LAKEWOOD, N.J. — Authorities on Tuesday were investigating how a toddler reported missing ended up dead in a septic tank in the backyard her home near the Jersey shore.
The 2-year-old girl was reported missing by her mother, Marina Matias, shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the death.
Matias told police she could not find her child, identified only by the initials J.C., who had been playing in the yard with her four siblings.
Search teams quickly found a 3-foot wide hole in the yard, which lead to a septic tank. The Public Works Department was called in to pump out water in the tank, and at 7:30 p.m. the body of a child was discovered in the tank.
The discovery of her body ended the hour-long search by township police, an Ocean County Sheriff’s Department canine unit and a state police helicopter.
“The body is believed to be the child reported missing, although at this time that identification has not been made,” Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said in a statement. “The family has been informed and is understandably distraught over this turn of events.”
Michel A. Paulhus, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said that there was no reason to believe that there was a major delay in the mother calling police once she realized her daughter was missing.
BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP) — Seconds after the Afghan president's brothers stepped outside the village mosque where they had been attending a memorial ceremony Tuesday for 16 civilians allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier, the Taliban opened fire.
An Afghan army soldier protecting the two men — part of a high-level government delegation that was visiting one of the two villages where the killings took place — was shot in the head almost instantly and died.
The visitors escaped in their cars unharmed, but two other Afghan army personnel were wounded in the 20-minute gun battle that ensued.
The ambush in the southern province of Kandahar came as images of the aftermath Sunday's killings spread across the country, and the public reaction — which at first seemed surprisingly muted — began to build.
In the east, students staged the first significant protest in response to the killings, raising concerns about a repeat of the wave of violent demonstrations that rocked the nation after last month's burning of Qurans by troops at a U.S. base.
Nine of the 16 civilians killed on Sunday were children and three were women. Some of their bodies were burnt after they were killed.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack on the delegation in Balandi village in Panjwai district, an area considered the birthplace of the militant group. Previously, the movement had vowed to behead those responsible for the shootings.
The militants rode to the village on motorcycles, police said. They ambushed the delegation from the cover of a distant row of trees. Afghan security forces fired back, killing three militants, said Gen. Abdul Razaq, the Kandahar police chief. The two Afghan army personnel who were wounded included a soldier and a military prosecutor, he said.
Qayum Karzai, one of the two brothers of President Hamid Karzai with the delegation, sought to play down the ambush. He said the delegation members, which included another of the president's brothers, Shah Walid Karzai, as well as Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa and Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid, had been giving their condolences to the victims' families. They then heard "two very, very light shots."
"Then we assumed it was the national army that started to fire in the air," said Karzai.
The U.S. has an Army staff sergeant in custody who is suspected of carrying out Sunday's pre-dawn killings in Balandi and the neighboring village of Alkozai but has not released his name.
Villagers have described him stalking from house to house in the middle of the night, opening fire on sleeping families and then burning some of the dead bodies.
Witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press after the attack described only one shooter, and U.S. officials have been adamant that there was only one soldier involved.
But on Tuesday, villagers who testified to the delegation insisted there were two soldiers, citing relatives who survived the attacks.
Mohammad Wazir, who was away from his home in Balandi village that night, said his sister saw two U.S. soldiers enter the house and start shooting. Everyone started running different directions, and she ran to the kitchen to hide. When the gunfire ended and she re-emerged, 11 of her relatives were dead.
In Alkozai to the south, a man named Sayed Jan said his cousins told him that they saw two soldiers come into his house and start firing. Jan's relatives barricaded their door and snuck out another exit. Jan was away in Kandahar city that night.
The villages are about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Kandahar city.
The villagers' anger was evident Tuesday in discussions with the visiting officials before the attack cut the visit short.
"Today, the Kandahar governor was trying to explain to the villagers that he was only one soldier, that he was not a sane person and that he was sick," said Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a Kandahar lawmaker who was part of the delegation.
"But the people were just shouting and they were very angry. They didn't listen to the governor. They accused him of defending the Americans instead of defending the Kandahari people," Ayubi said.
The delegation did manage before the shooting started to pay out compensation to family members of the victims — $2,000 for each death and $1,000 for each person wounded.
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, meanwhile, hundreds of students staged the first significant protest in response to the tragedy, shouting angry slogans against the U.S. and the American attacker.
The killings have caused outrage in Afghanistan but have not sparked the kind of violent protests seen last month after American soldiers burned Muslim holy books and other Islamic texts.
But the students protesting at a Jalalabad university, 80 miles (125 kilometers) east of the capital Kabul, were incensed.
"Death to America!" and, "Death to the soldier who killed our civilians!" shouted the crowd.
Some carried a banner that called for a public trial of the soldier, who U.S. officials have identified as a married, 38-year-old father of two who was trained as a sniper and recently suffered a head injury in Iraq.
Other protesters burned an effigy of President Barack Obama.
"The reason we are protesting is because of the killing of innocent children and other civilians by this tyrant U.S. soldier," said Sardar Wali, a university student. "We want the United Nations and the Afghan government to publicly try this guy."
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that the soldier should be tried as a war criminal and executed by the victims' relatives.
Obama has expressed his shock and sadness and extended his condolences to the families of the victims. But he has also said the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces, despite increasing opposition at home to the war in Afghanistan.
If the protests against the recent killings spread and become violent it could further complicate the issue, said Malcom Chalmers, a professor of security policy at Kings College in London.
"My instinct is that it (the killings) will not have much influence on the pace of withdrawal," said Chalmers. "But if you see riots in Kandahar and Kabul and other cities, that could change."
Photographs of dead toddlers wrapped in bloody blankets in Panjwai started to make the rounds in Afghanistan on Monday. The images were broadcast on Afghan TV stations, and people posted them on social network sites and blogs.
In the aftermath of the Quran burnings last month, over 30 people were killed in the protests and Afghan forces turned their guns on their supposed allies, killing six U.S. service members.
The Qurans and other Islamic books were taken from a detention facility and dumped in a burn pit because they were believed to contain extremist messages or inscriptions. A military official said at the time that it appeared detainees were exchanging messages by making notations in the texts.
U.S.-Afghan strains appeared to be easing as recently as Friday, when the two governments signed an agreement to gradually the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan control — a key step toward a pact to govern U.S. forces in the country after most combat troops leave in 2014.
But after the shooting, Afghan lawmakers called for a halt to negotiations on a bilateral pact with the U.S. until the soldier behind the shooting faces trial in Afghanistan.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, told CNN on Monday that the soldier did not leave his base undetected. An Afghan soldier saw him go and reported this to the Americans, who did a head count and realized that the suspect was missing. The Americans formed a search party, but Allen did not describe what happened after that.
Other U.S. officials have said initial reports indicate the soldier turned himself in after the shootings.
The soldier, who has been in the military for 11 years and served three tours in Iraq, was being held in pretrial confinement in Kandahar by the U.S. military while Army officials review his complete deployment and medical history, Pentagon officials said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Monday that the soldier may face capital charges.
