Gunmen target vaccine effort in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed a police officer Tuesday who was protecting a team of polio workers during a U.N.-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan.

The attack is the latest incident of violence against Pakistan's efforts to eradicate the deadly disease found in only three countries in the world. Militant extremists view the vaccination campaigns as Western-backed plots to gain intelligence in sensitive areas and have frequently targeted the medical staff and those protecting polio teams.

No polio workers were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said police officer Fazal Wahid.

At least two attackers were hiding in a field near a narrow road as the polio workers walked by on their way to visit houses in the area, said the Mardan police chief, Inam Jan.

"The polio workers were going door-to-door and one police officer was protecting them when the gunmen suddenly attacked them near an open area and fled," Jan said, adding that the police were searching for the attackers but that so far no one had been arrested.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and it wasn't immediately known whether the police officer was targeted because he was protecting the polio team or for some other reason.

In 2012, humanitarian workers, including those working to prevent the polio spread, were repeatedly targeted. According to UN figures, 19 humanitarian workers were killed last year in Pakistan. Of those deaths, 11 were related to polio, including a rash of shootings in December when nine polio workers were killed across Pakistan.

In an effort to protect people administering the vaccine, the government has increasingly sent police officers into the field along with the vaccinators only to see them come under attack as well.

On Jan. 29, gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers in the Swabi district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Some militant groups in Pakistan oppose the vaccination campaign, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the United States or the Pakistani government.

The campaigns are made more complicated by the fact that many Pakistani residents are also suspicious of the repeated vaccination efforts going on across the country and fear the vaccines are intended to make Muslim children sterile.

Pakistan is one of the few remaining countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is rampant. As many as 56 polio cases were reported in Pakistan during 2012, down from 190 in 2011. Most of the new cases in Pakistan were in the northwest, where the presence of militants makes it difficult to reach children for vaccination.

The virus usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions. It attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze.

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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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Baghdad bombs target Shi'ite pilgrims, 26 killed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Double car bombs targeting Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad killed at least 26 people on Saturday in the latest attacks by insurgents trying to tip Iraq back into widespread sectarian violence.

It was the third day of bombings to strike Shi'ite pilgrims this week. On Wednesday, a wave of bombings killed more than 75 people across Iraq in the bloodiest violence since U.S. troops left the country in December.

Saturday's car bombs exploded near Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, scattering body parts and clothing along a route used by pilgrims marking the anniversary of the death of Shi'ite imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a great-grandson of Prophet Mohammad.

"We rushed to the scene, there were dismembered bodies, shoes, plastic bags, women's robes left all around, and people were screaming everywhere," said Ahmed Maati, a policeman working nearby.

Television footage showed the charred, twisted shell of one of the vehicles used in the attacks sitting on a main Baghdad road, with other burned-out vehicles nearby.

Attacks on Shi'ite targets are reviving fears Iraq risks slipping back into the broad sectarian slaughter of its recent past, especially as the Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish parties that make up its fragile government feud over sharing power.

With security around Baghdad's Kadhimiya district very tight for the religious festival, one bomber on Saturday posed as a taxi driver and picked up pilgrims to access the area. At least 14 were killed in that initial blast and more than 30 wounded, authorities said.

A second car bomb exploded nearby and killed at least 12 more and wounded 28, police and hospital sources said.

AL QAEDA AFFILIATE

Al Qaeda's Iraq affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq or ISI, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attacks, according to U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which follows jihadist websites.

Iraq's al Qaeda wing was weakened by its long war with U.S. and Iraqi security forces, but since the last American troops left in December, the group and other Sunni Islamist insurgents have carried out a major attack about once a month this year.

Al Qaeda in Iraq often hits Shi'ite targets in an attempt to stir up the kind of sectarian tensions that drove Iraq to the edge of civil war and killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007. They also target security forces to try to show the Shi'ite-led government is failing to stamp out violence.

Earlier this month, ISI claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a major Shi'ite religious office in Baghdad, which killed 26 people, wounded 190 and evoked memories of the darker days of the country's conflict.

The violence also risks escalating tensions among the Shi'ite, Sunni Muslim and Kurdish blocks in the government as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fends off attempts at a vote of no confidence against him.

Many Sunni Iraqis, who once dominated the Shi'ite majority under dictator Saddam Hussein, fear Maliki is consolidating his power at their expense by ignoring pledges to share power among the country's sectarian and ethnic mix.

Kurdistan, an autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq reliant on the central government's budget, is also chaffing against Maliki's authority in a long-running feud for control over oil and areas disputed by ethnic Kurds and Iraqi Arabs.

(Reporting by Raheem Salman in Baghdad; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Serena Chaudhry and Alessandra Rizzo)

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Nursing director thinks she was target of Oakland shooter

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Nursing student Ahmad Sayeed was sitting in his class at tiny Oikos University when a gunman burst through the back entrance of the lecture hall and held a terrified school receptionist hostage.

Within moments, the gunman identified by authorities as One Goh began randomly firing at students, killing seven and wounding three in Monday's violence.

"Everyone was scared, panicked," said Sayeed on Wednesday as he sat at home in Newark, Calif. nursing a shoulder wound. "He's shooting and we are all screaming. He just started shooting at everyone."

The 36-year-old, who immigrated from Afghanistan three years ago, said that he at first did not understand what the gunman was saying, but he saw the look of terror on the face of the school receptionist, Katleen Ping, 24. And he saw the gun pointed at her body.

"He brought her in there with the gun and she looks very scared," Sayeed said. "He had the gun pointed at her."

Ping, one of the seven people killed Monday, worked at the front desk in the university's administration department.

Meanwhile, an administrator at the university said Wednesday she believed she was the alleged gunman's primary target after she rejected his repeated requests for a refund of his tuition.

