Syrian church: 2 abducted priests still missing

BEIRUT (AP) — The whereabouts of two bishops kidnapped in northern Syria remain unknown, Syrian church officials said Wednesday, a day after telling reporters that they had been released.

Bishop Tony Yazigi of the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Church said Tuesday that the bishops, both working in the northern city of Aleppo, had been released. But later on Tuesday, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in the capital said in a statement on its website that it had not received "any official document indicating the (bishops') release."

Gunmen pulled Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of theAssyrian Orthodox Church from their car and killed their driver on Monday while they were traveling outside Aleppo. It was not clear who abducted the priests and who is holding them.

But Bishop Tony Yazigi, who is related to one of the abductees, said the gunmen are believed to be Chechen fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group, one of the most powerful of the myriad of rebel factions fighting in Syria to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad. Yazigi declined to say what made it appear that Nusra Front was involved.

The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the kidnapping and blamed Assad's regime.

However, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, reported that foreign fighters had abducted the bishops near a checkpoint near Aleppo. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said Wednesday that activists in the area where the bishops were kidnapped say the gunmen were foreign fighters from the Caucuses.

Pope Francis called for the rapid release of two bishops. In his appeal Tuesday, the pope called the abduction "a dramatic confirmation of the tragic situation in which the Syrian population and its Christian community is living."

There has been a spike in kidnappings in northern Syria and around Damascus in the past months. Residents blame criminal groups that have ties to both the regime and the rebels for the abductions of wealthy residents traveling to Syria from neighboring Turkey and Lebanon.

Opposition forces control large areas of land in the north and control whole districts inside Aleppo, Syria largest city.

The government still holds large parts of the northern city and its forces daily clash with the opposition fighters, who also control several border crossings with Turkey.

Syrian conflict began in March 2011 as peaceful uprising against Assad's rule. It turned into civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a harsh government crackdown on dissent.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in fighting, the United Nations says. Nearly 5 million Syrians fled their homes, seeking shelter in neighboring countries or in other parts of Syria where fighting has temporarily subsided.

Nigeria attack recalls other killings by soldiers

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Residents in Nigeria's northeast accused the military of burning down civilian homes in a recent fight with Islamic extremists that left at least 187 people dead, the latest in a series of incidents which authorities have been blamed for the killing of bystanders.

In separate incidents in 1999 and 2001, soldiers in Nigeria shelled villages, opened fire on residents and tortured civilians. While the military has denied abuse allegations surrounding the recent killings in Baga, the West African nation has a history of security forces indiscriminately killing civilians since it became an uneasy democracy after years of military rule.

And as officials hope to woo extremists into possible peace talks, the deaths of civilians and harassment by soldiers could likely betray its efforts. The government often claims its force is used only to combat the extremists, or criminals.

"You and I know nowadays the 'Boko Haram syndrome:' Anybody put in the public space as allegedly being killed in the course of fire as suspected Boko Haram persons, most members of the public will not fear it much," said Kemi Okenyodo, the executive director of the CLEEN Foundation, which monitors police and security forces in Nigeria. "Any crime that the public is strongly against it, it is easy to be used as a fluke for extrajudicial killings."

Government officials could not offer a breakdown of civilian, soldier and extremist deaths from Friday's fighting. Many of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition in fires that razed whole sections of the town, residents said. Those killed were buried as soon as possible, following local Muslim tradition.

Authorities also provide contradictory explanations about what really happened, as the military bans access for outside observers to an area officials want to describe as an insurgent stronghold.

Boko Haram members used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault, which Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye said began after soldiers surrounded a mosque they believed was housing Boko Haram members. Extremists earlier had killed a military officer, officials said.

The fighting lasted for hours and the military said extremists used civilians as human shields— implying that soldiers opened fire in neighborhoods where they knew civilians lived. However, local residents who spoke to an Associated Press journalist who accompanied the state officials said soldiers purposefully set the fires during the attack.

Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, on Tuesday declined to immediately answer other questions about the military's conduct and other issues surrounding the killings.

By the time Borno state officials could reach the city Sunday, a local government official said at least 185 people were killed, something not disputed by Edokpaye who accompanied officials on the visit. A spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross said Monday that at least 187 people had been killed, while another 77 were receiving medical treatment.

A statement issued Tuesday by Edokpaye said only six civilians died in the fighting Friday, as well as one soldier and some 30 extremists. The brigadier general also claimed extremist fighters used "anti-aircraft guns" in the attack, arms never seen used before in the three-year-old insurgency. The statement also said the fighting occurred on April 16 — three days before the violence actually happened.

