Washington (AFP) - The State Department is "deeply disturbed" by reports that prosecutors raided Azerbaijan's local Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty office Friday, a US official said, calling the motive for the episode "unclear."

Prosecutors in the tightly-controlled Caucasus nation searched the offices of US-funded Radio Azadliq, confiscating equipment and computers while accompanied by armed police, its director Kenan Aliyev told AFP.

The search was the latest in a string of similar raids on foreign-funded groups in recent months.

"We are deeply disturbed by reports that employees of the RFE/RL bureau in Baku have been detained in their offices and questioned while the premises were searched by police," a senior State Department official said.

"The reasons for the questioning and search are unclear."

Those searching the office whose telephone and Internet lines were cut, said they had a court order to shut it down and forced journalists out, Aliyev said.

The move came after a prominent investigative reporter working for Radio Azadliq, Khadija Ismayilova, was arrested in early December and placed in pre-trial detention for two months.

"We call on the responsible authorities to respect Azerbaijan's international commitment to protecting media freedom," the State Department official said.

"A free and independent press is critical to the wellbeing of the nation."

Non-governmental organisation groups focused on reporter and human rights called the move the latest crackdown against a free media in Azerbaijan, where dissent is often met with a tough government response.

Headquartered in Prague and funded by the US Congress, RFE/RL broadcasts to 21 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of people were expected to attend the funeral of a New York City police officer shot to death along with his partner one week ago in a brazen daylight ambush that shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police following a series of high-profile deaths in police custody.

Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill de Blasio were expected to speak Saturday at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, who was described the day before during an eight-hour wake attended by thousands of police officers from New York and across the country as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

"What happened to my father was a tragedy," Ramos' son, Justin Ramos, said in a tearful eulogy viewed by hundreds of officers in the street who watched on giant television screens outside the crowded Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens. "But his death will not be in vain."

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Funeral plans for his partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, have yet to be announced.

The officers were killed Dec. 20 while sitting in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street. Investigators have said the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.

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The casket of New York Police Department officer Rafael Ramos arrives to his wake at Christ Tabernac …

Brinsley killed himself soon after the shooting. In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of two unarmed black men — Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island — by white police officers.

Police union officials have said de Blasio contributed to a climate of mistrust toward police amid protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner. At a hospital after the shooting, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on the mayor in a sign of disrespect. Lynch blamed the mayor then for the officers' deaths and said he had blood on his hands.

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch suggested that officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan and others have since called to temper the rhetoric.

De Blasio has stood firmly by the police since the shooting, calling on the demonstrators to temporarily halt their protests and praising officers after the police department announced the arrest of a seventh person since the shooting for making threats against police.

On Thursday, the mayor briefly attend Ramos' wake but made no comments. There was no noticeable reaction from the officers upon his arrival, and Ramos' family has said they welcome the mayor's presence at the funeral.

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011.

They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective, police said.

Bloomberg
North Korea Internet Restored After Outage

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea accused the United States on Saturday of being responsible for Internet outages it experienced in recent days amid a confrontation between them over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.

North Korea's main internet sites experienced intermittent disruptions early in the week for reasons that U.S. tech companies said could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack.

"The United States, with its large physical size and oblivious to the shame of playing hide and seek as children with runny noses would, has begun disrupting the Internet operations of the main media outlets of our republic," the North's National Defense Commission said in a statement.

"It is truly laughable," a spokesman for the commission said in comments carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

The spokesman again rejected an accusation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures and demanded the United States produce the evidence for its accusation.

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North Korean leader Kim Jung Un guides the test fire of a tactical rocket in this undated photo rele …

North Korea's Internet problems began last weekend and it suffered a complete outage of nearly nine hours before links were largely restored on Tuesday.

U.S. officials said Washington was not involved.

Following the attack on Sony, it canceled the release of a comedy called "The Interview" about the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

After criticism from President Barack Obama that it was caving into North Korean pressure, Sony put the film out on limited release.

It took in more than $1 million on Christmas Day in 331 mostly independent theaters after large cinema chains refused to screen it following threats of violence from hackers.

China's Likely Role in North Korea's Cyber …Play video

In a separate commentary, the North denied any role in cyberattacks on South Korea's nuclear power plant operator, calling the suggestion that it had done so part of a "smear campaign" by unpopular South Korean leaders.

A South Korean official investigating the attacks this week that led to leaks of internal data from Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power said authorities were not ruling out North Korea's involvement.

"The South Korean puppet authorities are working hard to link this case with (us) though the truth about it has not been probed," Minju Joson, the official publication of the North's cabinet, said in a commentary carried by KCNA.

"This is the same conspiratorial farce as the Cheonan warship sinking case," it said, referring to the sinking of a South Korean ship with the loss of 46 sailors in 2010 that South Korea blamed on the North.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden told thousands of people gathered Saturday for the funeral of an officer killed along with his partner in an ambush shooting that their deaths "touched the soul of an entire nation."

