Kerry Says No Deal Yet For 7-Day Truce In Gaza

Palestinians pray the Friday prayer inside a destroyed Al Farouk mosque which was destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike on Tuesday, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, July 25, 2014. The U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a new attempt Friday to nail down a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, as Israel's 18-day military operation in the Gaza Strip fueled new unrest in the West Bank, where several Palestinians were killed during protests.

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that more work was needed to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas for a seven-day truce in the Gaza war. Israel's defense minister warned that the military may soon broaden its ground operation "significantly."

The tough statement by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, coupled with Kerry's inability to broker even a temporary cease-fire after a week of shuttling around the region, signaled the fighting is likely to drag on, with more than 820 Palestinians and 38 people in Israel killed so far.

In a statement issued shortly after Kerry spoke at a press conference in Cairo, Yaalon's office quoted him telling troops in the field that "you need to be ready for the possibility that very soon we will instruct the military to significantly broaden the ground operation in Gaza."

"Hamas is paying a very heavy price and will pay an even heavier price," Yaalon said. "At the end of the operation, Hamas will have to think very hard if it is worth it to taunt us in the future." Israel has said a key objective of its ground operation is to destroy Hamas military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border — and Israeli media have said the military wants more time to complete the mission.

Of 31 discovered so far, about half have been destroyed. The tunnels, used by Hamas in the past to sneak into Israel, are seen as a strategic threat against Israel. For days, Kerry has been moving between the Egyptian capital, the West Bank and Jerusalem and talking to officials from Qatar, which is in contact with Hamas. But the most Kerry seemed to have won so far was a willingness from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to consider a far less ambitious 12-hour halt in fighting, proposed by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

Netanyahu, Kerry said, "has indicated his willingness to do that as a good faith down payment to move forward." Still, Kerry said that the parties are closer than ever to an agreement for a seven-day "humanitarian" truce to start with the Muslim Eid holiday on Monday, ending the holy month of Ramadan.

Speaking alongside the U.N. secretary-general and the Egyptian foreign minister, Kerry insisted that there was a general agreement on the "concept" of a truce but that both sides had concerns over details of carrying it out.

"Gaps have been significantly narrowed," he said. "It can be achieved, if we work through some of the issues that are important for the parties." Gaza fighting continued alongside the truce efforts. Israeli airstrikes hit more than 80 sites in Gaza, while militants in the tiny Mediterranean strip fired 50 rockets at Israel, the army said. Among the sites hit in Gaza were 30 homes, including that of a leader of the Islamic Jihad group who was killed along with his sons, Palestinian officials said.

And unrest sparked by the conflict intensified in the West Bank, where five Palestinians were killed during protests against the Israeli operation in Gaza. The U.S. top diplomat said the goal of halting fighting for seven days was to provide time to work out further talks to address each side's demands. He said some "terminology" on a truce's framework still needed work.

Hamas demands the release of Palestinian prisoners in addition to an end to the 7-year-old border blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the group seized Gaza from the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli TV reports said Israel's Security Cabinet unanimously rejected Kerry's proposal in its current form, mainly because it would mean Israel has to cut short the effort to destroy tunnels. But Kerry said he had not submitted a formal proposal to Israel for the Cabinet to vote on.

Israeli government officials were not immediately available for comment. The worst round of cross-border fighting in more than five years has killed 828 Palestinians and wounded more than 5,200, according to Palestinian health officials. The U.N. says civilians make up three-fourths of the dead and a majority of the wounded.

In Israel, 38 people have been killed since July 8, including 35 soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker. The army announced on Friday that an Israeli soldier whom Hamas had claimed to have captured earlier this week had in fact died in battle on that day. The declaration lifts fears of a soldier in Hamas custody — one of Israel's worst-case scenarios in any fight with the militants.

The army said it determined that Sgt. Oron Shaul was killed among seven soldiers killed in a vehicle that was hit by an anti-tank missile in Gaza on Sunday. The others in the vehicle were confirmed dead soon after the battle ended but Shaul's remains were not immediately identified. Shaul is among the count of 35 soldiers killed in the fighting.

As the Gaza fighting drags on, the West Bank is becoming increasingly restive. Protests erupted Friday in the northern village of Hawara, near the city of Nablus, and the southern village of Beit Omar, near the city of Hebron. Palestinian hospital officials said three Palestinians were killed in Beit Omar and two in Hawara.

The mayor of Hawara, Mouin Idmeidi, said he and hundreds of others from the village participated in a protest after emerging from a local mosque after Friday prayers. Hawara is located along a main north-south thoroughfare that is also used by Israeli motorists. The mayor said an Israeli motorist slowed down as he passed the march and fired at the group.

The mayor said four people were wounded and that one of them, a 19-year-old, died at Rafidiyeh Hospital in Nablus of his injuries. After the shooting, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli troops who opened fire, killing a 22-year-old from Hawara, the mayor said.

Rafidiyeh hospital confirmed the deaths. An Israeli police spokesman, Mickey Rosenfeld, said paramilitary border police opened fire to disperse violent protests at Hawara, and that masked Palestinians threw firebombs. He said he was unaware of a shooting involving an Israeli civilian.