But Ellen Cervellon, director of the nursing program at Oikos University, said she wasn't on campus Monday when her former student, One Goh, came looking for her then went on his rampage.

Two days later, in an interview with The Associated Press, a shaken Cervellon said the slayings are haunting her.

"I have that weight on my shoulders and I don't know what to do with it," she said, her voice quavering. "Every single one of those students were going to be an excellent, excellent nurse. They're in my heart, and they always will be."

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan first confirmed Wednesday that Cervellon was the apparent target, but late in the day he said investigators believe another female administrator instead was targeted. But he declined to say why police believe the other school official was targeted and would not identify her. "She is terrified," he said.

Goh, 43, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, plus a special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty.

Shackled and showing little emotion, Goh said nothing during a brief court appearance other than a soft "yes" when the judge asked if he understood the charges. He did not enter a plea.

In a police affidavit, Officer Robert Trevino said Goh acknowledged going to Oikos on Monday with a .45-caliber handgun and four magazines of ammunition.

"He admitted to kidnapping a woman and forcing her from her office into a classroom at gunpoint," Trevino said in the statement. "He admitted to shooting and killing several people inside the classroom, before taking one of the victim's car keys and fleeing the scene in the victim's car."

Police arrested Goh about an hour after the shooting spree at a supermarket a few miles from campus.

Cervellon said Goh dropped out of the nursing program at the tiny private school around November but returned numerous times to ask her for a full tuition refund.

Goh got angry when she told him the school could not refund all his money because he had been enrolled for nearly half of the program, she said. Cervellon said she did not know how much Goh had paid in tuition.

Police have said Goh was seeking a female administrator when he went to the campus Monday. When he was told she wasn't there, they said, he began shooting in classrooms, killing six students and a receptionist and wounding three others.

Police said they made contact with Cervellon after seeing the AP story and that many details about events leading up to the shooting remain unclear.

Police initially said Goh was expelled although Cervellon said that he was not..

"We were told by witnesses that he was kicked out, but there could be some facts that he wasn't," Jordan said. "I do know that he was trying to get his down payment or tuition reimbursed."

Cervellon said Goh had previously said that classmates were picking on him at the school, which was founded to help Korean immigrants adjust to life in America and launch new careers, she said. Goh is a native of South Korean who became a U.S. citizen.

Jordan has said Goh also was upset because other students had teased him about his poor English skills.

However, Cervellon and nursing professor Romie John Delariman said they never heard about or witnessed Goh being ridiculed for problems with English. Delariman said Goh was a good student who didn't seem to struggle with his second language.

"He was a full-time student and was really motivated. If I taught something he would be the first person in line to do it," Delariman said.

Still, Goh appeared to be the aggressor in exchanges with others at the school, according to Efanye Chibuko, whose wife Doris Chibuko was among those killed in Monday's attack.

Chibuko said his wife, a native of Nigeria who was elected president of her nursing class, felt Goh was unstable.

"My wife was afraid of him," he told the AP. "She was afraid he would do something like he did. She knew the other victims, and they talked about it. They were afraid that he was going to come back and do what he did."

Chibuko said he's angry with school officials for not doing more to protect the students.

"They were all living in fear. My wife told me the guy had been violent toward the school staff and had kicked the walls and stuff like that," he said. "So they knew. They should have had security in place."

Delariman said he noticed that Goh had problems, in particular, dealing with women in his predominantly female nursing classes.

"He can't stand women," Delariman said. "He said he never used to work with women, or deal with women in a work setting or a school setting."

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Investors target JPMorgan over $95 billion of RMBS (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A law firm that led mortgage bondholders to extract a $8.5 billion settlement from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) is turning its sights on JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

Houston-based Gibbs & Burns LP said on Friday its clients have instructed trustees overseeing $95 billion of securities issued in the housing boom by JPMorgan's affiliates to investigate whether ineligible mortgages were included in collateral behind the bonds.

Gibbs & Burns said its clients represent holders of more than 25 percent of the voting rights on 243 residential mortgage backed securities.

JPMorgan spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau declined to comment.

The development marks an escalation of legal challenges from the housing bust for JPMorgan. The largest U.S. bank by assets, JPMorgan has been setting aside billions of dollars for claims that mortgage bonds sold by Chase bank, and by companies it bought, were backed by fraudulent loans or otherwise flawed.

Mortgage securities typically set a threshold of 25 percent of voting rights above which organized investors gain additional legal power over the pools, said Greg Taxin of Spotlight Advisors LLC, which advises pension funds on mortgage bond investments.

"This is what started the ball rolling that ultimately led to the $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America," said Taxin. "The best defense for JPMorgan has been that the investors were not coordinated."

Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said, "It was only a matter of time before they went after JPMorgan."

The settlement with Bank of America is pending and being challenged in court as insufficient by other holders of its mortgage bonds.

Kathy Patrick of Gibbs & Bruns LLP said in a statement, "Our clients continue to seek a comprehensive solution to the problems of ineligible mortgages in RMBS pools and deficient servicing of those loans."

The investors represented by the firm own securities issued in 2005, 2006 and 2007. They include bonds from Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, two firms which JPMorgan took over during the financial crisis.

JPMorgan is in a better position than Bank of America to deal with the legal claims, said Miller. It is not clear that the bank is responsible for mortgages made by Washington Mutual, which the government put into JPMorgan's hands after it failed, he said.

Bank of America, in contrast, had bought mortgage-maker Countrywide, the source of most of its problem securities, on its own before the crisis.

Also, JPMorgan has already booked litigation expenses when it added to reserves. "For something like this, they are well-reserved," Miller said.

JPMorgan shares closed up 14 cents to $31.90 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

(Reporting by David Henry; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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