Egypt officials see end to U.S. NGO stand-off

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government will back down in a stand-off with Washington over U.S. funding for civil society groups because allowing the dispute to drag on could jeopardize aid worth billions of dollars, two Egyptian officials said.

Nineteen Americans are among 40 foreign and local activists banned from leaving Egypt and referred to a criminal court, accused of managing unlicensed non-governmental organizations and receiving foreign funds without official approval.

Some of the U.S. citizens, belonging to the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI), sought refuge in the American Embassy.

Washington has asked Egypt to drop the travel bans and allow the groups targeted in the investigation to resume their work. Both Congress and the White House have warned that the crackdown could threaten its yearly $1.3 billion U.S. military support.

Egypt's government has thrown up its hands, saying it cannot interfere in judicial business, and reacted with indignation to U.S. criticism of the crackdown. One minister said Egypt does "not accept threats from the United States."

Washington is unlikely to accept the government's claim of impartiality in the case, which underscores tensions between the two long-standing allies since the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last February.

But two officials involved in Egypt's diplomatic strategy said the army rulers want to ease the tension to ensure the aid keeps flowing and get American help to ensure favorable terms for an International Monetary Fund support package for Egypt.

"The travel ban will be lifted and the escalation will cease," one of the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Egypt needs the loans and the IMF funds to come through, but better terms are needed."

He said army leaders believed the U.S. government can help Egypt secure the IMF money on favorable terms.

The second official said: "A more manageable IMF deal and maintaining the military aid are high priorities for the generals."

An Egyptian military delegation to Washington abruptly cancelled meetings with civilian U.S. lawmakers to return to Cairo on Monday.

It had met military counterparts at the Defense Department, President Barack Obama's security team and top diplomats covering the Middle East and military affairs.

On Tuesday a leading member of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces told Reuters he would travel to Washington within the next two days for a follow-up visit.

SUSPICION

The row has also exposed tension between the U.S. Congress and defense officials, who want the dispute over the NGOs to be resolved without threatening the strong military relationship with Egypt.

"It's our sense that much of the NGO issue in Egypt has a lot to do with internal politics. The Egyptian military leadership is watching that trend very closely, and thus may not want to act too hastily to intervene," a U.S. official told Reuters.

"The linkage to continued U.S. financial assistance is a possibility, too. But American aid wasn't really in major jeopardy to begin with, and the Egyptians have to know that the NGO issue is only making it easier for critics of the Egyptian government to call for halting aid - especially on Capitol Hill," the U.S. official said.

Egypt's government believes its U.S. ties can return quickly to normal given its status as guarantor of a peace treaty with Egypt's neighbor Israel, Washington's closest ally in the Middle East, the officials said.

But Washington, which supported Mubarak until the uprising against his three-decade rule became an unstoppable force, is struggling to find a comfortable relationship with the men who replaced him in power.

The military has overseen Egypt's fairest election in six decades, has urged a swift move to a presidential election - a final step before they step aside as promised by mid-2012. Critics say the army leadership will resist civilian control of the defense budget and their business interests.

Crackdowns on protests against military rule have left dozens dead since November and a pledge to lift an emergency law has only been partially met.

The investigation of foreign-funded NGOs has fuelled accusations from rights groups that the army is obstructing Egypt's democratic transition.

The U.S. Congress now wants to make U.S. aid to Egypt's military conditional on its steps towards democratization.

Yet a Pentagon official said ties with Egypt were "too strategically important to be broken" and the Pentagon backed "a controlled handover to civilian rule."

The head of Egypt's military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, spoke on the phone to U.S. President Barack Obama on January 20 and discussed Egypt's foreign funding needs and the NGO crackdown, said two people with knowledge of the call.

Obama told Tantawi the U.S. had no control over the IMF deal or other loans. Tantawi responded that his military council had no control over the Egyptian investigation on NGOs, they said.

The call ended with a mutual promise to find areas of agreement.

Military aid to Egypt began flowing after it became the first Arab nation to sign the peace deal with Israel in 1979.

The army receives $1.3 billion annually, about 25 percent of Egypt's defense spending per year. The defense budget was $4.56 billion in 2010 - the third-largest in the Middle East after Israel and Saudi Arabia - according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an Egyptian think tank.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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Pakistan Taliban leader believed dead: intelligence officials

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, is believed to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike, four Pakistan intelligence officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The officials said they intercepted wireless radio chatter between Taliban fighters detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while travelling in a convoy to a meeting in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.

A senior military official told Reuters there was no official confirmation that the Pakistani state's deadliest enemy had been killed. The Pakistani Taliban issued a denial. U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, could not confirm his death.

If Hakimullah did die, it could ease pressure on security forces, who have struggled to weaken the group, which is close to al Qaeda and has been blamed for many of the suicide bombings across one of the world's most unstable countries.

But it may not ease violence in the long term in Pakistan, which is seen as critical for U.S. efforts to fight global militancy, most crucially in neighboring Afghanistan.

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The death of Hakimullah's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a drone strike in 2009 raised false hopes that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, could be broken.

"Six to seven TTP members were talking to each other through wireless radio in the conversations we heard, talking about Hakimullah Mehsud being hit by a drone when he was heading to a meeting at a spot near Miranshah," said one of the intelligence officials.

"They referred to him by his codename."

Officials refused to disclose Mehsud's codename.

"Based on our intercepts, Mehsud was heading to a meeting in Nawa Adda," said another intelligence official. Nawa Adda is a village in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan.

PREVIOUS REPORTS OF HAKIMULLAH'S DEATH FALSE

The Pakistani Taliban said Hakimullah was still alive, but the denial was far less assertive than one issued in 2010 after media reports said he had been killed in a drone strike.

"There is no truth in reports about his death. However, he is a human being and can die any time. He is a holy warrior and we will wish him martyrdom," said TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan.

"We will continue jihad if Hakimullah is alive or dead. There are so many lions in this jungle and one lion will replace another one to continue this noble mission."

The TTP launched an insurgency in 2007 after the military began a major crackdown on militants.

Fighters were particularly incensed when Pakistani security forces stormed the Red Mosque complex run by hard-line clerics in the capital, Islamabad. The government said 102 people were killed in fighting in the incident.

The TTP delivered on threats to carry out revenge attacks in Pakistan after U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in a Pakistani town in May last year.

More recently, some senior Taliban commanders said the umbrella group had started exploratory peace talks with the government. But it is not clear if all factions were on board.

Hakimullah was not only in danger of being killed by the drone campaign that President Barack Obama has escalated, or by Pakistani military operations. He and his powerful deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman, were at each other's throats and hostilities were close to open warfare, Taliban sources say.

Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afganistan have been trying to sort out differences between Pakistani Taliban commanders so they can aid their fight against U.S.-led NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Any division within the TTP could hinder the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda's struggle in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies, making it tougher to recruit young fighters and disrupting safe havens in Pakistan that Washington says are used by the Afghan militants.

Hakimullah, who has a sharp face framed by shaggy hair and a disarming grin, is considered to be one of the most ruthless Taliban commanders. He is also ambitious. Under his leadership, the Taliban has vowed to expand its violent campaign overseas to hit Western targets.

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009 killed seven CIA employees. In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with Hakimullah Mehsud.

Shortly afterwards, the United States added the TTP to its list of foreign terrorist organizations and set rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Hakimullah Mehsud or Wali-ur-Rehman.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010 told a U.S. court he received bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff and Peter Cooney)

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Missing Montana math teacher is dead, school officials

(Reuters) - A Montana high school math teacher who vanished last weekend while on her morning jog is dead, and a man has been taken into custody in connection with her disappearance, authorities said on Friday.

Sherry Arnold, 43, was last seen setting off for a run on Saturday in her hometown of Sidney, a fast-growing agricultural community in northeastern Montana. Her husband, Gary Arnold, later reported her missing, police said.

Sidney Public Schools Superintendant Dan Farr said law enforcement authorities had informed family members and district officials of Arnold's death, but declined to elaborate.

Sidney Police Chief Frank DiFonzo said in a prepared statement that authorities had taken one man into custody and were seeking information from another in connection with Arnold's disappearance.

A 47-year-old man has been jailed in neighboring Williston, North Dakota, and a 22-year-old man is being held for questioning in Rapid City, South Dakota.

"Because this investigation is rapidly moving forward, we are not able to provide any details of the case at this time," DiFonzo said in the statement.

He said a tip to a crime hotline led to the breakthrough in the investigation, which has blanketed the northern prairies of Montana and the Dakotas and drawn investigators from the three states and the FBI.

Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser said the crime had shattered the sense of security in the community of 5,000 people, where new homes were being built amid rapid growth brought on by a boom in oil and natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing.

"We never think it will happen in a small town. Now it has and we have to deal with it," he told Reuters.

Smelser said Arnold's disappearance and death has prompted a run on handguns and concealed weapons permits, especially among women, and caused some residents to view outsiders with mistrust.

Arnold, a math teacher at Sidney High School, vanished on Saturday after leaving her home wearing running clothes and mittens. One of her shoes was recovered during an initial search of the area.

A statement on the school district's website said counselors would be on hand following the news.

"She's a well-respected, well-liked teacher," Farr said. "She was the kind of teacher that every parent would want in front of their children. She would go the extra mile to help one of her students."

The school district dismissed students early from class on Friday afternoon and cancelled planned sports events.

Farr said counselors have been available to students and staff since Arnold vanished and that additional support would be offered in coming weeks.

Late Friday afternoon, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer released a statement about Arnold, saying she would be remembered as "a wonderful daughter, mother, wife, teacher and a beloved member of the Sidney community."

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

(This story corrects the headline and first paragraph to reflect officials saying the missing woman is dead rather than she has been found dead.)

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Campaign officials: Huntsman to quit GOP race

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Jon Huntsman staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire and his bid to become a legitimate competitor on distinguishing himself from front-runner Mitt Romney. But less than a week after a disappointing third-place finish in the GOP primary there, Huntsman decided to quit the race and back Romney.

Huntsman will endorse Romney, officials said Sunday, because he thinks Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November. Campaign manager Matt David said Huntsman will announce his withdrawal at an event in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Huntsman's resume had suggested he could be a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and foreign trade. But the former ambassador to China in the Obama administration found a poor reception for his brand of moderate civility that he had hoped would draw support from independents, as well as party moderates.

Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon. One reason was timing. For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states.

Huntsman, however, was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April. Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech on June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The former Utah governor had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina's primary this week will be "very low." Word of the Huntsman withdrawal came on the same day that The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, endorsed him for president.

Although Huntsman was viewed as having little chance of finishing strong in South Carolina, his endorsement of Romney could give the former Massachusetts governor, who leads in state polls, even more of the look of inevitability.

The move comes as pressure has been increasing on Texas Gov. Rick Perry to leave the race to allow South Carolina's influential social conservatives to unify behind either former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Santorum worked over the weekend at consolidating conservatives, trying to parlay into support in South Carolina the decision Saturday by an influential group of national Christian conservatives to back him.

"I think it's important that we eventually consolidate this race," Santorum told reporters Monday at a news conference in Columbia. He stopped short of urging Perry, who has shown little traction in South Carolina, to quit the race.

"That's up to the candidates themselves to decide," Santorum said.

To stand out in a crowded field, Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and former business executive who could rise above partisan politics. That would prove to be a hard sell to the conservatives dominating the early voting contests, especially in an election cycle marked by bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and a boiling antipathy for Obama.

Huntsman also tried to offer a different tenor, promising a campaign marked by civility.

"I don't think you need to run down somebody's reputation in order to run for the office of president," he said.

While Huntsman was often critical of his former boss — he joined those saying Obama had failed as a leader — and occasionally jabbed at Romney, he spent more of his time in debates pushing his own views for improving the economy rather than thumping the president or his opponents.

In light of his work in the Obama administration, Republicans seemed wary of Huntsman. While he cast his appointment in August 2009 as U.S. ambassador to China as answering the call to serve his country, his critics grumbled that he had in fact been working on behalf of the opposition.

Huntsman was conservative in matters of taxes and the reach of the federal government, but he was out of step with most conservatives in his support of civil unions for gay couples. On matters of science, he poked fun at his skeptical rivals in a pre-debate tweet: "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

In the end, Huntsman didn't seem to register, crazy or otherwise, with Republicans looking for an alternative to Romney or a winner against Obama. He was routinely at the bottom of national polls, barely registering at 1 or 2 percent, a reflection of the faint impression he made in the GOP debates.

His campaign put all its emphasis on the New Hampshire primary, hoping that face-to-face politicking in the first-in-the-nation primary would pay off with a strong second-place finish or a surprise victory in Romney's backyard. While other GOP candidates spent December in Iowa, the Huntsman campaign ignored its leadoff caucuses, where social conservatives were all but certain to give him short shrift.

Central to Huntsman's New Hampshire strategy was its open Republican primary, which allowed independents to vote along with declared party members. He gambled that he could attract moderate voters, Republicans and independents alike, by presenting himself as a successful conservative leader who wasn't interested in engaging in a culture war.

He called his third-place showing a "ticket to ride" to South Carolina, but his distant finish behind Romney and runner-up Ron Paul was widely regarded as lackluster.