In Beit Omar, clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian stone-throwers. Hebron hospital officials said three Palestinians were killed. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
On Thursday, thousands of Palestinians clashes with Israeli forces at a West Bank checkpoint and in east Jerusalem, the largest protests in those areas in several years.

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in the West Bank and Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

US: Russia Is Firing Across Border Into Ukraine

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, foreground, speaks to the media as a Dutch military cargo plane with coffins holding bodies of some of the passengers of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner which was downed over eastern Ukraine last week, prepares to take off for the Netherlands from Kharkiv airport, Ukraine, Friday, July 25, 2014. International observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on Friday were traveling to inspect the wreckage of the downed Malaysia Airlines plane and to search for more bodies. Human remains are still being found at the crash site more than a week after the plane went down.

KIEV, UKRAINE (AP) — Russia is launching artillery attacks from its soil on Ukrainian troops and preparing to move heavier weaponry across the border, the U.S. and Ukraine charged Friday in what appeared to be an ominous escalation of the crisis.

Russia accused Washington of lying and charged Ukraine with firing across the border on a Russian village. It also toughened its economic measures against Ukraine by banning dairy imports. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said five salvos of heavy rockets were fired across the border near the town of Kolesnikov in the Luhansk region in the country's east. A border crossing point near Marynovka was fired on twice with mortars, also from the Russian side, while Ukrainian forces shot down three Russian drones, Lysenko said.

If true, the allegations mean Moscow is playing a more direct role in the fighting than it has been accused of up to now — a dangerous turn in what is already the gravest crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

In addition, Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the U.S. has seen powerful rocket systems moving closer to the Ukraine border and that they could be put into the hands of the Russian-backed separatists as soon as Friday.

It wasn't clear what those developments mean for the international investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. U.S. authorities believe the separatists shot it down with a missile, perhaps in the mistaken belief it was a military plane.

A small group of Dutch and Australian investigators combed the sprawling, unsecured field where the plane came down on July 17, taking notes and photos as their governments prepared police detachments they hope can protect the crash site and help bring the last of the 298 victims home.
U.S. officials said this week that they had new evidence that Russia intended to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatists. Warren said Friday that the delivery could happen at any time, adding "it's that close" to the border.

Warren also corroborated Ukrainian reports of artillery fire from Russia. He said there was no indication Ukraine had shelled Russia. "For the last several days Russian forces using Russian artillery from Russian soil have conducted attacks against Ukrainian military positions in Ukraine," Warren said. "This is unquestionably an escalation from a military perspective."

Russia's Foreign Ministry responded to U.S. allegations about cross-border shelling by saying: "Facts and details to confirm these lying contentions do not exist." The allegations come amid a Ukrainian government offensive against the separatists that has won back control of several important towns over the past few weeks.

Douglas Lute, U.S. ambassador to NATO, accused Russia of waging "civil war by proxy" in Ukraine and said the Russians have about 15,000 troops massed near the border. He spoke at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado.

In another development, CNN said pro-Russian rebels abducted one of its local freelancers on Tuesday outside the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk and was still holding him on Friday. Anton Skiba had worked for the network for only a day when he was seized as he and other members of a CNN crew returned to their hotel from the jetliner crash site.

CNN said the abductors first accused Skiba of "terrorism" and of using his Facebook page to post cash rewards for killing separatists. Later they dropped that accusation and said he was being questioned for using identification with different last names. Later they said he had confessed to being a Ukrainian "agent."

The U.S. and human rights groups condemned Skiba's abduction as an attempt by the rebels to sow fear, CNN reported. "We chose not to report his abduction at the time while making efforts to obtain his release," CNN spokeswoman Bridget Leininger told The Associated Press. "That has not happened to date, so we are now publicly asking those who are holding Skiba to release him immediately."

Russia said a group of its investigators came under Ukrainian mortar fire Friday in the Russian village of Primiussky. They were investigating the reported shelling two days earlier of the village, which is about 2.5 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the border. No deaths were reported.

European Union ambassadors, meanwhile, reached a preliminary deal Friday on stepped-up sanctions against Russia for its involvement in Ukraine, targeting Moscow's defense and technology sectors and its access to European capital.

EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said EU member states must decide whether the measures need to be approved by a summit meeting of the trade bloc's 28 member countries to go into effect. The ambassadors also ordered asset freezes and travel bans against 15 more Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians accused of undermining Ukraine. Eighteen businesses or other entities will also be subject to sanctions.

Russia increased its economic pressure on Ukraine when its agency in charge of agricultural products announced that it is banning imports of Ukrainian dairy. Russia is the biggest export market for Ukrainian milk and cheese.

__ Associated Press staff writers Peter Leonard in Kiev, John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

UN School In Gaza Caught in Cross-Fire; 15 Killed

Palestinian children, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, lay on the floor of an emergency room at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter from heavy fighting in the area.

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — A U.N. school in Gaza crowded with hundreds of Palestinians seeking refuge from fierce fighting came under fire Thursday, killing at least 15 civilians and leaving a sad tableau of blood-spattered pillows, blankets and children's clothing scattered in the courtyard.

Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the shelling, which wounded dozens and came on the deadliest day so far of the current round of fighting. However, the Israeli military said the school "was not a target in any way" and raised the possibility the compound was hit by Hamas rockets.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon angrily denounced the attack, saying the killing must "stop now." But the frantic diplomatic efforts spanning the region were running into a brick wall: Israel demands that Hamas stop firing rockets without conditions, while Gaza's Islamic militant rulers insist the seven-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory must end first.

