Ex-ambassadors urge US, Russia to mend rift

MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. and Russia should overcome their cold spell by focusing on their common economic and security challenges, former diplomats to Moscow and Washington said Tuesday.

The ex-ambassadors, who gathered in Moscow to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties, said the strains have been driven by emotions and misperceptions rather than fundamental differences.

They strongly urged the Kremlin and the White House to move past mutual grievances and deal with common threats.

President Barack Obama's initiative to "reset" relations with Russia has run into obstacles as the Kremlin accuses Washington of meddling in Russia's domestic affairs. Ties also have been strained by a dispute over U.S. missile defense plans and differences over the Syrian civil war.

U.S.-Russian relations hit a new low in December when Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian children to retaliate against a U.S. law calling for sanctions on Russians who are identified as human-rights violators.

"In many ways, people are passing legislation in both countries that is undermining some of the most important achievements of the last three-four years," said James Collins, the U.S. ambassador toRussia from 1997 to 2001.

He voiced hope that Moscow and Washington would find a way to approach their differences in a "more reasonable and rational way."

"We don't really see a reason, any fundamental reason, why Russia and the United States can't find common purpose and find means of cooperation to address the real issues that face both of our people," Collins said.

He added that "neither Russia nor the United States really knows what to do about Syria," where a civil war has killed an estimated 70,000 people in two years.

Russia has blocked attempts to pass new U.N. sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad, but has sought to distance itself from the Syrian ruler and signaled its resignation at the prospect of him losing power.

Vladimir Lukin, the Russian ambassador to Washington in the early 1990s who is now the nation's rights ombudsman, suggested that Washington was too focused on its own interests to pay attention to the nuances in Moscow's approach to Syria.

"It's like an elephant passing by a bear and accidentally stamping on its foot. The bear would feel hurt, but the elephant wouldn't even notice he did it," he said.

Lukin recalled a conversation last week with President Vladimir Putin, who asked him about U.S. policy goals in Syria.

"The president asked me... what the Americans want in Syria, saying he couldn't understand what they want," he said. "I honestly acknowledged that I can't make out what they want, but that I know for sure that they want us to join the U.S. in its failure to understand what to do in Syria and to not act independently."

Moscow has argued that international efforts should focus on encouraging peace talks between Assad and his foes, even though the Syrian opposition has refused such negotiations. The rebels say the Syrian strongman must step down over his violent crackdown on the uprising.

The ambassadors said in their conclusive statement that Moscow and Washington should work together to encourage "negotiations without preconditions or linkage," to seek an immediate U.N.-monitored humanitarian cease-fire and to encourage protection for all minorities in Syria.

"We both agree that preconditions to negotiation aren't the way to start talks," Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow in 1993-1996, said during a discussion at the Moscow office of the Carnegie Endowment.

Pickering also said that Russia and the U.S. are "a little closer together on Iran than many people suspect" and are "providing a serious leadership" in the international negotiations intended to end a standoff over the Iranian nuclear program.

Moscow and Washington also see more common ground than before on the Mideast peace settlement, and their "ideas of what might be the final agreement are very close together," he added.

The ambassadors said that joint action on common threats should help mend the rift.

US, French tourists kidnapped, 1 raped in Rio

US woman, French man kidnapped, 1 raped inside public transport van in Rio

Associated Press -

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- A night out on the town turned into a nightmare after an American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was handcuffed, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks, police said.

The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has won kudos for its crackdown on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city also will be playing host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.

Three men aged 20 to 22 have been taken into custody in connection to the crime, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight Saturday, police said. The suspects have been accused of at least one similar attack, with a young Brazilian woman having come forward to say that she too was raped by the same men in the van on March 23, police said.

"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant told the Globo TV network. "Just how they described the facts was shocking — the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things."

The attack drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in which six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus. That attack touched off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.

On Tuesday, Brazilian police were quick to emphasize to reporters the rarity of Saturday's attack.

"These type of crimes committed against foreign tourists are very uncommon," said Alexandre Braga, the police officer leading the investigation.

Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about how the attack might affect their security precautions.

Braga said the two foreigners, who were in Brazil as students, took a public transport van similar to those often used as a faster alternative to the city's bus fleet. The pair were heading from Rio's Copacabana beach neighborhood to the nightlife hot spot of Lapa in downtown Rio.

