NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian naval official says all 18 sailors on board a submarine are feared dead after twin explosions and a fire ripped through their vessel in a Mumbai harbor.

The official says the navy believes there is no way anyone could have survived the intensity of the blasts and fire Wednesday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no bodies have yet been recovered.

Officials had said earlier that there had been no contact with the sailors since the explosions, which lit up the sky above the Mumbai navy base where the vessel was docked. They said navy divers had opened one of its hatches but had not yet been able to enter the submarine because it was dark and full of muddy water.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s government has slapped a monthlong nighttime curfew on Cairo and 10 provinces.

Wednesday’s decision was announced shortly after interim President Adly Mansour declared a monthlong, nationwide state of emergency and ordered the army to back the police in efforts to restore order.

Violence spread across much of the country after police swept in with armored vehicles, bulldozers and helicopters to clear two encampments of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. At least 95 people have been killed, many of them in the assaults on the two vigils.

The nighttime curfew affects provinces in southern Egypt where supporters of the Islamist Morsi are strong, like Bani Suef, Assiut and Minya. Christian churches and property in the three provinces have also been the target of attacks.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A stout green catamaran plied the polluted waters of Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay alongside wooden fishing boats, but its catch Monday consisted not of grouper or swordfish but rather plastic bags, empty soda bottles and a discarded toilet seat.

The catamaran is one of three so-called “eco-boats,” floating garbage vessels that are a key part of authorities’ pledge to clean up Rio’s Guanabara Bay before it and other Rio waterways host events during the 2016 Olympic Games. But critics say the boats do little to address the more pressing question of sewage.

With limited trash and sewage services in this sprawling metropolis of 6 million people, tons of garbage and raw waste flow daily from sludge-filled rivers into the bay, where Olympic and Paralympic sailing events will be held. At low tide, mountains of household refuse, old sofas and even washing machines are seen.

An Associated Press analysis in November of more than a decade’s worth of Rio state government tests on waterways across the city showed fecal coliform pollution levels far above those considered safe by Brazilian or U.S. law.

That pollution means nearly all beaches dotting the 148-square-mile (383-square-kilometer) bay have long been abandoned by swimmers, and some health experts warn of risks to athletes who come into contact with the water. Elite sailors have warned that high-speed collisions with floating detritus could damage or even sink sailboats during the Olympics.

Water pollution issues began making headlines in Brazil’s local press again in recent days, after thick patches of brown foam appeared along the city’s most popular beaches like Copacabana as the Southern Hemisphere summer hits full stride. Rio’s beaches, overwhelmed with holiday visitors, have been inundated with trash, much of it floating in water just yards (meters) from the sand.

That’s where authorities hope the eco-boats will make an impact. They’re rectangular crafts made of steel and fitted with powerful speedboat motors and a sieve that traps garbage floating up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) below the water’s surface, capturing everything from household trash to bigger items like abandoned television sets and refrigerators. The trash is dumped into the boat, where recyclables are sorted out.

The vessels don’t address sewage, but authorities insist they’ll make a big dent in the overall pollution.

“Our objective is to not to have floating garbage in Guanabara Bay,” said Gelson Serva, who heads the state government’s latest bay cleanup program, an $840 million project that includes efforts to expand the capacity of the city’s strained sewage treatment system. Only 30 percent of Rio’s sewage is treated, with the rest flowing into area rivers, the bay, local lagoons and its world-famous beaches.

“Those who live around the bay can already notice a difference over the past two years,” Serva said as the clanking sieve dumped garbage into the ship’s hull.

Three mid-sized boats weighing 4 tons and with the capacity to hold 37 square feet (3.5 square meters) of trash began operating on Friday. Rented from a local firm, each he mid-sized boat costs $842 daily to operate, including fuel and a three-person crew consisting of two sailors and a garbage collector. Serva said six small boats and one large barge will join them by March.

Mario Moscatelli, a biologist and outspoken environmentalist, said that the eco-boats are a positive step in the right direction, but are too little, too late.

“At this point, for the patient that is Guanabara Bay, over-the-counter medicines won’t do. What’s needed now is chemotherapy, radiotherapy, definitive action,” he said.

Moscatelli said the major rivers flowing into bay should be fitted with heavyweight “eco-barriers” to filter out the garbage at the source. Existing “eco-barriers” on some rivers are too flimsy and allow most of the trash through, he said.

“This sort of manual collection is great for photos,” he said of the boats now gathering trash, “but it doesn’t even begin to address the root of the problem.”

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister urged Fallujah residents on Monday to expel al-Qaida militants to avoid an all-out battle in the besieged city, a sign that the government could be paving the way for an imminent military push in an attempt to rout hard-line Sunni insurgents challenging its territorial control over the western approaches to Baghdad.

The militants’ seizure of Fallujah and parts of nearby Ramadi, once bloody battlegrounds for U.S. troops, has marked the most direct challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government since the departure of American forces two years ago. Both the U.S. and its longtime rival Iran view the escalating conflict with alarm, with neither wanting to see al-Qaida take firmer root inside Iraq. Washington has ruled out sending in American troops but recently delivered dozens of Hellfire missiles to help bolster Iraqi forces.

Tehran signaled Monday that it is willing to follow suit, saying it is ready to help Iraq battle al-Qaida “terrorists” by sending military equipment and advisers should Baghdad ask for it. It is unclear whether Baghdad would take up the Iranian offer, made by Gen. Mohammad Hejazi, the Iranian Army deputy chief-of-staff, in comments to Iranian state media. He ruled out the sending of ground troops across the border.

Any direct Iranian help would exacerbate sectarian tensions fueling Iraq’s conflict, as Iraqi Sunnis accuse Tehran of backing what they say are their Shiite-led government’s unfair policies against them. Iran has the power to sway al-Maliki’s political fortunes ahead of upcoming elections through its deep ties to Iraq’s major Shiite factions, which have dominated government offices and security forces since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Iran’s arch-foe Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iraqi government troops have surrounded Fallujah, which was overrun by fighters from al-Qaida’s Iraq branch last week. The city is just 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. It is located in the vast Sunni-dominated and largely desert province of Anbar, which borders Syria, where al-Qaida-linked groups are among the most formidable fighters among the rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad.

