The federal government says the judge who issued the ruling had exceeded his authority and that his decision should be suspended while the appeal is underway.

U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York had given the Food and Drug Administration until Monday to lift all age limits on Plan B and cheaper generic. The judge mandated that emergency contraception be sold just like aspirin.

On Tuesday, the FDA said anyone 15 or older could begin buying one brand, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription two years younger than the current age limit of 17.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Recent cold, wet weather has slowed fieldwork in Nebraska as farmers get ready to plant crops and ranchers tend to their cattle.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that soil moisture levels improved in eastern Nebraska, but most of the western counties received less than half an inch of moisture last week.

About 41 percent of the topsoil and 90 percent of the subsoil in the state rated short or very short on moisture.

The state's wheat crop remains in bad shape with only 11 percent rating in either good or excellent shape.

About 76 percent of the cattle in the state rated in good or excellent condition. But 71 percent of the hay and forage supplies rated short or very short.

Both states wanted the movie to film in their state, and North Carolina was close to sealing the deal with an attractive tax incentive package. But Georgia snapped up the production, largely because it had recently expanded its own tax credit for films.

The state hasn't looked back since. Not only are TV shows like "The Walking Dead" and films like "The Hunger Games" sequel filmed in Georgia, but tens of millions of dollars are being invested to build up critical infrastructure. No fewer than five major studio developments or expansions have been announced in recent months with the goal of luring big-budget blockbusters.

"It really is about the whole package," said Lee Thomas, director of the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office. "They can do everything here now."

Last fiscal year, productions filmed in Georgia generated an estimated $3.1 billion in economic activity, a 29 percent increase from the year before, according to state estimates. And Thomas said that will only increase with the studio projects in the works that will add large soundstages and back lots to lure big productions, such as "Iron Man 3," which Georgia wasn't able to accommodate. The state didn't have a studio that fit the requirements of the film's production company.

Of the studio projects in the works, one being planned in Fayette County, a short drive south of Atlanta, could be a game changer. British film studio Pinewood Shepperton PLC, home to the James Bond franchise, has reportedly been in talks with a group of investors to manage and operate the facility. It would be Pinewood's first production facility in the U.S. Recent films shot at Pinewood Studios, outside London, include the coming Angelina Jolie film, "Maleficent" and "Jack Ryan," directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh.

The project, once finalized, would underscore how much Georgia has become a film destination and be another sign that California continues to struggle with runaway production.

A survey last year found that California lost $3 billion in wages from 2004 to 2011 because of film and TV production moving to other states and countries, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Half the wages went to states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Louisiana that offer tax incentives and rebates to the industry.

Representatives of Pinewood declined comment on the plan, and the head of Fayette County's development agency would say only that discussions continue between the company and a group of Georgia-based investors on the state-of-the-art studio complex, which would sit on 288 acres and include at least five soundstages.

"It takes the state to a whole new level," said Matt Forshee, president of the Fayette County Development Authority, who has been closely involved in the project. "When you look at the films that have filmed in Georgia, for the most part, they have been smaller budget films, in the range of $20-25 million. This allows us to open up to larger budget productions, which means more expenditures occurring within the state, which becomes a bigger return on the investment on the state level for the tax credits."

Georgia has come a long way since the 1939 Civil War epic "Gone With The Wind," arguably the most famous movie about the state, was filmed in California. Three decades later, the 1971 Burt Reynolds movie "Deliverance" helped put Georgia on the map as a shooting location. The state created a film commission, and Reynolds returned to the state to shoot hits such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Longest Yard."

Now, Atlanta truly has the feel of Hollywood South. In recent years, the state has been a shooting location for films such as Clint Eastwood's "Trouble With the Curve," the new Jackie Robinson biopic "42" with Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington's Oscar-nominated turn as an alcoholic pilot in "Flight," the Katherine Heigl rom-com "Life as We Know It," the current Reese Witherspoon project "The Good Lie," and comedies such as 2011's "Hall Pass" and the coming "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" starring Will Ferrell.

While studio developers building soundstages are not eligible for Georgia's tax credit program, the production companies making films are. Georgia provides a 20 percent tax credit for companies that spend $500,000 or more on production and post-production in the state, either in a single production or on multiple projects.

Georgia also grants an additional 10 percent tax credit if the finished project includes a state promotional logo. Further, if a company has little or no Georgia tax liability, it can transfer or sell its tax credits.