Nigeria's presidency has said the death toll "may be grossly exaggerated," but federal lawmakers have started their own investigations into the killings.

While Nigerian forces have served as peacekeepers in other African conflicts, many in the country remain fearful of soldiers. Nigerian media regularly reports on incidents where soldiers beat civilians in traffic or fight police officers in their own country.

"Fighting in a built-up area is a very difficult operation, but that notwithstanding, there must be standard rules of engagement," Senate President David Mark said Tuesday. "Those rules of engagement would not include mass killings, or extrajudicial killings, in any form."

But extrajudicial killings routinely occur in Nigeria, with police routinely shooting dead suspected "armed robbers," human rights activists say. That same mentality, a hangover from the military era when soldiers would routinely shoot dead prisoners on the then-swampy beaches of Victoria Island in Lagos, persists today.

Speaking Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan promised any soldier or security force member found committing such crimes would be "cautioned and treated in line with our own laws and regulations." But the nation's courts routinely drag out cases and such prosecutions remain rarer still.

"The problem of extrajudicial executions in Nigeria is closely linked to the remarkable inadequacies of almost all levels of the Nigerian criminal justice system," a United Nations report in 2006 on the killings said. The same report described how soldiers often operate without any rules of engagement when facing a civilian population.

There are several major cases in Nigeria's recent history of soldier abuses. In 2001, the military attacked some seven villages in Benue state following ethnic Tiv militants killing soldiers there. Witnesses said some 200 people died in the fighting that saw soldiers ransack villages, shell houses and gun down residents indiscriminately. In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state following the killings of police officers there.

A military raid in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state in 2010 against militants there killed some 150 people, activists said, though soldiers blocked AP journalists from reaching the area at the time. And in October 2012, when extremists killed a military officer in Maiduguri, soldiers killed at least 30 civilians and set fires across a neighborhood in retaliation. The military later denied committing the abuses.

"In such incidents it is assumed by officials that the armed forces acted in 'self-defense' or were otherwise justified in carrying out retaliatory executions of civilians," the 2006 U.N. report reads. "Thus, although the intentional killing of unarmed civilians, whether in situations of armed conflict or otherwise, is a clear violation of both international and Nigerian law, impunity is the reality."

And despite Nigeria's presidency promising an investigation into the Baga killings, the same may continue to happen today.

"There is a consistent pattern in responding to these incidents," the U.N. said. "Major human rights violations are alleged; the authorities announce an inquiry; and either the resulting reports are not published, or the recommendations are ignored."

___

Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

___

Congress demands more FBI answers on Boston bomb suspect

By Patricia Zengerle and Samuel P. Jacobs

WASHINGTON/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers demanded more answers on the Boston Marathon bombing on Wednesday, unsatisfied with the FBI reaction to warnings about one suspect and expressing doubt about the other suspect's claims that he and his dead brother acted alone.

Some on Capitol Hill questioned whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. security agencies failed to share information about suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, even after reforms enacted to prevent information-hoarding following the September 11 hijacked plane attacks 12 years ago.

Police say the ethnic Chechen brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev planted and detonated two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264.

Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a shootout with police and Dzhokhar, 19, was wounded, captured and charged with two crimes that could result in the death penalty if he were convicted. Dzhokhar remains in fair condition in hospital on Wednesday, U.S. officials said.

Attention has turned to whether U.S. security officials paid enough heed to Tamerlan Tsarnaev having been flagged as a possible Islamic militants by Russia. The FBI interviewed him in 2011 but did not find enough cause to continue investigating.

His name was listed on the U.S. government's highly classified central database of people it views as potential threats, sources close to the bombing investigation said. The list is vast, including about 500,000 people, preventing law enforcement from closely monitoring everyone on it.

Members of Congress were particularly concerned that U.S. Customs generated an alert when Tamerlan Tsarnaev left for Russia in 2012 but no one was aware when he returned and he was not re-interviewed.

"That's something that we have to look at," said Senator Dan Coats, a Republican from Indiana who is also on the Intelligence Committee. "That's one of the key things that we have learned and need to work on to make sure it doesn't happen again, and that is simultaneous communication to all the relevant agencies when a warning is posted."

Members of Congress briefed by law enforcement and media reports citing unidentified sources indicate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators from his hospital bed that the brothers grew radical from anti-U.S. material on the internet and acted without assistance from any foreign or domestic militant groups.

"That basically seems to be the story, but I don't see how we can accept that," Representative Peter King, a New York Republican on House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN.