A few minutes into the ride, the suspects forced the other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the moving vehicle, Braga said. The woman was also beaten across the face, and the man was handcuffed and beaten, at one point with a metal crowbar.

The three suspects took turns behind the wheel, driving the van to Rio's sister city of Niteroi where they went on a spending spree with the foreigners' credit cards.

Once they hit the limit on both cards, spending around $500 at gas stations and convenience stores, the suspects drove the pair back to Rio, where the foreigners were staying, and forced the woman to fetch another credit card, Braga said.

Although she was alone, she didn't call the police or alert anyone, Braga said, "because the young man was still under the suspects' control and she feared something even worse might happen to him."

The two were ultimately dumped by the side of a highway near the city of Itaborai, some 50 kilometers from Rio. After they managed to make it to an unidentified country's consulate, officials took the two to the special police delegation that specializes in crimes against foreigners. The young woman has returned to the U.S., while the man remains in Rio to help with the investigations, Braga said.

"The victims recognized the three without a shadow of a doubt," Braga said.

The Brazilian woman who said she had also been raped by the suspects last month recognized media images of the alleged attackers and contacted police. Another foreigner has said she'd been robbed by one of the three suspects, police said.

Investigators are reviewing police databases to determine whether the three might have been involved in other crimes.

Two of the suspects have confessed to Saturday's attack, while the third denies any responsibility, Braga said.

"They do not show any repentance," he said. "They are quite indifferent, cold."

The suspects rented the van, which seats about a dozen people and has dark tinted windows, from the vehicle's owner, who police say is not suspected of any involvement in the crime. Though they apparently had authorization to transport passengers in Niteroi and neighboring Sao Goncalo, the suspects were not allowed to operate the van in Rio, Braga said.

"It appears they worked in transportation and sometimes engaged in crimes," said Braga.

Many in Rio know of such van services for their precarious safety conditions and reckless driving, as well as their links to organized crime. Some vans are linked to militias largely composed of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine transportation and other services. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.

Foreigners are more often the targets of muggings and petty crime in Rio, with assaults a particular problem on public transit. Last year, a woman was raped on a moving bus in broad daylight in a widely publicized case, and the Rio subway has special women-only cars to help prevent such attacks.

More than 5,300 cases of sexual assault were reported in Brazil between January and June 2012, according to the country's Health Ministry.

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China: 4 more rare bird flu cases, new steps taken

China reports 4 more critically ill with new rare bird flu; cities step up health measures

Associated Press -

BEIJING (AP) -- China reported Tuesday that four more people in one province have been seriously sickened by a bird flu virus new to humans, as cities along the eastern seaboard stepped up public health measures to guard against the disease, which has already caused two deaths.

The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said three women and a retired man from different cities in the province were all critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the provincial disease prevention center. The cases are the second batch to be confirmed after three in Anhui province and nearby Shanghai on Sunday.

The H7N9 bird flu virus has previously not been a problem in humans. That compares to the more virulent H5N1 strain, which began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

The reports of the new cases suggest that authorities are taking a closer look at severe flu cases after identifying the first known infections on Sunday.

"When you don't look, you don't find them, but when you look, you'll find," said Dr. Ray Yip, a public health expert who heads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China.

"A lot of people get severe respiratory conditions, pneumonias, so you usually don't test them. Now all of a sudden you get this new reported strain of flu and so people are going to submit more samples to test, (so) you're more likely to see more cases," Yip said.

All of the new patients have been sick since about March 19, when they had fevers, coughs and other flu-like symptoms, the Jiangsu health bureau said in a statement. Their conditions worsened over periods of time ranging from a week to 11 days and they were transferred to intensive care units in the provincial capital, Nanjing.

Based on the statement, only one of the patients appeared to have had daily contact with birds — a 45-year-old woman who was described as a poultry butcher. The four cases did not appear to be connected, and other people who have had close contact with the patients have not reported having fevers or respiratory problems, it said.

The provincial health bureau said it was strengthening measures to monitor suspicious cases and urged the public to stay calm, joining Beijing and China's financial capital, Shanghai, in rolling out new steps to respond to the virus.

The three earlier cases reported Sunday included two men who died in Shanghai, resulting in the city activating an emergency plan that calls for heightened monitoring of suspicious flu cases. Under the plan, schools, hospitals and retirement facilities are to be on alert for fevers, and administrators are to report to health authorities if there are more than five cases of flu in a week.