Huntsman, 51, was born in Redwood City, Calif., and raised in Utah. His father, an industrialist and at one time a Nixon administration official, founded Huntsman Chemical Corp. in 1982. Now the Huntsman Corp., it reported revenues of more than $9 billion in 2010.

The younger Huntsman drifted a bit as a young man. He attended high school in Salt Lake City but dropped out to play keyboards in a band. He later attended the University of Utah, then dropped out to serve two years as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, where he learned to speak Mandarin.

He returned to the University of Utah in 1981 and later worked as an intern for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He left college to join the Huntsman Corp. in 1983, the same year he married Mary Kaye Cooper. He studied international politics at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a bachelor's degree in 1987.

While he served in the administrations of both George H.W. Bush — he was ambassador to Singapore in 1992 — and George W. Bush, Huntsman first won elective office in 2004 as Utah's governor. He was re-elected by a 3-1 margin in 2008, then resigned the following year to be America's top diplomat in China.

Huntsman and his wife have seven children, including one adopted from India and one adopted from China.

___

Elliott reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Myrtle Beach, S.C., contributed to this report.

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Panetta in Iraq to see officials, commanders (AP)

BAGHDAD – From one war front to another Sunday, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta hopped from a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan's southern desert to Baghdad, where he sought to encourage Iraqi leaders to decide soon whether they want a residual American military force beyond year's end.

He refused to say whether the Obama administration wants the extension, but he expressed concern at a spike in U.S. deaths caused by what American officials believe are sophisticated explosive devices made in Iran.

Panetta prepared for talks Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior members of a government politically divided more than a year after national elections. Iraq has gone that long without defense or interior ministers, whose departments are responsible for the military and police.

The approximately 46,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq are to depart by the end of 2011 under an agreement negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration, which went to war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's government.

Asking even a few thousand to stay longer carries political risk leaders in both countries.

A signature pledge of President Barack Obama 2008 election campaign was to get the U.S. out of Iraq. For Iraqis fed up with violence, a longer U.S. presence looks like a formula for further strife.

The Associated Press reported on July 5 that the White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, despite opposition from key Democrats who demand that Obama bring home the troops as promised.

Panetta spent Sunday afternoon at Camp Dwyer, a dust-choked U.S. outpost in southern Afghanistan. He pinned Purple Heart medals on two Marines, had lunch with young officers, got a glimpse at an Army Black Hawk medevac unit and quizzed an Afghan army officer on commanding a unit that specializes in detecting land mines and roadside bombs.

The 73-year-old Panetta, on the job since July 1 after 2 1/2 years heading the CIA, appeared to hold up well under the intense heat. But at one point he seemed to lose track of his latest job switch. In a pep talk to a group of Marines, he said he has always valued public service, from his time in the Army in the 1960s to eight terms as a congressman and his years in the Clinton White House, "and now as director of the CIA."

At issue in Baghdad is whether the Iraqi government will request that the U.S. negotiate a troop extension. The scheduled departure of virtually all U.S. troops by Dec. 31 will leave the country with significant gaps in its ability to defend its own airspace and borders.

Panetta's predecessor at the Pentagon, Robert Gates, visited Iraq in April to push for an early decision and make clear that Washington believes an extension is in both countries' interest.

Panetta, however, seemed less willing to commit to a residual force.

Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane for the flight to Iraq from Camp Dwyer in southern Afghanistan, Panetta was asked whether he intended to encourage the Iraqis to request an extension.

"I'll encourage them to make a decision" about what they want, he replied, leaving open the question of what the White House would accept.

Panetta said he thinks U.S. should consider any Iraqi request and he said Obama "feels we ought to consider it as well." Obama has said repeatedly over the past year that he is responsibly ending the Iraq war and bringing U.S. troops home this year.

Panetta said he also intended to urge Iraqi leaders to do more to go after Shiite militia groups that are using Iranian-supplied weapons to step up attacks on U.S. troops. The U.S. death toll of 15 in June was the highest for any month in the past two years, Panetta said.

"That has concerned us," he said, adding that Iraqi Shiite militiamen using Iranian weapons need to be targeted more aggressively. Pentagon officials believe the Iranians are providing more arms, such as airborne makeshift "lob bombs" and explosively formed projectiles, to give the impression of driving U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Panetta came to his new job with links to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if he was not directly involved in military strategy.

He visited both countries during his CIA tenure. Both wars have an unusually heavy intelligence component, with U.S. special operations teams taking on al-Qaida and other insurgents.

One concern about the plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of this year is that Iraq's intelligence services are not yet up to the task of adequately supporting counterterrorism forces.

Panetta was a member of the Iraq Study Group, created by Congress in 2006 to consider a better way forward in a war that was spiraling out of control at the time. Coincidentally, Panetta served on the group with Gates until Gates quit because he was picked to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

Panetta signed off on the group's final report, which concluded that it was time to get all U.S. ground combat brigades out of Iraq, leaving troops to train the Iraqi army and to undertake strikes against al-Qaida cells.

President George W. Bush took a decidedly different course, ordering troop reinforcements to Iraq as part of a new strategy that is widely credited for turning around the war.

The U.S. military reported that a service member was killed Sunday in southern Iraq and that the matter was under investigation.

___

Robert Burns can be reached at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

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Ukraine president threatens to 'bury' corrupt officials (AFP)

KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday threatened to "bury" corrupt officials and to "rip off" their heads, in comments to an economic forum in Kiev.

"If you prevent the development of businesses and the economy, if you push for bribes ... and if you get caught, your head will be ripped off," said the president, the Interfax agency reported.

"I'm not kidding.

"We are making it quite clear: in two days, extortion of funds has to stop taking place.

"If, after that, someone is caught red-handed, he won't get away, we'll bury him."

Yanukovich promised a merciless fight against corruption, evoking his experience fighting the problem during his time as governor of his native Donetsk region, in the east of the country, between 1997 and 2002.

Yanukovich's comments Friday went further than remarks he made in April when he acknowledged the systemic nature of corruption in Ukraine.

Businessmen have repeatedly complained of the problem in their domain, arguing that it is one of the main obstacles to the country's economic development.

Several businessmen have even claimed that the situation has got worse since Yanukovich was elected in February 2010.

Since coming to office, he has started legal proceedings against several senior officials in the previous administration now in opposition, who have for their part denounced the moves against them as politically motivated.

Last week, Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko went on trial on charges of abuse of power. In court, she denounced the trial as a "farce and a circus" saying it had been politically motivated.

Both the United States and the European Union have also expressed reservations about the trial.

