Nigeria Opens Long-Awaited Battle Of Ideas Against Boko Haram

(A teacher at Maska Road Islamic School teaches Hadith excerpts in a classroom in Kaduna, July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney)

* Government to launch programme combating Boko Haram ideology

* Northern schools juggle Islam with secular "Western" education

* Muslims preaching tolerance targeted by Boko Haram

* Programme to target school pupils, prisoners

By Tim Cocks

KADUNA, Nigeria, July 30 (Reuters) - In classrooms facing a sandy courtyard in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, Maska Road Islamic School teaches a creed that condemns the violent ideology of groups like Boko Haram.

Not everyone has got its message. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the "Pants Bomber", spent his youth in this school - and ended up trying unsuccessfully to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear.

But the school is steadfast in preaching tolerance to its pupils, and the government is about to adopt this message in a new strategy for containing Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a five-year campaign for an Islamic state.

"We teach them that what they (Boko Haram) are doing is a total misunderstanding of the Islamic religion, that Prophet Mohammed was compassionate, he even lived together with the non-Muslims in Medina," said headmaster Sulaiman Saiki.

"We teach them tolerance," he told Reuters as girls in the next room softly recited Koranic verses in Arabic melodies.

Abdulmutallab was radicalised in an al Qaeda camp in Yemen, but his case shows that even youths given a relatively liberal Muslim education can be seduced by radical Islam. This is something the new government programme is aiming to combat.

Koranic schools like Maska Road will be a pillar of the strategy being launched in September to counter Boko Haram's ideology. The aim is to win over the "hearts and minds" of young Nigerians.

They will also challenge Boko Haram's claim that secular teaching is "un-Islamic" - Boko Haram means "Western education is sinful" in Hausa, the dominant language in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Maska Road teaches only Koranic verses and other tenets of Muslim faith, and encourages its 300 students to take classes such as science and literature outside its walls.

"We want them to get a Western education and combine it with ... religious learning," Saiki says. Classes are held between 4 and 6 p.m., after secular schools shut.

Fatah Abdul, who studies at Maska Road, scoffs at the idea of violence in the name of Islam.

"Our religion doesn't entertain killing. Boko Haram is absolutely different from what our religion advocates," she said. "And it's not true what they say that we need an Islamic state. The leadership doesn't have to be Islamic".

"DECEIVED"

Saiki was a neighbour of Abdulmutallab when the future Pants Bomber was at school. He says Abdulmutallab didn't learn to hate the West there but "was deceived afterwards".

Abdulmutallab, a loner from a well-to-do northern family, showed how easily youths can be radicalised. Add poverty into the mix, as in Nigeria's troubled northeastern Borno state, and it's not hard to see how Boko Haram finds young recruits.

Boko Haram is suspected of being behind suicide bombings that killed 82 people in Kaduna last week, including one against a Muslim cleric about to lead a public prayer.

Kaduna, the capital of the north in colonial times, is richer than anywhere in the northeastern region where Boko Haram is based. But it shares many of its problems such as high youth unemployment, attested by the many children begging and hawking phone credit on its rubbish-filled streets.

President Goodluck Jonathan's administration has been pilloried for its apparent powerlessness to crush the rebels or protect civilians, including more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in April and who remain in captivity. But he has also faced censure for neglecting the insurgency's underlying causes.

So when Jonathan's National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki announced a new "soft approach to terrorism" in March, many instantly dismissed it as lacking in substance.

But officials in the office of the NSA say imams in mosques and traditional elders will be co-opted to preach tolerance, while measures will be taken to ensure Koranic schools teach "correct" interpretations of sacred texts.

The drive will also include educational programmes, especially increased sports and music in northern schools, plus reform programmes for convicted Boko Haram detainees.

"A lot them don't have much Islamic knowledge, so they tend to believe what the mullahs say," Fatima Akilu, director of behavioural analysis in the office of the NSA told Reuters. "We want to teach what the Koran actually says in a language they understand."

A parallel economic programme, also funded by the NSA's budget, will address the chronic poverty seen as a major driver of the insurgency.

It may be too late to bring back hundreds of youths already fighting for Boko Haram, but the idea is to prevent more from joining.

Northern Nigeria has much lower levels of education than the south, a legacy of British colonialism, which protected the caliphates of the north from the activity of Christian missionaries who set up many schools in the south.