The soldier was deployed to Afghanistan on Dec. 3 with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord located south of Seattle, according to a congressional source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
He was sent on Feb. 1 to Belambai, the base located a half-mile from one of the villages that was attacked, the source said.
A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said he was responsible for providing base security.
Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike killed a 12-year-old boy and a militant Sunday, bringing the death toll in Gaza since Friday to 17.
Israel is retaliating for more than 100 rocket attacks into Israeli territory in the worst flare-up of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in several years.
Thousands of Palestinian mourners took to the streets of Gaza Saturday for the funeral processions of those killed. Many of the marchers chanted "Revenge, revenge!"
Among the dead is Zuhair al-Qaissi, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). The group is best known for the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was freed last year in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the air strikes will continue and the Israeli army will hit anyone planning to attack Israeli citizens.
"The whole round will continue as long as necessary to make sure that whoever has to be punished for these attempts to initiate terrorist attacks against Israeli as well as those who are trying to launch rockets at us will be punished," said Barak.
Israel said it launched the airstrikes because the PRC was planning an attack on Israel from Egypt.
A Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, blames Israel for the violence.
"The Israeli occupation is completely responsible for this escalation and its consequences," said Abu Zuhri. "The Hamas movement confirms the right of resistance of our people and the factions to defend themselves in facing these crimes."
The escalating violence drew appeals for a cease-fire from the United States, United Nations and European Union.
Fresh protests have been taking place in Moscow and other Russian cities following Vladimir Putin's victory in last weekend's presidential election.
Up to 20,000 people lined one of central Moscow's main avenues.
However, this was much lower than the turnouts that followed December's parliamentary election, which the opposition said was rigged.
Similar allegations have surrounded the presidential vote, which saw Mr Putin secure a third term.
Foreign states have accepted Mr Putin's election but observers said the poll had been skewed in his favour.
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says some opposition leaders had played down expectations of a huge turn-out on Saturday, partly because their movement had failed to stop Mr Putin securing another term.
'Illegitimate'
The Moscow protest took place on Novy Arbat, a vast avenue lined by 1960s skyscrapers.
Dozens of police and military vehicles were stationed on nearby streets.
The city authorities had allowed a rally of up to 50,000 people.
However, the figure appeared much lower than this. The opposition said 25,000 people had attended. Agence France-Presse quoted police as putting the figure closer to 10,000.
On a cold but sunny Moscow day, demonstrators waved banners and wore white ribbons - the symbol of the protest movement.
Protest organiser Vladimir Ryzhkov told the crowd: "These authorities are illegitimate. The same people are in power, the same people who took away our right to choose, the same people who destroyed freedom of speech and political competition.
"We will continue to demand deep political reforms and new elections."
Sergei Udaltsov, one of the protest organisers, called for a million-strong march to take place in Moscow in May, a week before Mr Putin's inauguration.
Another opposition leader, former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, told the crowd: "This was not an election. This was a special operation from a thug who wanted to return to the Kremlin.''
Mr Udaltsov was among about a dozen protesters who were later arrested by police, AFP news agency said.
It added that police detained a number of people at an unauthorised rally on Saturday in St Petersburg.
Last Monday, a day after the election, police arrested about 250 protesters in Moscow and another 300 in St Petersburg.
Mr Putin was re-elected for six years, having served two previous terms as president between 2000 and 2008.
On Friday, US President Barack Obama called Mr Putin from Air Force One "to congratulate him on his recent victory", a White House statement said.
Mr Obama said he looked forward to hosting Mr Putin at the G8 Summit in May at Camp David.
When they were young, Patricia and Joan Miller sang and danced for Bing Crosby, troops and their friends.
But as the identical twins grew older, they became less interested in socializing. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. Without explanation, they stopped sending birthday cards to a childhood friend. And on the rare occasion when they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.
Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters withdrew into their four-bedroom home in California's South Lake Tahoe, where they were found dead last week at the age of 73. One was in a downstairs bedroom and the other was in the hallway just outside.
It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office.
"My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it," said Harwood, who has been unable to identify any close friends or family members to inform of the sisters' deaths. "It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together."
Police don't usually release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said.
"The circumstance surrounding their death is somewhat of an enigma," he said. "These two only ever had each other, and we would like, at least for their sake, to notify their family."
The deaths have confused some residents in the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, where homeowners tend to be close-knit and the sisters' reclusiveness had long inspired questions and concern. Police and neighbors alike are struggling to understand why or how two beautiful women with show business experience shut themselves up in the same home for nearly 40 years and then seemingly died within hours of each other.
In the past year, there were hints that something was amiss at the Miller home. A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed they had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When someone arrived Feb. 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.
There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not disheveled or unkempt, potential signs of mental or physical illness. Autopsy reports were pending.
Harwood said he called a nearby senior center to see if the sisters were visitors, but no one there had heard of them. He checked with Meals on Wheels volunteers, but it didn't seem that the sisters had received their services. The only relative he found in his preliminary searches was the sisters' deceased mother.
As news of the deaths spread, former South Lake Tahoe residents called police to report that they had lived near the sisters for decades in some cases, and had hardly seen them. One sent in a postcard that claimed the sisters were the only remaining members of their family after their mother's death and their brother died at war.
Calls Tuesday to several longtime residents and social groups in the area turned up little, as many community leaders said they had never heard of the sisters.
Joan Miller was a senior accounting clerk in the payroll department at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District from 1979 to 1984. Patricia Miller, who drove a white convertible with red upholstery, worked in the El Dorado County's social services office during that same time.
"I never heard of anyone else being in either of their lives," said Betty Mitchell, 89, who supervised Patricia Miller in the social services office and saw the twins around town. "They were inseparable and really identical."
The sisters were friendly and often told stories of their singing adventures. They told Mitchell they had performed at Yosemite National Park and when their mother came to visit from Oregon, they all dined at Mitchell's home.
But the sisters were also guarded. When Mitchell urged them to join a community choir, they declined. They never discussed their social lives.
"They kept things to themselves," Mitchell said. "I don't even know if they had siblings."
The sisters grew up in Portland, Ore., before moving to the San Francisco area, where Joan Miller attended college, Harwood learned. The women briefly appeared on a 1950s television show called the "The Hoffman Hayride" and posed for a picture with Crosby as children. The twins also entertained troops at military bases, a childhood friend told Harwood.
The sisters never seemed interested in dating or expanding their social spheres. They listed each other as their next of kin, Harwood said.
"All they had was each other and that's actually the way they wanted it," he said.
Joyce Peterson of the International Twins Association, a social group based in Oklahoma, said she once heard of 100-year-old twins who died within days of each other.
"As a twin, you've got this bond, you're close — almost like a married couple," said Peterson, of Minnesota, who serves as co-vice president of the group with her identical sister. "It's a bond no one else can understand."
The Miller twins appeared in poor health recently and possibly had been treated a year ago for dehydration or malnutrition, Harwood said.
