Tim Cocks / Reuters, file

Nigerian forces gather Monday in the Islamist stronghold of Maiduguri. Soldiers poured in this weeek before the military on Friday launched a major offensive against the insurgents.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard Islamist militant camps in the northeast on Friday, in their biggest military offensive since Boko Haram launched an uprising in 2009.

"A number of insurgents have been killed," the defense headquarters spokesman said, including at the Sambisa game reserve in Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency.

"It is not just Sambisa. Every camp is under attack. But we have not done the mopping-up operations on the ground to determine the numbers killed," Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said by telephone. Another military source, who declined to be named, said at least 30 insurgents had been killed.

Nigerian forces are trying to regain territory controlled by increasingly well-armed Boko Haram Islamist insurgents in their northeastern stronghold states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, put under a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday.

More troops arrived in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Friday, witnesses said.

"I saw more than 20 trucks loaded with soldiers fully kitted for battle towards Marte. I wish them luck in ending this BH (Boko Haram) madness," resident Ahmed Ibrahim said by telephone.

Beyond the region covered by the state of emergency, gunmen stormed a police station and a bank, the army said, a sign the offensive could provoke violence by smaller militant cells across the north.

Boko Haram, other Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru and associated criminal gangs have become the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil-producing nation.

Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched an uprising almost four years ago in an effort to create an Islamic state in a country of about 170 million split roughly equally between Christians, who are the majority in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north.

Violence has mostly happened far from the commercial hub, Lagos, or political capital, Abuja, and hundreds of miles away from oilfields in the southeast.

Military jets, helicopter gunships and thousands of troops are involved in the current offensive, which may answer some critics who accuse Jonathan, a southern Christian, of underestimating the severity of the crisis in the Muslim north.

Rights groups are concerned the state of emergency will lead to more abuses they have document by Nigerian forces.

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EPA, file

Japanese chef Miki Nozawa had cooked for celebrities including Mikhail Gorbachev, Phil Collins, Naomi Campbell and Denzel Washington.

MUNICH, Germany -- A chef to the stars has died following a fight that reportedly started with an argument over fried noodles.

Miki Nozawa, 57, died from a cerebral hemorrhage on Monday after confronting two men outside a nightclub and demanding that they pay a bill left at his eponymous Asian diner on the German resort island of Sylt, officials said. 

According to German media reports, two customers had earlier left the restaurant after complaining to Nozawa about their beef noodle dish. The German tabloid Bild said the total bill was about $25. 

Nozawa was beaten until he was unconscious, according to reports.

Senior public prosecutor Rüdiger Meienburg said an autopsy had not clearly indicated whether the beating alone had killed Nozawa or had possibly exacerbated an existing medical condition. He said authorities were waiting for further results.

"We are vigorously investigating and trying to find out exactly what happened," Meienburg added.

Friederike Reussner / Sylter Rundschau via EPA

Miki Nozawa's death may have resulted from a brawl after unhappy customers reportedly did not pay for a noodle dish in this restaurant.

He confirmed that police had questioned two suspects but said that the exact sequence and nature of the events had not been determined.

Born in Tokyo and known for his Japanese-Italian fusion dishes, Nozawa had cooked for celebrities including Mikhail Gorbachev, Phil Collins, Naomi Campbell and Denzel Washington.

After a stint cooking for the rich and famous in Berlin and at the Billionaire Club in Sardinia, Italy, Nozawa had recently moved to Sylt, an island known for its luxurious lifestyle. He opened his Asian diner in March.

Related:

• Full Germany coverage from NBC News

Rehan Khan / EPA

People look over the scene of a bomb blast near a polling station in Karachi, Pakistan, on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis voted in a landmark test of democracy on Saturday and were quickly reminded of the militant violence that plagues the country, with election-related bombings in several cities.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

An attack on the office of the Awami National Party (ANP) in the commercial capital, Karachi, killed 10 people and wounded 30, followed by another blast minutes later.

An explosion destroyed an ANP office in the northwest. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Television channels also reported an explosion in the city of Peshawar.