"The industry follows the dollar," Forshee said. "They are going to go where they can do the best product for the cheapest cost. This tax credit has made Georgia a viable and lucrative place to make films."

The economic benefits have been debated in Georgia, although the state has remained committed to the film incentives. Meanwhile, lawmakers in North Carolina are debating a plan that would place certain limitations on the state's program, with supporters of the effort saying there's no evidence the $30 million in tax breaks in 2011 matches the job growth cited by the industry. In comparison, Georgia handed out $140.6 million in tax credits in 2010.

Gov. Nathan Deal said it's the combination of the tax credits and Georgia's diverse landscape from the mountains to the coast that has made the state so attractive to filmmakers.

"It is an affirmation of several things, some of which is just the natural beauty of our state," Deal said in a recent interview. "You are seeing ample evidence that the tax credits for the movie and film industry are definitely paying the dividends that we anticipated."

There are a number of ripple effects. The films bring jobs, and the state already has an estimated 5,000 union and non-union professionals associated with the film industry along with more than 1,000 production suppliers and support companies. Major components of the proposed studio projects also include educational programs aimed at training the next generation of industry employees.

This week, Atlanta-based Jacoby Development announced plans to build an estimated $1 billion multiuse project north of downtown Atlanta that will include 12 soundstages as well as production offices and an arts and media school.

Jim Jacoby, chairman of The Jacoby Group, said he expected to have financing lined up quickly and was in Hollywood this week to pitch the project.

"The times are ripe because the demand is there right now. We feel like we have a facility that we can get to market quickly," Jacoby said.

The studio project will be located on 100 acres in Gwinnett County just north of the city, where with an existing 500,000-square-foot building can be remade into 12 soundstages. Plans call for construction to begin by the end of the year.

"The facility that Jacoby is building will be designed to Hollywood standards and will fill quickly," said Gary Bastien, whose architectural firm will be involved in the studio design. Bastien has designed various TV and movie projects for major studios in Southern California.

Other projects include a planned expansion of Tyler Perry's sprawling studio complex that already includes five soundstages, a $100 million project east of the city in Newton County and a $90 million studio planned in Effingham County near Savannah.

The one in Newton County is in the early stages, but Covington-based Triple Horse says it plans a 160-acre studio with multiple soundstages, post-production facilities and a back lot. The one in Effingham County is backed by Medient Studios, which began in India and has expanded with offices in Hollywood and London. Medient's project includes a $90 million studio and entertainment complex with the goal of also becoming a major tourist destination.

Thomas, who heads the state's entertainment office, said another side benefit has been Georgia's burgeoning film tourism industry, with fans planning vacations around visits to film locations. Much of that has centered on the town of Senoia, where AMC's "The Walking Dead" is filmed, with plans to promote Georgia locations in connection with the coming release of the "Hunger Games" sequel. The state also has launched a website, ComeTourGeorgia.com, that lists movie tours and travel tips, pitching an opportunity to "walk in the footsteps of your favorite actors and musicians."

Said Thomas: "We have all the pieces of the puzzle here."

___

Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina.

Clifford, 70, was charged with 11 counts of indecent assault, prosecutors said, including on two underage girls, after being arrested in December as part of an investigation into sex crime allegations against the late Jimmy Savile.

Savile, one of Britain's biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s, was after his death last year found to have carried out sex crimes on an unprecedented scale over six decades, triggering an inquiry that has snared several other celebrities.

Clifford, whose clients have included "The X Factor" reality TV creator Simon Cowell, is best known in Britain for selling "kiss and tell" stories about the rich and famous to scandal-hungry tabloid newspapers.

"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Clifford to be charged with 11 offences of indecent assault relating to seven complainants," the Crown Prosecution Service's Alison Saunders said in a statement.

Clifford, whose alleged crimes were committed between 1966 and 1985, is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on May 28. One of the assaults relates to a girl aged 14, and another to girl aged 15.

Lawyers for Clifford were not immediately available to comment, but a statement from the publicist carried by Sky News said he was living a "24/7 nightmare".

"I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings," he said.

Other celebrities arrested in the Savile probe, codenamed Operation Yewtree, include glam-rock singer Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr and children's' TV show presenter Rolf Harris, who all deny any wrongdoing.

Earlier this month David Smith, a former BBC driver, became the first to have charges brought against him, including two counts of indecent assault, two of gross indecency, and one of buggery, all in 1984, prosecutors said.

