Nueces County Sheriff

Mansour Arbabsiar is seen in a 2001 booking photo after he was charged for check fraud.

Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET: A Texas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, acknowledging he agreed to hire what he thought was a drug dealer in Mexico last year for $1.5 million to carry out the attack with explosives at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.

Manssor Arbabsiar, 58, entered the plea to two conspiracy charges and a murder-for-hire count in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Judge John F. Keenan repeatedly asked Arbabsiar whether he intended to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen who holds an Iranian passport, said he did.

"I take responsibility for my actions," Arbabsiar said.

Arbabsiar also admitted he agreed to help transfer more than $100,000 through a New York bank to help further the plot. 

When Arbabsiar's arrest was announced last year, President Barack Obama's administration accused the Iranian government of being behind the planned assassination of Ambassador Adel al Jubeir in Washington.

The press attache at Iran's mission to the United Nations then called the accusation "baseless."

"Mr. Arbabsiar’s plea today confirms what our investigation had already uncovered: that he plotted to murder the Saudi Ambassador with members of Iran’s elite Qods Force," said FBI Acting Assistant Director Mary Galligan. "The FBI remains ever vigilant toward acts of terror both here and abroad."

Authorities say Arbabsiar earlier admitted his role in a $1.5 million plot to kill the ambassador at a restaurant by setting off explosives. 

See the original story at NBCNewYork.com | More from NBCNewYork.com

Sentencing is scheduled Jan. 23. Arbabsiar faces up to 25 years in prison. A trial had been scheduled for January.

Arbabsiar, who lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for more than a decade, said he went to Mexico last year to meet a man named Junior, "who turned out to be an FBI agent." He said that he and others had agreed to arrange the kidnapping of ambassador Al-Jubeir, but Junior said it would be easier to kill the ambassador.

Arbabsiar has been held without bail since he was arrested Sept. 29, 2011 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was brought into court Wednesday in handcuffs. He spoke English and did not use a translator, despite saying he understood only about half of what he read in English. Bearded and bespectacled, he smiled several times during the proceeding, including in the direction of courtroom artists who were seated in the jury box when he entered court.

Defense lawyers say Arbabsiar suffers from bipolar disorder.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said that if the government had proceeded to trial, it would have presented a jury with secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and a confidential source, along with Arbabsiar's extensive post-arrest statement to authorities and emails and financial records.

Authorities have said they secretly recorded conversations between Arbabsiar and an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration after Arbabsiar approached the informant in Mexico and asked his knowledge of explosives for a plot to blow up the Saudi embassy in Washington. They said Arbabsiar later offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador.

A second person, Gholam Shakuri, was charged in the plot but remains at large in Iran.

The Justice Department said Shakuri is an Iran-based member of Iran’s Qods Force, which is a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is said to sponsor and promote terrorist activities abroad.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “As was originally charged, and as Arbabsiar has now admitted, he was the extended murderous hand of his co-conspirators, officials of the Iranian military based in Iran, who plotted to kill the Saudi Ambassador in the United States and were willing to kill as many bystanders as necessary to do so. Arbabsiar traveled to and from the United States, Mexico and Iran and was in telephone contact with his Iranian confederates while he brokered an audacious plot. The audacity of the plot should not cause doubt, but rather vigilance regarding others like Arbabsiar, who are enlisted as the violent emissaries of plotting foreign officials. This office will continue to pursue the co-conspirators in this plot and others in Iran or elsewhere who try to export murder. Thanks to the great work of the FBI, DEA and the prosecutors in this office, Mr. Arbabsiar must now answer for his conduct.”

Pete Williams is NBC News' justice correspondent. Jonathan Dienst is WNBC's chief investigative correspondent. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.    

