Britain urges pressure on Syrian regime and rebels

Published May 15, 2013

Associated Press

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  British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at a press encounter at United Nations headquarters, after the meeting of the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)The Associated Press

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  British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at a press encounter at United Nations headquarters, after the meeting of the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)The Associated Press

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  British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, shakes hands with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon before their meeting, at United Nations headquarters Wednesday, May 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Garten, United Nations)The Associated Press

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UNITED NATIONS –  British Prime Minister David Cameron is calling for urgent action to pressure the Syrian government and opposition to get together and agree on a transitional government that everyone can support.

Cameron told reporters after meetings at the U.N. on Wednesday that he supports the U.S.-Russian initiative for a new conference to launch a peace process, which shouldn't be delayed. He said he will be urging the participants to quickly put forward names for a transitional government so negotiations can begin.

He reiterated that Britain has made no decision to arm the rebels, but he said it's important to engage with the opposition.

"If we don't engage with the opposition, then we shouldn't be surprised if extremist elements grow, and that's not what we want," Cameron said.

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What pressure? Anaheim Ducks enjoying the playoff ride heading to Game 5 vs tenacious Detroit

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  Anaheim Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy (6) checks Detroit Red Wings right wing Patrick Eaves (17) in the third period of Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Detroit, Monday, May 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)The Associated Press

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  Anaheim Ducks center Daniel Winnik (34) shoots at Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard (35) as defenseman Niklas Kronwall (55), of Sweden, defends in the third period of Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Detroit, Monday, May 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)The Associated Press

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  Anaheim Ducks right wing Emerson Etem (65) celebrates his goal with David Steckel (20) against the Detroit Red Wings in the third period of Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Detroit, Monday, May 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)The Associated Press

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  Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard celebrates with Niklas Kronwall (55), of Sweden, Daniel Cleary (11) and Henrik Zetterberg after beating the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in overtime of Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Detroit, Monday, May 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)The Associated Press

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ANAHEIM, Calif. –  Ryan Getzlaf knows the Anaheim Ducks could be getting frustrated.

Instead, he thinks they're just getting started.

The Ducks have controlled long stretches of their matchup with Detroit, outshooting and outscoring the Red Wings over the first four games while getting superior goaltending from Jonas Hiller. Yet the series is even heading into Game 5 on Wednesday night at Honda Center.

Second-seeded Anaheim's stellar regular-season record and formidable talent haven't mattered to the Red Wings, who sneaked out two overtime victories despite playing with a lead in just one of the series' four games.

It's a recipe for tension in the Ducks' dressing room heading into a pivotal point of the first-round series. But to Getzlaf and his teammates, every element of the playoff march is a privilege, particularly after the Ducks missed the postseason in two of the past three years.

"We're far from frustrated," the Anaheim captain said Tuesday after the Ducks' long flight from Detroit to Orange County. "This is playoff hockey. This is the best time of the year, and we're in a best-of-three series now. We always knew it was going to be a long series. ... It's been a grind throughout the year. We've always been able to rise up to the occasion, and we're hoping for that tomorrow (in Game 5)."

The Ducks expect to have little trouble regrouping after they barely missed a chance to take a 3-1 series lead in Game 4 on Monday night. After Anaheim blew a third-period lead, Damien Brunner's overtime goal evened the series for the Red Wings, who appeared to be on the ropes after getting shut out by Hiller in the first 100 minutes of the teams' two games at Joe Louis Arena.

"One goal the other way (in Game 4), and everybody is happy around here," Getzlaf said.

Instead, the Ducks must find additional determination to get past their playoff-tested opponents. Anaheim will have the advantage of its favored matchups on home ice in Game 5 and a potential Game 7, yet neither team believes matchups or friendly crowds have made much impact on this series.

"Quite frankly, the matchups only work if your team is playing well and you get a lead," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "If you don't get a lead, you may have some great defensive matchups, but you're going to have to change because you need to score goals. We'll get the last change (in Game 5), which will help, because I thought the last game they were definitely trying to get (Pavel) Datsyuk's line against one specific line, and we tried to change it a few times. It's a difficult thing to do."

Datsyuk scored the tying goal with 6:33 left in regulation in Game 4 for the Red Wings, who finally flexed their offensive skills at home after five-plus periods without a score.

The Red Wings made an obvious effort to get more shots at Hiller in Game 4, sending pucks at the Anaheim net at every opportunity. Hiller was solid all night, but the Red Wings' mentality eventually led to Brunner's winning goal.

"The plan was to get more shots, and shoot from worse angles," Detroit's Valtteri Filppula said. "We did a good job. We were able to get pucks back in the offensive zone. I didn't think we did that enough in the previous game."

The Ducks are hoping to increase their own offensive pressure on Jimmy Howard on Wednesday. Howard acknowledged he hadn't been Hiller's equal in the series, giving up 12 goals on 120 shots, but he played tremendously well in Game 4 when the Ducks pressed for a possible clinching goal.