Biden addressed hundreds of police officers, family and friends of Officer Rafael Ramos inside the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens and thousands more outside who came from across the country.

Officers watching the funeral service on giant screens joined those inside in applauding when Biden called the New York Police Department the finest in the world.

"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," the vice president said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the Dec. 20 daylight shootings of the officers as they sat in their cruiser on a Brooklyn street was "an attack on all of us."

The attack shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police over a series of high-profile, in-custody deaths.

View gallery

Family members of New York City police officer Rafael Ramos, including his son Jaden Ramos, center, …

Funeral plans for Ramos' partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, have yet to be announced.

"Law enforcement isn't just your own department; it runs deep," said Lt. Chris Thibault of the Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, Police Department.

When the Ramos family arrived, the eldest son — wearing his father's New York Police Department jacket — was hugged by a police officer.

Ramos was described Friday during an eight-hour wake as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

"What happened to my father was a tragedy," Ramos' son, Justin, said in a tearful eulogy viewed by hundreds of officers in the street who watched on giant television screens outside the crowded church. "But his death will not be in vain."

View gallery

New York City police officers walk toward Christ Tabernacle Church before funeral services for offic …

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend Ramos' funeral.

"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement — it absolutely affects everyone," he said. "We wanted to show our support."

After the death of the officers on a street in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.

In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of two unarmed black men — Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island — by white police officers.

View gallery

The sun rises over the Glendale section of Queens where a New York Police Department officer walks t …

Police union officials have said de Blasio contributed to a climate of mistrust toward police amid protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner. At a hospital after the shooting, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on the mayor in a sign of disrespect. Lynch blamed the mayor then for the officers' deaths and said he had blood on his hands.

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch suggested that officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan and others have since tried to temper the rhetoric.

De Blasio has stood firmly by the police since the shooting, calling on the demonstrators to temporarily halt their protests and praising officers after the police department announced the arrest of a seventh person since the shooting for making threats against police.

There was no noticeable reaction from police outside the church when de Blasio arrived Saturday about a half hour before services.

A block from the church, though, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio."

"If the mayor really wanted to do the right thing, he would have gotten into an NYPD car and rode around Bed Stuy and see the difficult jobs these cops do every day," Mangan said. "The bottom line is there should be more signs out here in support of these cops."

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011.

They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective, police said.

Reuters Videos
Biden to Ramos family: "Our hearts ache for you"

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of officers outside the church where a funeral was held for a policeman killed along with his partner in an ambush shooting turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke during Saturday's service.

The reaction from officers watching Officer Rafael Ramos' funeral on giant TV screens followed comments from police union officials who had said Mayor Bill de Blasio contributed to a climate of mistrust that contributed to the killings of the two officers.

Inside Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, however, mourners gave de Blasio polite applause before and after his speech.

The mayor said hearts citywide were aching after the Dec. 20 shootings that left Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu, dead.

Police union officials have blamed de Blasio for fostering anti-police sentiment for his support of protesters angry that no charges will be filed in the police deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island. At a hospital after the officers' slayings, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio in a sign of disrespect. Lynch said the mayor had "blood on his hands."

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested that officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

View gallery

Law enforcement officers turn their backs on a video monitor as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio s …

De Blasio has stood firmly by the police since the shooting, calling on the demonstrators to temporarily halt their protests and praising officers after the police department announced the arrest of a seventh person since the shooting for making threats against police.

De Blasio and Lynch nodded at each other as they exited the church Saturday and lined up to wait for the casket.

The mayor followed Vice President Joe Biden and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the roster of speakers eulogizing Ramos on Saturday.

Officers inside and outside the church applauded when Biden called the New York Police Department the finest in the world.

"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," the vice president said.

View gallery

Family members of New York City police officer Rafael Ramos, including his son Jaden Ramos, center, …

Cuomo called the daylight shootings of the officers as they sat in their cruiser on a street in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section "an attack on all of us."

The attack shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police over a series of high-profile, in-custody deaths.

Funeral plans for Ramos' partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, have yet to be announced.

When the Ramos family arrived at the church Saturday, the eldest son — wearing his father's NYPD jacket — was hugged by a police officer.

Ramos was described Friday during an eight-hour wake as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

View gallery

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center, arrives for funeral services for New York City police officer …

"What happened to my father was a tragedy," Ramos' son, Justin, said in a tearful eulogy viewed by hundreds of officers in the street who watched on giant television screens outside the crowded church. "But his death will not be in vain."

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend Ramos' funeral.

"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement — it absolutely affects everyone," he said. "We wanted to show our support."

A block from the church, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio."

View gallery

New York City police officers walk toward Christ Tabernacle Church before funeral services for offic …

"If the mayor really wanted to do the right thing, he would have gotten into an NYPD car and rode around Bed Stuy and see the difficult jobs these cops do every day," Mangan said. "The bottom line is there should be more signs out here in support of these cops."

After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.

In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of two unarmed black men — Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island — by white police officers.

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011.

They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective, police said.

View Gallery