Al-Maliki did not say how he expects Fallujah residents and pro-government tribesmen to push out the militants. In his message, broadcast over state TV, he also urged Iraqi troops to avoid targeting residential areas. Dozens of families have begun fleeing Fallujah to nearby towns, crammed in cars loaded with their belongings.

Ahmed Ali, an Iraq researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, cautioned that a military assault on Fallujah would likely lead to civilian casualties and “possibly invoke other violent tribal responses.” It could also give al-Qaida a chance to launch attacks in other parts of the country given the concentration of forces in Anbar.

“It is important to recognize that (al-Qaida) cannot be decisively defeated in Anbar. The (Iraqi military) presence in Anbar is therefore likely to be long-term, which increases the opportunities for (al-Qaida) to exert control elsewhere in Iraq,” he wrote.

The Iraqi al-Qaida group, known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, also took control of most parts of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi last week.

Iraqi troops have been trying to dislodge the militants from the two cities. On Sunday, fighting pitting the militant extremists against government forces and allied tribesmen in Anbar killed dozens of people, including 22 soldiers, 10 civilians and an unknown number of militants.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Washington was “very, very concerned” by the recent fighting but would not send in American troops. Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the U.S. is expediting the delivery of 10 Scan Eagle drones and 100 Hellfire missiles, and expects they will get to Iraq in the spring. He said the U.S. is not participating in any mission planning.

Fallujah residents said clashes continued into Monday along the main highway that links Baghdad with neighboring Syria and Jordan.

Al-Qaida fighters and their supporters maintained control of the city center, spreading out over the streets and surrounding government buildings. Al-Qaida black flags have been seen on government and police vehicles captured by the militants during the clashes.

The Anbar Military Command reported that Iraqi forces killed an unspecified number of militants by firing on their vehicles from the air over the village of Karma, near Fallujah. Fighters from a pro-government Sunni militia killed six militants in a firefight outside Fallujah on Monday, a police officer said.

Sporadic clashes erupted in some parts of Ramadi too, according to residents. The Anbar provincial government said three rockets struck the military operations command center there.

All residents in Anbar talked to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.

Lt. Gen. Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Iraqi army’s Anbar Military Command, told state TV that “two to three days” are needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi.

Also Monday, militants in a speeding car attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in the mainly Sunni Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, which is near Anbar, killing two soldiers and wounding four others, according to a police officer and a medical official. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

The latest unrest in Anbar began on Dec. 28, when Iraqi security forces arrested a Sunni lawmaker sought on terrorism charges. Two days later, the government dismantled a months-old, anti-government Sunni protest camp, sparking clashes with militants.

Sectarian tensions in Iraq have been coming to a head for months, however. Violence spiked after the government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp last April. Militants have also targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with waves of coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.

According to the United Nations, Iraq had the highest annual death toll in 2013 since the worst of the sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007. The U.N. said violence killed 8,868 last year.

___

Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Dennis Rodman said Monday that a game he and other former National Basketball Association players are planning in North Korea will be a “birthday present” for one of their most unlikely fans: leader Kim Jong Un.

Rodman’s squad — featuring ex-All Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson and Vin Baker — will play against a team of North Koreans on Wednesday, which is believed to be Kim’s birthday. The former NBA players, who arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, also include Eric “Sleepy” Floyd, guard Doug Christie and Charles D. Smith, who played for the New York Knicks. Four streetballers are also on the squad.

Rodman told The Associated Press he was glad to be in North Korea for the game, though he said he has gotten death threats for his repeated visits. He said proceeds from the game would go to a charity for the deaf in North Korea.

“The marshal is actually trying to change this country in a great way,” Rodman said of Kim, using the leader’s official title. “I think that people thought that this was a joke, and Dennis Rodman is just doing this because fame and fortune.” Instead, he said, he sees the game as a “birthday present” for Kim and his country.

“Just to even have us here, it’s an awesome feeling. I want these guys here to show the world, and speak about North Korea in a great light,” he said. “I hope people will have a different view about North Korea.”

The game will be another milestone in Rodman’s surprising relationship with Kim, who rarely meets with foreigners and about whom very little is known outside of North Korea. Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet Kim since the leader inherited power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011.

Rodman traveled to North Korea for the first time last February with the Harlem Globetrotters for an HBO series. After spending time together, Rodman called Kim a “friend for life” and came back just before Christmas to hold tryouts for the North Korean basketball team, though he did not meet with Kim then.

Rodman has been given the red-carpet treatment on each of his trips, but visiting North Korea for any high-profile American is a political minefield. To keep the game itself friendly, the two sides will only play against each other in the first half, and then mix together in the second.

Americans are regarded as enemies in North Korea since the two countries never signed a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. Thousands of U.S. troops are still based in South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world.

Relations are also tense because of the North’s development of nuclear weapons and its threats to use them if a conflict breaks out with Washington or Seoul. Rodman has also been slammed for not trying to use his influence with Kim to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, an American missionary with health problems who is being held in North Korea on charges of committing “anti-state” crimes.

To make the trip more complicated, Kim’s once-powerful uncle was recently executed for a long litany of alleged crimes, including trying to divide the regime and usurp power from Kim. Although that has generated speculation abroad about the regime’s unity, North Korean officials say the execution settled the issue and there is no instability.

Rodman, however, says none of that is his concern.

“I’m not a president, I’m not a politician, I’m not an ambassador,” he said before arriving. “I’m just an athlete and the reason for me to go is to bring peace to the world, that’s it. That’s all I want, no money. I want no money, no money.”

Former Knicks player Smith said he hopes the game will lead to better relations between the two countries.

“It’s new being here, but overall the concept is not new,” he said. “The team is made up of a lot of guys who really care, that’s the most important, it’s not about bringing dream-teamers. It’s about guys who are coming that want to be a part of this, that care, and really that care about humanity.”