Their childhood friend told Harwood that the sisters stopped sending annual birthday cards last year, and when the friend called to inquire about the missing card, the sisters seem disinterested in continuing the relationship.
Neighbors would call and the sisters would say, "Let me call you right back," and then wouldn't.
"They weren't taking care of themselves as they should or could have," Harwood said.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Two car bombers blew themselves up Friday outside the heavily guarded compounds of Syria's intelligence agencies, killing at least 44 people and wounding dozens more in a brazen attack on the powerful security directorates, authorities said. State-run TV said the al-Qaida terrorist network was possibly to blame for the first suicide car bombings in the nine-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad.
The opposition, however, immediately questioned the government's account and hinted the regime itself could have been behind the attack, noting it came during a visit by Arab League observers investigating Assad's bloody crackdown of the popular revolt.
The government has long contended that the turmoil in Syria this year is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.
Syrian officials said a suicide attacker detonated his explosives-laden car as he waited behind a vehicle driven by a retired general who was trying to enter a military intelligence building in Damascus' upscale Kfar Sousa district. About a minute later, a second attacker blew up his SUV at the gate of the General Intelligence Agency, the officials said.
Government officials took the Arab League observers to the scene of the explosions and said it supported their accounts of who was behind the violence.
"We said it from the beginning, this is terrorism. They are killing the army and civilians," Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad told reporters outside the headquarters of the General Intelligence Agency, where bodies still littered the ground.
Alongside him, the head of the Arab League's advance team, Sameer Seif el-Yazal, said, "We are here to see the facts on the ground. ... What we are seeing today is regrettable, the important thing is for things to calm down."
Such attacks are rare in Syria, although security agencies have been targeted in the past.
The impact is also powerful because Damascus is home to the presidential palace and headquarters of security and military bodies. Although the uprising has spread through many parts of Syria, Damascus has been relatively quiet amid the tight control of ruthless security agencies loyal to Assad.
The General Intelligence Agency has been taking a major part in the crackdown against the uprising.
In recent months, dissident soldiers have broken from the military to side with peaceful protesters and have attacked government forces. But Friday's attack was qualitatively different, adding new and ominous dimensions to a conflict that has already brought the country to the brink of civil war.
Omar Idilbi, a member of the Syrian National Council, an anti-regime umbrella group, raised doubts over the authorities' version of events and suggested the regime was trying to make its case to the observers.
The explosions "very mysterious because they happened in heavily guarded areas that are difficult to be penetrated by a car," Idilbi said.
He stopped short of accusing the regime of the bombings, but he said authorities wanted "to give this story" to scare observers from moving around the country and send a message that "Syria is being subjected to acts of terrorism by members of al-Qaida."
Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, said it is highly unlikely the regime was behind the attacks because the blasts harmed its image.
"The regime could blow up a military hospital or a supermarket and then say 'look at what they are doing.' The regime would not blow up its security headquarters," Khashan said. "The regime will take advantage of such events but won't do such things although they could do things that are worse."
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement that Washington condemns the bombings "in the strongest terms." He said it was "crucial" that the attack not impede the work of the Arab League observers and that the regime must "cooperate fully and quickly" with it.
Friday's first blast came at the military intelligence compound at 10:18 a.m., while the second followed at the General Intelligence Agency about a minute later, authorities said.
Mutilated and torn bodies lay amid rubble, twisted debris and burned cars. Bystanders and ambulance workers used blankets and stretchers to carry the bodies as they loaded them into vehicles. Windows were shattered in the nearby state security building, which was targeted by one of the bombs.
"The explosions shook the house. It was frightful," said Nidal Hamidi, a 34-year-old Syrian journalist who lives in Kfar Sousa. Gunfire was heard immediately after the explosion, he said, with apartment windows broken in a 200-yard (meter) circle from the explosions.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that that 44 people were killed and 166 wounded, including civilians and members of the security forces. Earlier, state TV said most of the dead were civilians but included military and security personnel.
Security officials showed journalists two mangled vehicles they said were used in the attack.
A Syrian military official said the bomb targeting the military intelligence building, the bigger of the two blasts, weighed more than 660 pounds (300 kilograms) and gouged a 6-foot-deep crater. It killed 15 people, among them a retired brigadier general.
The other bomb weighed almost the same, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military rules.
Maj. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, head of military intelligence, said the attacks were proof of a foreign campaign to strike at Syria. "We will fight this project until the last drop of blood," he declared.
In the years before the uprising, Syria had occasional clashes with al-Qaida-linked militants, and the Sunni terrorist network has denounced the regime, which is largely secular and led by Assad's minority Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot.
In September 2008, a suicide car bomber struck outside a security building on Damascus' southern outskirts, killing 17 people in the deadliest attack in decades.
Friday's blasts came as the government escalated its crackdown this week ahead of the arrival of the Arab League observers. More than 200 people were killed in two days, including an attack Tuesday in which activists and witnesses said troops pounded more than 100 fleeing villagers trapped in a valley with shells and gunfire, killing all of them.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, when the uprising began and the regime responded by deploying tanks and troops to crush protests across Syria.
The Arab League observer team is supposed to verify Syria's implementation of promises to pull back its troops and halt the crackdown. But the regime has said the team will vindicate its claims that terrorists are behind the country's turmoil, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem saying it's in Syria's interest for the observers to see what is really happening in the country.
David Hartwell, Middle East political analyst at IHS Jane's in London, said the timing of the bombings "is certain to be viewed with suspicion by the opposition." He said government critics are likely to highlight the timing of the attacks as "more than a little coincidental."
He added that the Arab League "will need to work extremely hard" to show it is not being played by the Syrians in an effort to stall for time.
After the advance team arranges logistics, a group of observers is to head for Syria on Monday to begin work, said Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed bin Helli. The league had initially said the team would arrive this weekend, and bin Helli gave no reason for the change.
Bin Helli told the broadcaster Al-Jazeera that the bombings didn't alter the plans of the mission but said the team would look into what happened. "We are expecting a lot of details about this crime that left behind this large number of victims," he said.
Activists also reported anti-government protests in several locations across Syria after Friday prayers during which security force shot and killed at least 15 people, mostly in restive Homs province, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, put the death toll at 16.
The LCC added that since the Arab League team arrived, security forces have killed 56 people.
Assad's regime has warned that the turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions, a message that resonates among Alawites and minority Christians who fear reprisals from the Sunni majority.
Haifa Nashar, a 45-year-old Sunni living in Kfar Sousa, wailed as she stood outside the General Intelligence Agency.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life, may God curse their souls!" she cried. She denounced Qatar, the Arab Gulf nation that has been at the forefront of criticism of Syria and pushed for Arab League sanctions against it.
"There was never any difference between Syrians, Sunnis, Christians and Alawites," she added. "But if this is what they want, then I say Alawites are above anyone else."
___
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report from Beirut.
HARDING, N.J. — A small plane has crashed on Interstate 287 in northern New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration reported Tuesday.
The plane went down near Exit 33 in Morris Township.
State Police Trooper Christopher Kay says there is a report of three possible deaths in the crash near Harding.