"The aspects of education Boko Haram don't like are the ones that allow you to think," Akilu said. "Keep people in the dark and you can control them with a singular narrative."

Undoing this partly involves showing how "Western" ideas, such as mathematics and some physics and astronomy, are rooted in mediaeval Islamic thought, which was making strides while Christians in Europe were busy burning witches.

"UN-ISLAMIC"

At the Sultan Bello mosque in Kaduna's busy downtown market area, local imam Ahmed Gumi takes an unusual step to illustrate his openness to the non-Islamic world: he invites four Reuters journalists in to see, film and photograph his sermon.

Three are non-Muslim, including two Westerners. He introduces the team to his congregation of about 350 packed into a main hall, and after a chorus of "welcome" he offers a live interview about his views on Boko Haram in front of the faithful.

"It's not right to call what those boys are doing Islamic," he later told Reuters privately. "They hide behind Islam."

Gumi, one of northern Nigeria's most popular clerics, sees the idea of an Islamic state dear to extremists as a throwback.

"They want to bring back the golden age of Islamic triumph in this modern time." he says. "For a state to survive you need a strong civilisation, education, money, lawyers, doctors. You don't create a civilisation with AK-47s in the bush."

He knows his outspoken views carry a risk he'll be targeted by Boko Haram. His mosque, a towering structure spread between four sand-coloured turrets with turquoise-green domes, is guarded by scores of unarmed volunteers checking cars and bags.

Boko Haram fighters have killed dozens of clerics. One of the targets of the Kaduna bombs was a Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, an imam whose mystical Sufism is a far cry from the austere al Qaeda-style type of Islam. Bauchi survived.

Though a government critic, Gumi approves of the soft approach, "but it needs local Borno (leaders) more than people like us who are already openly opposed to them".

"ROOT CAUSES"

Taking issue with Boko Haram's ideology will work only if the government can draw disaffected youths away from the AK-47. The NSA's economic programme aims to do this, starting with 2 billion naira ($12.3 million), but with a further 60 billion that can be made available from other agencies for projects, said Soji Adelaja, NSA special adviser on economic intelligence.

They include mobile medical trucks, cash for the orphans and widows of Boko Haram's victims, and a programme employing 150,000 youths to fix roads and rebuild police stations.

Parts of Nigeria that are completely besieged by the insurgents are off-limits, but there are other vulnerable areas where the programme can be rolled out, Adelaja says. "We are deploying in areas that are safe, and where the community has some resilience against Boko Haram."

The death of Boko Haram's founder Mohammed Yusuf in police custody transformed what had been a clerical movement into an armed rebellion in 2009. Akilu says Yusuf disliked "Western" science which he saw as contradicting the Koran, especially evolutionary theory, the fact that the world is round and the process of evaporation, because "rain is a gift from God".

Getting schools to show how science and religion can co-exist, she says, is essential to combating such ideas.

Down a dirt track with crater-like potholes on the outskirts of Kaduna lies the iron-roofed Focus 1,2,3 International School. Twelve classrooms packed with desks take 25 children each.

Secular education is between 7.30 a.m. and midday. After lunch, Islamic schooling is between 1 p.m. and 5.30 p.m.

Muhammad Saleh, who runs the school, believes strongly in science, although he has doubts about evolutionary theory - as do many conservative Christians in the West.

Even so, his school teaches it. "I teach them evolution myself, and the parents never complain," he told Reuters. "It's education. Once children have an education they can decide for themselves what to think." ($1 = 161.95 naira) (Additional reporting by Garba Muhammed in Kaduna; editing by David Stamp)

Haunting Memories 70 Years Since Warsaw Uprising

The gateway in Sienna street in Warsaw, Poland, where in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising he secured a live hand grenade, saving the lives of people around him. As a 14-year-old boy Mikos was a guard and messenger in Warsaw’s struggle against the occupying Nazi Germans. He will be among hundreds of fighters attending the ceremonies of the 70th anniversary of the ill-fated struggle that led to the destruction of some 30 percent of the city’s substance and the loss of some 200,000 lives.