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Romanian-born Texas fugitive charged in the shooting death of his wife and their son at the family’s Houston-area house can be extradited to the U.S.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Camil Matase, who was caught in eastern Romania on Nov. 20, can be returned to Houston to face charges. The FBI had asked for his extradition.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said a capital murder warrant names Matase. Authorities said the bodies of 47-year-old Emilia Matase and 26-year-old Emanuel Matase were discovered Nov. 14 in their home.

The ruling comes a day before a two-day visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who will discuss strengthening the rule of law with Romanian officials, according to the State Department.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Dennis Rodman apologized Thursday for comments he made in North Korea about a detained American missionary, saying he had been drinking and was under pressure as he organized a game with former NBA players.

The former basketball star issued the apology through publicist Jules Feiler in an email message to The Associated Press, a day after he sang “Happy Birthday” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the start of the friendly game.

Rodman has been slammed for not using his influence with Kim to help free Kenneth Bae, the missionary in poor health who is being confined in North Korea for “anti-state” crimes. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Rodman implied Bae was at fault.

“I want to apologize,” Rodman said Thursday. “I take full responsibility for my actions. It had been a very stressful day. Some of my teammates were leaving because of pressure from their families and business associates. My dreams of basketball diplomacy was quickly falling apart. I had been drinking. It’s not an excuse but by the time the interview happened I was upset. I was overwhelmed. It’s not an excuse, it’s just the truth.”

Rodman said he wanted to apologize first to Bae’s family. “I’m very sorry. At this point I should know better than to make political statements. I’m truly sorry.”

In the interview, Rodman was asked whether he would raise the issue of Bae during his visit.

“Kenneth Bae did one thing,” Rodman replied. “If you understand what Kenneth Bae did — do you understand what he did in this country?”

Asked to explain, Rodman declined to respond.

Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary and tour operator based in China, has been detained for more than a year. North Korea sees missionary work as a threat to its authoritarian government.

Bae’s sister, Terri Chung, welcomed Rodman’s apology.

“I think it’s good to see him recognize the gravity and the urgency of Ken’s plight,” she said from her home in Edmonds, Washington. “It’s nothing he can make light of or play games with.”

“I just want to make sure that everyone — not just Dennis Rodman — everyone knows about Kenneth Bae’s plight and how precarious it is,” she said.

The U.S. State Department distanced itself from Rodman and said it did not want to “dignify” his activities or comments in Pyongyang by commenting on them. But spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the department was open to speaking with Rodman on his return.

“We have not reached out to him. We’ve said before, if he wants to reach out to us, we’re happy to hear from him and what he has to say,” she told reporters.

Rodman dedicated the game to his “best friend” Kim, who along with his wife and other senior officials and their wives watched from a special seating area. The capacity crowd of about 14,000 at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium clapped loudly as Rodman sang a verse from the birthday song and then bowed deeply to Kim, seated above him in the stands.

Rodman said he was honored to be able to play the game in the North Korean capital and called the event “historic.” Some members of the U.S. Congress, the NBA and human rights groups, however, say he has become a public relations tool for North Korea’s government.

The government’s poor human rights record and its threats to use nuclear weapons against rival South Korea and the United States have kept it a pariah state. Kim shocked the world in December by having his uncle, once considered his mentor, executed after being accused of a litany of crimes including corruption, womanizing, drug abuse and attempting to seize power.

Rodman has refused to address those concerns while continuing to forge a relationship with Kim.

Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet Kim, who inherited power after the death of his father in late 2011. Rodman has said he is not a statesman and instead is seeking only to build cultural connections with the North through basketball that may help improve relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

Along with Rodman, the former NBA players included ex-All Stars Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson and Vin Baker. Also on the roster were Craig Hodges, Doug Christie, Charles D. Smith and four streetballers.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 21 people in an attack likely meant to send a message to the government and would-be army volunteers over the Iraqi troops’ ongoing push to retake two cities overrun by al-Qaida militants.

The blast struck as an international rights group warned of the apparent use of indiscriminate mortar fire in civilian areas by Iraqi forces in their campaign to reassert control over the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Al-Qaida-linked fighters overran parts of both cities in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province last week, seizing control of police stations and military posts, freeing prisoners and setting up their own checkpoints.

Iraqi troops, backed by pro-government Sunni militiamen, since have been clashing with the fighters and carrying out airstrikes against their positions in an effort to reassert control of the cities.

Tribal leaders in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, have warned al-Qaida fighters there to leave to avoid a military showdown.

The United States, whose troops fought bloody battles in Fallujah and Ramadi, has ruled out sending American troops back in but has been delivering missiles to help bolster Iraqi forces, with more on the way.

Vice President Joe Biden has spoken to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki twice this week, voicing support for his government’s efforts to regain control of the cities and urging him to continue talks with local, tribal and national leaders.

Iran, too, is watching the unrest with alarm as it shares American concerns about al-Qaida-linked militants taking firmer root in Iraq. It has offered to supply military equipment and advisers to help fight militants in Anbar should Baghdad ask for assistance.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Iraqi forces appear to have used mortar fire indiscriminately in civilian areas in recent days in their effort to dislodge militants in Anbar, and that some residential areas were targeted with mortar shells and gunfire even though there was no signs of an al-Qaida presence in those specific areas.

The New York-based group said its allegations were based on multiple accounts provided by Anbar residents.

It also warned that a government blockade of Ramadi and Fallujah is limiting civilian access to food, water and fuel, and that “unlawful methods of fighting by all sides” has caused civilian casualties and major property damage.

Several approaches to Fallujah have been blocked by Iraqi troops, and only families with children were being allowed to leave with “extreme difficulty” through two checkpoints that remained open, the rights group said. It added that single men were being denied exit from the city.

“Civilians have been caught in the middle in Anbar, and the government appears to be doing nothing to protect them,” the group’s Mideast director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement.

Iraqi government officials could not immediately be reached for comment to respond to the rights group’s allegations.

The warning came a day after the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross voiced concerns about growing humanitarian threats in the area as food and water supplies start to run out.

Emergency shipments of food, water, blankets and other essential items have begun reaching families displaced by the fighting in Anbar, the U.N. said Thursday.

Some of the initial supplies were delivered to families left stranded in schools and mosques across Fallujah.