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Burhan Ozbilici / AP

People speak from the top of the steps of a Syrian passenger plane that was forced by Turkish jets to land in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday. Turkish jets on Wednesday forced the Syrian Air Airbus A320 passenger plane to land on suspicion that it was carrying weapons, amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria that have sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that a Syrian passenger plane forced to land in Ankara was carrying Russian-made munitions destined for Syria's defense ministry.

Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency earlier quoted an official at the Russian Embassy in Ankara as saying that the cargo "was not of Russian origin." Rosoboronexport, which handles most of Russia's military export contracts, said none of its cargo was on the plane.

Turkish authorities ordered the Syrian Air passenger plane that was traveling from Moscow to Damascus to land late on Wednesday after receiving an intelligence tip-off and seized some of its cargo. 

Damascus said intercepting the Syrian Air plane was an act of piracy, further heightening tensions between the neighbors after Turkey's chief of staff warned Ankara would use greater force if shells from Syria continued to hit Turkish territory. The plane's 37 passengers and crew were allowed to continue to Damascus after several hours, without the cargo. 

More weapons in Syria could trigger 'all-out war'

The grounding of the plane was another sign of Ankara's growing assertiveness over the crisis in Syria.

"Turkey has crossed a new threshold," said former Turkish diplomat Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies think-tank. 

"With the action they took last week the government is in the slightly more comfortable position of having shown it has the strength to retaliate." 

Turkish state-run television TRT had reported that the intercepted plane was carrying military communications equipment, according to The Associated Press.

Slideshow: The uprising in Syria

Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the Turkish government, also reported there were 10 containers aboard the plane, some containing radio receivers, antennas and "equipment... thought to be missile parts." 

Neither TRT nor Yeni Safak cited sources for their reports. 

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had said the cargo contained "elements ... that are not legitimate in civilian flights" and insisted Ankara was within its rights to intercept the plane if it suspected that military equipment was being transported over Turkish territory. 

Sabre rattling between Syria and its northern neighbor has increased in recent days after a spate of cross-border shell and mortar firings. Turkey, which has been vocal in its criticism of Assad's crackdown on the opposition, has beefed up its military presence along the 565-mile frontier after shelling from Syria killed five Turkish civilians in a border town last week. 

Syrians flee across river to escape fighting

The general manager of the Syrian Civil Aviation Agency also blasted Turkey's forced landing of the plane, calling it "contrary to regulations and aviation norms."

Ghaidaa Abdul-Latif told reporters in Damascus that the plane's pilots were not asked to land but were instead surprised by Turkish F-16 fighter jets, which forced them to land.

Overcome with grief, Syrian man drops to his knees holding his dead son

"This action is contrary to the rules, because the pilot should be first asked to land for inspection," she said. "If he refuses, military jets would then fly to force him to land."

A Syrian Airlines engineer who was aboard, Haithan Kasser, said armed Turkish officials boarded the plane and handcuffed the crew before inspecting packages that contained electrical equipment.

Syrian plane suspected of carrying weapons forced to land in Turkey

Abdul-Latif said the officials seized some packages after presenting official documents.

She said Syria would file a complaint with international aviation authorities.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters

Demonstrators hold a message during a rally to condemn the killers of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and the attack on the U.S. consulate, in Benghazi on Wednesday.

Libyan authorities have made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed, the deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

"Four men are in custody and we are interrogating them because they are suspected of helping instigate the events at the U.S. Consulate," Wanis Sharif told Reuters.

He gave no more details.

The United States and Libya has agreed to cooperate to find out who was responsible for the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador to the North African state and three other Americans died.

President Barack Obama and Libyan President Mohamed Magarief spoke on Wednesday evening and decided "to work closely over the course of this investigation," the White House said in a statement.

Magarief "expressed appreciation for the cooperation we have received from the Libyan government and people in responding to this outrageous attack, and said that the Libyan government must continue to work with us to assure the security of our personnel going forward," the White House statement said.

"The President made it clear that we must work together to do whatever is necessary to identify the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice," it added.