WARSAW, POLAND (AP) — Kazimierz Mikos ran down a Warsaw street, zig-zagging to avoid the bullets that whizzed past him. As the 14-year-old ran for his life, he was struck with terror at the sight of a dead body in the street. Even after the scrape with death, the teen volunteered for a heroic Polish struggle against the Nazis — becoming a messenger and a guard.

On Friday, Mikos will be among a shrinking group of insurgents to be honored in state ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. In this uneven struggle, poorly armed young city residents rose up against the German forces that had brutally occupied Poland for five years, battling them in the streets of the capital for over two months.

Mikos, now 84, still vividly recalls the white-and-red Polish flags that appeared in windows on the day the revolt began, a patriotic sign of support for the fighters that inspired him to join them. "People waited for this moment for five long years," Mikos said, tears welling as he shared his story with The Associated Press. "They believed they would be free now, they were enthusiastic."

The hopes ended tragically. The insurgents were no match for the Nazis, who turned their professional army and superior weaponry on the Poles, killing 200,000 fighters and civilians and razing the city in revenge. The revolt also failed in its goal of reversing Allied political calculations that put Poland under Soviet domination for decades after World War II.

Today the uprising is remembered by Poles as one of the most important moments in a long history of independence struggles, often against Russia. The courage of the fighters remains a defining memory in the Polish image of itself as a nation willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. It is also a reminder of Poland's sense of a precarious security, sandwiched between Germany and Russia — a vulnerability revived now by the armed conflict nearby in Ukraine.

Warsaw's revolt began Aug.1, 1944, by the clandestine Home Army, which acted on orders from Poland's government-in-exile in London. The aim was to free the capital from German occupiers and take control of the country ahead of the advancing Soviet army. Moscow, intending to rule postwar Poland, withheld help and kept its Red Army positioned on the other side of the Vistula River as the capital bled and burned.

Thousands of poorly armed insurgents, mostly with little military training, held on for 63 days in the cut-off city, inflicting heavy losses on the well-armed and trained German troops before being forced to surrender.

The Nazis expelled the survivors from Warsaw and set the remaining buildings ablaze. For over four decades, communist authorities discredited Warsaw's struggle, mainly because of its anti-Soviet motivation. The communists jailed many of the fighters and sentenced their commanders to death on fabricated charges, dumping their bodies unceremoniously in unmarked mass graves. Only now are some of these bodies finally being recovered.

Mikos feels lucky he avoided that fate. But like most young people who fought in the revolt, he encountered obstacles in his studies. He had to settle for a career as a high school math teacher in Warsaw, his higher ambitions blocked by the authorities.

Until the fall of communism in 1989 there was also censorship surrounding the subject, which led the Poles to mythologize it more. But 25 years into democracy some people are now questioning the wisdom of the revolt. Ahead of the 2011 anniversary, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called it a "national catastrophe," an unusual public statement that angered many, including former insurgents.

Mikos said he sometimes also thinks that Warsaw's ruin was an excessive price to pay. He remembers the suffering of the people and he bemoans the ruin of a city of classical beauty, with Parisian-styled buildings and charming star-shaped squares. After the war, the city was rebuilt in a heavy, communist architectural style, with recent additions of Western-style glass-and-metal skyscrapers.

"No, it was not worth it," he said. "Warsaw was the jewel of the North. It was a city with character, with style. It was an exceptional place. Today, it is just like any other city in the world." Still, he feels the rebellion was unavoidable. The people of Warsaw were ready for sacrifice after years of brutal subjugation and mass killings. Hitler wanted Warsaw destroyed anyway, he says. The city would have eventually suffered in battles between the Germans and the Soviets.

Mikos recently walked with an AP reporter down Sienna Street, in the city center where insurgents had their headquarters and where some of the gray buildings survived the war. He pointed to gateways where he stood guard and took cover during bombings, and to an iron-barred balcony where a caged parrot once shrieked "Alarm, Alarm," giving a scare to everyone in the street.

He believes his level-headedness saved some lives. On one occasion, a younger boy reached out to take Mikos' hand grenade. In the scuffle, the securing pin came loose and fell. Everyone panicked, but Mikos said: "Find the pin, I'm holding the lever." The pin was put back in place, preventing an explosion.

The worst part was that there was no water, which the Germans had cut off. Wells were dug and the fighters had priority of access. But regular hygiene was impossible. The insurgents mainly ate soup made of beans or barley found in German storage, won in house-to-house battles. The residents soon stopped offering the fighters their own supplies, too hungry themselves to spare anything.