More than 11,000 families have been displaced because of the fighting, according to U.N. records.

The Baghdad attacker Thursday morning detonated his explosives outside the recruiting center in the Iraqi capital’s central Allawi neighborhood as volunteers were waiting to register inside, a police official said. At least 35 people were wounded in the blast, he said.

A hospital official confirmed the casualty numbers. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide attacks are the hallmark of al-Qaida’s Iraq branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Thursday’s attack on the recruiting center appears to be in retaliation for the military’s offensive and an effort to dissuade potential new recruits from bolstering the Iraqi army’s ranks.

It followed an attack late Wednesday by gunmen who struck at army barracks in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 soldiers.

Al-Qaida militants, emboldened by their gains in the civil war in neighboring Syria, have sought to position themselves as the champions of Iraq’s disenchanted Sunnis against the Shiite-led government, even though major Sunni tribes in Anbar and elsewhere oppose the group’s extremist ideology and are in some cases fighting against it.

Sectarian tensions have been on the rise for months in Sunni-dominated Anbar province as minority Sunnis protested what they perceive as discrimination and random arrests by the Shiite-led government. Violence spiked after the Dec. 28 arrest of a Sunni lawmaker sought on terrorism charges and the government’s dismantling of a year-old anti-government Sunni protest camp in the provincial capital of Ramadi.

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande threatened legal action Friday over a magazine report saying he is having a secret affair with an actress, the latest breach in the French media’s practice of turning a blind eye to presidential love affairs.

Rumors have long circulated that Hollande might have a lover. The magazine Closer published images Friday showing a bodyguard and a helmeted man it says is Hollande visiting the apartment of Julie Gayet, a moderately known French actress who appeared in a clip for his 2012 presidential campaign.

French media faces strict privacy laws, as well as a longtime tradition of ignoring the private lives of public figures. Former President Francois Mitterrand had a daughter with his lover that the French media knew about but never revealed, until the president himself appeared publicly with his daughter coming out of a restaurant.

But the publication marked the latest incursion into the once-sacred private lives of French politicians. The tradition of keeping private lives private has been chipped away since Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy divorced his wife Cecilia, who was having an affair, and remarried model and singer Carla Bruni.

Bloggers, tweeters and other online sources have tapped into public curiosity and pushed the borders of French privacy. Closer last made a splash when it published topless photos of British Prince William’s wife, Kate.

Hollande said in a statement he “deeply deplores the attacks on respect for privacy, to which each citizen has a right.” He is weighing possible action, including via the courts, it said. He did not address the alleged affair.

Hollande, who was dubbed “Monsieur Normal” by French media, has never married. He had four children with politician Segolene Royal, and has been living in recent years with his partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, considered France’s first lady.

Gayet’s lawyer and agent did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday about the Closer report. The actress, who has performed in nearly four dozen films and sometimes appears on talk shows, praises Hollande in the campaign spot for his humility and character, and says he is someone who “really listens.”

Closer published images it says show one of Hollande’s bodyguards at the door to Gayet’s building, and a motorcyclist arriving to drop off a helmeted man on the night of Dec. 30 and escorting him away the next morning. The magazine, a tabloid known for suggestive photos and gossip, says the alleged affair raises questions about the president’s security, if he is sneaking out with a single bodyguard and traveling exposed on the back of a motorcycle.

It is unclear how a potential romantic scandal might affect Hollande’s presidency. His popularity is already very low, largely over voter frustration at his failure to reduce unemployment and get the economy growing.

Last year, according to French media reports, Gayet filed a lawsuit accusing some websites of invasion of privacy over reports on the alleged affair. Her lawyer issued a statement to AFP at the time saying that she was targeting “a rumor spread on the Internet that attributes to her, without any basis, a romantic relationship with the president.”

The magazine says it conducted an investigation and claims that “there is, between Francois Hollande and Julie Gayet … a true passion that has turned their hearts upside down, rocked their lives and made them take foolish risks.”

It says the apartment is in the same Paris district as the president’s palace, and is Gayet’s but registered in the name of actor friends. It says the pair has been meeting there secretly since June.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister announced Friday that a teenage boy who sacrificed his life to stop a suicide bomber who wanted to attack his school should be honored with the nation’s highest civil award of bravery.

Aitzaz Hasan, 17, died Monday in a remote village in Hangu, a district in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistanis have praised the boy since his teacher told police that he saw Hasan chasing the bomber, who detonated his explosives, killing the teen.

On Friday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif praised the boy in a statement, saying his “brave act saved the lives of hundreds of students and established a sterling example of gallantry and patriotism.” Sharif advised President Mamnoon Hussain to approve the conferment of Pakistan’s Star of Bravery to Hasan, the statement said.

The award is given by the president on the advice of the prime minister.

On Friday, Hasan’s teacher Azmat Ali told AP Television News that the boy “played a significant role while stopping the suicide bomber. Our school is really proud of him.”

He remembered Hasan as a brave, sincere and an obedient student.

Classmate Naseeb Ali also praised Hasan, saying he was a very bold and kind boy.

“We felt sorry after losing him but we are proud of being his friends,” Ali said.

The area where Hasan lived is home to many members of a minority Shiite Muslim sect who have often been killed by militants who view them as heretics.

Pakistan has witnessed scores of suicide bombings in recent years.

Meanwhile Friday, gunmen killed two workers at the shrine of Ghazi Shah Baba in the northwestern city of Mardan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Iqbal Khan said. Mardan lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the northwestern city of Peshawar.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, who follow a strict interpretation of Islam, have in recent years targeted shrines, which they consider to be sacrilegious. Last week, militants killed six people at the shrine of a Sufi saint in the port city of Karachi.

Khan said an investigating is underway to determine whether the two attacks are connected.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Kenyan military says it has killed at least 30 Islamic militants in an airstrike on a militant camp in Somalia.

A statement from the military Friday said fighter jets attacked the camp at Garbarahey in the Gedo region in Somalia on Thursday, where a meeting was being held.

Military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said on his Twitter account that al-Shabab leader Ahmed Godane was among the targets but was not killed. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the Sept. 21 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi in which 67 died at hands of gunmen. Kenya sent troops into Somalia to fight al-Shabab militants in 2011 following a cross- border attacks blamed on the militant group.