U.S. and Libyan officials, independent analysts and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack — which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad — may have been a pre-planned, orchestrated assault.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith — a Foreign Service information management officer — and two other Americans, who have not yet been formally identified, were killed.

Destroyers sent to Libya coast
A U.S. official told Reuters that the U.S. military was moving two destroyers toward the Libyan coast, giving the Obama administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets.

Timeline: Political fallout from the attack on diplomats in Libya

The military is also dispatching a Marine Corps anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya, and Washington has ordered the evacuation of all U.S. personnel from Benghazi to Tripoli.

An unnamed senior U.S. official told the AFP news agency that U.S. officials suspected the attack on the consulate was a well-planned assault by militants rather than a rampaging mob.

"That's the working hypothesis at the moment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"This was a complex attack," he added. "They seemed to have used this (protest) as an opportunity."

Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al-Qaida and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy.

Reuters cited U.S. officials as saying that there were reports from the region suggesting that members of al-Qaida's north Africa-based affiliate, known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, may have been involved.

The attack on the Libyan consulate, as it happened

On Wednesday, Obama vowed to catch those responsible for the attack and said he had ordered an increase in security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the globe following the assault.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack," Obama said, while insisting it would not threaten relations with Libya's new government. ... And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

Slideshow: Anger over film spreads around Middle East

Zoubeir Souissi / Reuters

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, as protests spread across the region.

Launch slideshow

Doctor tried to save ambassador's life
Ziad Abu Zaid, the duty doctor in the emergency room at Benghazi Medical Center on Tuesday, said Stevens was alive when he arrived at the hospital.

"He came in a state of cardiac arrest. I performed CPR for 45 minutes, but he died of asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation,” he said.

Stevens' body was later returned to U.S. custody at Benghazi airport, a senior U.S. official said. Images of Stevens, purportedly taken after he died, circulated on the Internet. One showed him being carried, with a white shirt pulled up and a cut on his forehead.

Smith died inside the consulate building and the two other Americans died when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the diplomats came under mortar attack, said Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, commander of a Libyan special operations unit ordered to meet the Americans.

Obama: Egypt not an ally of US, but not an enemy

Witnesses said the mob at the consulate included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen. Hamam, a 17-year-old who took part in the attack, said Ansar al-Sharia cars arrived at the start of the protest but left once fighting started.

"The protesters were running around the compound just looking for Americans, they just wanted to find an American so they could catch one," he told Reuters. "We started shooting at them, and then some other people also threw hand-made bombs over the fences and started the fires in the buildings."

"There was some Libyan security for the embassy outside but when the hand-made bombs went off they ran off and left," he added.

Hamam said he saw an American die in front of him in the mayhem that ensued. He said the body was covered in ash. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya who was among four Americans killed amid protests in Libya, was a "courageous and exemplary representative of the United States," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.

The four -- who also included Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, a father of two -- "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe," Obama said.

Born in 1960 in northern California, Stevens had been a diplomat for two decades after previously working as an international trade lawyer in Washington, D.C., according to his biography on the State Department website.

"Chris was committed to advancing America's values and interests, even when that meant putting himself in danger," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday in a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

Ben Curtis / AP, file

U.S. envoy Chris Stevens speaks to local media at the Tibesty Hotel in Benghazi, Libya, in this Monday, April 11, 2011 file photo.

"I had the privilege of swearing in Chris for his post in Libya only a few months ago. As the conflict in Libya unfolded, Chris was one of the first Americans on the ground in Benghazi. He risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started."

Stevens had only just taken up his appointment, arriving in May after having served two previous roles in the country: Special Representative to the Libyan Transitional National Council during the Libyan revolution from March 2011 to November 2011, and Deputy Chief of Mission from 2007 to 2009.

US ambassador, 3 others killed in attacks on Libya mission

He had also previously worked in Jerusalem, Damascus and Riyadh and was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 1983 to 1985 he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.

