Most Recent Posts

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Tuesday urged the international community to demand the Western-backed Palestinian president break off ties with the militant Hamas group over the abduction of three Israeli teens, the latest sign that Israel's massive five-day-old search in the West Bank has broader objectives than finding the missing.

Israel said it also wants to destroy the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and apparently hopes to reclaim international support after the latest failure of U.S.-led peace efforts.

Israel has launched its most significant military ground operation in more than five years since the three Jewish seminary students went missing last Thursday at a West Bank hitchhiking junction.

Troops have arrested more than 200 Palestinians, most of them Hamas activists, blocked roads and searched homes.

There has been no sign of life from the missing or demands issued by purported kidnappers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas was behind the abductions, but has offered no proof, while the Islamic militant group has praised the deed, but not claimed responsibility.

The abductions, accompanied by wall-to-wall Israeli media coverage and prayer vigils, have created unexpected diplomatic openings for Netanyahu, who only last week had found himself increasingly isolated in the international arena.

At the time, the United States and Europe were ignoring Netanyahu's appeals to shun the Palestinian unity government, a 17-member Cabinet of technocrats largely loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, but backed by Hamas.

The Israeli leader had also lost international goodwill after the latest failure of talks on Palestinian statehood, with Israel held partially responsible because of its ongoing settlement expansion on occupied lands.

Since the kidnappings, Israel has been able to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank — in the context of the search for the missing teens — without an international outcry or drawing allegations that it is provoking unnecessary confrontations with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has also used the episode to try to discredit the Palestinian unity government.

The international community "has to condemn Hamas for its terrorist activities and ... must call on President Abbas to end his pact with Hamas," Netanyahu said in a meeting with Mideast envoy Tony Blair.

"Anybody who supports peace must tell the Palestinian Authority that they cannot build a government that is backed by the kidnappers of children and the murderers of innocents," he said.

Abbas, meanwhile, is finding himself increasingly boxed in.

Reconciliation with Hamas had provided him with an alternate strategy after it became clear in April that there is not enough common ground between him and Netanyahu to reach a peace deal.

The unity government also was to give Abbas a foothold in the Gaza Strip, the territory Hamas had seized in 2007 and where it remains the de facto power.

Even before the abductions, reconciliation efforts were off to a bumpy start, with key issues unresolved.

However, it would be exceedingly difficult for Abbas to walk away from the unity deal in response to the kidnappings. That would go against Palestinian public opinion shaped by widespread speculation that the purported kidnappers were somehow trying to press for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Abbas has condemned the kidnappings.

Abbas' next move will depend on whether Hamas was in fact involved, as Israel claims, said Hana Amireh, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who attended a meeting chaired by Abbas over the weekend.

"If it is true that Hamas is behind this abduction, then this is a position we don't understand," he said. He stopped short of saying that even then, Abbas would dismantle the alliance.

Ali Barake, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Tuesday that "we do not have any information on the kidnapping."

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has strongly signaled that he is upset over what, in Israel's eyes, has been a tepid international response to the kidnapping. He has said he "expects" strong international condemnations, while complaining about the uproar over Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, five days after the crisis erupted, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the abductions "in the strongest terms" and called for the release of the teens. The U.S. and other allies have also spoken out against the kidnappings, though they have stopped short of explicitly blaming Hamas. The West has shown no signs of ending its readiness to work with the new Palestinian government.

Tamir Sheafer, an expert in political communication at the Hebrew University, said the international response was "definitely not as strong" as Israel had hoped.

He said Israel's leadership may have had unrealistic expectations, especially since it is not certain that Hamas was involved. He also noted that other crises, such as the heavy fighting in Iraq, are attracting most of the world's attention.

But he also said Israel's own policies may be to blame. He said the Israeli government expects international support in times of crisis, but has rebuffed international demands when it comes to ending its longtime occupation of the West Bank and reaching peace with the Palestinians.

Ben Caspit, a liberal newspaper columnist in the Maariv daily, this week questioned the wisdom of continuing to settle the West Bank and allowing teenagers to hitchhike in the territory late at night.

"There are other people who think that to choose to live in the territories among millions of Palestinians who regard you as an occupier and who yearn for you to die an agonizing death is a form of irresponsibility," he wrote. "No, we are not blaming the boys, since they acted in keeping with the accepted norm. We were only wondering about that accepted norm."

___

AP correspondents Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem and Maeva Bambuck in Beirut contributed to this report.

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado prosecutor said he's frustrated that the state's "Make My Day" law prevents him from charging a man who killed an acquaintance during a drunken brawl that spilled into his home, becoming the latest test to self-defense gun laws nationwide.

The New Year's Day shooting involving "foolish, drunken children" likely was not what lawmakers had in mind when they adopted Colorado's law, Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said. It protects homeowners from prosecution for using deadly force when someone illegally enters their home and there's reason to believe that person will commit a crime.

Self-defense laws like Colorado's have received renewed attention recently after deadly shootings in Montana, Minnesota and Nevada.

After a six-month investigation, Hautzinger decided last week not to file charges against Joseph Hoskins, 36, in the death of Randy Cook, 47.

After a night of drinking at a party in the western Colorado city of Grand Junction, Cook and another man went to fight Hoskins outside his house. The fight moved inside and to Hoskins' bedroom, where the homeowner said Cook tried to snatch away his shotgun. Hoskins tackled Cook and shot him, according to Hoskins' account of the night, which was relayed to investigators through an attorney.

"These grown men, otherwise basically upstanding, law-abiding citizens, are acting like drunken children, and as a result, a good man got killed, and I can't hold anyone accountable for it in the criminal justice system," Hautzinger told The Associated Press.

He said Cook apparently had no involvement in an ongoing Facebook feud between Hoskins and the other man that had been brewing for days before they decided to square off.