Shona Sternberg of Hillsborough told NJ.com that the plane came from the west and smacked down on the highway. Sternberg said she didn't hear any noises but saw an explosion when the aircraft hit the highway.
"There was a lot of fire and big black smoke," she said. "I could smell burning, burnt rubber. You see something happening, you know it's going to crash and you can't do anything."
Helicopter footage from News 12 New Jersey shows charred wreckage in the median and on the highway itself.
(AP) BAGHDAD — Iraq's Sunni vice president denied charges he ran a hit squad that killed government officials during the nation's wave of sectarian bloodletting, accusing the Shiite-led government Tuesday of waging a campaign of persecution. Acting just a day after American forces completed their withdrawal, the government issued an arrest warrant Monday for Tariq al-Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni official. The step risks tearing at the same sectarian fault lines that pushed Iraq to the edge of civil war just a few years ago — a prospect that is all the more dire with no U.S. forces on the ground.
Responding to the accusations, al-Hashemi told a televised news conference Tuesday that he has not committed any "sin" against Iraq and described the charges as "fabricated." He accused the Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, of being behind a plot to smear him and declared that efforts at national reconciliation had been blown apart.
"I'm shocked by all these things," al-Hashemi told reporters in the northern city of Irbil. "I swear to God that al-Hashemi didn't commit any sin or do anything wrong against any Iraqi either today or tomorrow and this is my pledge to God."
He said the arrest warrant was a campaign to "embarrass" him. He blamed al-Maliki, although he did not say specifically what he believed the Shiite premier had done.
"Al-Maliki is behind the whole issue. The country is in the hands of al-Maliki. All the efforts that have been exerted to reach national reconciliation and to unite Iraq are now gone. So yes, I blame al-Maliki," he said.
Arrest warrant for Iraq V.P. on terror charge
Iraq celebrates U.S. exit, worries for future
The Iraqi prime minister effectively runs the Interior Ministry, where the charges originated.
Iraqi officials on Monday accused al-Hashemi of running a hit squad that assassinated government and security officials, and state-run television aired what it characterized as confessions by men said to be working as bodyguards for al-Hashemi.
The news of the warrant against al-Hashemi has hiked tensions between Sunnis and Shiites at a particularly fragile time for the nation. The last U.S. soldiers withdrew from the country on Sunday, leaving behind a country where sectarian tensions run deep.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath party regime, the Sunni minority has constantly complained of attempts by the Shiite majority to sideline them.
At first the Sunnis waged an insurgency against the Americans, then became U.S. allies against al Qaeda, but relations with the Shiite-led national government are still frosty.
Al-Hashemi left Baghdad on Sunday for northern Iraq's semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, presumably hoping that Kurdish authorities would not turn him in.
On Tuesday, he thanked Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, for his support and said that Talabani promised he would be responsible for his security.
The vice president said security officials had come to his office and house in Baghdad and taken computers and documents. He said the staff working in his office were asked to turn in their badges and told to go home.
Al-Hashemi also sought to play down speculation that he would flee the country. He said that while he might leave for a short period of time, he would always return to Iraq.
The arrest warrant against Iraq's highest-ranking Sunni political leader has thrown Iraq's still fragile political system into a tailspin.
While al-Hashemi himself did not want to describe the campaign against him or his political bloc, Iraqiya, as sectarian, the Sunni-Shiite overtones were hard to ignore.
Al-Hashemi is Sunni and Iraqiya is overwhelmingly Sunni, while al-Maliki and his government are dominated by Shiites. Iraqiya has increasingly complained about what they describe as al-Maliki's authoritarian tendencies and reluctance to share power.
Sunnis suspected the charges against al-Hashemi were politically motivated. Al-Hashemi is an old rival of al-Maliki, and the arrest order came two days after Iraqiya suspended its participation in parliament because al-Maliki refused to give up control over key posts.
Cairo (CNN) -- Egyptian security forces wielding batons, firearms and tear gas attacked defiant protesters Tuesday on the fifth consecutive day of clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, witnesses told CNN. Sherif Barakat, a businessman, heard machine gun fire early in the morning and saw the unrest from the balcony of his home above Tahrir Square. He saw security forces charge, firing tear gas and beating people with batons.
"Both sides exchanged rock-pelting until the military withdrew," he said. "They kept the protesters at bay far from the epicenter of the clashes at Sheikh Rihan Street close to the Ministry of Interior for two hours until they reinforced the cement wall erected two days back with more blocks, then they withdrew."
Nazly Hussein, an activist, said the forces stormed the square before dawn with a "startling" amount of firepower.
Cairo: Graphic images draw condemnation Egyptian protests turn violent
"I noticed protesters are not too scared of the firepower," Hussein said. But at the same time, "they are terrified from getting caught and tortured."
Ahmed Hamdi, a field medic, claimed that two people -- a doctor and a student -- were shot and killed. But Adel Al Dawi, a Health Ministry spokesman, could not confirm the casualties.
"It usually takes several hours before we get the official casualty report from the morgues or the hospitals. I know of five people who suffered gunshot wounds during the attack and were transferred to hospitals," Al Dawi said.
Demonstrators and security forces have been battling since Friday in Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising that brought down Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. At least 14 deaths in the latest spate of violence were confirmed as of Monday.
The shocking images of brutality that went viral across the Internet intensified the crisis in Egypt, the world's most populous Arab nation. One video showed a military police officer stomping on a woman's exposed stomach over the weekend, a video that sparked outrage.
A "Million Woman" demonstration was planned for Tuesday afternoon in the square to protest the military's treatment of female demonstrators.
Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a statement Monday condemning what she called "vicious" and "brutal" assaults filmed over the weekend.
"The ruthless violence being used against unarmed women protesters is especially shocking and cannot be left unpunished," Pillay said.
Another video showed Islam Abdel Hafiz, a boy allegedly shot by the military. Field medics attempted to remove the bullet from his motionless bleeding body before transferring him to the hospital.
Al Dawi said he visited the boy in the operating room and met his parents.
"I hope he survives, as the bullet seems to have caused some serious internal damage," Al Dawi told CNN.
Protesters are now demanding that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces swiftly hand authority over to an elected civilian government. Egypt has been conducting parliamentary elections and the military has said it plans to transfer power after elections are completed next year.
There have already been two rounds of voting for the lower house of Parliament, and voting for the upper house will begin at the end of January and go into early March. There are plans for the election of a president in June.
Newly elected Parliament members, intellectuals and academics weighed in on the violence Monday. The 40 demonstrators held a sit-in in front of the Supreme Court. They demanded that officials involved in the killing of protesters be tried, and they called for the military to hand over authority to civilians on January 25, the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Revolutionary Alliance, an opposition bloc of secular and religious parties, held a news conference to display images and testimonials about the violence, an event that served as a refutation of a Monday news briefing by the military. The alliance has not taken part in the election.
