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2 NATO drivers killed in Pakistan
5/5/2014 7:28:28 AM
Peshawar, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two drivers hauling cargo for NATO were killed when suspected militants attacked their convoy in northern Pakistan on Monday, local authorities said.
The assailants on motorbikes targeted three NATO trucks in Khyber Agency, local tribal police and political administration officials said.
The trucks were were carrying military vehicles to Afghanistan.
Chinese sailors rescued in Pacific
5/5/2014 5:28:51 AM
- Chinese sailors found floating on life raft by Venezuelan fishing boat after their ship sank
- 11 rescued, including two who are seriously injured and two who later died
- Six seamen remain missing
- U.S. Air Force assisted in the rescue
(CNN) -- A Venezuelan fishing boat has rescued 11 Chinese sailors, including four suffering from severe burns, from a life raft floating in the Pacific Ocean about 1,100 km (684 miles) off the coast of Mexico.
Six sailors from the Chinese vessel remain missing, and two of the rescued men subsequently died from their injuries.
Airmen from an Arizona-based United States Air Force Search and Rescue team assisted in the recovery of two of the seamen, who were critically injured, a spokesperson from the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base said Sunday.
The uninjured crew members, along with the bodies of the two deceased, were transferred to a Chinese-flagged vessel which was in the area and are being repatriated.
The Venezuelan vessel radioed a request for assistance late Friday afternoon, and airmen from the 563rd Rescue Group, based in Tucson, Arizona, flew to the location to treat the injured crew, where emergency treatment continued into Sunday aboard the ship.
The team parachuted from an Air Force aircraft after an 11-hour flight to the remote location in the Pacific, approaching the fishing boat on Zodiac inflatables.
The airmen were preparing for the world's largest Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) exercise, codenamed Angel Thunder, when the real-world distress call came through, a 12th Air Force report stated.
"We were preparing for the training exercise when we were notified of what was going on," 1st Lt. Ben Schmidt, 48th Rescue Squadron Combat Rescue Officer was quoted as saying.
"As a Guardian Angel, this is what we are trained and equipped to do, so there is no better way to show our capabilities."
Capt. Susan Harrington, Public Affairs Officer at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, told CNN that the military was hoping to transfer the two injured crew members back to Cabo San Lucas, the nearest landfall in Mexico, on Monday (local time).
"We are prepared to rescue anyone, anytime, anywhere, when tasked by the Air Force," Col. Sean Choquette, 563rd RQG Commander, said. "Our airmen train diligently to execute difficult missions like this one."
Family rescued at sea
U.S. Navy responds to distress call in Aegean Sea
Malaysia holds suspect terrorists
5/4/2014 11:19:14 PM
- Police are holding 11 people on suspicion of terrorist affiliations
- They plan to make more arrests as a preemptive measure
- Some of the arrests were made in a state bordering Thailand
- Southern Thailand is plagued by separatist violence from ethnic Malay Muslim militants
(CNN) -- Police in Malaysia are holding 11 people on suspicion of involvement in a militant group responsible for planning acts of terror, police spokeswoman Asmawati Ahmad said Sunday.
There is no indication that the group, arrested last week, has any connection to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, she said.
The detainees are also suspected of having links to terrorists in other countries. Police plan to detain other suspects as a preemptive measure, Asmawati said.
The arrests were made in the city of Selangor, just outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, and in the state of Kedah, which borders on Thailand.
The neighboring country has closed and closely monitored the border with that region of Malaysia in a crackdown on terrorism, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The violence in Thailand stems from ethnic Malay Muslim separatists. This year, they began targeting Thai Buddhist woman, killing them and mutilating their bodies, Human Rights Watch has reported.
CNN's Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report
Chinese police offer reward for leads
5/5/2014 12:01:57 PM
- After declaring the attack "case closed" last week, police now looking for fresh leads
- RMB 100,000 offered to anyone with crucial information on the suspects
- Images of suspects releases in a reward notice by police
Hong Kong (CNN) -- Chinese police are appealing to the public for leads on the alleged assailants of the bombing and knife attacks that took place in the country's restive Xinjiang province last week.
A notice from the Saybagh District police station in Urumqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang in western China, was posted online on Saturday afternoon and widely circulated by Chinese media. It announces the RMB 100,000 ($16,000) reward for anyone who can offer crucial information on the suspects of the attacks.
Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported Thursday that police had closed the case on the April 30 bombing and knife attacks that took place at Urumqi South Railway Station. Two people, described as religious extremists, were blamed for the incident, one of which was identified as Sedirdin Sawut, a 39-year-old man from Aksu in southern Xinjiang.
Both suspects were killed in the blast together with one innocent bystander. Another 79 people were injured in the attack.
According to the reward notice, the police are now looking for fresh leads. The online poster shows photos of the suspected assailants, one of which is a purportedly a headshot of the corpse of the dead suspect.
The reward notice has since been taken offline, but a Xinjiang police officer surnamed Wang was able to confirm to CNN that the reward offer is still in effect. He would not say why the notice was taken offline.
Armed police presence
Xinhua, quoting police, also said "knife-wielding mobs" attacked people at one of the station's exits following the blast.
The station reopened about two hours after the incident with passengers entering under a heavily-armed police presence.
The attacks coincided with the end of a four-day tour of the region by President Xi Jinping.
After the blast, President Xi urged "decisive actions" against violent terrorist attacks.
The fight against separatist violence in the autonomous region in the northwest of the country was a focus of the Chinese leader's visit.
READ: Assailants in Xinjiang blast identified says Chinese media
CNN's Dayu Zhang contributed to this report.
'New' Jackson song: Is it a thriller?
5/5/2014 10:00:33 AM
- Michael Jackson recorded "Chicago" at New York's Hit Factory in 1999
- "Jackson had a habit of over-recording for albums," leaving outstanding songs unheard, Epic says
- Sony's Music Unlimited streaming service is previewing a new song each day this week
- "Xscape" is set for release May 13
Los Angeles (CNN) -- The countdown to the release of a Michael Jackson posthumous album began Monday with the debut of a song Jackson recorded 15 years ago.
"Chicago," which is also known as "She Was Lovin' Me," was a track that didn't make the cut on Jackson's 2001 "Invincible" album, but a version updated by producer Timbaland will be on "Xscape," an album to be released next week on Sony's Epic label.
"Jackson had a habit of over-recording for albums; often times this meant outstanding songs were left on the cutting room floor," the album liner notes said.
Jackson recorded "Chicago" at The Hit Factory in New York City after songwriter Cory Rooney sent him a scratch demo in 1999, when Jackson was working on his "Invincible" album. Jackson "fell in love with it" the first time he heard the demo, according to the liner notes.
♫ Preview Michael Jackson's 'Chicago' single from upcoming 'Xscape' Album. - https://t.co/AuF2XdTtZs (via @Twitmusic)
— Alan Duke (@AlanDukeCNN) May 5, 2014 "Jackson sings in his lower register in the verses over an ominous beat, slowly painting a story of an illicit affair, before unleashing a torrent of pain and regret in the chorus," the album liner notes said about the tune.
Fans can hear the full song only on Sony's Music Unlimited streaming service until the official release of all eight tracks on May 13. "Chicago" is the first of five songs to be previewed this week, with another single added at each midnight.
Another track -- "Love Never Felt So Good" -- was released for online downloading after it premiered on the iHeart Radio Awards telecast last week.
After Jackson died at age 50 in 2009, while preparing for his "This Is It" comeback tour, his estate executors signed a long-term deal with Sony to posthumously release music from the large archives of his recordings. Epic was Jackson's record label for three decades.
Epic Chairman L.A. Reid "was granted unlimited access to the treasures representing four decades of material on which Jackson had completed his vocals," the label said. The new album draws from tracks Jackson worked on from 1983 through 1999.
Reid chose several producers with the "gravitas, depth and range to creatively engage with Jackson's work" to update the recordings for release, Epic said.
Timbaland is the lead producer of the album, with contributions from Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, Rodney Jerkins, Stargate and Jackson estate executor John McClain.
Each song was "contemporized" to make it sound like a current production, but Jackson fans who want to hear the original recordings can purchase a deluxe edition.
Boko Haram leader: 'I will sell kidnapped girls at market'
5/5/2014 4:37:56 PM
- NEW: The video appears legitimate, the U.S. State Department says
- "Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell," Boko Haram leader says
- "No group can affect our resolve," a Nigerian government spokesman tells CNN
- Lawyer says a protest leader was arrested; police say no
(CNN) -- Fears for the fate of more than 200 Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of the Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell them.
"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence France-Presse.