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Officials hopeful as Los Alamos fires rage

(CNN) -- While firefighters haven't gotten the upper hand in a stubborn wildfire burning near Los Alamos, New Mexico, a sense of accomplishment was evident as the battle headed into Thursday.

"We're in the best shape since this thing started," said Fire Chief Doug Tucker, who told reporters that Wednesday was make-it-or-break-it day.

Even with the progress, the nearby flames will keep the Los Alamos National Laboratory closed through at least Friday, a statement on the lab's website said.

"What I witnessed today was an incredibly professional job by men and women who are risking their lives to save our community and this laboratory," Charles McMillan, the lab director, said. "I could feel the heat of the fire on my face as I watched from the roof of our Emergency Operations Center."

The Los Alamos fire, which is officially called the Las Conchas fire, has forced nearly 10,000 people from their homes in the town. Officials estimated the fire consumed an additional 15,000 to 20,000 acres Wednesday -- bringing the total to about 70,000 acres -- but they remained optimistic.

Jerome MacDonald, operations section chief for the multi-state southwest area incident management team, said fire officials plan to flank the fire on the east side Thursday in an attempt to curb high winds predicted from the southwest.

Concerns were raised that the wildfire could put the Los Alamos lab at risk, as well as waste or other toxic materials stored at the site.

But Tucker said that the waste is stored in drums that are kept on a blacktop with no vegetation around and are safe from fire. If the fire should get too close to the drums, firefighters were ready to use foam to ensure that nothing would be released into the environment, he said.

The Las Conchas fire began on private land Sunday and expanded into the Santa Fe National Forest and Jemez Ranger District, according to InciWeb, an online database that keeps track of natural disasters such as fires and floods.

In a news statement released Wednesday, the Santa Fe National Forest and Valles Caldera National Preserve said that parts of both preserves would close to the public until the fire is more controlled.

Parts of the national forest have been placed under "stage III" fire restrictions, meaning all areas are off-limits for use unless otherwise posted.

The Las Conchas Fire touches the south border of the lab's 40-square-mile facility and comes close to the west border, according to Tucker.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez warned citizens to avoid using fireworks on the July Fourth holiday and the rest of the season.

The Las Conchas fire is one of several burning in the region.

The Donaldson and Game fires south of the town of Hondo and U.S. Highway 70 have merged into one fire that has consumed an estimated 43,290 acres and is 0% contained, according to the New Mexico Fire Information website.

Evacuations were ordered for Alamo Canyon Wednesday as the Donaldson fire continues to threaten parts of Lincoln County.

The Pacheco fire continues to burn in the Pecos Wilderness, two miles north of the Santa Fe Ski Basin. It has scorched 10,000 acres since it began June 18.

The blaze was 24% contained early Thursday, with the potential for growth considered low, according to InciWeb.

CNN's Ed Payne, Molly Green and Craig Bell contributed to this report

CNN

Yemen detains prison officials over al Qaeda escape (Reuters)

ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have detained the director of a prison for questioning over the escape of 63 al Qaeda inmates earlier this week, state television said Saturday.

It said the deputy director of the al-Munawara prison in the southern city of al-Mukalla also was detained for questioning. It gave no further details.

The United States and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia are worried that Yemen, rocked by months of popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year-old rule, could slide into violence that would be exploited by the local al Qaeda wing to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

The prisoners escaped Wednesday after they dug a 35-m (yard) long tunnel. They attacked prison guards, killing one and wounding two, before they escaped, the state news agency Saba said.

It said security forces pursued the prisoners, killing three and recapturing two.

Yemen state television said Saturday that the body of a fourth inmate had been found. It said he had been sentenced to death.

All the prisoners were Yemeni and most had been jailed after returning from Iraq where they fought alongside militant, he said.

The current head of al Qaeda's wing in Yemen, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, was among 23 prisoners who escaped from a Yemeni jail in 2006.

Yemen is battling hundreds of Islamist militants associated with al Qaeda who have seized control of the southern city of Zinjibar and other adjacent towns.

(Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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NATO airstrikes kill 15 civilians, say Libyan officials

A file picture of NATO F18 fighters returning from a mission -- Libyan officials Saturday said a NATO airstrike killed 15 civilians.Libyan footballers defect and some arrive in Zintan to cheering crowdsThe NATO airstrikes were conducted in al-BregaNATO says the buildings were clear military targets and no civilians were killedThe African Union will discuss avenues for peace Sunday

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- NATO airstrikes hit a bakery and a restaurant in the Libyan city of al-Brega Saturday, killing 15 civilians, a Libyan government official told CNN.

NATO denied the claim and said it had struck key command-and-control centers. The alliance said there was "no indication of civilian casualties in connection with these strikes."

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces have occupied buildings in an abandoned area of al-Brega from where they are launching attacks on civilians, a NATO statement said. The alliance monitored the buildings and said it determined them to be clear military targets.

"This continues to show Gadhafi's reprehensible tactics of placing military assets and operations at the heart of civilian neighborhoods," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, NATO commander for the Libya campaign.

"We have meticulously monitored these developments for a significant period and it was time to remove this threat," he said.

Al-Brega is a key oil refinery town about 500 miles east of Tripoli that has been the scene of heavy fighting between pro-Gadhafi forces and rebel fighters.

Also Saturday, 17 prominent Libyan football players defected to the rebels, said Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the opposition's Transitional National Council.

Some were former members of the national team and they 29arrived in the rebel stronghold of Zintan in western Libya Saturday afternoon to cheering crowds who greeted them with celebratory gunfire.

"I am telling Colonel Gadhafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya," goalkeeper Juma Gtat told BBC news earlier in the town of Jadu.

"In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether," Gtat said.

The footballers' defections comes after a series of Libyan officials have done the same.

Despite the airstrikes and an armed rebel movement, Gadhafi has held onto power. Hopes for a political solution are at a stalemate over opposition conditions that Gadhafi must leave the country before any negotiated settlement can take hold.

Libyan government officials have said repeatedly that Gadhafi's departure cannot be a prerequisite to talks.

The African Union will try again Sunday to discuss a road map to quell the Libyan crisis. The African Union's special committee on Libya, established in March, will convene in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss avenues for peace.

Over the last three months, panel members have met with both Gadhafi and opposition leaders.

Ahead of the meeting, human rights activists urged the African Union to prioritize the issue the plight of civilians caught in armed conflicts, including Libya.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have blamed the Gadhafi regime for violations of human rights, including indiscriminate fire on civilians, the use of internationally banned cluster bombs and the torture and executions of captured fighters.

CNN's Raja Razek, Yousuf Basil and Ingrid Formanek and journalist David Adams contributed to this report.