"Our press conference challenges the press conference announced by the military yesterday which was an utter joke, with all the blatant lies and fabrications it contained. That presser displayed their arrogance and continued mismanagement of the interim period that has led us to the crisis of witnessing dead people everyday," said alliance member Rami Shath.
The military displayed videos of young boys who confessed that they received money from men who asked them to throw Molotov cocktails and rocks at security forces and burn government buildings such as the Cabinet. Many journalists attending the news conference applauded Gen. Adel Amar after his speech.
"The military fabricated these videos and forced the young boys to give these testimonials. They also invited local military correspondents loyal to the establishment that were seen clapping away after the press conference, which was broadcast live on state TV. It is a propaganda move to bury the revolution and portray us as paid thugs with no political horizon," Shath added.
Activists have filed complaints about senior government officials to the Egyptian prosecutor's office. Adel Saeed, the official spokesman of the general prosecutor, told CNN that two judges from the appeals court have been appointed to investigate the "intricate details" of the clashes and file a report to the prosecutor and the Justice Ministry.
"There are protesters and activists dying every day," Noor Noor, the son of presidential candidate Ayman Nour, told CNN Tuesday. The son filed a report under his own name against Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
"Someone has to be accountable. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has failed to govern the interim period on both the military and political level," Noor said.
Monday was the fourth day that pro-democracy demonstrators battled Egyptian security forces, their anger stoked by images of a military police officer stomping on a woman's exposed stomach over the weekend.
The U.N.'s Pillay said she believes the individuals involved in the assaults must be arrested and prosecuted.
"These are life-threatening and inhuman acts that cannot possibly be justified under the guise of restoration of security or crowd control," Pillay said. She called for an impartial and independent investigation into "all instances of abuse and violent repression against protesters."
New North Korean ruler Kim Jong Eun paid respects Tuesday to his father and former leader Kim Jong Il.
SEOUL—The sudden death of Kim Jong Il has sent South Korean politicians scrambling Tuesday to offer plans to deal with the potentially volatile power transition in North Korea, while China offered more support for its troublesome neighbor and invited its leaders to visit Beijing.
In Seoul, the announcement of Mr. Kim's death a day earlier prompted a rare outbreak of cross-party unity as the main opposition party ended a boycott of Parliament and said it supported the government's call for stable relations with Pyongyang. Underlying the display of unity is a deep nervousness in South Korea that the rapid ascent of North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Eun could mark a new period of instability on the peninsula.
North Korea offered no further information Tuesday on its power transition but broadcast footage of Kim Jong Il in a glass coffin at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Dressed in his standard khaki jumpsuit, Mr. Kim's body was partially covered by a red flag and surrounded by wreaths of flowers. Kim Jong Eun was shown leading a delegation of mourners.
Reuters
The body of Kim Jong Il lied in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on Tuesday.
The state funeral for Kim Jong Il is scheduled for Dec. 28. North Korea has said no foreign delegations will be accepted.
Of particular concern in Seoul is that the youthful and unproven Mr. Kim may be looking for an opportunity to rally support for his leadership by staging a military strike on South Korea. After two attacks on South Korea last year that killed 50 people, relations between the Koreas remain tense but stable, without any further loss of life this year.
To remove a potential flashpoint, South Korea's cabinet decided Tuesday it wouldn't allow church groups to illuminate three large Christmas-tree shaped towers near the North Korean border. The giant towers, located about two miles from the border and visible from the North Korean town of Kaesong, were scheduled to be illuminated on Friday.
The plan drew scathing criticism from North Korea, which warned of "unexpected consequences," code for a military response. North Korea views the illuminations as a South Korean effort to spread religion in the atheist North.
One of the towers was lit last year for the first time since 2004 without a physical response by North Korea despite threats.
South Korea's intelligence agency also is pressuring an activist group that regularly floats helium balloons into North Korea carrying antiregime leaflets to stop a planned dispatch of balloons on Wednesday.
"I am so enraged. I got a call from NIS [National Intelligence Service] and they warned me to stop the plan to send balloons tomorrow. They are saying it is too sensitive and dangerous a time to do that," said North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, leader of activist group Fighters for Free North Korea.
Mr. Park said the balloon flight Wednesday would go ahead.
Meanwhile, as a precaution in case of conflict on the Korean peninsula, Seoul said it was strengthening monitoring its oil and gas supplies, and was ready to take emergency measures, such as the release of strategic oil reserves if needed.
The public anxiety in South Korea over the dynastic change in North Korea is more pronounced than in the North's bigger neighbor, China, although their interests align in seeking to avoid a sudden deterioration of security in the region or outflow of refugees caused by instability in North Korea.
Beijing's approach is to publicly boost the North Korean regime. China issued more statements of support Tuesday for North Korea and Kim Jong Eun, while Chinese President Hu Jintao offered his condolences at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Top officials who accompanying Mr. Hu included Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to succeed Mr. Hu in a once-a-decade leadership change in China next year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan over North Korea's leadership succession.
Mr. Liu also invited North Korean leaders to visit China, though he didn't confirm whether Kim Jong Eun was among those invited.
(CNN) -- Travel through the southern Rockies into the central Plains "will be dangerous, if not impossible" early Tuesday, forecasters predicted, as a large winter weather system blasts parts of the West and Midwest. Early Tuesday morning, blizzard warnings stretched from northeast New Mexico to southeast Colorado, western Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle and far northern Texas, according to the National Weather Service.
"Blizzard conditions with wind chill temperatures below zero are expected," the agency said.
Winter storm warnings stretched farther across New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
"A large area of 4 to 8 inches of snow is expected from northeastern New Mexico into Kansas, with isolated areas of around one foot possible by Tuesday evening," the National Weather Service said.
In addition, blustery winds of 25 to 50 mph will be possible.
Snow across the Rockies was expected to end by Tuesday morning, but will continue across the central Plains until late in the day, the weather agency said.
But areas such as Grant, New Mexico, and Springfield, Colorado, had already seen at least a foot of snowfall since Sunday evening.
Interstates and highways were shut down Monday night as at least five states contended with heavy snow, fierce winds and ice.
There were blizzard conditions in parts of western Kansas and southeast Colorado, with visibility of less than a quarter-mile, said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
New Mexico State Police shut down Interstate 40, a major east-west artery, from Albuquerque to the Texas state line, saying there was zero visibility due to blowing snow. Interstate 25 was shut down from just north of Albuquerque to the Colorado state line because of the blizzard conditions, which included snow-packed and icy roads.
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The state police also shut down U.S. and state highways in the northeast corner of the state.
Texas authorities closed I-40 westbound in the Texas panhandle at New Mexico's request. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Transportation said motel rooms had already filled in Tucumcari, New Mexico, the first major town on I-40 across the state line, because drivers weren't allowed to travel any farther on the highway.
Cohen called it a strong storm system that is producing "very hazardous" conditions. While such storms typically occur during the winter months, he said, the large area of strong winds combined with the snow is unusual.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry activated the Texas Military Forces as a precautionary measure to provide any needed assistance on the roads, his office said.
Snow accumulations of up to 6 inches were likely, with higher accumulations expected across the northwest Texas Panhandle, Perry's office said.