A video posted on the U.S. Embassy's official YouTube channel in May showed Stevens introducing himself to the Libyan people and speaking of his excitement at his new role.

He was fluent in Arabic and French, and had earned an undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, a J.D. from the University of California's Hastings College of Law in 1989, and an M.S. from the National War College in 2010.

'Smiling, easygoing'
The Washington Post reported that Stevens was "smiling, easygoing and friendly" and "well-known at the State Department and on Capitol Hill."

His efforts to improve relations between the U.S. and Libya were underlined at one of his most recent public appearances. At a reception in Tripoli on August 26, he announced that the issuing of U.S. visas to Libyans would resume the following morning, according to a report in The Tripoli Post.

"The reopening of our consular section will create new opportunities for deepening the ties between our two countries," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "Relationships between governments are important, but relationships between people are the real foundation of mutual understanding," Stevens said.

A statement from Frank Wu, Chancellor and Dean of the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, issued to NBC Bay Area station KNTV, said: "The Ambassador was performing the highest role that a lawyer is called upon to perform: public service. He and I communicated when he was appointed Ambassador. He had been looking forward to sharing his experiences with students when he returned. This is a tragedy. We mourn this loss."

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, also issued a statement, saying: "I had the chance of meeting Ambassador Chris Stevens during his confirmation process and again when I visited Libya last year. He was an exemplary diplomat and his embassy staff could not have been more helpful and knowledgeable during my visit. My prayers are with the families and loved ones of these courageous diplomats who were working to help the Libyan people rise from the ashes of Gaddafi's rule."

Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations at Israeli-American charity, Americans for Peace Now, who described herself as a friend of Stevens, posted on Twitter that his death was "incomprehensible, tragic."

The BBC reported that, in diplomatic cables leaked by the WikiLeaks site in 2010, Stevens had once described Col. Moammar Gadhafi as "notoriously mercurial" and wrote that he could be an "engaging and charming interlocutor."

Sean Smith was a husband and a father of two, who joined the State Department ten years ago, Clinton's statement said. "Like Chris, Sean was one of our best. Prior to arriving in Benghazi, he served in Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal, and most recently The Hague," it said.

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Questions swirled Wednesday around the makers of a provocative anti-Islam movie blamed by some for triggering protests at U.S. diplomatic outposts in Egypt and Libya and sparking an attack on the latter that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

At least one clip from what is described as a feature film titled “Innocence of Muslims” was posted on YouTube and later reposted after being translated into Arabic. The clip, an amateurish production featuring dozens of actors, portrays Muhammad, believed by Muslims to be God’s prophet, as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser.

Reports published by The Associated Press and the Wall Street Journalidentified the filmmaker as Sam Bacile. The AP described Bacile as a 56-year-old Israeli American real estate developer from California; the Journal said he was a 52-year-old real estate developer, but did not say where he lived. Both news organizations said that they interviewed Bacile, who was said to be in hiding, by phone, and both quoted him as saying the film was intended to show that "Islam is a cancer."

"This is a political movie," the AP quoted him as saying. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas."

But by midday Wednesday, Bacile's credibility -- indeed his very existence -- were being questioned:

• The Atlantic quoted a man reported by the AP to be a consultant on the film, Steve Klein, as saying that “Bacile” is a pseudonym and that the filmmaker “is not Israeli and most likely not Jewish.”

Klein, a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, Calif., told the Atlantic  he doesn’t know the man’s real name and indicated that the filmmaker contacted him because he leads anti-Islam protests outside mosques and schools.

• A source close to the cast and crew of the film told NBC News that the man known as Bacile misled the actors and production crew. 

"The entire crew and cast are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," the source said. "We are 100 percent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

• Israeli officials also told the AP that there is no record of an Israeli citizen named Sam Bacile.
• California corporate records show no one by that name as holding a real estate license there.

