of whom are black — have called on McCulloch to consent to a special prosecutor.

Nasheed started an online petition and got more than 15,000 signatures within two days seeking a special prosecutor.

"In the past, justice has not been achieved in these types of police shootings," said Clay, who represents the area. "So I have no comfort with local-authority prosecution, the judicial system or even police conducting a thorough and conclusive investigation that delivers justice to family of Michael Brown."

"Simply put: he has a natural bias," Chappelle-Nadal, the local state senator, said of McCulloch. "My community doesn't trust him."

Although it was not a racially charged scenario, Missouri does have a recent case in which a special prosecutor took over a highly publicized case.

Last October, a prosecutor in rural northwest Missouri asked a judge to appoint a special prosecutor after public concerns that he didn't do enough before dropping felony charges against a teenage boy accused of sexually assaulting a younger girl. A judge appointed a Kansas City area prosecutor to take a new look at the case, and Matthew Barnett pleaded guilty in January to misdemeanor child endangerment.

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Follow David A. Lieb at: https://twitter.com/DavidALieb

The mother of Michael Brown says the officer who shot and killed her son needs to be held responsible in order for peace to return in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Arresting this man and making him accountable for his actions; that’s justice,” Lesley McSpadden said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.

The St. Louis suburb has been wracked by clashes and violence since Brown’s Aug. 9 death. Brown, 18, was unarmed when he was shot by a Ferguson police officer, identified by the department as Darren Wilson.

Michael Brown Shot at Least 6 Times, Autopsy Shows

Violence in Ferguson: Police Fire Tear Gas, Smoke Bombs at Demonstrators

Tear Gas vs. Molotov Cocktails in Ferguson Protests

McSpadden said she spoke Sunday with Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson.

“He had a heartfelt message for me, and it was that that could have been his son, and he was sorry, and he’s, like everybody else, supporting and hoping and praying that this doesn’t happen again,” McSpadden said, holding back tears.

A private autopsy performed Sunday at the request of Brown’s family showed that the teen was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, said Shawn Parcells, the medical investigator who performed the autopsy with Dr. Michael Baden.

It’s unclear whether Brown’s arms were raised when he was shot, but he was not shot in the back, despite witnesses’ claims, Parcells told ABC News.

Family attorney Benjamin Crump said the autopsy results are troubling.

“It confirms our worst fears that the witnesses were telling the truth, that her son was shot multiple times,” Crump said. “The most troubling was the head shot, you know, it’s just not justified in any way, fashion or form to execute this child like this in broad daylight.”

Crump said the family wanted an independent autopsy in order to find out the truth about Brown’s death. The St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s office previously conducted an autopsy, concluding that Brown died of gunshot wounds but releasing no details.

Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a federal medical examiner to perform a separate autopsy because of the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

The shooting death of Brown has sparked riots and protests in the St. Louis suburb, a situation that intensified after Ferguson police released video Friday they say shows Brown robbing a convenience store before the fatal shooting.

McSpadden said she was surprised by the video’s release, and that it doesn’t help to explain the shooting that followed.

“I feel like it has nothing to do with what he did to my child. Nothing,” McSpadden said.

Michael Brown could have survived five of the six gunshots fired at him by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, but the last shot to the top of his head killed him, a privately conducted autopsy found.

The two shots that hit Brown in the head were likely among the last that hit him and traveled from the back of his head to the front, indicating that Brown's head was tilted forward, either because he was bending over or falling over, forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden said at a news conference today. Brown had abrasions on his face from where he "fell flat down unprotected," Baden said.

"The kill shot is right here, at the apex of his head," attorney Darrell Parks said.

Police Deploy Tear Gas to Impose Ferguson Curfew

Darren Wilson Identified as Cop Who Shot Michael Brown

A gunshot wound to his arm could show either that he was hit while walking away from the shooter with his back to the officer, or that he was facing the shooter with his arm up, either in a surrender position, defensive position, or other motion, Baden said.

Brown likely did not suffer, Baden said. The shot to the top of his head would have rendered him unconscious immediately, he said.

"Michael Brown's mom had the same question as any mother would have, which is was my child in pain?" attorney Benjamin Crump said. "And Dr. Baden shared with her in his opinion he did not suffer."

"His mother also wanted to ask a question that neither Dr. Baden nor the lawyers could answer, which is what else do we need to give them to arrest the killer of my child?" Crump said to applause in the church where the press conference was held.

Handout Image

PHOTO: A diagram from a private autopsy, released Aug. 17, 2014, shows where Michael Brown, 18, was shot.

Baden said that in his experience, it calms the family and community to have the official autopsy report released right away after an incident.

"We found that the sooner the information goes out, the family is talked to, the family has a right to know how their loved one died, this calms the community and the family concerns over a cover up and not getting told truth," Baden said.

"There are very simple things that are found on day one of the autopsy, and the next day the autopsy report comes out to answer these types of questions, such as how many bullet wounds and most importantly did my loved one suffer," Baden said. "We can answer those questions on day one."

The autopsy was performed Sunday at the request of Brown’s family.

Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner, was hired to perform the private autopsy along with Prof. Shaun Parcells for the Brown family after St. Louis County would not release the results of its autopsy.

The attorneys representing Brown's parents criticized the St. Louis authorities for not releasing autopsy results and said that the results show evidence that the shooting officer, Darren Wilson, should be arrested.

"The officer needs to be arrested. Why would (Brown) be shot in the very top of his head? A 6-foot-4 man, it makes no sense," said Parks, explaining that the paths of both of the bullets were from the back of the head toward the front of the head. "We believe those two things alone are ample evidence for the officer to be arrested."

In addition to the two shots to the head, Brown was shot four times in the right arm and chest.

Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a federal medical examiner to perform a separate autopsy because of the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

The St. Louis County Medical Examiner's office has also conducted an autopsy, concluding that Brown died of gunshot wounds but releasing no details.

The shooting death of Brown has sparked riots and protests in the St. Louis suburb.