Elite U.S. team questions seized al Qaeda leader on Navy ship

Protesters burn a replica of the U.S. flag during a protest against the capture of Nazih al-Ragye

An elite American interrogation team is questioning the senior al Qaeda figure who was seized by special operations forces in Libya and then whisked onto a Navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Nazih al-Ragye, better known by the cover name Abu Anas al-Liby, is being held aboard the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock ship, the officials said.

He is being questioned by the U.S. High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, an inter-agency unit created in 2009 and housed in the FBI's National Security Branch. The group specializes in garnering information from terrorism suspects to prevent planned attacks.

A suspect in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 civilians, Liby was snatched on the streets of Tripoli on Saturday and quickly taken out of the North African country.

The successful capture of Liby and a failed weekend attempt by U.S. commandos to nab an Islamist leader in Somalia offered evidence that the United States is still willing to use ground troops to seize wanted militants.

But, analysts say, it is too early to tell whether such operations might eventually mean a diminished focus on the armed drone strikes central to President Barack Obama's counterterrorism policy.

The raid in Tripoli was carried out by the U.S. Army's special operations Delta Force, an official said. Liby's son, Abdullah al Ragye, 19, told reporters that men pulled up in four cars, drugged his father, dragged him from his vehicle and drove off with him.

Liby is wanted by the FBI, which gives his age as 49 and had offered a $5 million reward for help in capturing him. He was indicted in 2000 along with 20 other al Qaeda suspects including Osama bin Laden and current global leader of the militant network, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Liby's indictment was filed in New York, making that a possible venue for a civilian, rather than military, trial.

One U.S. official said he might face prosecution in New York, but the U.S. government has not announced its plans and no decision has been made.

Liby's capture provoked a complaint about the "kidnap" from the Western-backed Libyan prime minister. U.S. officials declined to say if the Libyan government was given advance notice.

The White House defended the U.S. action. It marked the use of "rendition" - seizing a terrorism suspect in a foreign country without extradition proceedings, a practice heavily criticized internationally under former President George W. Bush but which Obama has reserved the right to use selectively.

"He is clearly al Qaeda and he is clearly wanted on charges," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters of Liby's case. "When we are able to, we prefer to capture someone like Mr. al-Liby."

SOMALIA RAID

The capture in Tripoli came the same weekend that a Navy SEAL team swooped into Somalia in an operation targeting a senior al Shabaab figure known as Ikrima, whom U.S. officials described as a foreign commander for the organization.

Obama, who ordered the SEAL raid that killed bin Laden in 2011, approved both operations but they were planned separately. "It is a coincidence that they happened at the same time," Carney said

The Somalia raid was designed to capture Ikrima, but the SEAL team broke off the mission when it became apparent that capturing him would not be feasible without a heavy risk of civilian casualties and to the SEAL team itself, officials said.

"If the intent was to kill him, we have other ways to do that," said a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

After arriving in the town of Barawe, there was a firefight with al Shabaab militants who U.S. officials say sustained multiple casualties. Ikrima's status was unclear.

As the situation escalated, the commander on the ground made decision to pull out.

Ikrima, whose real name is Abdikadar Mohamed Abdikadar, was linked with now-dead al Qaeda operatives Harun Fazul and Saleh Nabhan, who had roles in the 1998 embassy bombing in Nairobi and in the 2002 attacks on a hotel and airline in Mombasa, U.S. officials said.

Despite his status within al Shabaab, Ikrima is not seen as particularly close to al Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, one U.S. official said.

Officials say the U.S. operation in Somalia was planned weeks ago and was not in direct response to last month's al Shabaab attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that killed at least 67.

A U.S. official, said the two commando operations did not represent a change in counterterrorism strategy - even though Obama insisted in a speech in May that he wanted to scale back the used of armed drones, a tactic that he has controversially used against militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The official said the two weekend raids were "capture" operations in places where it was considered practical, but that in riskier areas like the Afghanistan-Pakistan border drone strikes remained the preferred option.

Micah Zenko, a counterterrorism expert at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said that while special operations can put American forces at risk, it offers the potential benefit of interrogating suspects for intelligence on future attacks.

"You'd take information over corpses any day of the week," he said.