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — A shootout between security forces and militants in the volatile Russian region of Dagestan killed five people, authorities said.

The gunbattle broke out after militants barricaded themselves inside a home in the village of Karlanyurt, Dagestan Investigative Committee spokesman Rasul Temirbekov told The Associated Press. The fatalities included three security force members and two militants. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were other militants at the house.

The village is about 550 kilometers (340 miles) from Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympics from Feb. 7-23.

One of the slain militants, Marat Idrisov, was responsible for a handful of attacks on security officials and religious leaders in southern Russia, including a bombing that killed three in the city of Pyatigorsk, the National Anti-terrorism Committee said.

Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in the North Caucasus region, has been the epicenter of a simmering conflict between a growing Islamic insurgency and Russian security forces.

A top rebel leader in the North Caucasus has called on his followers to attack the Sochi Olympics, and Moscow has vowed to crack down on terrorist activity before the games.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A 51-year-old Danish tourist was gang-raped near a popular shopping area in New Delhi after she got lost and approached a group of men for directions back to her hotel, police said Wednesday.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said two people were arrested after a daylong search for the suspects. Details were not immediately available.

The attack is the latest crime to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in India.

The woman also was robbed and beaten in the attack, which happened Tuesday near Connaught Place, Bhagat said.

The woman asked the men for directions to her hotel, Bhagat said. They lured her to a secluded area where they raped her at knife-point, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The woman managed to reach her hotel Tuesday evening and the owner called police. Police were questioning several other suspects.

“When she came, it was miserable,” said Amit Bahl, owner of the Amax hotel in the Paharganj area, which is popular with backpackers. The woman was crying and “not in good shape,” he said.

“I am really ashamed that this happened,” said Bahl, who sounded shaken.

A sign outside the hotel reads, “Recommended by Lonely Planet.”

The woman, whose name was not released, was on her way back to Denmark, said Ole Egberg Mikkelsen, head of the Danish Foreign Ministry’s consular department in Copenhagen, which handles cases involving Danes abroad. Egberg Mikkelsen said the woman had received assistance from Indian and Danish authorities, and that her next of kin had been contacted.

An Indian police official said the woman boarded a flight home Wednesday morning.

It was not immediately known whether she had been traveling alone. The Danish Embassy in New Delhi had no comment.

The problem of sexual violence in India has gained widespread attention since the horrific gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012. Public fury over the case has led to more stringent laws that doubled prison terms for rape to 20 years and criminalized voyeurism and stalking.

But for many women, particularly the poor, daily indignities and abuse continue unabated and the new laws have not made the streets any safer. Ranjana Kumari, director of India’s Center for Social Research, said India’s conservative, patriarchal traditions lead men to use rape as a tool to instill fear in women.

“This mindset is not changing,” she said. “It’s a huge challenge.”

Experts say the rapid growth of India’s cities and the yawning gulf between rich and poor are exacerbating the problem of sexual violence, with young men struggling to prove their traditional dominance in a changing world.

Cultural stigmas, police apathy and judicial incompetence have long made it difficult for women to even report rapes.

Still, there has been a surge in the number of rapes being reported recently, suggesting women are emboldened to speak up. Between January and October last year, 1,330 rapes were reported in Delhi and its suburbs, compared with 706 for all of 2012, according to government figures.

Foreigners also have been targets, including a Swiss woman who was cycling with her husband in central India when she was gang-raped.

The cases threaten India’s lucrative tourism industry. Last year, the Tourism Ministry launched an “I Respect Women” campaign to reassure travelers. Tourism accounted for 6.6 percent of India’s GDP in 2012, the latest year for which figures are available.

GENEVA (AP) — The Vatican came under blistering criticism from a U.N. committee Thursday for its handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal, facing its most intense public grilling to date over allegations that it protected pedophile priests at the expense of victims.

The Vatican insisted it had little jurisdiction to sanction pedophile priests around the globe, saying it was for local law enforcement to do so. But officials conceded that it needs to do more, given the scale of the problem and the role the Holy See plays in the international community.

“The Holy See gets it,” Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor, told the committee. “Let’s not say too late or not. But there are certain things that need to be done differently.”

He was responding to a grilling by the U.N. committee over the Holy See’s failure to abide by terms of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child which, among other things, calls for signatories to take all appropriate measures to keep children from harm. Critics allege the church enabled the rape of thousands of children by encouraging a culture of cover-up to defend its reputation.

Groups representing victims of clerical abuse have welcomed the hearing as the first time the Vatican has had to publicly defend its record. But Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Thursday that the Vatican’s responses seem like “more of the same.”

The scene inside the conference room at U.N. headquarters in Geneva was remarkable by U.N. standards, with committee members themselves marveling at how such a powerful institution as the Holy See could be hauled before a relatively obscure U.N. human rights committee to answer uncomfortable questions before a packed audience.

The committee’s main human rights investigator, Sara Oviedo, was particularly tough on the Vatican delegation, asking repeated and informed follow-up questions and refusing to let the Vatican duck the answers. Oveido, a sociologist from Ecuador who was elected in June to serve as the committee’s vice president, pressed the Vatican delegation on the frequent ways abusive priests were transferred rather than turned in to police.

Given the church’s “zero tolerance” policy, she asked, why were there “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?”

Another committee member, Maria Rita Parsi, an Italian psychologist and psychotherapist, pressed further: “If these events continue to be hidden and covered up, to what extent will children be affected?”

Committee members asked the Holy See to provide data about the scale of the problem, what it has done to address it, and what Pope Francis intends to do with a new commission announced last month to find best practices to protect children from abuse and help victims heal. They also asked about specific cases currently on the Vatican’s desk, including accusations that the Vatican’s own ambassador to the Dominican Republic sexually abused teenage boys.

The U.N. committee is made up of independent experts — not other U.N. member states — and it will deliver final observations and recommendations Feb. 5 that are not binding. The committee has no ability to sanction the Vatican for any shortcomings, but the process is aimed at encouraging, and sometimes shaming, treaty signatories into honoring their international commitments.