CNN

Officials: Bombs targeted Yemen palace

The damage done to the mosque in the compound of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, as seen on June 4.President Saleh was injured on June 3The bombing struck the presidential palaceThere has been talk of a Friday return to Yemen

(CNN) -- Investigators probing the June 3 attack on the mosque in Yemen's presidential palace say more than one bomb was used but only one went off, a Western official in the capital of Sanaa told CNN.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh was injured in the strike, which occurred when senior officials were attending Friday prayers, and he was transported for treatment to Saudi Arabia, where he remains.

U.S. officials have consistently said it was a bombing attack but never said more than one explosive was used.

Now, a Western official says, authorities have determined that more than one bomb was found in the mosque.

"Not all of them exploded," said the official, who noted that U.S. officials are "providing expert assistance" in the probe -- still in its early stages.

Yemeni ruling party officials have been saying that Saleh will return to Yemen on Friday, but the official said authorities regard the president's injuries as serious and doubt he'll come back on Friday.

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Officials: 57 militants escape Yemen jail (AP)

SANAA, Yemen – Security officials say 57 militants, mostly from al-Qaida, have escaped from a prison in southern Yemen.

They say the 57 were among 62 inmates from the Mukalla jail in the Hadarmout province who escaped Wednesday through an underground tunnel.

Bands of gunmen attacked the prison simultaneously, opening fire on the guards from outside to divert their attention away from the escape.

One guard was killed and another wounded in the attack, said the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Wednesday's escape was the latest sign that Yemen's months-long upheaval has emboldened al-Qaida militants to challenge authorities in the country's nearly lawless south.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — At least 40 al-Qaida militants escaped from prison Wednesday in the latest sign that Yemen's political upheaval has emboldened them to challenge authorities in the country's nearly lawless south.

In a carefully choreographed escape, the militants attacked their guards and seized their weapons just as bands of heavily armed attackers descended on the prison in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea.

The escapees included militants convicted on terror charges or held in protective custody pending trial, according to officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The last major jail breakout by al-Qaida militants in Yemen took place in 2006, when 23 escaped a Sanaa detention facility including Qassim al-Raimi, who has become the dominant figure in al-Qaida's most active franchise.

The branch has been linked to several nearly successful attacks on U.S. targets, including the plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The group also put sophisticated bombs into U.S.-addressed parcels that made it onto cargo flights.

Yemen's political crisis began when demonstrators inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia took to the streets in early February. The largely peaceful movement gave way to heavy street fighting when tribal militias took up arms in late May.

Yemen's president of nearly 33 years was badly wounded in an attack on his palace earlier this month and is undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. The head of Yemen's most powerful tribal confederation warned Tuesday in a letter to the Saudi king that Yemen could plunge into civil war if President Ali Abdullah Saleh is allowed to return home.

Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi became acting president following Saleh's departure. The opposition has accused Saleh's inner circle and family of hindering the opposition's dialogue with Hadi.

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Libyan officials says NATO hits civilian house (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan officials said on Sunday a NATO strike had hit a civilian house in the capital and killed several residents, an allegation which, if confirmed, could sow fresh doubts inside the alliance about its mission in Libya.

Reporters were taken to a residential area and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

Later, in a hospital, they were shown the bodies of a child and two others who, officials said, were among a total of seven people killed in the strike.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site. "This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

NATO made no immediate comment about the air strike, but has said in the past it only targets military or command-and-control sites. There was no way for reporters to verify that all the bodies they were shown came from the building.

Libyan claims of civilian casualties from NATO attacks have sometimes been received skeptically by international observers. On one occasion, Libyan officials presented a wounded child as the victim of an air strike but medical staff passed a note to a foreign journalist saying she was hurt in a road accident.

Libyan authorities have to date been unable to prove that substantial numbers of civilians have been killed by the NATO strikes, but if that changes it could weaken the already wavering commitment of some alliance members.

NATO has been pounding targets in Libya for months in what the alliance says is an operation to protect civilians who rebelled against the 41-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

Strains are appearing within NATO member states as the campaign drags on for longer than most of its backers anticipated and Gaddafi remains in power -- even making a show of defiance last week by playing chess with a visiting official.

REBELS KILLED

Rebels from the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, have been trying to push west toward the capital but on Sunday they took heavy casualties when they came under fire from pro-Gaddafi forces.

Four fighters were killed and 18 wounded, according to a doctor at a field hospital near the front line in Dafniyah, an area just west of Misrata.

A Reuters reporter at the field hospital said he saw a procession of pick-up trucks arriving from the front carrying the wounded and the dead, some of them covered up with blankets.

"Gaddafi's forces were underground (in trenches). We were patrolling and they ambushed us," said rebel fighter Mohammed Swelhi, whose friend, Mustafa, was one of two bodies brought from the front in the back of a truck.

"My cousin was injured yesterday. And today my friend was killed. My group, we're all close friends," he said.

Last week, NATO aircraft dropped leaflets around the front line warning pro-Gaddafi fighters they would be targeted by attack helicopters if they did not lay down their arms. But rebels say there has been little sign of the alliance.

"We don't know what NATO is doing," said the doctor, called Nury, who was tending the wounded at the field hospital.

CASH CRUNCH

After four months of civil war, rebels control the eastern third of Libya, the Mediterranean port city of Misrata and much of the Western Mountains region stretching to the border with Tunisia.

But they remain far from seizing their ultimate prize -- Gaddafi's powerbase of Tripoli and its hinterland -- despite air support from the world's most powerful military alliance.

Speaking in the eastern city of Benghazi, the chief rebel oil official castigated Western powers for failing to make good on their promises to help the rebel cause.

"We are running out of everything. It's a complete failure. Either they (Western nations) don't understand or they don't care. Nothing has materialized yet. And I really mean nothing," Ali Tarhouni said in an interview with Reuters.

"All of these people we talk to, all of these countries, at all these conferences, with their great grand speeches -- we appreciate (them) ... but in terms of finances they are a complete failure. Our people are dying," he said.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in Misrata, Saif al-Jubouri in Tripoli and Maria Golovnina in Benghazi; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jan Harvey.)

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Officials: No Olympic tickets for Libya yet

The IOC will delay its release of London 2012 tickets to Libya.The International Olympics Committee will not hand over tickets until the situation is clear, it saysLondon organizers say they have an obligation to give tickets to all member countriesGadhafi and his family are barred from the UK in any case, the government says

London (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee will not give any tickets to Libya's Olympic Committee "until the current situation becomes clearer," it said Wednesday.

The statement comes on the heels of public fury in Britain over reports that members of Libya leader Moammar Gadhafi's family will get tickets to the Olympics in London next year.

The British organizers of the games told CNN Wednesday that Libya's national organizing committee, "not an individual, has been allocated a few hundred tickets which they are responsible for distributing to sports organisations and athletes within their country."