"Many have been killed — including women and children, as well as U.N. staff," Ban said in a statement, though he did not elaborate and a later U.N. communique made no mention of humanitarian workers being among the casualties.

In the aftermath of the attack, a child's sandal decorated with a yellow flower lay in a puddle of blood, while sheep and cattle belonging to those seeking shelter grazed in the grass nearby. A large scorch mark scarred the spot where one of the shells hit. Dozens of wounded, including many children, were wheeled into a nearby hospital as sirens wailed.

The U.N. said it had been trying to achieve a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow the evacuation of civilians from the area. Kamel al-Kafarne, who was in the school, said people were boarding buses when three tank shells hit.

"We were about to get out of the school, then they hit the school. They kept on shelling it," he said. It was the fourth time a U.N. facility has been hit in Gaza fighting since the Israeli operation began on July 8. UNRWA, the U.N's Palestinian refugee agency, has said it discovered dozens of Hamas rockets hidden inside two vacant schools, but U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said the school hit Thursday in the northern town of Beit Hanoun was not one of them.

The U.N. has also expressed alarm that rockets found in the schools have gone missing after they were turned over to local authorities in Gaza. "Those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children," U.N. staff and anyone seeking shelter there, a U.N. statement said.

Fighting was fierce across Gaza Thursday, and at least 119 Palestinians were killed, making it the bloodiest day of the 17-day war. That raised the overall Palestinian death toll to at least 803, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel has lost 32 soldiers, all since July 17, when it widened its air campaign into a full-scale ground war. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker in Israel have also been killed by rocket or mortar fire.

Israel says the war is meant to halt the relentless rocket fire on its cities by Palestinian militants in Gaza and to destroy a sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels that Hamas is using to sneak into Israel to try to carry out attacks inside communities near the border.

Israel insists it does its utmost to prevent civilian casualties but says Hamas puts Palestinians in danger by hiding arms and fighters in civilian areas. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli shells hit the U.N. compound. But Israel's chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz, said the military was investigating and it was too early to know if the deaths were caused by an errant Israeli shell or Hamas fire. "We are not ruling out the possibility that it was Hamas fire," he said.

Another army spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said there had been Hamas fighting in the area. "We do not target the U.N. We do not target civilians. There was no target in the school. Gunmen were attacking soldiers near the facility. The school was not a target in any way," Lerner said.

The military had urged the U.N. and the Red Cross to evacuate the school for three days leading up to the shelling incident, Almoz said, adding that there had been an increase in Hamas attacks from the area in recent days.

"Despite repeated calls from the military to the U.N. and international organizations to stop the shooting from there because it endangers our forces, we decided to respond. In parallel to our fire there was Hamas fire at the school," Almoz said.

The attack was likely to increase pressure on international diplomats shuttling around the region in an effort to broker a cease-fire. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent the day in Cairo feverishly calling on regional leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to press for a solution. Like Israel, the U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist organization and will not directly engage with its leaders.

"We still have more work to do. ... The tragic incident today and every day just underscores the work we are trying to do and what we are trying to achieve. So we're going to keep at it," Kerry said after meeting with the U.N. chief late Thursday. "It's so imperative to try to find a way forward."

Ban also urged an end to the fighting. "I am telling ... both the Israelis and Hamas: 'You must stop fighting and enter into dialogue,'" he said. "Whatever grievances you may have, this is wrong. There are many other ways to resolve this issue without killing each other."

As in years past — most recently in 2012 — the U.S. wants the violence to stop before it tries to negotiate each side's demands. For Hamas, that includes the release of Palestinian prisoners in addition to an end to the 7-year-old economic blockade imposed by Israel after the Islamic militant group violently seized control of Gaza from the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Egypt tightened its own restrictions last year after the overthrow of a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and has destroyed many of the cross-border tunnels that had sustained Gaza's economy, while also being used by the militants to smuggle in arms.

Netanyahu made no reference to the cease-fire efforts in underscoring his determination to neutralize the rocket and tunnel threats. "We started this operation to return peace and quiet to Israel... and we shall return it," he said after meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Israel.

More than 2,300 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since July 8, and the Israeli military says it has uncovered 31 tunnels leading from Gaza to Israel, some of which have been used by Hamas to try to carry out attacks inside Israel. On Thursday, soldiers detained two militants as they emerged from such a tunnel, the army said.

Ominously, meanwhile, violence spread to the West Bank, where thousands of Palestinians protesting the Gaza fighting clashed with Israeli soldiers late Thursday in Qalandia, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. At least one Palestinian was killed and dozens were injured, a Palestinian doctor said.

Deitch reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg and Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Maggie Michael in Cairo and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Official: Air Algeri Flight 'Probably Crashed'

A man wearing a shirt with a Swiftair logo and carrying a Swiftair folder enters the Spanish airline's office in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, July 24, 2014. An Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital disappeared from radar early Thursday over northern Mali, officials said. The flight was being operated by Spanish airline Swiftair, the company said in a statement, and the plane belonged to Swiftair. The flight crew was Spanish.