The 13-minute, English-language trailer was posted on YouTube in July by an account registered to Sam Bacile. The account, which was created in April, lists Bacile's age as 75 and has been used only twice apart from posting the trailer -- once to "like" another video and to make one comment, in Arabic. That comment, which referenced a debate on Egyptian TV over the "Innocence of Muslims" clip, was translated as, "Oh, Animal, it’s 100% an American movie."

The trailer shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults cast as revelations about Muhammad. 

Many Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

The Journal reported the film had been promoted by Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose burning of Qurans previously sparked deadly riots in Pakistan and other Muslim nations.

Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., told NBC News on Wednesday that he aired the trailer once in his makeshift church. But he said efforts to screen it on Tuesday, the 11^th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were thwarted by technical difficulties.

"We tried to stream it … and every time we did that, it was cut off, disappeared,” he said.

A statement on the pastor’s political website, posted late Tuesday, said that the screening was to have been part of a day-long ‘International Judge Muhammad Day’ in which the Muslim prophet would be subjected to a mock trial for “promoting murder, rape, and destruction of people and property through his writings called the Koran.”

Jones also told NBC’s Kerry Sanders that he had been in contact with the movie’s producer, but did not provide financial support for its production or distribution.

The AP also reported that Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian in the United States known for his anti-Islam views, said he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.

Although it was posted to YouTube in July, the film only attracted attention in the Middle East after an unknown person recently dubbed it into Egyptian Arabic. That translation, which the man who identified himself as Bacile told the AP was accurate, has been broadcast repeatedly on Egyptian media in recent weeks after being seized upon by extreme Islamists who dislike the presence of the country’s Coptic Christians.

Film news site The Wrap said the Arabic-dubbed version had garnered more than 40,000 views by Tuesday afternoon. However, that clip appeared to have been taken down on Wednesday.

The AP quoted the man who identified himself as Bacile as saying that the film was made in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera. The Journal quoted him as saying that the film cost $5 million, which was raised from about 100 Jewish donors, whom he declined to identify.

The man also told the AP that the full film, which he said is three hours in length, was shown only once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year.  

No record of such a screening could be found.

NBC News' Alfred Arian, Kerry Sanders and Bob Sullivan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated 10:15 a.m. ET: BEIJING -- A man ripped a Japanese flag from a car carrying Japan's ambassador in Beijing on Monday, triggering a protest from Tokyo in the latest flare-up of a territorial row that provoked the worst anti-Japanese protests in years.

The Japanese embassy issued a statement saying the ambassador, Uichiro Niwa, was unhurt in the incident. It said two other vehicles forced his car to stop and a man got out, broke off the Japanese flag and ran off with it.

But Japan's Foreign Ministry later said the flag had been snatched after the ambassador's car had become stuck in a traffic jam. A ministry spokesman said it would be too strong to describe the incident as an attack.

Both Japanese accounts said no one was injured and the car was otherwise undamaged.

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

The embassy said it had "filed a strong protest with the Chinese Foreign Ministry." It said that in response a senior ministry official called the incident "extremely regrettable" and pledged efforts to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and businesses in China.

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions over disputed islands since mid-August, when the Japanese coast guard detained Chinese activists who sailed from Hong Kong and landed on the islands. Anti-Japanese demonstrations have taken place in Chinese cities over the past two weekends.

Disputed islands
The uninhabited islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China have long been a source of friction between Tokyo and Beijing and competing territorial claims to the islets and surrounding fishing areas and potentially rich gas deposits.

Tokyo also remains locked in a dispute with South Korea over another contested island chain.

In a symbolic, but rare gesture the Japanese parliament on Friday passed two resolutions asserting Japan's sovereignty over both island chains, calling Seoul's control over one of them a "illegal occupation" that should end soon.

The resolutions prompted rebukes from Seoul and Beijing.

Japanese nationalists land on island claimed by China

But in an effort to avert a further flare-up, the Japanese government on Monday refused to let Tokyo metropolitan authorities land on the islands claimed by Japan and China.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has proposed buying the islands from their private Japanese owners and has sought permission to send a team of officials to survey the land.