Pakistan's Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, have killed over 110 people in election-related violence since April. The group, which is fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government, regards the elections as un-Islamic.

The election will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history.

The people hope the polls will deliver change and ease frustrations with the Taliban, a feeble economy, widespread corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

"The problems facing the new government will be immense, and this may be the last chance that the country's existing elites have to solve them," said Anatol Lieven, a professor at King's College, London, and author of a book on Pakistan.

"If the lives of ordinary Pakistanis are not significantly improved over the next five years, a return to authoritarian solutions remains a possibility," Lieven wrote in a column in the Financial Times.

Disenchantment with the two mainstream parties appeared this week to have brought a late surge of support for former cricket star Imran Khan, who could end up holding the balance of power.

Khan, 60, is in a hospital after injuring himself in a fall at a party rally, which may also win him sympathy votes.

With no clear-cut winner, weeks of haggling to form a coalition will follow, which would raise the risk that the government is undermined by instability.

That would only make it more difficult to reverse the disgust with politicians felt among the country's 180 million people and drive through the reforms needed to revive its near-failed economy.

Power cuts can last more than 10 hours a day in some places, crippling key industries like textiles, and a new International Monetary Fund bailout may be needed soon.

The Taliban have focused their anger on secular-leaning parties like the outgoing coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the ANP. Candidates, fearful of being assassinated, have avoided open campaigning.

The army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government, but it still sets the nuclear-armed country's foreign and security policy and will steer the thorny relationship with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan next year.

The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif looks set to win the most seats in the one-day vote. But Khan could deprive Sharif of a majority and dash his hopes for a return to power 14 years after he was ousted in a military coup, jailed and later exiled.

Pakistan's best-known sportsman, who led a playboy lifestyle in his younger days, Khan is seen by many as a refreshing change from the dynastic politicians who long relied on a patronage system to win votes and are often accused of corruption.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bombing at an Islamist party's election rally killed at least 25 people and injured 65 others Monday in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region, local officials said.

Ulfat Hussai, an administrative official, said the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party, a candidate for the National Assembly from the region, was among the injured.

Another government official said a suicide bomber blew himself up as JUI-F leader Munir Hussain Orakzai was about to leave the gathering in the village of Sewak after his speech to local tribesmen.

Dr. Inayatullah Khan, administrator of the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Sadda, said 20 bodies and 65 injured had been brought to his hospital while the bodies of five others had been taken directly to their homes by relatives.

Khan said the death toll could rise as half a dozen of the injured were still in critical condition.

Officials at the scene said many of the dead appeared to have succumbed to blood loss. The village is in a remote mountainous area, making it impossible to quickly get victims to hospitals.

Dr. Abdul Qadir, younger brother of Orakzai, said by telephone that he, his brother, two bodyguards and six close relatives were injured in the blast.

"They have been taken to the hospital and their condition is out of danger," Qadir said from Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram tribal region, which is near the Afghan border.

He said the injured were being taken to hospitals in Parachinar and Sadda, the second-largest town of the volatile region.

Monday’s incident marked the first time a political gathering of a religious party such as JUI-F, considered pro-Taliban, had been targeted in the tribal areas.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan called NBC News and claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

Ishan said Orakzai was their target, claiming that in the past five years, he had been involved with three major secular parties that the Taliban considers pro-American.

The Taliban launched has launched an offensive that has killed several leaders and activists belonging to the three parties: the Pakistan People's Party, Mutahidda Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party. 

Related:

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This story was originally published on Mon May 6, 2013 10:46 AM EDT

Khaled al-Hariri / Reuters

A destroyed car is pictured near the former Interior Ministry building after a blast in central Damascus on Tuesday killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more, according to state television and activists.

BEIRUT -- A bomb in central Damascus killed 13 people on Tuesday, state television said, a day after Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived an attack on his convoy in the heart of the Syrian capital.

State television said 70 people were wounded, several critically. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that nine civilians and five soldiers had died.

Pro-government Al-Ikhbariya television showed firefighters running through thick smoke after the blast in Marjeh Square. Two bodies could be seen on the ground.