ALGIERS, ALGERIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — An Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital disappeared from radar early Thursday over northern Mali during a rainstorm, officials said. France's foreign minister said no wreckage had been found, but that the plane "probably crashed."

The MD-83 vanished about 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, the official Algerian news agency APS said. "Despite an intensive search, at the moment I speak no trace of the aircraft has been found," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters in Paris. "The plane has probably crashed."

Two French fighter jets are among aircraft scouring the rugged north of Mali for the plane, which was traveling from Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, to Algiers, the Algerian capital. More than 50 French were onboard the plane along with 27 Burkina Faso nationals and passengers from a dozen other countries. The flight crew was Spanish.

The flight was being operated by Spanish airline Swiftair, which owns the plane. Before vanishing, the pilots sent a final message to ask Niger air control to change its route because of heavy rain in the area, Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said.

A resident who lives in a village in Mali about 80 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the town of Gossi said he saw a plane coming down early Thursday, according to Gen. Gilbert Diendere, heading the crisis committee set up in Burkina Faso.

"We think that it is a reliable source because it corresponds to the latest radar images of the plane before it lost contact with air controllers," Diendere said. Radar images show the plane deviated from its route, Diendere said. Gossi is nearly 200 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Gao. The vast deserts and mountains of northern Mali have been the scene of unrest by both Tuareg separatists and Islamist radicals.

The disappearance of the Air Algerie plane comes after a spate of aviation disasters. Fliers around the globe have been on edge ever since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March on its way to Beijing. Searchers have yet to find a single piece of wreckage from the jet with 239 people on board.

Last week, a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over a war-torn section of Ukraine. The back-to-back disasters involving Boeing 777s flown by the same airline were too much of a coincidence for many fliers.

Then this week, U.S. and European airlines started canceling flights to Tel Aviv after a rocket landed near the city's airport. Finally, on Wednesday, a Taiwanese plane crashed during a storm, killing 48 people.

It's easy to see why fliers are jittery, but air travel is relatively safe. There have been two deaths for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights in the last decade, excluding acts of terrorism. Travelers are much more likely to die driving to the airport than stepping on a plane. There are more than 30,000 motor-vehicle deaths in the U.S. each year, a mortality rate eight times greater than that in planes.

French Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said the Air Algerie flight vanished over northern Mali. He spoke Thursday from a crisis center set up in the French Foreign Ministry. Cuvillier didn't specify exactly where the plane disappeared over Mali, or whether it was in an area controlled by rebels.

But Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on Algerian state television said that 10 minutes before disappearing, it was in contact with air traffic controllers in Gao, a city essentially under the control of the Malian government, though it has seen lingering separatist violence.

The plane had been missing for hours before the news was made public. It wasn't immediately clear why airline or government officials didn't make it public earlier. The flight path of the plane from Ouagadougou to Algiers wasn't immediately clear. Ouagadougou is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali where unrest continues in the north.

Northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012. A French-led intervention last year scattered the extremists, but the Tuaregs have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.

A senior French official said it seems unlikely that fighters in Mali had the kind of weaponry that could shoot down a plane. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, said on condition of anonymity that they primarily have shoulder-fired weapons - not enough to hit a passenger plane flying at cruising altitude.

Swiftair, a private Spanish airline, said the plane was carrying 110 passengers and six crew, and left Burkina Faso for Algiers at 0117 GMT Thursday (9:17 p.m. EDT Wednesday), but had not arrived at the scheduled time of 0510 GMT (1:10 a.m. EDT Thursday).

Swiftair said it has not been possible to make contact with the plane and was trying to ascertain what had happened. It said the crew included two pilots and four cabin staff. Later, Swiftair said the plane was built in 1996 and has two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 PW engines. It can carry 165 passengers.

Swiftair took ownership of the plane on Oct. 24, 2012, after it spent nearly 10 months unused in storage, according to Flightglobal's Ascend Online Fleets, which sells and tracks information about aircraft. It has more than 37,800 hours of flight time and has made more than 32,100 takeoffs and landings. The plane has had several owners over the years, including Avianca and Austral Lineas Aereas.

If confirmed as a crash, this would be the fifth one — and the second with fatalities — for Swiftair since its founding in 1986, according to the Flight Safety Foundation. The only other fatal crash for the airline came on July 28, 1998, when the two pilots died on a cargo flight to Barcelona.

Algerian aircraft were overflying the region around Gao to try to locate wreckage, said Houaoui Zoheir, spokesman for the Algerian crisis center. He provided no details on the type or number of aircraft.

"As long as we haven't found the wreckage, we can't talk of a crash," he said. "We talk of loss of contact." The passengers include 51 French, 27 Burkina Faso nationals, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two Luxemburg nationals, one Swiss, one Belgium, one Egyptian, one Ukrainian, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian and one Malian, Ouedraogo said. The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.

The MD-83 is part of a series of jets built since the early 1980s by McDonnell Douglas, a U.S. plane maker now owned by Boeing Co. The MD-80s are single-aisle planes that were a workhorse of the airline industry for short and medium-range flights for nearly two decades. As jet fuel prices spiked in recent years, airlines have rapidly being replacing the jets with newer, fuel-efficient models such as Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.

There are 496 other MD-80s being flown by airlines around the world, according to Ascend. "We're aware of reports on Air Algerie Flight AH5017," Boeing spokesman Wilson Chow said. "Our team is gathering more information."