Cases of severe pneumonia with unclear causes are to be reported daily by hospitals to health bureaus, up from the weekly norm. The plan also calls for stronger monitoring of people who work at poultry farms or are exposed to birds.

"The health bureau will take effective and powerful measures to prevent and control the disease, to make sure the flu epidemic is effectively guarded against and to safeguard the health of the city's residents," said Xu Jianguang, head of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

Health officials said this week there was no evidence that any of the three earlier cases, who were infected over the past two months, had contracted the disease from each other, and no sign of infections in the 88 people who had closest contact with them.

Health authorities in Beijing also upped the capital's state of readiness, ordering hospitals to monitor for cases of flu and pneumonia without clear causes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The announcements, which lacked many details, show that the government has become mildly more transparent in handling health crises than it was a decade ago during the SARS pneumonia epidemic. Then, as rumors circulated for weeks of an outbreak of an unidentified disease in southern Guangdong province, government silence contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts ofChina and to two dozen other countries.

Scientists are closely monitoring these viruses for fear they could mutate into a strain that easily spreads among people, but there's no evidence of that occurring.

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Israeli planes strike Gaza after rocket fire

Palestinians throw stones at Israeli soldiers after the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh in Israeli jail in the West Bank city of Hebron, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, who was serving a life sentence for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a busy cafe in Jerusalem in 2002, died Tuesday of cancer in an Israeli jail. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

A Palestinian woman holds a portrait of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh during a rally in Gaza City, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Abu Hamdiyeh, 64, who was serving a life sentence for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a busy cafe in Jerusalem in 2002, died Tuesday of cancer in an Israeli jail. Tensions are high in Israeli lockups where thousands of Palestinian security prisoners are being held. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli warplanes struck targets early Wednesday in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire towardsouthern Israel, the first air strikes launched by Israel since an informal cease-fire ended eight days of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza.

An Israeli military statement issued Wednesday said its planes targeted "two extensive terror sites" with "accurate hits." Palestinian officials said no one was hurt in the air strikes and no damage was reported in northern Gaza.

The air raids followed the third successful rocket attack on Israel since the November cease-fire. The military reported that Gaza militants on Tuesday fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel. No one was hurt and no damage was caused. The attack was the first since rockets were fired during President Barack Obama's visit to Israel two weeks ago.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire. The Israeli military says it holds Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers responsible for any attack against the Jewish state.

Rocket fire has been rare since an informal cease-fire was reached last November. During eight days of violence in November, the Israeli military said 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. The rocket attacks killed six Israelis and wounded dozens. Israeli airstrikes killed 169 Palestinians, many of them militants, and caused considerable damage.

Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian prisoners rioted following news of a fellow inmate's death of cancer, and Israeli prison guards fired tear gas to quell the disturbances, an Israeli official said.

Palestinian officials said Israel was responsible for the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, charging medical negligence. The 64-year-old was serving a life sentence for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a busy cafe in Jerusalem in 2002.

As news of Abu Hamdiyeh's death spread, Palestinian prisoners in several jails began banging on their cell doors and hurling objects. Later, protests spread to Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.

Prisons Authority spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said three prisoners and six guards were evacuated for medical treatment after inhaling tear gas.

She said Abu Hamdiyeh was treated well by Israeli specialists and died in a hospital in Beersheba.

Weizman said the prison service asked the parole board for the prisoner's early release after his cancer was diagnosed as terminal last week, but the appeal was still being processed at the time of his death.

Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Karakeh blamed Israel. "This is a serious, ugly crime committed against the prisoner Maysara due to medical negligence and reluctance to release him," Karakeh said.

In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was working to free Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

"We were surprised with the death of our brother prisoner," Abbas said. "We attempted to have him released and take him for treatment, but the Israeli government refused to release him, which led to his death."

Later Tuesday, protests spread to the West Bank city of Hebron, where protesters threw firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers. The troops responded with tear gas and other riot dispersal means, the military said.

Tensions are high in Israeli lockups, where thousands of Palestinian security prisoners are being held. Some have held hunger strikes and Palestinians have held large protests demanding their release.

After decades of conflict with Israel, the issue of prisoners is emotionally charged in Palestinian society. Inmates are highly esteemed regardless of the reasons for their incarceration, which range from mass murder to throwing rocks.

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Associated Press writer Aron Heller contributed to this report.