London organizers have "an obligation" to sell tickets to national Olympics committees of countries that compete, they said in a statement.

But that did not mean that Libya has the tickets, the IOC said.

"To be absolutely clear, no tickets have been printed or paid for," IOC communications director Mark Adams said.

The IOC will retain its "wait and see policy" of withholding Libya's tickets "until we can be absolutely certain that the tickets can be used correctly," he said.

And the British government said key Gadhafi regime figures would not be allowed into the country anyway.

"Gadafi, his son and key figures in the current Libyan Government are banned from entering the EU and will not be coming to the Olympic Games," the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told CNN Wednesday.

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EU officials meet over E. coli crisis

(CNN) -- Top European farming officials are meeting Tuesday as the continent struggles to deal with an E. coli bacteria outbreak that has killed at least 22 people.

European Parliament lawmakers demanded to know what the European Commission planned to do about the crisis Tuesday morning ahead of a meeting of European Union agriculture ministers later in the day.

No trace of E. coli was found in initial tests at a German sprout farm suspected of being the source of the outbreak, agriculture officials in the state of Lower Saxony said Monday.

But authorities said that does not mean their suspicions are not correct; they would not expect to find evidence of E. coli if the tainted sprouts were no longer in the supply chain.

Test results are back for 20 of the 40 samples, Lower Saxony officials said Monday. It was not clear when the rest of the test results would be available.

On Sunday, officials said German-grown sprouts are the likely source for the E. coli outbreak.

"There is a direct link between this company and these people getting sick," said Gert Lindemann, agricultural minister in Lower Saxony.

It was not clear how the rare strain may have gotten into the sprouts, officials said. E. coli has not been found in the company.

The company, Gaertnerhof, has halted production and is recalling its products.

Gaertnerhof, in the town of Bienenbuettel, said in a statement it was "shocked and worried. ... that part of our production has been linked to E. coli infections" and had never had a problem in its 25 years of growing sprouts.

It said it had found no evidence of E. coli during routine testing in January or during tests last month in response to the health scare.

But a leading German microbiologist said Monday that sprouts were a "plausible" source of the infection.

Sprouts can harbor bacteria, which can spread during the growing process, said Alexander Kekule of the University of Halle-Wittenberg.

"Either it was inside the seed, which I do not think is the case, or the bacteria was inside the water," Kekule said on Germany's NDR radio. He is not working directly on the case.

Sprouts are bred in drums that are heated to slightly warmer than body temperature -- ideal conditions for the growth not only of sprouts, but of bacteria, the agriculture ministry of Lower Saxony said.

Authorities say the sprouts may have become tainted so long ago that trace-back tests may never identify the company as the source. But several restaurants and cafeterias linked to the outbreak got sprouts from the company, officials said.

And two workers at the agricultural company have come down with severe cases of diarrhea; in at least one of those cases, E. coli was the cause, Lindemann said.

Bienenbuettel is in the district of Uelzen in north-central Germany.

The outbreak of the virulent strain of E. coli has infected more than 2,300 people in at least 12 countries, European health authorities said Monday.

All but one of the 22 fatalities were reported in Germany, where officials said it was not clear whether the outbreak had peaked. One person died in Sweden after visiting Germany.

Last week, Spain rejected suggestions that its cucumbers could have been the source after the European Food Safety Alert Network said E. coli bacteria were found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to various countries.

Authorities initially called for the cucumbers to be pulled from sale.

Germany later said Spanish produce was not the source of the infection, and Spanish farmers are now demanding hundreds of millions of euros in compensation.

Jose Maria Pozancos, the head of the Spanish fresh produce exporters group Fepex, said he wants Germany to apologize, reimburse Spanish farmers at least 400 million euros ($584 million) for their losses, and help Spain repair damaged consumer confidence.

Spanish produce exporters have seen a 40% decline in demand since the crisis began, Pozancos said.

Germany has seen 630 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) -- a form of kidney failure -- in the current outbreak, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. That's more cases of HUS than in any other recorded outbreak, worldwide.

Fifteen patients in Germany have died of HUS, according to the center, while six died of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, a strain that can result in abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea and causes intestinal hemorrhaging.

The center said 1,601 people have that E. coli strain but do not have HUS.

Infections have also been identified in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, according to the organization.

The U.S. government website foodsafety.gov says that since 1996, "there have been at least 30 reported outbreaks of food-borne illness associated with different types of raw and lightly cooked sprouts. Most of these outbreaks were caused by Salmonella and E. coli."

The World Health Organization says that in 1996, "an outbreak linked to contaminated radish sprouts in school lunches caused 9,451 cases" of E. coli in Japan.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, Al Goodman and Per Nyberg contributed to this report.

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Yemeni officials treated in S. Arabia

NEW: Saudi source says Saleh has arrived in Saudi ArabiaA tribal leader's home is struck and casualties are reportedPresident Saleh says "gangsters," not the "youth's revolution," are behind the attackA sheikh and at least three bodyguards were killed, while Saleh was among those hurt

(CNN) -- Yemeni security forces pounded the home of a tribal leader whose supporters are suspected of injuring top government officials, a flurry of shelling that left 10 people dead and 35 others wounded.

Meanwhile, there were mixed reports about the whereabouts of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who suffered a slight head injury during an attack Friday at the presidential palace in Sanaa.

A Saudi government source told CNN that Saleh arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. However, Yemeni Deputy Information Minister Mohammed Iljendi denied in a TV interview that the president was in Saudi Arabia.

Government forces targeted the dwelling of tribal leader Hamid al-Ahmar in the southern part of Sanaa on Friday, al-Ahmar spokesman Fawzi Al-Jaradi told CNN Saturday.

The attack came on the same day fighting intensified in the capital, with government and tribal forces trading fire.

Shells hammered the mosque at the palace of Saleh, killing an imam and several security guards and wounding Saleh and high-ranking senior officials -- all of whom were observing Friday Muslim prayers.

Demonstrations have unfolded in Yemeni cities for months between supporters of Saleh and anti-government forces who want the president to leave office.

In Sanaa's Change Square, tens of thousands of demonstrators congregated Saturday.

Another flashpoint town is Taiz, where protesters retook an iconic square in the center of the city on Saturday after government forces cleared it out last week. Eyewitnesses said security forces tried to disperse crowds of anti-government demonstrators by shooting at them and that at least two were injured.

Yemen's tough crackdown against peaceful protesters in Taiz prompted a denunciation on Saturday by Human Rights Watch, an international organization that monitors human rights violations.