Despite close economic ties, bitter memories of Japanese militarism run deep in China and South Korea. The territorial disputes show how the region has failed to resolve differences nearly seven decades after the end of World War Two.

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NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan police have arrested a Venezuelan diplomat over the killing of the country's acting ambassador in her official residence, the High Court heard Monday.

Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, Olga Fonseca, was found dead in her official residence on Friday. Police said she was strangled, though the motive is unclear.

Dwight Sagaray, first secretary at the Venezuelan Embassy, was arrested on Saturday and Kenyan police on Monday made a court application to hold him in custody for another 14 days.

"The suspect was arrested by the police after his diplomatic immunity was waived," deputy prosecutor Tabitha Ouya told the courtroom.

'Investigation is incomplete'
Sagaray, wearing a yellow and green baseball jacket, appeared composed as Venezuelan officials observed the proceedings.

"The investigation is incomplete and (we) require more time to secure crucial evidence and apprehend other suspects," Ouya said.

According to Kenya Capital FM News, Ouya said authorities needed to interrogate more witnesses and also awaited the results of DNA samples taken at the scene of the crime.

More Africa coverage from NBCNews.com

Jotham Arwa, the lawyer representing Sagaray, said the suspect was also a student at the University of Nairobi, Capital FM News said. 

Sagaray was arrested along with five Kenyans who worked at the Embassy but it was unclear whether the local suspects have been charged or released.

More Americas coverage from NBCNews.com

Kenyan Foreign Ministry officials said local staff at the residence had complained to its Diplomatic Police Unit after the new envoy fired them.

Fonseca had sacked them after they refused to retract sexual harassment claims against the former head of the Venezuelan Embassy, the employees said.

Fonseca, 57, had only been the country since July 15, the EFE news agency reported.

Full international news coverage from NBCNews.com

Jose Miguel Reyes, administrative assistant at the Venezuelan Embassy, told EFE that the servants "were never fired," but they had "refused to acknowledge Fonseca's authority" and kept working at the residence anyway.

Judge Florence Muchemi will rule Tuesday whether to remand Sagaray in custody or release him on bail.

Post-mortem results and DNA analysis have not yet reached police investigators, according to court documents.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Charly Triballeau / AFP - Getty Images

U.S. Ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin (C) stands after jumping over Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Normandy, western France, on Sunday, during the ceremonies of the the D-Day's 66th anniversary.

U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin took part in a mass parachute jump over the coast of Normandy on Sunday to mark the 68th anniversary of the Allied invasion of mainland Europe in World War Two.

Rivkin, 60, posted a picture of himself in flight on Twitter, along with the comment: "Proud to be the first US Ambassador to France to jump out of an airplane in honor of our troops."

Thousands of U.S. and other Allied paratroopers began the assault on German coastal defenses with a dangerous night jump behind enemy lines early on June 6, 1944.  

US Army photo via Twitter feed @AmbRivkin

US Ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, making his parachute jump over Normandy on Sunday, according to his official Twitter feed.

Following in the footsteps of Allied paratroopers who parachuted into German-occupied Normandy hours before the seaborne assault on the beaches, Rivkin made the leap despite strong winds which resulted in light injuries to six fellow jumpers, France 3 television reported. Two of the jumpers ended up in trees, France's English-language newspaper The Connexion reported. 

U.S., French and German paratroopers took part in the jump, Reuters reported.

"France has been our ally from the start and the evidence is here in this field," Rivkin told TF1 television after landing. 

It was Rivkin's first jump, The Connexion reported.  The event had been planned for 450 parachutists to take part but high-winds meant that number was cut to 150, the newspaper added. 

Rivkin, the son of an ambassador himself, is the former president of The Jim Henson Company, makers of The Muppets, according to the U.S. Embassy in France. 

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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