"There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women," he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language.
Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means "Western education is sin." In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end.
"Girls, you should go and get married," he said.
The outrageous threat means the girls' parents' worst fears could be realized. Parents have avoided speaking to the media for fear their daughters may be singled out for reprisals.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the video "does appear legitimate."
The tape won't intimidate or deter Nigeria from efforts to save the kidnapped girls, the Nigerian government said.
"It is disheartening that someone would make such a terrible boast," Doyin Okupe, spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, said in an interview with CNN.
"It is to be expected of terrorists," he added. "No group can affect our resolve. We will see this through to the end. We have the commitment and capacity to get this done. No matter what this takes, we will get these girls."
On Sunday, Jonathan vowed, "Wherever these girls are, we'll get them out."
But he also criticized the girls' parents, saying they weren't cooperating fully with police. "What we request is maximum cooperation from the guardians and the parents of these girls. Because up to this time, they have not been able to come clearly, to give the police clear identity of the girls that have yet to return," he said.
Weeks after the girls' April 14 kidnapping, Africa's most populous country seems to be no closer to finding them, triggering complaints of ineptitude -- some of which are expressed on Twitter with the globally trending hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
On Sunday, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Nigerian High Commission in London, chanting, "Bring them back!" and "Not for sale!"
Crowds from Los Angeles to London rallied Saturday as well.
"Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls," former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote Sunday on Twitter. "We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls."
According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overwhelmed security guards at a school last month, pulled the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.
On Friday, Nigerian authorities updated the number of girls kidnapped to 276. At least 53 of the girls escaped, leaving 223 in the hands of their captors, police said.
Authorities said the number of missing girls could grow as police fill in spotty school enrollment records.
Families had sent their girls to the rural school in Chibok for a desperately needed education. The northeastern town is part of Borno state, where 72% of primary-age children never attended school, according to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.
It's even worse for girls than boys. "In the North particularly, the gender gap remains particularly wide and the proportion of girls to boys in school ranges from 1 girl to 2 boys to 1 to 3 in some states," UNICEF says.
Twelve northern states follow Sharia law.
In recent years, Boko Haram has carried out dozens of attacks, killing thousands of people at schools, churches, police stations, government buildings and elsewhere. Targets include Christians, senior Islamic figures critical of Boko Haram and people the group believes are engaged in "un-Islamic" behavior, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says.
Boko Haram has gained training in weapons and communications from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in recent years. This helped it move from little-noticed attacks to more spectacular ones, including against Western targets and the Nigerian government, which it seeks to overthrow, U.S. authorities say. In 2011, it carried out an attack with IEDs on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.
It's unclear just how big the group is. The U.S. State Department says Boko Haram's membership estimates "range from the hundreds to a few thousand." A U.S. government report in December 2011 found that a "consistent lack of reliable reporting on Boko Haram has contributed to the difficulty in assessing its size, makeup, and goals."
Though Nigeria has Africa's largest economy, driven largely by oil, poverty remains widespread: Nearly 62% of the country's nearly 170 million people live in extreme poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook.
That dichotomy takes center stage this week as a World Economic Forum meeting convenes Wednesday in Nigeria's capital of Abuja. The country "already plays a crucial role in advancing the continent's growth; yet it is also emblematic of the challenges of converting natural wealth into solutions that address persistent social challenges," the World Economic Forum on Africa says on its website.
The United States is sharing intelligence with Nigeria to help in the search, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation.
"We are sharing intelligence that may be relevant to this situation. You are going to see a focus on this in all three channels of government: diplomatic, intelligence and military," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Police in Abuja denied having arrested a leader of a protest over the weekend that was critical of the Nigerian government's efforts. In a statement, police said they "invited" Nyadar Naomi Mutah, a native of Chibok, for a "fact-finding interview." She cooperated and "was immediately allowed to return home to her loved ones," police said.
But Aminu Mahmoud, a lawyer representing Mutah, said her client was arrested Sunday without charge.
Fellow protest organizer Hadiza Usman said that during a session called by first lady Patience Jonathan to meet with protesters, the first lady recognized Mutah and said "let's keep you aside for now." It was not clear whether that had anything to do with Mutah's later going to the police station.
In its statement on the matter, Abuja police also said security agencies "are leaving no stone unturned" in an attempt to ensure that the children are rescued.
CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.
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