Brahima Ouedraogo reported from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. AP journalists Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Spain, and Elaine Ganley, Thomas Adamson and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, contributed to this report.

Suspected Nazi Guard's Death A Blow To Prosecutors

The main gate of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I, Poland, which was liberated by the Russians in January 1945. Writing over the gate reads: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work makes free - or work liberates). The lawyer for Nazi war crimes suspect Johann "Hans" Breyer says the 89-year-old Philadelphia man died Tuesday, July 22, 2014 while awaiting extradition to Germany. German prosecutors had hoped to try Breyer on charges of aiding in the murder of more than 200,000 Jews at the Auschwitz death camp.

PHILADELPHIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — German efforts to prosecute aging war criminals suffered a setback this week with the death of a retired Philadelphia toolmaker who had long been in the crosshairs of Nazi hunters.

Bavarian prosecutors had hoped to extradite 89-year-old Johann "Hans" Breyer over his alleged service as a Waffen SS guard at Auschwitz in 1944. However, Breyer died at a Philadelphia hospital Tuesday, hours before a U.S. judge approved the extradition request. Breyer had spent a month in jail since his arrest on charges of accessory to murder in the deaths of 216,000 Jews.

"It is very unfortunate that Breyer died but this in no way shape or form should discourage the prosecution of Nazi perpetrators who can still be brought to justice," said Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem.

Breyer's death was disclosed Wednesday just as U.S. Magistrate Timothy Rice approved the extradition request, which would still have needed final U.S. government review. Rice found probable cause that Breyer was the person being sought by German prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Weiden over his suspected service as an SS guard at Auschwitz during World War II.

"No statute of limitations offers a safe haven for murder," Rice wrote in his 31-page ruling. "A death camp guard such as Breyer could not have served at Auschwitz during the peak of the Nazi reign of terror in 1944 without knowing that hundreds of thousands of human beings were being brutally slaughtered in gas chambers and then burned on site," Rice wrote.

Breyer had claimed he was unaware of the massive slaughter at Auschwitz and then that he did not participate in it, but "the German allegations belie his claims," the judge wrote. Breyer died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, according to his lawyer, Dennis Boyle, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The lawyer said Breyer's health had deteriorated in jail but he didn't know the cause of death.

Boyle had argued in bail papers that Breyer was too frail to remain in custody, given his history of heart disease, stroke and dementia. German authorities in Weiden issued a 2013 warrant charging Breyer with accessory to murder under the theory that the death camp's sole function was to kill people.

The same legal strategy had been used to charge and convict former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk on charges he served as a death camp guard at Sobibor in occupied Poland. Demjanjuk died in a Bavarian nursing home in 2012 while appealing his 2011 conviction.

The 2013 warrant accused Breyer of 158 counts of accessory to murder — one count for each trainload of victims brought to the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland from May to October 1944, when he was allegedly a guard there.

Breyer told The Associated Press in a 2012 interview that while he was a guard at Auschwitz, he was assigned to a part of the camp that was not involved in the slaughter of Jews and others. "I didn't kill anybody, I didn't rape anybody — and I don't even have a traffic ticket here," he said. "I didn't do anything wrong."

Breyer moved to Philadelphia after World War II and for decades lived a quiet, middle-class life with his wife, children and grandchildren. He had American citizenship because his mother was born in the U.S.; she later moved to Europe, where Breyer was born.

In 1992, the U.S. government tried to revoke Breyer's citizenship after discovering his wartime background. The effort became a decade-long legal saga and appeared to end with a 2003 decision that found Breyer had joined the SS as a minor and could therefore not be held legally responsible for participating in it.

Then he was arrested last month outside his home in northeast Philadelphia based on the German warrant. Officials say the arrest was delayed for a year because of the complexity of the extradition request.

"This hurts. This hurts the families of the victims. This hurts anyone who is interested in justice," Zuroff said. "We want to urge everybody involved in this effort, particularly prosecutors, not to let this discourage them from continuing their work."

US Hails Indonesia Democracy In Turbulent SE Asia

ndonesian president-elect Joko Widodo greets supporters with his 'three-finger greeting' symbolizing 'The Unity of Indonesia', the third of Indonesia's five principles, during a gathering in Jakarta. President Barack Obama’s quick congratulation for Indonesia’s election victor Widodo, even as the losing candidate rejected the result, underscores Washington’s intent to deepen ties with Jakarta and support democracy in Southeast Asia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's quick congratulation for Indonesia's election victor Joko Widodo, even as the losing candidate rejected the result, underscores Washington's intent to deepen ties with Jakarta and support democracy in Southeast Asia.

A peaceful transfer of power in Indonesia would buck a worrying trend in a region marred by flawed elections and military meddling. It would also show that democracy thrives in the country with the world's largest Muslim population.

Over the past year, there have been disputed elections in Malaysia and Cambodia, where this week the opposition agreed to end a parliamentary boycott. Thailand, once an example of democratic progress, is facing its most repressive period of military rule in decades. Authoritarian governments prevail in Laos and Vietnam, and reforms seem to be stalling in former pariah state Myanmar.

Political change has been comparatively smooth in Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, over the past decade and a half. The emergence of Widodo appears to reflect how far it has come since popular protests ended the 30-year rule of former dictator Suharto in 1998.