The Holy See ratified the U.N. convention in 1990, and submitted a first implementation report in 1994. But it didn’t provide progress reports for nearly two decades. It only submitted one in 2012 after coming under criticism following the 2010 explosion of child sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond.

Victims groups and human rights organizations teamed up to press the U.N. committee to challenge the Holy See on its abuse record, providing it with reports of written testimony from victims and evidence outlining the global scale of the problem.

Their reports cite case studies in Mexico and Britain, grand jury investigations in the U.S., and government fact-finding inquiries from Canada to Ireland to Australia that detail how the Vatican’s policies, its culture of secrecy and fear of scandal contributed to the problem.

Despite the unprecedented public scrutiny, Blaine of SNAP said, “When they say that these crimes should be prosecuted by states, it seems so disingenuous because we know that the church officials at the state level obstruct those efforts to bring justice.”

In an interview with The Associated Press midway through the hearing, she said the Vatican seemed to be telling the committee only “lofty words” and what it wanted to hear.

“These church officials continually cite new policies that sound progressive and sound adequate, and yet we never see any evidence of following these policies. The policies are empty, and the policies have no teeth to be enforced,” she said. “They have done this so many times over the decades.”

The Holy See has long insisted that it isn’t responsible for abusive priests, saying they aren’t employees of the Vatican but rather members of the broader 1.2-billion-strong Catholic Church over which the Vatican exercises limited control. It has maintained that bishops are responsible for the priests in their care, not the pope.

“Priests are not functionaries of the Vatican,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, told the committee. “Priests are citizens of their own states, and they fall under the jurisdiction of their own country.”

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Six workers have fallen off a roof at the bobsled center for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi when the snow they were clearing slid to the ground.

Associated Press technicians who witnessed the fall Thursday said one of the men appeared to have injured a leg and was taken away on a stretcher, while others sustained minor injuries.

The men were clearing snow at the Sanki Sliding Center, which will host the bobsled and luge events at next month’s games in the Russian Black Sea city.

The AP technicians said the workers appeared to have been harnessed to the building, but slid down with the snow. They estimated the roof was 10 meters (about 30 feet) high.

No comment was immediately available from Sochi organizers.

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — They’re designed to celebrate a millennium of Russian might and this country’s modern rebound, and kick off two weeks of extraordinary human endeavors and planetary sportsmanship. But the ceremony opening the Sochi Olympics on Friday, more than anything, will be about one man: Vladimir Putin.

He charmed and strong-armed his way to hosting the games at a summer beach resort that he envisioned as a winter paradise. He stared down terrorist threats and worldwide wrath at a scarcely veiled campaign against gays. He has shrugged off critiques that construction of the most costly games in Olympic history was both shoddy and corrupt.

Ballet, man-made snow and avant-garde art will make an appearance at Sochi’s opening ceremonies, though as with all past opening ceremonies, the details are under wraps. They can’t really compete with the cinematic splendor of the London Olympics or the pyrotechnic extravaganza of Beijing, but then again, the Winter Games are usually more low-key.

No matter. All Putin needs is an event that tells the world “Russia is back.”

It’s a message meant for millions around the world who will watch the show — and one for his countrymen, too.

Russians will form the bulk of the spectators in Sochi for the Olympics, a people whose forebears endured centuries of oppression, a revolution that changed the world, a Soviet experiment that built rockets and nuclear missiles but struggled to feed its people. Russians who sometimes embrace Putin’s heavy hand because they fear uncertainty more than they crave freedom, and who, despite inhabiting the largest country in the world, feel insecure about their place in it.

They’re pinning especially high hopes on their athletes, once a force to be reckoned with and the pride of the nation. They were an national embarrassment at the Vancouver Games in 2010, with just three gold medals and a string of doping busts.

“This ceremony can only help motivate our guys,” said Russian bobsled coach Oleg Sokolov. “You have to visit this kind of event, especially when the whole stadium is cheering for you.”

This year, Russia has cleaned up its game and is presenting hundreds of skaters, skiers and other champions in the arenas on Sochi’s seashore and in the nearby Caucasus Mountains slopes of Krasnaya Polyana.

While the United States, Norway and Germany are seen as leading medal contenders, Russia will be pushing hard to bring home a bundle for the home crowd. Putin put on the pressure even as he tried to motivate them this week: “We are all counting on you.”

The world will be watching the entire Olympic machine in Sochi, and using what it sees to sit in judgment of Putin’s Russia, where he has suffocated political opposition and ruled overtly or covertly for 15 years.

Is it a has-been superpower that can’t keep the electricity on during a hockey game? Or a driver of the 21st century global economy? A diplomatic middleweight with ties to despots that wields influence only via its veto at the United Nations? Or a fairy tale of prosperous resurrection from the communist collapse and its brutal aftermath?

Who sits next to Putin on the VIP balcony may provide some clue. President Barack Obama and some other Western leaders are staying away, upset at a law that he championed barring homosexual “propaganda” aimed at minors that has been used to more widely discriminate against gays.

The opening ceremonies will gloss over the ugly bits as they hand over the games to the men and women who will spend the next two weeks challenging records and the limits of human ability.

Princess Anne of Britain, who competed in equestrian at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, says the ceremonies should remind the world the athletes “are committing themselves to the Olympic ideal” — not just be a big party.

Some 6,000 athletes and team members, a record for the Winter Olympics, will come for 98 events, including the new slopestyle extreme skiing competition that began Thursday. More women will compete than ever before.

Among Americans, Shaun White is skipping slopestyle to focus on winning a third-straight snowboarding gold in halfpipe. Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner will try to out-skate South Korea’s Yuna Kim.

The pros of the NHL won’t arrive until Monday, taking a special break in their season to hop on charter flights to Sochi and splitting off to compete against each other on behalf of their homelands.

The last thing anyone wants to think about as Sochi opens the Olympics is terrorism, but it won’t be far from anyone’s mind.

A few hundred miles (kilometers) away lies Chechnya, the site of two wars in the past two decades. And Dagestan, childhood home to the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings and where militants regularly mount attacks. And Volgograd, where two suicide bombs killed 34 people in December.