The brutality and the devastating power of that struggle, he said, "surpassed the imagination of ... anyone who knows about armies and fighting." "It was decided that the city must be defended. It was unavoidable."

Israel Vows To Destroy Hamas Tunnels

APA U.N worker cleans the garbage at the courtyard of the Abu Hussein U.N. school, in Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 30, 2014. The U.N. condemned the attack at the school on Wednesday, with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling it “outrageous” and “unjustifiable.” Israel said no U.N. facility had been intentionally targeted, but troops had responded to Hamas mortar fire nearby.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military will dismantle the Hamas tunnel network in the Gaza Strip "with or without a cease-fire."

Netanyahu said Thursday he will not accept any truce that won't allow Israel to complete its mission of destroying the sophisticated tunnel network, which has been used to carry out deadly attacks inside Israel.

Israel launched its air campaign on July 8 to stop unrelenting rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel. It expanded the operation with a ground offensive on July 17 with the primary purpose of blocking Hamas infiltration attempts through the tunnels.

Shelling Of UN School Kills 15 As Gaza War Rages

Palestinians collect body parts in a classroom at the Abu Hussein U.N. school in Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, hit by an Israeli strike earlier, on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. A Palestinian health official says 13 people were killed after tank shells hit the U.N. school in Gaza where hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge from Israeli attacks. Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for a U.N. aid agency, says tank shells hit the school around 4:30 a.m.

JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA STRIP (AP) — Israeli tank shells slammed into a crowded U.N. school Wednesday sheltering Gazans displaced by fighting, killing 15 and wounding 90 after tearing through the walls of two classrooms, a spokesman for a U.N. aid agency and a health official said.

The relentless bombardment also killed 27 Palestinians elsewhere in the coastal territory Wednesday, further dimming hopes of a sustainable cease-fire. The strike at the U.N. school in the Jebaliya refugee camp came amid Israel's heaviest air and artillery assault in more than three weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting.

The Israeli military said it is looking into the incident. Its campaign escalated on Tuesday, with airstrikes destroying key symbols of Hamas power, including the home of the top Hamas leader. Gaza's only power plant was shut down after shells set its fuel tank on fire.

On Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck dozens of Gaza sites, including five mosques it said were being used by militants, while several other areas came under tank fire. In Jebaliya, tank shells hit the U.N. school before dawn, said Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. The agency is sheltering more than 200,000 people displaced by the fighting at dozens of U.N. schools across the coastal strip.

Assad Sabah said he and his five children were huddling under desks in one of the classrooms because of the constant sound of tank fire throughout the night. "We were scared to death," he said. "After 4:30 a.m., tanks started firing more. Three explosions shook the school."

"One classroom collapsed over the head of the people who were inside," he said. In one classroom, the front wall was blown out, leaving debris and bloodied clothing. Another strike tore a large round hole into the ceiling of a second floor classroom. The wall of the lavatories was also damaged.

About two hours after the strike, hundreds of people still crowded the school courtyard, some dazed, others wailing. Aishe Abu Darabeh, 56, sat on the ground with her relatives, just a few meters (yards) away.

"Where will we go?" she asked. "Where will we go next? We fled and they (the Israelis) are following us." Four of the dead were killed just outside the school compound, two in their home nearby and two in the street, after returning from pre-dawn prayers, their relatives said.

The bodies of two members of the al-Najar family, 56-year-old Shaher and his 41-year-old brother, Bassem, were laid out in one of the rooms of their small home, surrounded by wailing relatives. Outside the gate, another relative held on to his crying son, hugging him tight and saying: "I'm here, I'm not going anywhere."

Abu Hasna, the U.N. agency spokesman, said the international community must step in. "It's the responsibility of the world to tell us what we shall do with more than 200,000 people who are inside our schools, thinking that the U.N. flag will protect them," he said. "This incident today proves that no place is safe in Gaza."

Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official, said at least 15 people were killed and about 90 wounded in the school strike. In all, 42 Palestinians were killed by airstrikes and tank shelling in different areas of Gaza on Wednesday, al-Kidra said.