New Video Surfaces Of Bikers Attacking Another Car

38-year-old Brooklynite, married father of six Reginald Chance went before a judge Sunday for bashing in the window of Alexian Lien`s Range Rover after a motorcycle chase last Sunday. Meanwhile, new video has surfaced of the same bike crew surrounding and attacking another car earlier in the day.

Cameras capture Sumatran rhino in Indonesian Borneo

Cameras capture Sumatran rhino in Indonesian Borneo

Hidden cameras have captured images of the critically endangered Sumatran rhino on the Indonesian part of Borneo island, where it was thought to have long ago died out, the WWF said Wednesday.

Sixteen camera traps -- remote-controlled cameras with motion sensors frequently used in ecological research -- filmed the rhino walking through the forest and wallowing in mud in Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan province.

The footage, filmed on June 23, June 30 and August 3, is believed to show different rhinos although the WWF said confirmation of this will require further study.

There were once Sumatran rhinos all over Borneo but their numbers have dwindled dramatically and they were thought to now exist only on the Malaysian part of the island.

But the research disclosed Wednesday, a joint effort between the WWF and authorities in Kutai Barat, shows that the animal is still present on the Indonesian side of Borneo.

Borneo is the world's third-largest island and is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

“This physical evidence is very important, as it forms the basis to develop and implement more comprehensive conservation efforts for the Indonesian rhinoceros,” said Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan.

“This finding represents the hard work of many parties, and will hopefully contribute to achieving Indonesia's target of three percent per year rhino population growth.”

He urged officials and environmentalists to try and come up with a scientific estimate of the remaining Sumatran rhino population in Indonesian Borneo.

The research was unveiled at the start of an international meeting on efforts to protect rhinos in Bandar Lampung on Indonesia's western island of Sumatra, with governments from Bhutan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Nepal represented.

There are estimated to be fewer than 275 Sumatran rhinos remaining in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

There are only a few substantial populations still in existence, most of them on Sumatra.

Poaching is considered the main reason for the dramatic decline in numbers, with the rhino's horn and some of its other body parts considered highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine

iPhone 5s Review: A Great Phone With Some More Forward Thinking Needed

iPhone 5s Review: A Great Phone With Some More Forward Thinking Needed

"Forward thinking." That's the tag line you'll find splattered across Apple's iPhone 5s billboards or commercials. "It's not just what's next. But what should be next," the company writes about its latest phone on its website.

It's Apple marketing at its best -- flowery, affirmative, well-crafted phrases -- but on paper the phone is really just a set of updated specs from its previous iPhone 5. The iPhone 5s packs only three new noteworthy features: a faster 64-bit processor, an improved camera and flash, and a new fingerprint sensor. Oh, and, of course, there's that new gold color choice.

But when those features are combined with the iPhone 5s' beautiful aluminum design and high-quality Retina display, does the phone really pave the way for the future of smartphones? Does it set a new bar for the hundreds of other phones that will be released this year? Or is it just an example of darn good marketing?

The Good Changes
I can tell the difference between my iPhone 5s review unit and my own iPhone 5 in two ways -- the gold, shimmering hue on the back and the golden ring around the home button of Apple's 5s.

Yes, the phone has the same elegant design as the 5, though that shouldn't bother anyone. It is still one of the most beautiful gadgets ever created. The only phone this year to even try to overshadow the iPhone's design and craftsmanship has been the HTC One. Just that one phone out of an interminable number of Android and Windows phone devices even came close to matching Apple's design prowess.

But where the iPhone 5s begins to show its first signs of forward thinking is with the fingerprint sensor now embedded in its home button. Called TouchID, the technology works just as Apple promised. Register up to five fingerprints, tap on the button and you're logged on to the phone. No need to input a password or swipe to unlock.

It works extremely well, which is not something always said about fingerprint technology. Just try some of the ones on a Windows laptop, and you'll know that constant pop-ups and other malfunctions stand in the way of it being a seamless experience. That's not the case with Apple's solution, and it makes logging on to the phone much faster than entering a PIN or password.

The phone itself is also faster, or at least that's what Apple's 64-bit A7 chip promises. While some apps and games, including Infinity Blade 3 and Sing! Karaoke, have been built to take advantage of the processor, and the improvement over the iPhone 5 is clear when it comes to everyday activities such as launching apps or surfing the web, I haven't noticed a difference. Still, this is one fast phone; you'll be hard pressed to find lag, and it will give you the power you need in the years to come. Future thinking, indeed.