Vehicle crashes were reported around Amarillo, which lies along I-40 on the Texas panhandle, said Trooper Gabe Medrano of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He said snow fell heavily Monday evening, and the situation was getting worse.
"We have whiteout conditions for the north of Amarillo at this point," he said, adding the roads will probably freeze over once the snow stops. "It's going to make for pretty bad conditions."
Flights were canceled at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport for early Tuesday morning, spokesman Patrick Rhodes said, but normal operations were expected to resume by mid-morning.
To the north, in the Oklahoma panhandle, U.S. highways were closed and transportation workers were salting the roads, according to Michaelann Ootean of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Roads and highways were "completely snow-packed" or covered with ice in much of western Kansas on Monday, according to the state's Department of Transportation. They included Interstate 70, which crosses the state from west to east, and Interstate 135 through Salina.
Two U.S. highways, 50 and 54, were shut in southwest Kansas. The DOT said U.S. 50 was closed because of blizzard conditions and "multiple accidents" in Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Transportation shut down highways across the southeastern part of the state because of snow and icy conditions. Interstate 25 was shut southbound from Pueblo to the New Mexico state line, and the DOT said lodging was unavailable south of Colorado City. Northbound I-25 remained open.
Dec 20 (Reuters) - The DAX top-30 index looked set to open 0.3 percent lower on Tuesday, according to premarket data from brokerage Lang & Schwarz at 0715 GMT.
The following are some of the factors that may move German stocks (share price indications at 0715 GMT)
DEUTSCHE TELEKOM
Indicated 1.2 percent lower
AT&T agreed with Deutsche Telekom to drop its $39 billion bid to buy the German company's U.S. wireless unit amid increasing regulatory obstacles.
AT&T said it will instead enter into a roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom said it would receive a break-up fee in the form of $3 billion cash payment, a long-term agreement on 3G roaming services and a package of mobile communications licenses for T-Mobile USA.
Related news
FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE, FRESENIUS
Fresenius Medical Care indicated 2.3 percent lower
Fresenius indicated 0.8 percent lower
Fresenius Medical Care has lowered its outlook for 2011 revenues, while confirming its outlook for earnings after taxes.
Fresenius said it expects 2011 revenues to just reach its target and said it sees earnings growing at the top end of its outlook range.
Related news
OVERSEAS STOCK MARKETS
Dow Jones -0.8 pct, S&P 500 -1.2 pct, Nasdaq -1.3 pct at Monday's close.
The European Central Bank said on Monday risks to financial stability in the euro zone increased considerably in the second half of this year, largely due to contagion effects from the debt crisis and bank funding strains.
GERMAN ECONOMIC DATA
GfK January consumer sentiment came in at 5.6, slightly higher than the expected 5.5, and unchanged from the previous month. November producer prices were up 0.1 percent m/m and 5.2 percent y/y, in-line with expectations.
December Ifo business climate due at 0900 GMT. Seen at 106.1, down from 106.6. Current conditions seen at 116 down from 116.7.
(AP) ILIGAN, Philippines — The Philippine government shipped more than 400 coffins Tuesday to two flood-stricken cities in the south where the death toll neared 1,000 as President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity and relief agencies rushed to help.
The latest count listed 957 dead and 49 missing and is set to climb further as additional bodies are being recovered from the sea and mud in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities.
A handful of morgues are overwhelmed and running out of coffins and formaldehyde for embalming. Aid workers appealed for bottled water, blankets, tents and clothes for many of 45,000 displaced in crowded evacuation centers.
Navy sailors in Manila loaded a ship with 437 white, wooden coffins to help local authorities handle the staggering number of dead. Also on the way were containers with thousands of water bottles.
Most of the dead were women and children who drowned Friday night when flash floods triggered by a tropical storm gushed into homes while people were asleep.
A Briton was the first foreigner reported dead in the flooding, according to the British Embassy in Manila. It didn't provide details.
Aquino, on a visit to Cagayan de Oro on Tuesday, said the national calamity declaration will help local authorities gain quick access to recovery funds and keep prices of basic goods stable.
"Our national government will do its best to prevent a repeat of this tragedy," Aquino told residents who came out to greet him.
He said there would be an assessment of what went wrong and why so many people died, if there was ample warning that a storm would sweep through the area and why people living along riverbanks and close to the coast had not been moved to safety.
"I do not accept that everything had been done. I know that we can do more. We must determine what really happened," Aquino said. "Must this end in tragedy? We knew that (storm) was coming. There should have been efforts to avoid the destruction."
The U.N. food agency flew in 3 tons of high-protein biscuits together with water tanks, blankets, tarpaulins and tents for some 75,000 people. Shortage of water was still a major problem in the two cities.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerned about the flooding, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
"The United Nations and its partners stand ready to support the government in responding to this disaster," the deputy spokesman added.
WICHITA, Kan. — Blizzard warnings went up across wide sections of the Southwest and Great Plains Monday, two days before the official start of winter, as a major snow storm threatened to play havoc with holiday travel.
Warnings forecasting snowfalls of up to 18 inches stretched across the region as the storm barreled toward parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. In southern Colorado, blizzard conditions were expected to drop between 8 and 16 inches of snow and threatened to close Interstate 25 from New Mexico into the Colorado.
In southwestern Kansas, winds of up to 45 mph were expected to create whiteout conditions and high drifts that could block roads.
"We are preparing," said Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Swartz. "We've had a few storms in the northwest, but we are fully stocked with sand and salt in all our regions. We're in good shape."
The storm was expected to also disrupt holiday travel on major interstates in the region, including Interstate 35 in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, interstates 25 and 40 in New Mexico and Interstate 70 across central Kansas. Motorists were urged to check road conditions before beginning any long journeys.
The storm follows a surprisingly mild Sunday across the region. Thunderstorms were moving across Kansas Monday, with conditions expected to deteriorate as the day progressed and temperatures fell.
In New Mexico, heavy snow and high winds forced the closure of U.S. Route 64 between Raton and Clayton, making driving conditions difficult in the mountains and across northern parts of the state. Santa Fe schools and Los Alamos National Laboratory were closed because of the storm. Crews were plowing and pouring salt across roads that were expected to see up to 15 inches of snow.
In the Oklahoma Panhandle, where residents enjoyed relatively balmy 60-degree conditions on Sunday, a National Weather Service blizzard warning said up to 16 inches of snow was possible before the storm exits the region Tuesday.
Heavy snow began falling in Cimarron County on Monday morning. Vicki Roberts, who owns the Black Mesa Bed and Breakfast in Kenton, Okla., said about 1 1/2 inches of snow settled after about an hour.
Roberts said she expects to be stuck inside at least through Wednesday if a blizzard slams the area as forecast.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation said Sunday that crews would work around the clock to keep roads clear, and that they have about 130,000 tons of a salt and sand mixture at their disposal.
The precipitation also could help ease a drought that has plagued Texas for more than year.