"First the security forces kill and wound protesters, then they keep medical workers from treating the wounded and raze the protesters' camps to wipe out all traces of them," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"Foreign countries need to respond. They should freeze the assets of the president and other top officials until these horrendous abuses stop and those responsible are brought to account," said Stork, whose group also called for the export bans on arms and security equipment to Yemen.

And now, fears of all-out civil war have spiked since, as government forces and Hashed tribesmen have been battling in the capital since late last month.

The presidential palace attack illustrates the escalating violence.

Those taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment include prime minister, Ali Mujawar; deputy prime ministers Rashad al-Alimi and Sadeq Amin Abu Rasand; Shura Council Chairman Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani; Parliament speaker Yahya Al-Raee; and Shura Council Chairman Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghan.

A Yemeni official who asked not to be named told CNN that Saleh was in the mosque when two "projectiles" were fired during Friday prayers. He confirmed the death of Sheikh Ali Mohsen al-Matari and four bodyguards. State-run news agency SABA, citing a source in Saleh's office, said three guards and the sheikh were killed.

In a televised speech Friday night, the president said the attack occurred as talks were taking place between him and affiliates of Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the Hashed tribe whose break with Saleh has been followed by spiraling violence.

Eyewitnesses, residents and government officials say Hashed tribesmen carried out Friday's attack on the presidential palace. But the spokesman for Sadeq al-Ahmar denied it.

"The Hashed tribesmen were not behind these attacks on the presidential palace and if they were, they would not deny it," according to Abdulqawi al-Qaisi.

According to the independent International Crisis Group, tensions escalated May 23 when fighting erupted between military forces controlled by "Saleh's son and nephews and fighters loyal to the pre-eminent sheikh of the powerful Hashed confederation, Sadeq al-Ahmar."

In his speech, the president said those behind Friday's attacks were not connected with the youth-led movement in Sanaa's Change Square. Rather, he said that "gangsters" perpetrated the strike as part of their bid to overthrow his government and destroy Yemen's economic achievements.

"I salute the armed forces everywhere and the courageous security forces who are keen on combating the attacks by a criminal gang that is acting outside of the law and is not affiliated with the youth's revolution present in Change Square," Saleh said.

Mohammed Qahtan, the spokesman for the Joint Meeting Parties, Yemen's largest opposition coalition, said that "the attack on the palace was pre-planned by President Saleh to make people forget about the attacks that he has committed over the last two weeks."

Qahtan said Saleh's forces have "bombarded most of the al-Ahmar family properties after the palace attack" and have killed hundreds over the past two weeks.

While Saleh has been unpopular among many inside his country, he has been a longtime ally of the United States in the war against terror.

The United States has counted on his government to be a bulwark against militants, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but it believes he should transfer power in order to maintain stability in the country.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Friday that John Brennan, the president's homeland security adviser, traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for meetings with government officials to "discuss options to address the deteriorating situation" in Yemen.

Protesters upset over what they regard as political oppression and government corruption want Saleh step down. A deal to make that happen, fashioned by the regional Gulf Cooperation Council, has broken down.

Human Rights Watch has confirmed the deaths of 166 people in attacks by security forces and pro-government assailants on largely peaceful protesters since February.

It said at least 130 people have died in heavy fighting since May 23 between government and tribal forces in the Sanaa area , "but because of precarious security conditions," the group can't confirm how many were civilians.

Human Rights Watch said the United States, the European Union and Gulf states "have condemned serious human rights violations and stepped up calls for the president to relinquish power, but have stopped short of imposing arms embargoes and individual sanctions similar to those in place against officials in Syria and Libya." It also criticized the U.N. Security Council "for stalling" on addressing Yemen.

"After months of coordinated attacks by government forces and armed gangs on largely peaceful protesters in Yemen, the silence of the Security Council is deafening," Stork said. "It's past time for the Security Council to take steps to help protect the Yemeni people from unlawful attacks."

CNN's Chris Lawrence, Jamie Crawford and Joe Sterling contributed to this report

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Officials try to stem E. coli outbreak

Tomatoes and cucumbers are displayed on May 30, 2011 in a stall in a supermarket in Paris.NEW: Spain's produce "safe for all consumers," Spanish official saysAt least 16 people have died in the outbreak and hundreds have been infectedThe deadly strain has spread to at least 10 countriesThe strain is very rare, according to disease experts

(CNN) -- Infectious disease detectives worldwide rushed Thursday to find the cause of an outbreak of a rare strain of E. coli that has spread to 10 countries and is blamed for at least 16 deaths and hundreds of illnesses.

Nine patients in Germany had died of a form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, according to the World Health Organization, which cited Tuesday figures as its most recent. Six had died of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC, a strain of E. coli that causes hemorrhaging in the intestines and can result in abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. One person in Sweden has also died.

Across Europe, 499 cases of HUS and 1,115 cases of EHEC have been reported, WHO said on its website.

In addition to Germany and Sweden, cases have been identified in Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

All but two of the cases occurred in people who had recently visited northern Germany or, in one case, had contact with a visitor from northern Germany, the organization said.

Scientists at the Beijing Genomic Institute said the outbreak of infection in Germany is caused by a new "super-toxic" E. coli strain, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain has been seen before.

"We have very little experience with this particular strain, but it has been seen before," said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's division of foodborne diseases.

The CDC said the strain is very rare and added that, while it is not aware of any cases ever having been reported in the United States, it is aware of a few previous reports of the strain in other countries. Britain's Health Protection Agency has said that the strain suspected in the outbreak is "rare" and "seldom seen in the UK."

Though WHO said it does not recommend any trade restrictions related to the outbreak, Russia announced a ban Thursday on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union.

Russia imposed the vegetable ban because "no one wants to get sick. It is a natural protective measure taken in response to events that are happening in Europe today," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Health and Consumer Rights, issued a statement saying the ban will remain in effect "until we become convinced that this situation is resolved."

Customs officials have been instructed to prevent the produce from entering the country, according to Onishchenko, while supermarkets and food chains in Russia were told to withdraw European vegetables from their produce bins.

Frederic Vincent, the European Commission's health spokesman, called the move "disproportionate."

"The commission will be writing today to the Russian authorities, and we will be liaising and working with them in the coming days to try to find a solution," Vincent said. The commission is the EU's executive body.

Yelena Skrynnik, Russia's agriculture minister, issued a statement assuring Russians that, despite the ban, "the volume of home-grown vegetable production combined with exports (from other countries) is sufficient to fully meet Russia's domestic demand."

In 2010, the imports of tomatoes and cucumbers from the EU amounted to, respectively, 11% and 5% of all imports of those vegetables into Russia, the Russian Agriculture Ministry said.