In the southern town of Khan Younis, 10 members of one family were killed when an airstrike hit a relative's home where they had sought refuge from the fighting, al-Kidra said. In the Gaza City neighborhood of Tufah, shelling killed at last seven members of another family, including four children, said Ayman Sahabani, the head of the emergency room at Gaza's Shifa Hospital.

The total number of Palestinians killed since the start of fighting July 8 rose to 1,269, al-Kidra said. In addition, more than 7,100 Palestinians have been wounded. Israel has lost 53 soldiers and three civilians.

Israel has said its Gaza operation is meant to stop Hamas rocket and mortar fire that has reached increasingly deeper into its territory and to destroy a sophisticated network of Hamas military tunnels used for attacks in Israel.

Gaza militants have fired more than 2,600 rockets toward Israel over the past three weeks, according to the Israeli army. The Israeli military has said it is hitting targets linked to militants, such as rocket launching sites, weapon depots and Hamas military tunnels. Over the past 23 days, Israeli forces have hit 4,100 targets in Gaza, about one-third connected to the militants' ability to launch rockets at Israel, a statement said.

The military has not provided details on strikes in which multiple members of one family were killed. There have been several dozen such strikes, according to the Palestinian human rights group Al- Mezan.

The military says Hamas militants often launch rockets from crowded residential areas, thus endangering nearby civilians. The army says it has also given civilians a chance to leave dangerous areas by sending warnings in phone calls and leaflets.

On Wednesday, aircraft dropped leaflets over Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood. The leaflets urged residents to stay away from Hamas militants and to report possible rocket launches. The leaflet gave a contact phone number and email.

"The Israeli Defense Forces are going into a new phase in the coming operation and does not want to harm civilians," the leaflet said. "The army is warning residents in the areas where the operation will take place that for your safety, you have to keep away from terrorists and the locations from which they operate."

Separately, Israeli troops in Gaza's border areas are searching for Hamas military tunnels used for carrying out attacks in Israel. Israeli leaders have said troops would not leave until all the tunnels have been demolished.

The army said 32 tunnels have so far been located but did not say how many remain. Since Tuesday morning, troops have demolished three more tunnels, a statement said. __ Enav reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report.

Japan Practices Amphibious Landing In Hawaii

Japanese soldiers on a reconnaissance team stand at attention on the beach at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii after amphibious landing practice on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The amphibious landing exercises, which are relatively new to Japan’s military, come as Tokyo tries to boost its ability to defend small islands it controls but China claims as its own.

KANEOHE BAY, HAWAII (AP) — Japan has been practicing storming beaches with the U.S. and other countries in Hawaii this month. The amphibious landing exercises, which are relatively new to Japan's military, come as Tokyo tries to boost its ability to defend small islands it controls but China claims as its own.

Helicopters dropped a reconnaissance team of Japanese soldiers into the ocean off a beach at a U.S. Marine Corps base during Rim of the Pacific exercises on Tuesday. The soldiers climbed aboard inflatable rafts and inspected the shoreline before waves of U.S., Australian and Indonesian marines followed in amphibious vehicles.

Japanese navy Rear Adm. Yasuki Nakahata said afterward but the exercises gave the soldiers an opportunity to improve their skills. "You looked great. I want you to continue with confidence," he told the soldiers, who are members of Japan's army.

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Simcock told the soldiers their capabilities were getting "better and better." "What I see are warriors. I tell you here and now if the time ever requires it, I look forward that we can stand shoulder to shoulder and fight any common enemy," he said.

Japan has been buying amphibious landing craft and boosting its amphibious training for potential conflicts on islands. In particular, it's concerned about small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that it controls but that China claims. Called the Senkaku Islands in Japan and Diaoyu in China, they have been a focal point of disputes between the two nations in recent years.

Tokyo fears China will attempt to land forces on the islands and Japan will need to fight them off, said Brad Glosserman, the executive director of Pacific Forum CSIS, a think tank in Honolulu. "It is the flashpoint in their relationship and therefore they need to be ready to repel Chinese or any other country that manages to try to challenge the Japanese claim," Glosserman said.

Japanese ground forces for decades were focused on the Cold War threat posed by the Soviet Union to northern islands like Hokkaido. But China's military growth is bringing its attention on the south. Last year, Japanese forces traveled to California to practice their amphibious assault skills.