The target of the attack was not immediately clear. Footage showed the site of the blast was near the former Interior Ministry building on one of the capital's main roads.

Monday's attack on the prime minister's convoy killed six people in what has become an increasingly common tactic used by rebels.

A resident of Damascus, who lives a mile from the blast site, said the explosion shook the doors of her house.

"It must be huge for me to hear it like that. Casualties must be horrific because it is a super busy square at this time of day," she said over Skype.

Rebels have increased their attacks on Damascus, which include mortar fire from the contested suburbs, in a civil war that has cost more than 70,000 lives according to U.N. estimates.

A bomb in July killed four of President Bashar Assad's aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

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Inside a Syrian city split between rival militias

Mohamed El-shahed / AFP - Getty Images

Muslim Brotherhood supporters throw stones towards opponents during clashes on April 19, in central Cairo.

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members throw stones towards members of the anti-muslim brotherhood (top) during clashes in central Cairo, April 19.

Mostafa Elshemy / AP

Egyptian protesters clash near a bus belonging to Muslim Brotherhood supporters burns after it was reportedly set alight by anti- government protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 19.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

Muslim Brotherhood members hit an anti-government protester during clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square, April 19.

Clashes erupted Friday between several hundred opponents and supporters of Egypt’s Islamist president during a rally by his allies calling on him to “cleanse the judiciary” of alleged supporters of the old regime. Four people were hurt the violent clashes following a call by the Muslim Brotherhood to demonstrate outside the Supreme Court. 

A 60-year-old man fatally shot 13 people, including a baby, in a house-to-house rampage in a quiet village in Serbia Tuesday, before trying to kill himself and his wife.

The gunman, identified by police as Ljubisa Bogdanovic - a former soldier and veteran of the early-1990s regional conflict– was in a critical condition in hospital along with his wife, Javorak, police told reporters.

Serbian police official Milorad Veljovic said the victims included 6 women, 6 men and a two-year-old boy, according to Serbian news site Press Online and other reports.

The shooter came from a “quiet family” and had no criminal record, Veljovic said. “We'll see what the motive is for this gruesome murder, we're all just stunned,” he told reporters.

Marko Djurica / Reuters

A policeman stands guard in the village of Velika Ivanca, Serbia, on Tuesday.

Bogdanovic had lost his job last year, Veljovic said according to Reuters, and had a firearms permit for his CZ88 pistol, according to Press Online and Novosti.

"We have never seen a tragedy like this in Serbia, and for that reason a motive must be ascertained - what prompted this man to kill so many people in their sleep," Veljovic added, according to news site B92.

'Good neighbor'
Residents of the village of Velika Ivanca, 30 miles southeast of the capital Belgrade, said Bogdanovic first killed his son, before leaving the house and shooting his neighbors, some of whom were still asleep. 

The killings occurred between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m local time (11 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. ET Monday), the AP said.

Nada Macura, an official at the Belgrade hospital in Belgrade where the two were being treated, told the AP that Bogdanovic had no history of mental illness. However, Kostadinovic's wife Stanica said the man's father had hanged himself when he was a young boy and his uncle had a history of mental illness. 

The AP added:

Although such apparently random shootings are rare in Serbia, weapons are readily available mostly from the regional conflicts that tore through the Balkans in the 1990s and there is a tradition of possessing firearms.

The last similar shooting spree happened in Serbia in 2007 when a 39-year-old man gunned down nine people and injured two in a village in the east of the country.

Bogdanovic served as Serbian army soldier in the war in Croatia that began in 1991 and lasted until 1995, Reuters reported.

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 9, 2013 3:21 AM EDT

Youssef Badawi / EPA

Burned cars seen at the site of what Syrian authorities said was a suicide car bombing in Damascus on Monday. At least 15 people were reported killed and 53 wounded in the blast. The government blamed 'terrorists,' and Syrian rebels blamed the government.

A suicide car bomb exploded in the main business district of Damascus on Monday, killing at least 15 people, setting cars ablaze and damaging buildings, according to state television.