"It may end up being the truth but ... I don't see why he would be giving up any accomplices he may have or talking about any connections his brother may have had in Chechnya or Russia," King said on Wednesday.

Intelligence officials were scheduled to brief members of the House Intelligence committee about the Boston investigation behind closed doors later on Wednesday, and the full Senate was scheduled to receive its own briefing on Thursday.

Investigators have focused on a trip to Dagestan last year by the older Tsarnaev and whether he became involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamic militants there.

In Grozny, the capital of Russia's volatile Chechnya region, a member of the extended family Tsarnaev said the brothers were victims of a Russian plot to portray them as Chechen terrorists operating on U.S. soil.

Among the remaining mysteries was how the bombers acquired the black powder used as explosives in the home-made pressure cooker bombs packed with nails and ball bearings. Tamerlan bought two large packages of fireworks in February from a store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, but the explosive powder they contained would not have been "anywhere near enough" to build the bombs, said William Weimer, vice president at Phantom Fireworks.

TRIBUTE TO FALLEN POLICE OFFICER

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement agents from around the United States attended a memorial in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Wednesday for a university police officer who authorities say was shot dead by the Tsarnaev brothers on Thursday night.

The service at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology honored Sean Collier, 26, with Biden praising a crowd of hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police officers for their dedication.

"I'm standing for you. You should not be standing for me," Biden told the crowd as he took the podium. Addressing the slain officer's family, he said, "there is not much that I'm going to be able to do to fill that void, that sense of loss and grief, or answer those nagging questions of why."

Collier was killed about five hours after the FBI released pictures of the two suspects, asking for the public's help in tracking them down.

Police said the two then carjacked a vehicle and later engaged in a gunbattle with police in which Tamerlan was killed and Dzhokhar escaped. He was caught in the Boston suburb of Watertown on Friday night, hiding and bleeding in a boat, after a manhunt involving helicopters and armed vehicles that shut down the greater Boston area.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Grant McCool)

Article: Boston's Boylston Street, site of bombings, sees residents return

Article: Bomber's widow drawn into Boston bomb investigation

Article: Chechen relative of Boston suspects alleges Russian plot

Abortion provider won't testify, call witnesses

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia abortion provider won't testify or call witnesses at his capital murder trial, leaving jurors to weigh five weeks of prosecution evidence.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is charged with killing four babies allegedly born alive at a clinic that authorities have described as filthy. He is also charged in the 2009 overdose death of a 41-year-old refugee who died just months after coming to the U.S.

Gosnell's defense rested Wednesday without calling a witness. The jury is expected to hear closing arguments on Monday.

Former employees have testified that Gosnell relied on untrained, unlicensed staff to sedate and monitor women as they waited for abortions. Three workers have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder charges, admitting they helped medicate the adult victim or "snipped" babies' necks after they were born alive to make sure they died.

They told jurors that Gosnell had taught them the technique, and said they trusted that it was legal. At least one, though, admits she grew so concerned about conditions at the clinic that she took pictures of the outdated equipment, messy rooms and stacked specimen jars containing the severed feet ofaborted babies.

Gosnell told staff he sometimes kept the samples for DNA purposes in case the pregnancy led to assault charges. Prosecution experts said there were less invasive ways to preserve DNA.

"Once fetuses leave the mother, they are then due the respect that would be given any human being," Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron argued Tuesday, in support of abuse of corpse charges filed over the severed feet.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart, though, agreed with a defense motion to drop those charges.

Minehart on Tuesday also threw out three of the original seven murder charges involving babies, apparently concluding that the prosecution had not presented enough evidence for the jury to find they were viable, born alive and then killed.

"There is not one piece — not one — of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive," defense lawyer Jack McMahon argued Tuesday, in what is likely a preview of his closing arguments.

McMahon did most of his work by grilling prosecution witnesses, including former clinic workers. Although several said they had seen babies born alive, McMahon suggested the brief movements or breaths they saw were actually involuntary spasms during the death process. He argued that each of the babies had purportedly moved, breathed or whined just once.

"These are not the movements of a live child," McMahon said Tuesday.

One employee, though, has pleaded guilty to killing a baby that was alive for about 20 minutes.

Expert witness testimony has been another key portion of the case. Prosecutors called neonatologists who estimated that some of the babies were nearly 30 weeks gestation, far past the state's 24-week limit for abortions.

McMahon argued that such dating is imprecise, and that the margin of error is at least two weeks on either side.

The only employee to go on trial with Gosnell, medical school graduate Eileen O'Neill, is charged with theft for allegedly practicing medicine without a license.

Egypt proceeds with judiciary law despite uproar