The Camera
Apple says more apps will be on the way to take advantage of the faster silicon, but its own camera app is already tapping into that speed, including the slow-mo and burst mode features. Both of the new features are really fun to play with and add a lot to the already top-notch camera experience.
And the improved camera sensor, which now captures more light, might be the biggest upgrade for most people. When it comes to performance in darker settings, especially in dimly lit restaurants, shots are noticeably better and clearer when taken with the 5s than with the iPhone 5 or 5c. Even photos I took on a bright sunny day seemed to look crisper.

The iPhone 5s' camera is one of the main reasons to buy this phone over any other out there. Yes, theNokia Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel camera takes great shots, but it is a very chunky phone. And while the Galaxy S4 and HTC One take good shots, they do not capture photos as well balanced and crisp as the ones taken with the iPhone 5s. It's simply worth it for the better Instagrams alone.

The Non-Changes
All those aforementioned changes keep Apple's iPhone ahead of the pack in very crucial ways, but there are some other places where the case for the most forward-thinking phone hasn't been made.

The first is with battery life. Apple said users of the iPhone 5s should see a 25 percent bump in endurance, but I haven't experienced that. It could be some of the early iOS 7 battery problems, but I still have been getting a little less than a full day of juice -- about 10 hours or so. Some Android phones, such as the Moto X, seem to last at least 20 percent longer, although they are thicker and not as well-designed as the iPhone. We have come a long way since the first iPhone's five or so hours of battery life, but I haven't given up on a smartphone future that does away with ugly battery cases.

And then there is the screen. I'll be the first to admit that a 5.5-inch or 6.3-inch screen is overload for a smartphone, but there are times now when I feel the 4-inch display on the iPhone is too cramped. The Moto X's 4.7-inch display seems to be the ideal blend of screen real estate and manageability.

Lastly there is the software. Despite some people having problems adjusting to the change and some getting sick, iOS 7 is a very worthy upgrade, especially when it comes to the addition of such new features as Control Center. But as I said in my review of iOS 7, there are places where I wish Apple had gone further. Android's deep customization options and integration with Google Now provide software features that go beyond what we expect from our phones today.

The Bottom Line 
The iPhone 5s is a great phone, especially if you are upgrading from the iPhone 4 or 4s, but it's not as compelling if you have the iPhone 5 or even some competing Android handsets. When it comes to camera performance, the security convenience provided by the fingerprint reader, general design and app selection and quality, the iPhone 5s is at the top of the heap and does set the bar in the crowded smartphone market.

But while the iPhone 5s is the most forward thinking iPhone and one of the best phones to have in your pocket or bag, some of those various non-changes sure do indicate that there is plenty more forward thinking Apple can do.

Online delays signal strong demand for health care

Online delays signal strong demand for health care

Overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up for health insurance under the nation's historic health care overhaul.

That was putting pressure on the federal government and the states that are running their own insurance exchanges to fix the problems amid strong demand for the private insurance plans.

"I think I'm through with Hawaii Health Connector," said Richard Gamberg, 61, of Honolulu, after tweeting messages to officials and complaining to state lawmakers on Wednesday. "They've got ads in the newspaper, they've got ads on the TV — it just flabbergasts me."

He was among the would-be customers in Hawaii who were still unable to buy insurance policies online Wednesday, forcing them to turn directly to insurance companies to examine their options. In Oregon, officials said a faulty online calculator would not be fixed until late October.

The delays that continued Wednesday offered one good sign for President Barack Obama and supporters of his signature domestic policy achievement, demonstrating what appeared to be exceptionally high interest in the new system. But the problems also could dampen enthusiasm for the law as Republicans use it as a rallying cry to keep most of the federal government closed.

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In this screen grab image, the page asking visitors to stay on during the log in process of the Heal …

"It's day two of health care reform, and we have yet to have someone successfully register on the marketplace," said Matt Hadzick, manager of a Highmark retail insurance store in Allentown, Pa., where people could go to register for the online insurance marketplace. "The registration process is very slow, and at one point it just shuts down."

The sweeping changes under the Affordable Care Act include federal subsidies to make insurance more affordable for low-income consumers and preventing health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. That will open the door for coverage to many people who have been locked out of the insurance market.