Widodo, the 53-year-old Jakarta governor, was the first candidate in a direct presidential election without ties to Suharto. He won by 8 million votes, or 6 percent, over Prabowo Subianto, a former general and son-in-law of the late dictator. Political uncertainties remain, however, as Subianto announced Wednesday he plans to file a legal challenge in the nation's highest court.

Election observers have reported few abnormalities, and the U.S., whose embassy witnessed vote counting, is confident it was a credible process. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Widodo soon after Tuesday's official result, and hours later, President Obama called the president-elect. He pointedly stated, according to a White House statement issued Wednesday, that "through this free-and-fair election, the people of Indonesia have once again shown their commitment to democracy."

Working with current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has served since 2004 and will cede power Oct. 20, Obama has cultivated a stronger U.S. relationship with Indonesia as part of his administration's effort to "rebalance" American foreign policy toward Asia. Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a child, visited the country twice during his first term.

The two nations declared a comprehensive partnership in 2010, and cooperate on areas including health, environment, education and regional diplomacy. Washington has encouraged Indonesia's de facto leadership of Southeast Asia's regional bloc as it strives for economic integration and copes with the rise of increasingly assertive China.

Indonesia has sought to main a strategic balance between the U.S. and China, and that's likely to continue under Widodo, although he's given few clues during the campaign about foreign policy, a field where he has scant experience. His first opportunity to meet Obama is likely to be at the East Asia Summit to be held in Myanmar in November.

The former furniture exporter, who won Indonesians over with his homespun style, has little experience on the national stage either but enjoys a reputation for efficient leadership. He will have plenty on his plate governing a vast archipelago of 240 million people. Economic growth has slowed over the past two years. The rising cost of fuel subsidies has forced cuts in state spending, and infrastructure is in a poor state.

Despite Indonesia's emergence as a democracy, corruption is chronic. Indonesia ranked 114th out of 177 countries on Transparency International's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index. U.S. officials are concerned over obstacles to foreign investment and mounting resource nationalism that has resulted in new regulations limiting foreign investment in mining and oil and gas extraction. And notwithstanding Indonesia's reputation for moderate Islam and success in counterterrorism, the U.S. is concerned over the government's failure to prevent persecution of religious minorities, such as Christians, minority Shiite Muslims and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect.

But the Widodo victory takes at least one sensitive issue off the agenda — the human rights record of Prabowo, said Doug Paal, who served as White House director of Asian affairs under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Prabowo, a former commander of Indonesia's notorious special forces, has been accused of ordering the disappearance of political activists before Suharto's fall, allegations that reportedly led to him being denied a U.S. visa.

"That's a plus from the start with 'Jokowi,'" said Paal, using Widodo's nickname. "There's no legacy to detoxify."

Gaza Fighting Rages Amid Cease-Fire Efforts

Israeli soldiers carry wounded soldier to a helicopter near the Israel and Gaza border Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Hamas militants stuck to their demand for the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade in the face of U.S. efforts to reach a cease-fire.

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (AP) — Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Hamas militants stuck to their demand for the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade amid U.S. efforts to reach a cease-fire.

The 16-day conflict has claimed the lives of 718 Palestinians, most of them civilians, Palestinian health officials say. Israel has lost 32 soldiers, all since July 17, when it widened its air campaign into a full-scale ground operation aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza and destroying a sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels.

Two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker in Israel have also been killed. Gaza police and health officials say six members of the same family and an 18-month-old infant boy were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp early Thursday. Twenty others were injured in the strike, they say, and rescue officials were digging through the rubble of flattened homes, looking for survivors.

Heavy fighting was reported along the border of central Gaza, according to Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji. Israeli troops fired tank shells that reached parts of the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Clashes also erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, and the sound of explosions was audible across the town, Batniji said. Israeli naval vessels meanwhile fired more than 100 shells along the coast of Gaza City and northern Gaza, the spokesman said. Rescue teams were prevented from operating in the area because of the heavy fire, he added.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Israel Wednesday on an Air Force jet, despite a ban imposed a day earlier by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on commercial flights into Ben-Gurion Airport because of Hamas rocket fire.

The FAA dropped the ban just before midnight, but European airlines have extended their cancellations through Thursday. "We certainly have made steps forward," Kerry said in Jerusalem Wednesday, without elaborating. "There's still work to be done."

Underscoring the challenges he faces, the leader of Hamas insisted the Islamic militants would not relent until their main demand of lifting an Egyptian-Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is met. "When it comes to the balance of power in this crisis between us and Israel, they are the executioners, the aggressors, the occupiers, the settlers, and we are the true owners of the land," Khaled Mashaal said in a televised speech from his home-in-exile in Doha, Qatar. "We will not accept anything but the end of the siege."

Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 after Hamas and other militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid. It tightened the siege in 2007 after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but had eased some of the restrictions in recent years.

Egypt tightened its own restrictions last year after the overthrow of a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and has destroyed many of the cross-border smuggling tunnels that sustained Gaza's economy, and which were also used by Hamas to bring in arms.