The ban could potentially affect some larger cities in the European part of the country, where about 90% of vegetables are imported, said Sergey Shugayev, chairman of the Rural Russia Association.

China and Turkey are the two largest exporters of fresh vegetables into Russia, according to the Russian Greenhouses Association.

The European Food Safety Alert Network initially said EHEC was found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain.

But authorities said Thursday the source had not been pinpointed.

Spain's Ministry of Health, Social Politics and Equality said Thursday that all samples of Spanish produce that it analyzed had proved negative.

Spain's ambassador to Britain, Carles Casajuana i Palet, told CNN that Spanish produce had been "completely cleared" and are "safe for all consumers." But, he added, the matter had damaged the country's growers "and we are sure there will have to be compensations" through the European Union.

Britain's Health Protection Agency on Thursday confirmed that there were four new cases in England suspected to be related to the outbreak, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.

The agency said that it was "reminding people traveling to Germany to follow the advice of the authorities and avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salad including lettuce, especially in the north of the country, until further notice. In addition, anyone returning from Germany with illness including bloody diarrhea should seek urgent medical attention and make sure they mention their recent travel history."

The ban on fresh vegetables from the European Union comes three days after Russia blocked the import of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens from Germany and Spain. On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates imposed a temporary ban on cucumbers from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report.

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Ousted Egyptian officials fined $90M

An Egyptian court fined former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his top officials more than $90 million.First court ruling against Mubarak since he was ousted in FebruaryThe fines will be taken from the frozen accounts of the former president and two others They are accused of hurting mobile phone and Internet industries during January protestsMubarak faces more serious charges

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- A Cairo court has ordered the first ruling against Hosni Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11, fining him and his top officials more than $90 million for their role in cutting the mobile phone network and Internet service for five days.

Adel Saeed, spokesman for the general prosecutor, said Mubarak himself was fined $34 million, former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly $50 million, and former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif $6 million.

"They were charged with cutting the communication to hinder the efforts of the January 25 revolutionaries," he said. The blocks began January 28 as demonstrations against Mubarak's rule heightened in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The court order stated that they will have to immediately pay these fines from their personal accounts and that the money will be allocated to the national treasury.

Aly Hassan, a judicial analyst affiliated with the justice ministry, said an appeal filed at the Cairo Administrative Court does not mean that the payment will be delayed or stopped.

"The court ordered an immediate payment and the fine may be increased by the state if the damages increase during the year as compensation for lost revenue." he said, adding that the fines would be deducted from their accounts, which have already been frozen.

Mubarak will face the Cairo Criminal Court for more serious charges, including using his political position to acquire funds illegally and potentially capital charges of killing protesters.

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Pakistani officials: NATO attacks army post (AP)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence officials say a NATO helicopter has attacked a Pakistani army post on the border with Afghanistan, injuring two Pakistani soldiers.

The attack, if confirmed, could further strain relations between the U.S. and Pakistan that were already frayed by the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

The officials say the helicopter attack took place Tuesday morning in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani troops responded with machine gun fire and deployed two helicopters over the post, but the NATO helicopter had already left.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

NATO did not immediately comment on the reported incident.

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NATO incursion into Pakistan wounds two troops: officials (Reuters)

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A NATO helicopter from Afghanistan intruded into Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Tuesday, wounding two troops, local intelligence officials said, adding to tensions between Islamabad and the West.

"It happened early morning," a Pakistani intelligence official in the region, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. "The helicopter hit a Pakistani check post on the border in the Datta Khel area."

Another intelligence official said several Pakistani helicopters took off from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, toward the site of the attack. The purpose of the Pakistani mobilization was unclear.

The Pakistani military was immediately unavailable for comment.

Lieutenant-Commander Colette Murphy, a spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said in Kabul that the coalition was aware of the reports and looking into them, but had no immediate comment.

North Waziristan is the base of the Haqqani network blamed for the insurgency in eastern Afghanistan. U.S.-led drone aircraft have repeatedly targeted the area over the past year.

Many militants, including foreign fighters loyal to al Qaeda, are based in Datta Khel. It is a stronghold of fighters loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadur and has been a frequent target of U.S. drone strikes.

Pakistan's Express 24/7 television channel said the checkpost targeted in the latest attack was located right on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It quoted officials as saying that the helicopters were just about to intrude into Pakistani territory when aerial gunshots were fired. They subsequently moved back but fired a retaliatory shot due to which rubble fell from the nearby mountains and wounded the security personnel.

The reported incursion came a day after unmanned U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles in Datta Khel killing 12 militants, Pakistani officials said.

An intelligence official said that one of the dead militants, an Arab, was the son of an al Qaeda operative identified as Abu Kashif. There was no way to verify the death toll. Militants often dispute official accounts of drone attack

Relations between the U.S. and Pakistan have been pushed almost to the breaking point after the secret May 2 raid on Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, embarrassing and humiliating the powerful Pakistani Army and intelligence service.

Before that, in late January, undercover CIA contractor Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis in Lahore, resulting in a six-week standoff over diplomatic immunity.

A previous incursion on September 30, 2010, killed two Pakistani troops and wounded four more when NATO helicopters crossed the border while pursing insurgents. Pakistan retaliated by shutting down the supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Washington sees the rugged border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan as a critical battleground against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

(Writing by Chris Allbritton; Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad and Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Iraq officials: Relatives killed by gunmen

NEW: Four rockets hit Baghdad, wounding 13 peopleNEW: Bomb injures three near the National TheaterInterior ministry: Gunmen wearing police uniforms kill family members in Baghdad Officials say similar incidents have occurred in the past few months

Baghdad (CNN) -- Three Shiite family members, including a woman, were fatally shot by gunmen wearing police uniforms in southwestern Baghdad on Sunday morning, Iraq's interior ministry said.

The gunmen stormed a house in the al-Thuraa neighborhood and then fled after the killings, ministry officials said. Iraqi security forces are investigating.

In the past few months, gunmen have stormed houses across the country in similar incidents and fatally shot family members.

Interior ministry officials have attributed these killings to either the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites or tribal retaliations.

Overall, violence in Iraq has dropped drastically since the peak of sectarian violence between 2005 and 2007, but mortar attacks, bombs and assassinations are still common.

In other violence Sunday, four Katyusha rockets hit different areas of Baghdad, including one in the heavily fortified Green Zone where Iraqi government and diplomatic buildings are located, according to information ministry officials.

A total of 13 people were wounded in the rocket attacks, though ministry officials had no immediate information on any possible casualties from the rocket that landed in the Green Zone.

Separately, a roadside bomb exploded outside Iraq's National Theatre in central Baghdad, wounding three people, and a mortar round damaged a house in central Baghdad but caused no casualties, the information ministry officials said.

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