Glosserman said the exercises are about practicing learning from partners experienced in amphibious landings. But he said the drills also telegraph to the U.S. — its treaty ally — Japan's willingness to fight.

"The Japanese are transmitting to the Americans about the value of Japan as a partner, as an ally, and as a country that's prepared to defend itself and be ready to defend its own territory which the United States is also obliged to defend."

Observers Turned Back From Ukraine Crash Site

Paul Picard, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Russia's southern Rostov-on-Don region, center, meets with local administration in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Wednesday, July 30, 2014. The first members of the team of civilian monitors arrived in Russia's southern Rostov-on-Don region where they were expected to hold meetings with officials from the regional administration, border guards and customs service, said OSCE spokeswoman Tatyana Baeva.

DONETSK, UKRAINE (AP) — International observers have turned back from another attempt to reach the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down in eastern Ukraine.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe set out in two vehicles without crash investigators from the Netherlands who have been trying to reach the site for several days.

The OSCE observers turned back to the city of Donetsk after discussions with rebels. Safety concerns and hindrance from the separatists who control the area have kept the investigation team away. Foreign governments whose citizens died have complained the site is not secured and some human remains have not been recovered.

Local officials said fighting over the past 24 hours killed 19 people in the region.

Poll: Americans Cool To Border-Crossing Children

APGraphic shows AP-GfK poll on immigration approval; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm;

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Americans are wary of granting refugee status to children crossing the U.S. border to flee strife-torn countries in Central America, and most in an Associated Press-GfK poll say the U.S. does not have a moral obligation to accept asylum seekers generally.

The new poll found 53 percent of Americans believe the United States has no moral obligation to offer asylum to people who escape violence or political persecution, while 44 percent believe it has that responsibility.

And more than half, 52 percent, say children who say they are fleeing gang violence in Central America should not be treated as refugees, while 46 percent say they should. The responses expose a partisan rift, with 70 percent of Republicans saying Central American children should not be treated as refugees compared with 62 percent of Democrats who believe they should. On whether the United States has an obligation to accept people fleeing violence or political persecution, 66 percent of Republicans say it does not and 57 percent of Democrats say it does.

Jerry Benzie, a 27-year-old Republican from Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, 90 miles east of Pittsburgh, was initially sympathetic to the plight of children seeking shelter in the U.S. from violence at home. But his views changed as he grew convinced Central American governments could do more to slow the tide of northbound immigrants, and thought Mexico wasn't doing enough to prevent them from passing through that country on their way to the U.S.

Benzie said he worries the children will strain public schools and other services. "How do you differentiate between the children who are truly fleeing violence and dangers and those whose parents may just see an opportunity for them in our country and are pushing them to go?" said Benzie, who works in the information technology industry. "It's going to take a toll on our economy because it's going to lead to higher taxes. Our citizens are going to suffer."

To qualify for asylum, applicants must prove they suffered persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion. A refugee must demonstrate the same but, unlike an asylum seeker, seeks protection while still outside the United States.

Americans who are closely following news about the wave of unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally in South Texas are less receptive, with only four in ten saying they should qualify as refugees. Among those who say they aren't paying as much attention, roughly half believe they should be treated as refugees.

White House officials said last week they were considering a pilot program to grant refugee status to young people from Honduras. They suggested the plan, which could be expanded to Guatemala and El Salvador, involves screening youths in their home countries.

President Barack Obama played down the idea after meeting in Washington last week with his Central American counterparts, saying it would affect only a small number of people. The poll was taken as Congress neared its August recess amid wide disagreement over how to address what Obama has called a humanitarian crisis. The Border Patrol detained more than 57,000 unaccompanied children from October through June, the vast majority from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Americans with children under 18 are evenly split on whether the children crossing the border should be treated as refugees, with 49 percent taking each side. Those without young children tilt against refugee status, 53 percent to 45 percent.

Paula Stapleton, who is raising boys, ages 9 and 3, in Clinton, Arkansas, supports asylum or refugee status for children, but not for their parents or adults who come alone. She worries that children who are turned back to their home countries will end up in gangs, making the problem worse.

"The United States is a big enough country to take in children and give them a chance," said Stapleton, 33, a political independent. "It can't take everybody, but we can take their children." Among Hispanics, 66 percent say children crossing the border who claim they are fleeing gang violence should be treated as refugees. Slightly fewer, 54 percent, said they see a moral obligation to accept people fleeing violence or persecution.