In California, home to 15 percent of the nation's uninsured, officials took down the enrollment portion of the Covered California website for emergency upgrades. It was restored at mid-morning Wednesday, and 7,770 people had started applications by then, spokesman Roy Kennedy said.

California is one of a handful of mostly Democratic states that opted to set up their own exchanges rather than let the federal government do it for them. In the 36 states being operated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, consumer patience was being tested.

Agency spokeswoman Joanne Peters said many Americans successfully enrolled on the first day, but she declined to put a number on it. She said the delays were due to "overwhelming interest" and high volume.

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Alberto Pizon, right, a representative of Anthem BlueCross BlueShield Latino Health Access group pro …

The delays come three months after the congressional Government Accountability Office said a smooth and timely rollout could not be guaranteed because the online system was not fully completed or tested.

The bumpy debut has the hallmarks of a technology project that may have rushed to meet the Oct. 1 deadline, said Bill Curtis, chief scientist at CAST, a software quality analysis firm, and director of the Consortium for IT Software Quality, which develops standards.

"It almost reminded me of going online and trying to buy Springsteen tickets," said Sharon Schorr of suburban Cleveland, a self-employed accountant who finally gave up after eight hours of trying to use the exchange's website.

With websites crashing, those who have been trained to explain the benefits under the federal law were trying to reach out to those who could be helped by the exchanges, handing out information at public transit hubs and holding town hall meetings in smaller communities.

Without online access, however, they could not actually guide people through the enrollment process.

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An information table is seen at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles as people seek information on  …

"I've been unable to get in, and if I could have that would be great," said Donene Feist, an outreach worker who also is executive director of Family Voices of North Dakota, a nonprofit advocacy group. "For those who got in, they said it was easy to follow."

The Obama administration hopes to sign up 7 million people in the first year, and eventually cover at least half of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans through government-subsidized plans and a Medicaid expansion.

Many states expect people to sign up closer to the Dec. 15 deadline to enroll for coverage starting Jan. 1. Customers have until the end of March to sign up to avoid tax penalties.

___

Alonso-Zaldivar reported from Washington, D.C.

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A counselor uses a tablet to show various health plans available at an information table at Union St …

Nigeria: Militants kill students in college attack

Militants kill students in college attack

Suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms, the school's provost said, reporting the latest violence in northeastern Nigeria's ongoing Islamic uprising.

As many as 50 students may have been killed in the assault that began at about 1 a.m. Sunday in rural Gujba, Provost Molima Idi Mato of Yobe State College of Agriculture, told The Associated Press.

"They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels, they opened fire at them," he said.

He said he could not give an exact death toll as security forces still are recovering bodies of students mostly aged between 18 and 22.

The Nigerian military has collected 42 bodies and transported 18 wounded students to Damaturu Specialist Hospital, 40 kilometers (25) miles north, said a military intelligence official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

The extremists rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military camouflage uniforms, a surviving student, Ibrahim Mohammed, told the AP. He said they appeared to know the layout of the college, attacking the four male hostels but avoiding the one hostel reserved for women.

"We ran into the bush, nobody is left in the school now," Mohammed said.

Almost all those killed were Muslims, as is the college's student body, said Adamu Usman, a survivor from Gujba who was helping the wounded at the hospital.

Wailing relatives gathered outside the hospital morgue, where rescue workers laid out bloody bodies in an orderly row on the lawn for family members to identify their loved ones.

One body had its fists clenched to the chest in a protective gesture. Another had hands clasped under the chin, as if in prayer. A third had arms raised in surrender.

Provost Idi Mato confirmed the school's other 1,000 enrolled students have fled the college.

He said there were no security forces stationed at the college despite government assurances that they would be deployed. The state commissioner for education, Mohammmed Lamin, called a news conference two weeks ago urging all schools to reopen and promising protection from soldiers and police.

Most schools in the area closed after militants on July 6 killed 29 pupils and a teacher, burning some alive in their hostels, at Mamudo outside Damaturu.

Northeastern Nigeria is under a military state of emergency to battle an Islamic uprising prosecuted by Boko Haram militants who have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010 in their quest to install an Islamic state, though half the country's 160 million citizens are Christian. Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden in the local Hausa language.