"It sticks in my craw to be unable to hold Joseph Hoskins accountable for his actions," Hautzinger said. "But it's not a very close legal call."

Hoskins did not return calls seeking comment, and his attorney, Terry Ryan, said he could not talk about the case.

Beginning with Florida in 2005, at least 22 states have expanded the self-defense principle known as the "castle doctrine," the premise that a person has the right to defend their home against attack. Colorado was not among them. The broadened laws say the doctrine can be applied to confrontations outside the home, with language such "stand your ground" and "no duty to retreat."

The laws make it easier for a person to shoot someone and avoid prosecution by saying they felt an imminent danger, which has increasingly placed the burden on prosecutors to prove self-defense did not occur, said Steven Jansen, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

"It has created an increase in investigation and an increase in frustration among prosecutors when trying to make decisions," he said. "You have to proactively anticipate that self-defense is going to be claimed."

The concept came under national scrutiny in the 2012 shooting of an unarmed Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, by a neighborhood watch volunteer who was following him. George Zimmerman was acquitted last year after arguing self-defense.

But citing the law hasn't always been a surefire protection. Recent cases in Montana and Minnesota have involved homeowners who, fearing intruders, essentially set up traps and waited to kill them. A Montana homeowner who killed a 17-year-old German exchange student was charged with deliberate homicide, and a Minnesota retiree who shot two teenagers was convicted of premeditated murder.

And last week in Nevada, a 73-year-old former schoolteacher was charged with murder in the shooting of two unarmed trespassers.

In the Grand Junction case, Hautzinger noted that Colorado's self-defense law does not consider whether a homeowner inflamed the situation that led to deadly force.

"I am very sorry that Colorado's criminal justice system does not have an adequate way to address this tragic, travesty of a situation," he wrote in a letter to Sheriff Stan Hilkey explaining his decision not to charge Hoskins.

Yet, cases that challenge self-defense laws are an anomaly, said Dave Kopel, a law professor and research director at the Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank in Denver. More often, people truly defending themselves are protected by the law, he said.

"It's the trade-off for having clear rules for everyone in general," he said.

i i

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The Argentine government plans to sidestep a U.S. court order that it repay defaulted bonds in full, saying creditors who accepted debt restructurings will be offered new bonds to be paid in Argentina rather than the United States.

Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said Tuesday that the government is "starting to take steps to begin a debt swap" to service the country's restructured debt in "Argentina and under Argentine law."

The announcement came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in a U.S. judge's order that would deny use of the U.S. financial system to Argentina unless it first pays off holders of defaulted bonds who didn't accept the earlier debt swaps. Argentina has objected to paying the "holdout" creditors.

The high court also ruled that the holdout bondholders who won the legal case could use U.S. courts to force Argentina to reveal where it owns property around the world.

The arrangement outlined by Kicillof would involve investors who previously agreed to swap government bonds that were defaulted on in Argentina's 2001 economic collapse for new, less valuable bonds that the government has being paying on since 2005. Those new bonds are governed by U.S. law.

If Argentina were forced to pay off in full what the government calls "vulture funds," the country could become an easy prey and would ultimately be "pushed into a default," Kicillof said.

"Some say we should negotiate with vultures, but the vultures are vultures because they don't negotiate," he said. "If they were in conditions to negotiate, they would have done it like the rest of the bondholders."

President Cristina Fernandez criticized the U.S. judge's ruling requiring a $1.5 billion payment, of full value plus interest, to investors who didn't accept the previous debt restructurings.

In a national address Monday night, she defiantly vowed not to submit to "extortion" by NML Capital and other investors that refused to trade in defaulted bonds. But she said her government "will not default on those who believed in Argentina" by accepting the debt swaps.

While conceding the Supreme Court's decision was unfavorable, Kicillof kept the possibility of negotiation open, but said Argentina was not willing to "do anything, under any condition, to accept exorbitant conditions" to resolve the debt fight.

The court's decision was a blow to Argentina's aspirations to return to global credit markets after being shut out since its 2001-02 economic crisis and default.

Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner, negotiated or paid off most of the country's defaulted debt. Argentina has paid its debt with the International Monetary Fund, and in May it agreed with the Paris Club of creditor nations on a plan to resolve $9.7 billion in debts that have gone unpaid since the economic collapse.

Bowing to the U.S. ruling would force Fernandez to betray a core value that she and her late husband promoted since they took over the government in 2003: Argentina must maintain its sovereignty and economic independence at any cost.

The president's hard line on the U.S. ruling seemed to be a last effort to gain leverage ahead of a negotiated solution that both sides say they want.

With only days before a huge debt payment ordered by the court is due, many analysts and politicians say negotiations with the holdout investors are needed to avoid a new default and a blow to the country's reputation.

"Another default can be quite costly economically and financially," Alberto Ramos, Latin America economist for Goldman Sachs, said. "And the uncertainty and volatility that would generate would put added pressure on an already struggling economy, on the exchange rate, and therefore also on reserves."

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Tuesday lowered its long-term foreign currency rating on Argentina to "CCC-" from "CCC+." The ratings agency cited a higher risk of default on Argentina's foreign currency debt.

But Argentina's Merval stock index, which had plunged 10 percent after Monday's court decision, rebounded Tuesday and closed up 3.75 percent on hopes the government would announce a solution.

Daniel Kerner, an analyst at Eurasia Group, said the debt swap announced by Kicillof was probably meant to strengthen Argentina's position in negotiations. But Kerner said a new debt swap would have to be agreed on quickly, or Argentina would risk missing a June 30 deadline for making payments on the existing bonds and falling in to default.

Still, he cautioned in an email statement that while Argentina wants to negotiate, it should be recognized that "the government is willing to default and has limits as to how much they can concede."

___

Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires and Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.