"You're not going to find too many people who have to put in winter wheat in this area complaining," said Tabatha Seymore, observing program leader for the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas. "It's just wonderful to have this moisture to sit on top of the crop and melt. It's fantastic for them."
Long haul truck driver Frank Pringle, at a Love's Travel Stop in Amarillo said he intended to go as far west as road conditions would allow Monday. His biggest worry was with four-wheel-drive cars because "they will shoot past you and cut you off and you have to hit your brakes. And hitting brakes in the snow is not a good thing."
Clayton, N.M., Police Chief Scott Julian said his town is expecting more than a foot of snow. He is worried the most about drivers passing through town to Colorado or Texas who might decide to take their chances with the storm only to find that "they get ten miles out of town, they can't see in front of them, and they get stranded out there."
___
AP reporters Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City, Tim Raths in Washington, D.C., Maria Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON — A man accused of trying to kill President Barack Obama by firing several shots at the White House from long range will remain in detention pending trial.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola said at a hearing Monday that 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez is a "particularly dangerous individual." He said Ortega must be detained to ensure the safety of the public and the president.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, were out of town on the evening of Nov. 11 when authorities say Ortega used an assault rifle with a scope attached to fire up to a dozen shots at the White House.
Ortega's public defender argued Monday that the government has failed to establish that Ortega was the shooter or that the president was the target.
At least two people have died in fresh clashes between protesters and troops in the Egyptian capital Cairo, bringing the death toll since Friday to 13.
Security forces moved into Tahrir Square before dawn, using batons and tear gas to drive out the protesters, who retaliated by throwing stones.
By dawn, the protesters returned to the square, while the troops again manned barricades in nearby streets.
The ruling generals said the clashes were a plot to destabilise the country.
Gen Adel Emara, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), said there was "systematic" plan to destroy the Egyptian state by shaking confidence in its security forces.
"From the start of the revolution, evil forces have wanted to drag Egypt into a chaos, putting army into confrontation with the people," he added.
Gen Emara also insisted soldiers and police had shown "self-restraint".
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply concerned" by the violence and urged the authorities "to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians".
"Those who are protesting should do so peacefully and refrain from acts of violence," Mrs Clinton added.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Rocks and Molotov cocktails are being thrown on both sides... From time to time we hear gunshots coming from the security forces' side”
Ahmed Raafat Witness
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also said he was highly alarmed at the "excessive use of force employed by the security forces".
In recent weeks, thousands have taken to the streets, demanding the ruling military council hand over power to a civilian government.
The council assumed presidential powers after Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February in the wake of a popular uprising. It has pledged to hand power to an elected president by July.
Patches of blood
On Monday, the security forces moved into Tahrir Square at about 03:00 (01:00 GMT), seeking to drive the demonstrators out, witnesses said.
The protesters fled down nearby streets away from the cabinet office and parliament building, where they have been throwing stones and petrol bombs at security forces.
By dawn, the demonstrators had begun returning to the square, and security forces took up positions again behind barricades.
"Rocks and Molotov cocktails are being thrown on both sides," one witness, Ahmed Raafat, told the BBC. "Water canons are used against protesters, and from time to time we hear gunshots coming from the security forces' side."
Man holds a sketch showing Egyptian soldiers dragging a woman on the ground by her clothing, exposing her underwear (19 December 2011) Soldiers and police have been condemned for beating protesters, including women, on the ground
The BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo says there are patches of blood on the ground in Tahrir Square and many activists have fresh injuries.
The health ministry said at least two people were killed in Monday's clashes.
However, a doctor at a field hospital in Tahrir Square told the Associated Press that six people had died. He said they all had gunshot wounds.
The latest violence began just after the second round of parliamentary elections, which Egyptians hope will bring stability and civilian rule.
In recent days, soldiers and police in riot gear have been filmed beating activists with sticks after they had fallen to the ground - scenes which have brought international condemnation.
One photograph taken on Saturday showed two Egyptian soldiers dragging a woman on the ground by her clothing, exposing her underwear.
Some Egyptians have expressed outrage, but others want to focus on voting not continuing unrest, our correspondent adds.
Islamist parties are on track to win a majority in the People's Assembly.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has said it received 39% of votes cast for party lists in the second round of voting last week. The ultraconservative Salafist al-Nour Party said its list received 30%.
Of the 160 individual seats contested in the second phase, the Freedom and Justice Party won 29, while al-Nour won 23. The liberal Wafd Party and Egyptian Bloc won nine and seven seats respectively.
The rest will be determined in run-off votes later this week.
NEW YORK (AP) — As Deloris Gillespie went up the elevator to her fifth-floor Brooklyn apartment, carrying groceries, a man was waiting. Surveillance video shows him looking like an exterminator, with a canister sprayer, white gloves and a dust mask perched atop his head.
When the elevator opened Saturday afternoon, the man sprayed the 73-year-old woman as she crouched to try to protect herself, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
Then, Browne said, the attacker pulled out a barbecue-style lighter and used it to ignite a rag in a bottle. He waited a few seconds as Gillespie huddled on the floor. Then he backed out of the elevator and tossed in the flaming bottle.
Neighbors had no idea a woman was being burned alive when they reported the fire.
Overnight, a 47-year-old man smelling of gasoline went into a police station and implicated himself in Gillespie's death, Browne said. The suspect, Jerome Isaac, told police he set her on fire because she owed him $2,000 for some work he had done for her, Browne said.
Isaac, of Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday on murder and arson charges. He had burns on his face. He was due in court Monday.
When Jaime Holguin, who lives on the same floor as Gillespie, saw surveillance pictures of the attacker he said, "Oh, my God!"
Holguin, the manager of news development for The Associated Press, said the man in the surveillance pictures looked like a man who had lived with Gillespie for about six months last year and appeared to have been helping her out.
Gillespie's arrangement with Isaac appeared to have ended by early 2011, but months later Holguin started seeing the man nearby on the street, looking "a lot more disheveled" and pushing a cart full of aluminum cans.
Browne said that after setting Gillespie ablaze, Isaac set another fire at his own apartment building nearby, then hid on a roof before turning himself in to police.
On Sunday, Holguin said, the fifth floor was a mess, with a melted elevator door and a layer of water on the floor.
Holguin said he and his girlfriend had taken the elevator on their way out of the building shortly before the attack. They didn't see anyone on the floor with them but did notice an odd smell, as if someone was painting, he said.
He remembered Gillespie as nice but sometimes a little off. "At least with me, some days she'd be very, very pleasant, and then the next time, she would almost ignore me," he said.
Gillespie also went through a period this year where she would place duct tape over her apartment door whenever she left, Holguin said.
Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela contributed to this report from New York.
North Korean television announced in a "special broadcast" that its leader, Kim Jong Il, is dead.
News of Kim's death was made public on Monday, with officials indicating that he actually died two days earlier while riding a train.
Reuters notes that the country had begun transferring power to his son, Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be in his late 20s.
The Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's state news agency, issued several statements on Monday. A release titled "Kim Jong Il Passes Away (Urgent)" said that he "passed away from great mental and physical strain" at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17. A separate article entitled "Medical Analysis of Kim Jong Il's demise" added that Kim suffered an "advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock."
Kim reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared relatively healthy on recent trips around Asia, which were documented by state media.
The White House released a statement late Sunday evening in Washington:
"We are closely monitoring reports that Kim Jong Il is dead. The President has been notified, and we are in close touch with our allies in South Korea and Japan. We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies."
At midnight on Monday, President Barack Obama spoke with Republic of Korea President Lee-Myung-bak to discuss the Korean Peninsula situation. A White House release read:
"The President reaffirmed the United States’ strong commitment to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the security of our close ally, the Republic of Korea. The two leaders agreed to stay in close touch as the situation develops and agreed they would direct their national security teams to continue close coordination."
More from the AP's obituary on Kim:
The communist country's "Dear Leader" -- reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine -- was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.
The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.
Kim Jong Il had been groomed for 20 years to lead the communist nation founded by his guerrilla fighter-turned-politician father and built according to the principle of "juche," or self-reliance.
Even with a successor, there had been some fear among North Korean observers of a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability upon the elder Kim's death.
Few firm facts are available when it comes to North Korea, one of the most isolated countries in the world, and not much is clear about the man known as the "Dear Leader."
North Korean legend has it that Kim was born on Mount Paekdu, one of Korea's most cherished sites, in 1942, a birth heralded in the heavens by a pair of rainbows and a brilliant new star.
Soviet records, however, indicate he was born in Siberia, in 1941.
Kim Il Sung, who for years fought for independence from Korea's colonial ruler, Japan, from a base in Russia, emerged as a communist leader after returning to Korea in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II.
With the peninsula divided between the Soviet-administered north and the U.S.-administered south, Kim rose to power as North Korea's first leader in 1948 while Syngman Rhee became South Korea's first president.
The North invaded the South in 1950, sparking a war that would last three years, kill millions of civilians and leave the peninsula divided by a Demilitarized Zone that today remains one of the world's most heavily fortified.
In the North, Kim Il Sung meshed Stalinist ideology with a cult of personality that encompassed him and his son. Their portraits hang in every building in North Korea and on the lapels of every dutiful North Korean.
Kim Jong Il, a graduate of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor.
Even before he took over as leader, there were signs the younger Kim would maintain -- and perhaps exceed -- his father's hard-line stance.
South Korea has accused Kim of masterminding a 1983 bombing that killed 17 South Korean officials visiting Burma, now known as Myanmar. In 1987, the bombing of a Korean Air Flight killed all 115 people on board; a North Korean agent who confessed to planting the device said Kim ordered the downing of the plane himself.
Kim Jong Il took over after his father died in 1994, eventually taking the posts of chairman of the National Defense Commission, commander of the Korean People's Army and head of the ruling Worker's Party while his father remained as North Korea's "eternal president."
He faithfully carried out his father's policy of "military first," devoting much of the country's scarce resources to its troops -- even as his people suffered from a prolonged famine -- and built the world's fifth-largest military.
Kim also sought to build up the country's nuclear arms arsenal, which culminated in North Korea's first nuclear test explosion, an underground blast conducted in October 2006. Another test came in 2009.
Alarmed, regional leaders negotiated a disarmament-for-aid pact that the North signed in 2007 and began implementing later that year.
However, the process continues to be stalled, even as diplomats work to restart negotiations.
North Korea, long hampered by sanctions and unable to feed its own people, is desperate for aid. Flooding in the 1990s that destroyed the largely mountainous country's arable land left millions hungry.
Following the famine, the number of North Koreans fleeing the country through China rose dramatically, with many telling tales of hunger, political persecution and rights abuses that officials in Pyongyang emphatically denied.
Kim often blamed the U.S. for his country's troubles and his regime routinely derides Washington-allied South Korea as a "puppet" of the Western superpower.
U.S. President George W. Bush denounced North Korea as a member of an "axis of evil" that also included Iran and Iraq. He later described Kim as a "tyrant" who starved his people so he could build nuclear weapons.
"Look, Kim Jong Il is a dangerous person. He's a man who starves his people. He's got huge concentration camps. And ... there is concern about his capacity to deliver a nuclear weapon," Bush said in 2005.
Kim was an enigmatic leader. But defectors from North Korea describe him as an eloquent and tireless orator, primarily to the military units that form the base of his support.
The world's best glimpse of the man was in 2000, when the liberal South Korean government's conciliatory "sunshine" policy toward the North culminated in the first-ever summit between the two Koreas and followed with unprecedented inter-Korean cooperation.
A second summit was held in 2007 with South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun.
But the thaw in relations drew to a halt in early 2008 when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul pledging to come down hard on communist North Korea.
Disputing accounts that Kim was "peculiar," former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright characterized Kim as intelligent and well-informed, saying the two had wide-ranging discussions during her visits to Pyongyang when Bill Clinton was U.S. president.
"I found him very much on top of his brief," she said.
Kim cut a distinctive, if oft ridiculed, figure. Short and pudgy at 5-foot-3, he wore platform shoes and sported a permed bouffant. His trademark attire of jumpsuits and sunglasses was mocked in such films as "Team America: World Police," a movie populated by puppets that was released in 2004.
Kim was said to have cultivated wide interests, including professional basketball, cars and foreign films. He reportedly produced several North Korean films as well, mostly historical epics with an ideological tinge.
A South Korean film director claimed Kim even kidnapped him and his movie star wife in the late 1970s, spiriting them back to North Korea to make movies for him for a decade before they managed to escape from their North Korean agents during a trip to Austria.
Kim rarely traveled abroad and then only by train because of an alleged fear of flying, once heading all the way by luxury rail car to Moscow, indulging in his taste for fine food along the way.
One account of Kim's lavish lifestyle came from Konstantin Pulikovsky, a former Russian presidential envoy who wrote the book "The Orient Express" about Kim's train trip through Russia in July and August 2001.
Pulikovsky, who accompanied the North Korean leader, said Kim's 16-car private train was stocked with crates of French wine. Live lobsters were delivered in advance to stations.
A Japanese cook later claimed he was Kim's personal sushi chef for a decade, writing that Kim had a wine cellar stocked with 10,000 bottles, and that, in addition to sushi, Kim ate shark's fin soup -- a rare delicacy -- weekly.
"His banquets often started at midnight and lasted until morning. The longest lasted for four days," the chef, who goes by the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, was quoted as saying.
Kim is believed to have curbed his indulgent ways in recent years and looked slimmer in more recent video footage aired by North Korea's state-run broadcaster.
Kim's marital status wasn't clear but he is believed to have married once and had at least three other companions. He had at least three sons with two women, as well as a daughter by a third.
His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 38, is believed to have fallen out of favor with his father after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001 saying he wanted to visit Disney's Tokyo resort.
His two other sons by another woman, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un, are in their 20s. Their mother reportedly died several years ago.
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Watch the announcement being made on North Korean television:
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