A Damascus resident who described the blast as the biggest she had heard in the capital during the two-year-old revolt against President Bashar Assad said large plumes of black smoke were rising from the Sabaa Bahrat district.

State television said the explosion had occurred near a school in Sabaa Bahrat, a heavily populated area that also houses the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry. It said 53 people were wounded.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Residents and opposition activists reported hearing gunfire and ambulance sirens in the vicinity. State television said shots had been fired in the air to clear a path for ambulances.

It showed footage of seven bodies in the street, including at least two charred corpses in the wreckage of an overturned bus. The fire brigade was dousing flames from cars crushed by the blast. Other vehicles were still on fire, lined up in what appeared to be a car park.

Men carried away a woman on a stretcher whose face was covered in blood. Panic-stricken women in long black dresses and headscarves ran toward the scene. State television showed some bandaged children in school uniform.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with a network of local sources, including hospitals, said at least eight people had been killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but state media blamed "terrorists," a term the government uses for opposition fighters. Opposition groups accused the government of carrying out the attack.

Syrian insurgents based in the outskirts of Damascus have pushed into areas near the government-held heart of the city, stepping up mortar and car bomb attacks in recent weeks.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule that were violently suppressed. An armed struggle ensued, forcing more than a million Syrians to flee abroad, and displacing millions more inside the country.

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Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters

A Palestinian man holds his identity card as he takes part in a protest at a United Nations food distribution center in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. On Thursday, the U.N. suspended aid distribution there after protesters stormed the aid headquarters.

GAZA, West Bank -- The main United Nations humanitarian agency for Palestinians said on Thursday it was suspending operations in the Gaza Strip after demonstrators angered by aid cutbacks stormed its headquarters.

Some 800,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of Gaza's population, depend on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the closure could exacerbate hardship caused by Israeli and Egyptian controls on the isolated enclave's borders.

Citing budget shortfalls, UNRWA said it had suspended some of its cash handouts and that this provoked violent protests this week, culminating in Thursday's breach of its Gaza headquarters.

"What happened today was completely unacceptable: The situation could very easily have resulted in serious injuries to UNRWA staff and to the demonstrators. This escalation, apparently pre-planned, was unwarranted and unprecedented," Robert Turner, head of the agency's Gaza operations, said in a statement.

"All relief and distribution centers will consequently remain closed until guarantees are given by all relevant groups that UNRWA operations can continue unhindered," he said.

Gaza security officials had no immediate comment.

Reuters

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Reuters / Stuart Price, pool

Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony is shown in 2006. His name became known worldwide with the "Kony 2012" campaign, launched by the charity Invisible Children. He and his commanders are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda has suspended the hunt for fugitive warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army fighters, blaming hostility toward foreign troops by Central African Republic rebels who seized power last month.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. He and his commanders are accused of abducting thousands of children to use as fighters in a rebel army that earned a reputation for chopping off limbs as a form of discipline.

Uganda provides more than 3,000 troops for a 5,000-strong African Union force hunting Kony and his fighters, who are thought to be hiding in jungles straddling the borders of the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A separate coalition of rebels in the Central African Republic, known as Seleka, toppled President Francois Bozize last month. They swept into the capital, Bangui, in a lightning offensive that triggered days of looting and drew international condemnation.

The Seleka rebels also killed 13 South African soldiers during their attack on Bangui.

"These rebels have been openly hostile to us and following that, the president (of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni) has ordered us only to be in defensive positions," said Dick Olum, head of Ugandan troops and overall commander of the force hunting Kony.

"So we've temporarily suspended offensive operations against the LRA for now until we receive further orders," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear if troops from other countries in the regional force were also giving up the search. Ugandan media reported that about 100 U.S. special forces helping with intelligence and logistical support had suspended operations.

Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper quoted Crane Elise, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, as saying: "We have temporarily paused the operations against LRA to give us time to consult with the State Department."

LRA fighters fought the Ugandan government for nearly two decades before being ejected from their strongholds in the north of the country in 2005, forcing them to establish bases in the jungles of other countries in the region.

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