A decade ago, extremists hid a bomb in a stadium in Chechnya during construction. At its grand opening, the bomb exploded, killing the Kremlin-backed Chechen president.

Fear of an attack on the Sochi Games has fueled Putin’s strict security agenda and brought U.S. warships to the region. About Russian 40,000 security forces are on guard, standing watch in all corners of Sochi and its Olympic Park on the sea and built-from-scratch mountain ski resort.

Legions of small business owners, political leaders and residents of this region are also hoping things stay safe — and hoping that Putin wins his gamble the games will turn Sochi into a year-round resort zone. Glitches with not-quite-ready hotels and a run of last-minute construction have already seeded doubts.

While London’s Olympics celebrated little-known young athletes chosen to light the Olympic torch, the Sochi Games may celebrate experience instead.

Six-time Olympian Todd Lodwick, competing in the Nordic combined, will bear the U.S. team’s flag at the opening ceremonies. Russia chose bobsledder Alexander Zubkov, a 39-year-old heading into his fifth Olympics to carry its flag through the Fisht Stadium at the opening event.

Who will light the Olympic cauldron? Russian hockey great Vladislav Tretiak — among the best to ever play the game — has said he’ll take part, and some speculate he’ll be Putin’s choice for the high honor of the opening ceremony.

It may be too much for Putin to hope that three hours of an opening ceremony will reshape his global image. But in a country that embraces superlatives and spectacle and set a world standard for classical dance, he can count on them to provide a good show.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe is set to upgrade its ties with Cuba in a bid to broaden economic cooperation and demand more progress on respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, a senior European Union official said Thursday.

The 28-nation bloc’s foreign ministers will endorse a mandate to negotiate a new, broad political agreement with Cuba at their upcoming meeting Monday, the official said.

The agreement won’t include facilitating trade relations or more development aid for Cuba, but it will mark a crucial step in that direction by broadening and regularizing the two sides’ political exchanges, he said.

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of the decision’s announcement, declined to detail what progress on human rights the EU will specifically demand from Cuba, saying it would be counterproductive to cite specific benchmarks at this point.

He insisted, however, that any progress on reaching the new political framework will hinge on “developments on the island since the idea is to accompany the process of reforms, modernization and further strengthening of fundamental freedoms and human rights.”

Should Cuba’s progress stall, he suggested, then “the motivation to engage frequently will be much less. Other priorities will get the upper hand.”

In Havana, Cuban officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the forthcoming EU mandate.

The EU resumed low-level contacts with Cuba in 2008, two years after Raul Castro became president and started granting Cubans some more freedom, including lifting some travel restrictions, while also slowly opening up the state-dominated economy to private businesses.

Washington’s relations with Cuba are defined by the 52-year-old trade embargo, but European nations have long traded with Cuba, and thousands of sun-seeking Europeans flock to the islands’ Caribbean beaches every year.

The EU official said the bloc’s move comes in “full understanding with Washington,” noting that the U.S. position on Cuba also is experiencing some relaxation. The U.S. and the EU are both hoping Cuba will implement further reforms, “therefore this is not an issue where out paths diverge,” he added.

Cuba has received about 80 million ($110 million) in development aid from the EU since 2008. While that sum is small, experts say the EU would certainly be ready to provide more assistance, if the country took further steps toward democratization and respect for fundamental freedoms.

The EU already is the Caribbean island nation’s second most important trading partner, trailing only Cuba’s socialist ally Venezuela, and one of the biggest sources of foreign direct investment. About one-fifth of Cuba’s imports currently come from Europe, according to EU figures.

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of a powerful al-Qaida-linked group in Syria gave a rival breakaway group a five-day ultimatum to accept mediation by leading clerics to end infighting or be “expelled” from the region.

The ultimatum announced in an audio recording by the leader of the Nusra Front aims to end months of deadly violence between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Islamic factions. The fighting has killed hundreds of people since the beginning of the year and is undermining their wider struggle against President Bashar Assad.

It comes two days after the killing of Abu Khaled al-Suri, who had acted as al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri’s representative in Syria. Rebels and activists believe he was assassinated by two suicide attackers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Both the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are considered terrorist organizations by the United States.

Al-Zawahri has named the Nusra Front al-Qaida’s branch in Syria and broken ties with the Islamic State, which has increasingly clashed with rebel brigades in opposition-held areas of Syria. The Islamic State has angered other factions with its brutal tactics and campaign to Islamize areas under its control in the northeast.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the fighting between the Islamic State and rebel groups, including the Nusra Front.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Nusra Front leader, suggested in the audio recording arbitration by clerics to stop the infighting. He warned the Islamic State that it would be driven from Syria and “even from Iraq” if it rejected the results of arbitration. He did not elaborate on how his group might do that.

“We are waiting for your official answer within five days of issuing this statement,” al-Golani said in the audio message posted on militant websites. “By God, if you reject God’s judgment again, and do not stop your arrogant overlording over the Muslim nation, then (we) will be forced to launch an assault against this aggressive, ignorant ideology and will expel it, even from Iraq.”

Al-Golani suggested the arbitration be conducted by three senior al-Qaida ideologists, including two imprisoned in Jordan and one imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. He did not say how they will handle the arbitration while they are in detention.

Syria’s conflict began with largely peaceful protests in March 2011 and gradually descended into civil war. Islamic extremists including foreign fighters have joined the war against Assad, playing an increasingly powerful role in the effort to topple him.

More than 140,000 people have died in the past three years, according to opposition activists.

On Tuesday, the chief of the United Nations relief agency supporting Palestinian refugees spoke of a rare visit he paid a day earlier to the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk in Damascus.

Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, said the extent of damage to the refugees’ homes in Yarmouk was shocking.

“The devastation is unbelievable. There is not one single building that I have seen that is not an empty shell by now,” he said in neighboring Beirut.

The state of those still in the camp was even more shocking.

“It’s like the appearance of ghosts,” he said of the people coming from within Yarmouk near a distribution point he was allowed to reach.