"I just wanted to give the guys a chance to win," Howard said. "They deserved that. I knew I had to be better. I wanted to be better. ... In the playoffs, all it takes is a goalie to get hot, and anything can happen."

Although Anaheim has generated plenty of offensive chances, the Ducks could use a goal from high-scoring Corey Perry, who won the Richard Trophy with 50 goals in 2011 during his MVP season. He hasn't found the net in the playoffs, and he missed on a couple of golden chances in Game 4.

"If those went in, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Perry said Tuesday. "They had a lot of shots (in Game 4), but we had some good chances, too. We've got to create more chances, keep plugging away, and hopefully get some ugly ones."

Boudreau criticized a few unnamed Ducks after Game 4 for being "passengers" — passive participants who didn't do enough work to help Anaheim. Major lineup changes seem unlikely after the Ducks' fairly solid play throughout the series, but Boudreau is eager to get his team rolling quickly, before any struggles lead to a potential elimination game.

Detroit again will be without Justin Abdelkader, who must finish his two-game suspension for a big hit on Anaheim's Toni Lydman. The veteran defenseman sat out Game 4 with apparent after-effects from the collision, and Lydman didn't skate in the Ducks' optional practice after traveling Tuesday.

While the Ducks prepared for the pressure of Game 5, the Red Wings worked on minor adjustments for their latest trip to Honda Center, where they've won three of their four games this season.

"We have to go in their barn and steal another game," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

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Pressure cooker bombs used in past by militants

CAIRO –  Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers, a version of which was used in the Boston Marathon bombings, have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one, urging "lone jihadis" to act on their own to carry out attacks.

President Barack Obama underlined Tuesday that investigators do not know if the twin bombing the day before that killed three people and wounded more than 170 was carried out by an international organization, a domestic group or a "malevolent individual." There has been no claim of responsibility.

A person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that the explosives were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

The relative ease of constructing such bombs and the powerful punch they deliver has made them attractive to insurgents and Islamic extremists, particularly in South Asia. They have turned up in past bombing plots by Islamic extremists in the West, including a plan by a U.S. soldier to blow up a restaurant frequented by fellow soldiers outside Fort Hood, in Texas. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen gave a detailed description on how to make a pressure cooker bomb in the first issue of its English-language online magazine "Inspire" in 2010 — in a chapter titled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

"The pressurized cooker is the most effective method" for making a simple bomb, the article said, describing how to fill the cooker with shrapnel and gunpowder and to create a detonator using the filament of a light bulb and a clock timer.

"Inspire" magazine has a running series of such training articles called "Open Source Jihad," which the group calls a resource manual for individual extremists to carry out attacks against the enemies of jihad, including the U.S. and its allies. The magazine is targeted heavily at encouraging "lone wolf" jihadis.

An issue last year reprinted an older article by a veteran Syrian jihadi Abu Musab al-Souri addressing would-be jihadis proposing a long list of possible targets for attacks, among them "crowded sports arenas" and "annual social events."

Notably, Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for the Fort Hood restaurant bombing plot, was discovered to have a copy of the "How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" article, according to the FBI. Investigators found bombmaking materials in his hotel that included a pressure cooker and gunpowder, according to testimony at his trial.

The SITE Monitoring Service, a U.S. independent group tracking militant messaging online, noted that Islamic extremists are not the only ones paying attention to the al-Qaida magazine: White supremacists have also circulated copies on their web forums. They found "Inspire" and "other al-Qaida manuals beneficial for their strategies," it said.

Over the course of 10 issues the past three years, "Inspire" has given detailed instructions with diagrams and photos on how to use automatic weapons, produce remote control detonators, set fire to a building or create forest fires. In the most recent issue, put out in March, it described how to set fire to a parked vehicle and how to cause road accidents with oil slicks on a road or tire-bursting spikes.

The chapters, including the one on pressure cooker bombs, were compiled into a booklet titled "The Lone Mujahed Pocketbook," released on Islamic militant web sites in March, according to SITE.

Al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has repeatedly tried to carry out direct attacks on U.S. soil, once by dispatching the would-be 2009 Christmas bomber of a U.S. jet — whose attack failed when the explosives hidden in his underwear failed to go off — and then the following year by trying to mail explosives to the U.S. in packages that were intercepted.

The pressure cooker bomb's most frequent use seems to be in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India in attacks against police or the public. This year, local press reports in Pakistan have reported several such bombs found planted on streets, including in the city of Karachi, where multiple militant groups operate.

In 2010, suspected militants attacked the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision in northwestern Pakistan, killing six Pakistani employees with a remotely detonated pressure cooker bomb.

That same year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out a warning about such explosives, noting their frequent use in South Asia.

"The presence of a pressure cooker in an unusual location such as a building lobby or busy street corner should be treated as suspicious," it said.

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AP correspondents Cassandra Vinograd and Paisley Dodds in London and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

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