Mercedes Brand, a naturalized U.S. citizen in suburban New Jersey who emigrated from Peru 45 years ago, is in the minority among Hispanics. The youngest of her four U.S.-born children is saddled with college debt and she worries that the United States can't take care of its own, let alone newcomers.

"This country is built with immigrants, but those immigrants who came from Europe and all over the world didn't demand all the things that they are demanding now," said Brand, a 60-year-old Democrat who works as a Spanish interpreter for a health care provider. "When my grandchildren are old enough to collect Social Security, there may not be enough money. There may not be enough for me."

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted July 24-28 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based online panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It involved online interviews with 1,044 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents. The margin of sampling error is larger for subgroups.

Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods, and were later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided with the ability to access the Internet at no cost to them.

Agiesta reported from Washington.

Online:

AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

West Seeks To Inflict More Economic Pain On Russia

President Barack Obama speaks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, as he announces new economic sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy in the latest move to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his support for Ukrainian rebels.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing Russia's stalled growth rate and a flow of foreign capital out of Moscow, U.S. and European officials hope a new round of sanctions targeting energy and defense entities, as well as major banks, will deepen Russia's economic pain even further and force President Vladimir Putin to end provocations in Ukraine.

Roughly 30 percent of Russia's banking sector assets are now constrained by U.S. sanctions, Obama administration officials said Tuesday, shortly after announcing new penalties. The sanctions target five of Russia's six largest state-owned banks and aim to curtail their access to U.S. debt markets.

The West is also halting future sales to lucrative Russian economic sectors, with the U.S. announcing plans to block future technology sales to the oil industry and Europe approving an arms embargo. The Europeans also backed sanctions Tuesday against state-owned banks and the energy sector, though the specific EU targets won't be made public until later in the week.

Western officials insist the new sanctions will damage an already struggling Russian economy. The International Monetary Fund has slashed Russia's growth forecast for this year to nearly zero, and the U.S. says more than $100 billion in capital is expected to flow out of the country.

"Russia's actions in Ukraine and the sanctions that we've already imposed have made a weak Russian economy even weaker," President Barack Obama said Tuesday. Yet it remained uncertain whether the tougher penalties would have any impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine — nor was it clear what other actions the U.S. and Europe were willing to take if the situation remains unchanged. In the nearly two weeks since a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was felled in eastern Ukraine, Russia appears to have only deepened its engagement in the conflict, with the U.S. and allies warning that Russia was building up troops and weaponry along its border with Ukraine.

The West blames pro-Russian separatists for firing a missile at the jetliner and Moscow for supplying the equipment and training needed to take down a plane. Nearly 300 people were killed in the attack, including more than 200 Europeans.

The shocking incident spurred Europe in particular to impose dramatically tougher economic sanctions. Europe has a far stronger economic relationship with Russia than the U.S., but until this week, European Union leaders had been reluctant to impose harsh penalties in part out of concern about a negative impact on their own economies.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the sanctions sent a "strong warning" that Russia's destabilization of Ukraine could not be tolerated.

"When the violence created spirals out of control and leads to the killing of almost 300 innocent civilians in their flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia, the situation requires urgent and determined response," the two top EU officials said in a statement.

The new EU sanctions put the 28-nation bloc on par with earlier sector sanctions announced by the U.S. and in some cases may even exceed the American penalties. Obama said coordinating Tuesday's actions will ensure that the sanctions "will have an even bigger bite."

Despite the West's escalation of its actions against Russia, Obama said the U.S. and Europe were not entering into Soviet-style standoff with Russia. "It's not a new cold war," he said in response to a reporter's question.

The new European penalties placed a ban on the unapproved sale to the Russians of technology that has dual military and civilian uses or is particularly sensitive, such as advanced equipment used in deep-sea and Arctic oil drilling. The EU also approved an arms embargo, though it would not restrict past agreements, allowing France to go forward with the delivery of two warships to Russia, a deal that has been sharply criticized by the U.S. and Britain.