“These are people that have not been out of there, that have been trapped in there not only without food, medicines, clean water — all the basics — but also probably completely subjected to fear because there was fierce fighting

Grandi welcomed last week’s U.N. Security Council resolution calling for immediate access for humanitarian aid to all areas of Syria. He said that the resolution, unanimously adopted by the Security Council, “gives us a tool to argue in favor of access that is stronger than any other tool we’ve ever had before in Syria.”

He said it’s too early to say what effect the resolution has had on the ground, but that “everybody has to comply.” Both sides have hindered access in the past, he added.

UNRWA shipments to Yarmouk were cut for months, leaving residents to suffer from crippling shortages of food and medicine. Since last month, small shipments resumed, although they remain intermittent.

More than 100 people have died in in the area since mid-2013 as a result of starvation and illnesses exacerbated by hunger or lack of medical aid, according to U.N. figures.

Yarmouk, located in southern Damascus, is the largest of nine Palestinian camps in Syria. Since the camp’s creation in 1957, it has evolved into a densely populated residential district just five miles (eight kilometers) from the center of Damascus. Several generations of Palestinian refugees have lived there.

Grandi said around 18,000 of the camp’s original 160,000 Palestinian refugees are still inside Yarmouk.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s new authorities navigated tricky political waters Tuesday, launching a new presidential campaign, working on a new government and trying to seek immediate financial help from the West.

Yet protests in the country’s pro-Russian region of Crimea and the shooting of a top aide to fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych — a man despised by protesters — have raised fears of divisions and retaliation.

Andriy Klyuyev, the chief of staff for Yanukovych until this weekend, was wounded by gunfire Monday and hospitalized, spokesman Artem Petrenko told The Associated Press on Tuesday. It wasn’t clear where in Ukraine the shooting took place.

At the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, lawmakers delayed the formation of a new government until Thursday, reflecting the political tensions and economic challenges the country faces after Yanukovych fled the capital and went into hiding.

Parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchinov, who was named Ukraine’s interim leader, is now nominally in charge of this strategic country of 46 million whose ailing economy faces a possible default and whose loyalties are sharply torn between Europe and longtime ruler Russia.

Law enforcement agencies have issued an arrest warrant for Yanukovych over the killing of 82 people, mainly protesters, last week in the bloodiest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history. The president fled after signing a deal Friday with opposition leaders to end months of violent clashes between protesters and police.

Parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to bring Yanukovych and other top Ukrainian officials to justice for the violent crackdown on protesters.

The protests erupted after Yanukovych’s abrupt decision in November to reject an agreement to strengthen ties with the European Union and instead sought a bailout loan from Moscow. But they grew into a massive movement demanding less corruption and greater human rights.

Parliament has fired some of Yanukovych’s lieutenants and named their replacements, but it has yet to appoint the new premier or fill all remaining government posts. Yanukovych’s whereabouts are unknown. He was last reportedly seen in the Crimea, a pro-Russia area.

Nationalist protesters, meanwhile, removed a Soviet star from the top of the Ukrainian parliament building, the Verkhovna Rada, on Tuesday and crowed about it.

The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, urged Ukraine’s new government to quickly work out an economic reform program so the West could consider financial aid to keep Ukraine from bankruptcy.

After meeting with Ukraine’s interim authorities in Kiev, she also said the new government should not exclude members of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

“It needs to be inclusive,” Ashton told reporters.

Turchinov has said closer integration with Europe and financial assistance from the EU will be “key factors in (Ukraine’s) stable and democratic development.”

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has strongly condemned Ukraine’s new authorities, saying they came to power as a result of an “armed mutiny.”

The campaign for Ukraine’s early May 25 presidential election began Tuesday, with Yanukovych’s archrival — former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko — widely seen as a top contender for the post.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion, has announced his candidacy. But Tymoshenko, who was freed Saturday after spending 2 ½ years in prison on charges that many in the West called politically tainted, has not yet declared whether she will run.

Tymoshenko has been taking part in the negotiations on forming a new government, her daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, told the AP.

“She barely sleeps now and everything she tries to do is to make sure that first of all the opposition is unified, that everyone is trying to act on behalf of the people of Ukraine,” Eugenia Tymoshenko said Tuesday.

She would not comment on whether her mother plans to run for president. She said her mother plans to spend a week in Germany in March to undergo treatment for a back problem.

Tensions, meanwhile, have been mounting in Crimea in southern Ukraine, where Russia maintains a large naval base that has strained relations between the countries for decades. Pro-Russian protesters rallied for a second day Tuesday at the naval port of Sevastapol, a day after replacing a Ukrainian flag near city hall with a Russian flag.

“Bandits have come to power,” said Sevastopol volunteer Vyacheslav Tokarev, a 39-year-old construction worker. “I’m ready to take arms to fight the fascists who have seized power in Kiev.”

A senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Russia will protect its compatriots in Ukraine if their lives are in danger.

“If the lives and the health of our compatriots are in danger, we won’t stand aside,” Leonid Slutsky told pro-Russian activists at a rally in the Crimean city of Simferopol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the turmoil in Ukraine will be crucial to the future of Crimea and Ukraine. In recent days, Putin has spoken to President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.

Putin summoned top security officials Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine, but no details of the meeting were released by the Kremlin.

As Ukrainians worked to put together a new government, fears loomed that it would soon run out of money. Despite an educated workforce and rich farmland, its economy is in tatters due to corruption, bad government and short-sighted reliance on cheap natural gas from Russia.

The Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based association of banks and financial companies, has warned that Ukraine’s finances “are on the verge of collapse.”

Ukraine is battling to keep its currency, the hryvnia, from collapsing. Its acting finance minister says the country needs $35 billion (25.5 billion euros) to finance government needs this year and next.

PERTH, Australia (AP) — A Chinese ship involved in the hunt for the missing Malaysian jetliner reported hearing a “pulse signal” Saturday in Indian Ocean waters with the same frequency emitted by the plane’s data recorders, as Malaysia vowed not to give up in the search for the jet.

Military and civilian planes, ships with deep-sea searching equipment and a British nuclear submarine scoured a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast, in an increasingly urgent hunt for debris and the “black box” recorders that hold vital information about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370′s last hours.