Enav reported from Jerusalem

Somali Lawmaker Shot Dead In Drive-By Shooting

Saado Ali Warsame, a Somali member of parliament is seen during a parliament session to endorse Somali prime minister in Mogadishu, Somalia. Gunmen killed a Somali lawmaker, Wednesday, July 23, 2014, in a drive-by shooting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a police official said. Lawmaker Saado Ali Warsame, who also was a popular singer of Somali folk music, was shot dead by gunmen who pulled up near her car as she was being driven to a hotel, said Somali police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Gunmen killed a Somali lawmaker in a drive-by shooting Wednesday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a police official said.

Saado Ali Warsame, who also was a popular singer of Somali folk music, was shot dead by gunmen who pulled up near her car as she was being driven to a hotel, said Somali police Capt. Mohamed Hussein. The Somali Islamic extremist militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on Warsame, one of few women in Somalia's parliament and the first female legislator killed by the group.

She is the fourth lawmaker killed this year in militant attacks that increasingly target members of Somalia's parliament, which has emerged as a pillar of democracy in the Horn of Africa nation. This is the second drive-by shooting of a lawmaker since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which scores of civilians and government troops have been killed in militant attacks.

Mohamed Ali, a Somali lawmaker who knew Warsame, described her as "courageous and patriotic," saying she was the victim of terrorists who "want to cripple the country." Warsame's driver was also killed in the attack which happened in Mogadishu's Hodan district, considered to be one of the safest places in the seaside city because of heavy security presence, according to Hussein.

Al-Shabab, which has links with al-Qaida, has previously carried out attacks against government officials, African Union peacekeepers and United Nations staff in a deadly campaign of suicide bombings and gun attacks. Militant attacks have continued despite al-Shabab being ousted from its bases in Mogadishu in 2011.

US Pushes For Truces As Gaza Battle Rages

An Israeli soldier prays near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip Wednesday, July 23, 2014. Israeli troops battled Hamas militants on Wednesday near a southern Gaza Strip town, sending Palestinian residents fleeing, as the U.S. secretary of state presses ahead with top-gear efforts to end the conflict that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and tens of Israelis.

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Israeli troops battled Hamas militants on Wednesday near a southern Gaza Strip town as the top U.S. diplomat reported progress in efforts to broker a truce in a war that has so far killed at least 684 Palestinians and 31 Israelis.

But neither side appeared close to backing down, after Palestinian rocket fire led several international airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv and Israeli troops clashed with Hamas fighters near the Gaza town of Khan Younis, forcing dozens of families to flee.

Israel has insisted it must substantially curb the military capabilities of the Islamic militant group Hamas -- a position that appears to have gained support within the U.S. administration -- while Hamas has demanded the lifting of a crippling Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the impoverished coastal territory.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew into Tel Aviv despite a Federal Aviation Administration ban following a Hamas rocket that hit near the airport the day before, reflecting his determination to achieve a cease-fire agreement between the warring sides.

He was to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after earlier meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. But U.S. officials have downplayed expectations for an immediate, lasting truce.

In Jerusalem, Kerry said negotiations toward a Gaza cease-fire agreement were making some progress, describing unspecified steps forward in the negotiations as he met for a second time this week with Ban.

"We certainly have made steps forward," Kerry said, adding, "There's still work to be done." White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken meanwhile said Hamas must be denied the ability to "rain down rockets on Israeli civilians."

"One of the results, one would hope, of a cease-fire would be some form of demilitarization so that this doesn't continue, doesn't repeat itself," Blinken said in an interview with NPR. "That needs to be the end result."

On the ground, meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by tanks and aerial drones clashed with Hamas fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on the outskirts of Khan Younis, killing at least eight militants, according to a Palestinian health official.

The Palestinian Red Crescent was trying to evacuate some 250 people from the area, which has been pummeled by air strikes and tank shelling since early Wednesday. Hundreds of residents of eastern Khan Younis were seen fleeing their homes as the battle unfolded, flooding into the streets with what few belongings they could carry, many with children in tow. They said they were seeking shelter in nearby U.N. schools.

"The airplanes and airstrikes are all around us," said Aziza Msabah, a resident of Khan Younis. "They are hitting the houses, which are collapsing upon us." Meanwhile, a foreign worker in Israel was killed when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. She did not immediately know the worker's nationality.

Israel also reported that two more of its soldiers have died in the conflict, bringing the military's death toll to 29, without providing further details. Two Israeli civilians have been killed in 15 days of fighting.

The Israeli military did not respond to Associated Press inquiries as to why such heavy fighting was concentrated in Khan Younis, saying only it was conducting operations throughout the Gaza Strip. The fighting was centered on an agricultural area, which Israel has claimed is a site for Hamas tunnels going under the border.

Further north, in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, which saw intense fighting earlier this week, an airstrike demolished a home, killing 30-year-old journalist Abdul Rahman Abu Hean, his grandfather Hassan and his nephew Osama.

The Palestinians say Israel is randomly deploying a wide array of modern weaponry against Gaza's 1.7 million people, inflicting a heavy civilian death toll and leveling entire buildings. By mid-day Wednesday, the Palestinian death toll stood at 684, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra.

Israel says it began the Gaza operation to halt Hamas rocket fire into Israel — more than 2,100 have been fired since the conflict erupted — and to destroy a network of cross-border tunnels, some of which have been used to stage attacks inside Israel.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights meanwhile warned both sides against targeting civilians and said war crimes may have been committed. Navi Pillay noted an Israeli drone strike that killed three children and wounded two others while they were playing on the roof of their home. She also referenced Israeli fire that struck seven children playing on Gaza beach, killing four from the same family.