To restrict Russia's access to Europe's money markets, EU citizens and banks will be barred from purchasing certain bonds or stocks issued by state-owned Russian banks, according to EU officials. The U.S. sanctions target three major Russian banks: the Bank of Moscow, Russian Agricultural Bank and VTB Bank, Russia's second largest bank.

Analysts said the effort was aimed at cutting off access to resources that these banks would need to support their own lending operations, an action that could weaken economic activity in Russia. "This limits the ability of these banks to do new business. That means the Russian economy will suffer because the banks will not be able to make as many loans," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University Channel Islands.

He said that barring financing from U.S. institutions to these banks likely would have a ripple effect. "It is likely that other Western banks and banks in Asia will be reluctant to do business with them," Sohn said.

The U.S. also targeted the St. Petersburg-based United Shipbuilding Corp., a defense technologies firm, and was blocking future technology sales to Russia's oil industry.

Dahlburg reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elaine Ganley in Paris, Juergen Baetz in Brussels and Martin Crutsinger in Washington contributed to this report.

Parents Of Slain USC Student Urge Security Boost

AP George He, left, and Sean Kong, right, both friends of the father of slain Chinese student Xinran Ji, read a statement from the family on behalf of his parents, as they are still in China unable to get a U.S. travel visa, at Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Four teens are charged with murder in the fatal beating of a University of Southern California graduate student with a baseball bat and wrench as he walked to his off-campus apartment after meeting with a study group.

LOS ANGELES (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — The parents of a University of Southern California graduate student who was beaten to death on his walk home say they are concerned about other students and hope the university increases security.

The victim, 24-year-old Xinran (SHING'-rahn) Ji, an engineering student from China, was attacked Thursday as he headed to his off-campus apartment after a study group. His parents, Ji Songbo and Du Jinhui, issued a statement Tuesday, the same day four teens were charged with murder.

The parents say they are struggling to get visas to come to the U.S. They say they are especially concerned about USC's Chinese students and urge the school to guarantee the safety of all those enrolled there.

They mentioned a 2012 incident in which two USC students from China were fatally shot during an off-campus robbery.

Body Of Young Stowaway Found In US Cargo Plane

WASHINGTON  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)--The body of a young stowaway was found inside a compartment near the wheel well of an Air Force cargo plane that had landed in Germany, U.S. military officials said Tuesday, triggering questions about the security of an aircraft that had made several stops in Africa.

Air Force personnel found the boy’s body Sunday night after spotting an orange cloth in a small opening by the landing gear while airmen during a detailed inspection of the C-130J aircraft when it landed at Ramstein Air Base. When they tugged on the wet cloth, they discovered it was attached to a boy in the compartment, officials said.

The Pentagon’s press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, said the stowaway was a black male who may have been of African origin. The plane was on a routine mission in Africa and had made stops in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia and Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily before arriving at Ramstein.

A senior U.S. official said Tuesday that initial indications suggest that the boy likely climbed aboard in Mali. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about an incident under investigation and requested anonymity.

A stowaway aboard a military plane is a significant security breach. No Africa Command senior leaders were on the flight.

“Security is going to be looked at here. Obviously it would be,” Kirby said. “We try to provide as much security as we can for our aircraft when they’re operating in remote locations, and this will all be part of the investigation.”

He added, however, that some of the airfields where the planes land are very remote and the security isn’t always up to the standards that are followed in the U.S. and other nations.

Kirby had no details about how well-guarded the plane was during the Africa stops and said it was unclear how the boy managed to get into the compartment.

“We’ll learn what happened here and if there’s corrective action that needs to be taken, we’ll take it,” he said.

The body was not detected in routine pre-flight and post-flight checks during the trip, but was found during a more detailed maintenance inspection of the cargo plane, said Kirby. The body was turned over to German authorities for an autopsy and possible identification, he said.

Kirby said the cause of death had not yet been determined, but lab results from samples taken from the body were negative for communicable diseases. An Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed at least 670 people, the largest outbreak in history with deaths blamed on the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.

Kirby said it is not known exactly when or where the stowaway entered the compartment. The two-day delay in making the incident public was due to the process of having to remove the body, do the lab tests and provide official notifications to the German government, he said.

The Air Force is doing its own investigation, which will include a review of any potential security lapses.

In April, a Somali immigrant survived a flight from San Jose International Airport in California to Hawaii stowed away in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 commercial airliner.

___AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report