United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday described the group as one of the most vicious terrorist organizations in the world, speaking at a meeting with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at which both reaffirmed their commitment to fight terrorism.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last week published a video to prove he is alive and prove false military claims that they might have killed him in an ongoing crackdown.

Government and security officials claim they are winning their war on terror in the northeast but Sunday's attack and others belie those assurances.

The Islamic extremists have killed at least 30 other civilians in the past week.

Twenty-seven people died in separate attacks Wednesday and Thursday night on two villages of Borno state near the northeast border with Cameroon, according to the chairman of the Gamboru-Ngala local government council, Modu-Gana Bukar Sheriiff.

The military spokesman did not respond to requests for information on those attacks, but a security official confirmed the death toll. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give information to journalists.

Also Thursday, police said suspected Islamic militants killed a pastor, his son and a village head and torched their Christian church in Dorawa, about 100 kilometers from Damaturu. They said the gunmen used explosives to set fire to the church and five homes.

Meanwhile, farmers and government officials are fleeing threats of imminent attacks from Boko Haram in the area of the Gwoza Hills, a mountainous area with caves that shelter the militants despite repeated aerial bombardments by the military.

A local government official said there had been a series of attacks in recent weeks and threats of more. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life, said Gwoza town was deserted when he visited it briefly under heavy security escort on Thursday.

He said militants had chased medical officers from the government hospital in Gwoza, which had been treating some victims of attacks. And he said they had burned down three public schools in the area.

The official said the Gwoza local government has set up offices in Maiduguri, the state capital to the north.

More than 30,000 people have fled the terrorist attacks to neighboring Cameroon and Chad and the uprising combined with the military emergency has forced farmers from their fields and vendors from their markets.

The attacks come as Nigeria prepares to celebrate 52 years of independence from Britain on Tuesday and amid political jockeying in the run up to presidential elections next year with many northern Muslim politicians saying they do not want another term for Jonathan, who is from the predominantly Christian south.

Despite shutdown threat, House passes spending bill that delays Obamacare for one year

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

The House approved a spending bill early Sunday morning that would fund the government through Dec. 15, but tacked on amendments that would delay the federal health care law known as Obamacare for one year and repeal the medical device tax, a move that sets up a showdown with Senate Democrats and increases the probability of a government shutdown Tuesday.

The Obamacare delay amendment passed 231-192, and the vote on the medical device tax, which would help cover the costs of Obamacare, was 248-174. The House also unanimously passed a bill to fund the military in the event of a shutdown.

Congress must agree to a federal spending bill by Tuesday, or the federal government will partially close down until members can find a compromise solution. The Republican-led House and the Democrat-controlled Senate disagree over whether the bill should include the health care law. Last week, the House sent a spending bill to the Senate without Obamacare funding , and the Senate responded by returning the bill on Friday with the funding inserted.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday after the Republicans announced their spending plan that the upper chamber would reject anything short of a bill identical to the one passed by the Senate, and the White House issued a statement saying that the president would veto the House bill.

“Today’s vote by House Republicans is pointless. As I have said repeatedly, the Senate will reject any Republican attempt to force changes to the Affordable Care Act through a mandatory government funding bill or the debt ceiling," Reid said in a statement. "To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax."

The White House also responded by reiterating the president's call to pass a spending bill without riders attached.

"The President has shown that he is willing to improve the health care law and meet Republicans more than halfway to deal with our fiscal challenges, but he will not do so under threats of a government shutdown that will hurt our economy," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown."

Before the vote Saturday, House Republicans held a private meeting where leaders presented the plan to delay Obamacare and listened to opinions from rank-and-file members. Lawmakers emerged from the meeting to say that the conference was united behind the proposal.

With a Republican conference full of conservative lawmakers with little interest in conceding to Senate Democrats on Obamacare, House Speaker John Boehner faced a difficult choice. He could have either passed a funding bill with Obamacare amendments and risk a shutdown, or pass a “clean” bill like the Senate with help from House Democrats and risk facing the wrath of furious Republicans. He chose the former.

Now that the bill has passed the House, it will be sent to the Senate, which is scheduled to reconvene Monday afternoon.

"We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it’s up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown," House Republican leaders Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in a joint statement.

The Senate bill that passed Friday would extend current spending levels only through Nov. 15. Democrats say that time frame would provide a month for Congress to pass a larger budget deal before the end of the year and replace the automatic, sequestration cuts now in effect.