"These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, saying such incidents should be investigated.

As the Gaza death toll mounted, a 34-year-old Palestinian man was killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers near the West Bank City of Bethlehem, doctors said, a potentially ominous development in an area that has so far been relatively quiet.

On Tuesday, U.S. and European airlines canceled flights to Israel after a Hamas rocket hit near the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. Germany's Lufthansa airline extended its cancellations for another 24 hours because of lingering safety concerns.

Israeli officials have slammed the cancelations as an overreaction that rewards Hamas, and Israel's own El Al airline is still flying in and out of Ben-Gurion. Even before the flight cancelations, the conflict was taking its toll on the Israeli economy. Military and finance ministry officials have said that the first 10 days of the operation had direct costs of about 2 billion shekels — about $585 million.

Enav reported from Jerusalem.

Russia Fed Conspiracy Theories On Ukraine Crash

A combination of images of Russian nationwide weekend dailies' front pages on downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Moscow Russia, some of them reading "298 Victims of Someone Else's War," and "Kick From Behind." An assassination attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin. A desperate ploy to draw the West into the battle for Ukraine’s east. A botched mission to commit mass-murder against Russian citizens. Russian news consumers are getting plenty of explanations for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which killed 298 people. While they vary wildly in content, they share one thing in common: All point the finger at Ukraine. None admits the possibility that Russia may bear responsibility.

MOSCOW (AP) — An assassination attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin. A desperate ploy to draw the West into the battle for Ukraine's east. A botched mission to commit mass murder against Russian citizens.

Russian news consumers are getting plenty of explanations for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which killed 298 people. While they vary wildly in content, all point the finger at Ukraine. None admits the possibility that Russia may bear responsibility.

The story of the airline tragedy that is unfolding for Russians differs starkly from the one that people are following in the West. As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told American TV viewers that rebels shot down the plane with Russian weaponry, Russians were being fed a diet of scenarios about forces in Ukraine conspiring to commit an atrocity in the skies.

Yekaterina Andreyeva, one of Russia's most famous TV anchors, delved into one theory hours after news of the crash broke: Putin, traveling home from Brazil, passed along the same flight path as the Malaysian passenger jet less than one hour before it was hit — suggesting an assassination attempt.

"The presidential plane and the Malaysian Boeing crossed paths at the exact point and at the same flight level," said Andreyeva. "The shape of the plane and the length are absolutely similar, and their color would appear almost identical at such a distance."

By Friday morning, the assassination theory was replaced by other scenarios. One focused on the Buk missile launcher that Ukraine says brought down the plane. State-owned Rossiya TV pinned blame on Kiev by saying the rebels did not own one, while Ukraine recently deployed a Buk launcher to the area. An Associated Press journalist saw a Buk launcher — which rebels have bragged about owning in social media — in rebel-held territory near the crash site hours before the plane was brought down.

Rossiya further said that the red, white, and blue of the Malaysia Airlines logo "resembles the Russian tricolor" — hinting at a Ukrainian attempt to blow up a Russian passenger jet. Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia's most-read tabloid, took another tack. It claimed that Ukrainian air traffic controllers redirected the Malaysia Airlines plane to fly directly over the conflict zone, publishing pictures from flight-tracking websites that appeared to show fluctuations in the plane's route.

On Tuesday, the paper appeared to suggest that the jetliner was shot down by a Ukrainian military plane with American help: "A Ukrainian attack plane and an American spy satellite were following the fallen Boeing," a report claimed.

Russia media have suggested that Ukrainian authorities orchestrated the downing to make it look like a rebel attack, in hopes it would be the catalyst for luring Western powers into military intervention.

Nationalist politicians are also heating up the tone in Russian media — and fueling conspiracy theories. "The fact that the plane fell is an American provocation," firebrand member of Parliament Vladimir Zhirinovsky told Vesti FM radio station. "They always do everything possible to blame Russia. It's possible that there were corpses that were placed ahead of time in the seats of the plane."

Russian state-controlled television, which is where a majority of Russians get their news, tends to toe the official line and abrupt changes in language on the air can reflect changes in Kremlin strategy. In June, Putin began soft-pedaling his rhetoric on Ukraine after recognizing May 25 presidential elections, in an apparent attempt to stave off Western sanctions.

After the airline tragedy, Putin led the shift to a more aggressive tone. "This tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on this land, if the military actions had not been renewed in southeast Ukraine," Putin said. "And, certainly, the state over whose territory this occurred bears responsibility for this awful tragedy."

Outrage has grown in the West over what appears to be a bungled start to the investigation. Rebels allowed a group of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe only a superficial inspection of the crash site on Saturday before firing warning shots when two Ukrainian members of the group attempted to study wreckage.

In Russia, meanwhile, news reports repeat that the rebels have been cooperating with the observers — and blame Kiev for stalling the arrival of international investigators. "Yesterday the OSCE group worked in the field all day at the scene of the plane crash," First Channel's Sunday broadcast began. "So far the Ukrainian authorities do not want to send a group of international specialists to Donetsk."