Police say Savile committed 214 offences, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, beginning as long ago as 1955.

The scandal forced former BBC Director-General George Entwistle to stand down after only 54 days in the top job.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; editing by Mike Collett-White)

The Sunni gunmen had seized Suleiman Beg on Thursday after a firefight with security forces, one in a string of incidents that have killed more than 170 people in a spate of violence and clashes in Sunni Muslim towns in western and northern Iraq during the past four days.

The growing turmoil prompted the top United Nations official in Iraq on Friday to warn that the country is "at a crossroads."

Police and military officials said army units entered the town after negotiations with local tribal leaders.

The recent unrest in the country followed a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest in the northern town of Hawija four days ago.

In Iraq's predominantly Sunni provinces, anti-government rallies continued as preachers at protest sites called for the formation of tribal army that would protect Sunni areas from attacks by government forces.

In Samarra, Sunni cleric Najih al-Mizan lashed out at what he said were "the policies of tyranny and repression" adopted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He said al-Maliki's resignation was the only solution to save the country from the current crisis.

"We call upon our tribes to form an army that can protect us from a government that does not hesitate to kill its people," said al-Mizan.

In Fallujah, Sunni cleric Ali al-Basra repeated the call to form a tribal army to protect Sunni cities. Several protesters held aloft al-Qaida flags during the rally.

The new calls for Sunnis to take up arms could further raise the tension between the government and the Sunni minority. Al-Maliki appeared on national television on Thursday to appeal for calm.

The U.N. envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, underscored growing concern about the deteriorating situation in a renewed call for restraint.

"The country is at a crossroads," he said. "It is the historical responsibility of all Iraqi leaders to assume leadership and take bold initiatives, such as sitting together and calling in one voice for immediate restoration of calm and for a broad-based national dialogue."

Violence continued on Friday.

A bomb blast hit Sunni worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in western Baghdad after the end of Friday prayers, killing five worshippers and wounding 22 others. Minutes later, a Sunni was killed and six others were wounded when a bomb struck Sunnis near a mosque in the Rashidiyah area, 20 kilometers north of the capital. Also, a bomb exploded near a third Sunni mosque in northeastern Baghdad, killing two people.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks against Sunni mosques, which have now happened for two Fridays in a row.Last Friday, a pair of bombs struck outside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, killing at least 11 people.

Also on Friday, police said a bomb exploded shortly after sunset near a small restaurant in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr city, killing four people and wounding 20 others. Later on, police said three people were killed and 17 others wounded after a car bomb went off in a commercial street in southern Baghdad.

Al-Qaida's Iraqi branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, frequently carries out attacks against civilian targets such as mosques, markets and restaurants. The terrorist group mainly target Shiites, but it has also struck Sunni targets in an attempt to re-ignite the sectarian strife that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in the years following the 2003 U.S. led-invasion.

Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media.

___

Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Baghdad contributed.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana lawmakers on Tuesday questioned the wisdom of eliminating the state's income tax without raising sales taxes, one day after Governor Bobby Jindal said he would delay his plan to scrap the income tax.

Jindal, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, shelved his package on the two-month legislative session's opening day on Monday, acknowledging that widespread public discomfort doomed its chances.

Instead he called on lawmakers to pass their own plan and "send me a bill to get rid of these taxes."

His plan would have eliminated all state personal and corporate income taxes. It also called for a 56 percent increase in the state sales tax, a much higher cigarette tax, and the elimination of some tax loopholes to make up the $3 billion shortfall from abolishing the income taxes.

The question of whether to cut income taxes without raising the sales tax dominated the legislative debate on Tuesday. Another idea being floated was getting rid of the taxes over time instead of all at once.

At a Senate hearing, Republican Senator Robert Adley asked Department of Revenue Executive Counsel Tim Barfield whether an income tax repeal would still need to be revenue-neutral to pass muster with the governor.

"I think that would be the ultimate desire," Barfield said. "But I think if you look at a long-term phase-out of that (income tax), I think you have a lot more leeway."

Jindal's package, designed to make Louisiana more competitive with nearby income tax-free states such as Florida and Texas, would have seen the sales tax top 11 percent in some localities, the highest in the nation, when combined with local taxes.

Simply eliminating the income tax could be an easier sell than pursuing tax hikes to make up for the lost revenue. For one thing, it would not require a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the legislature.

But watchdog groups warned lawmakers against going ahead with a big tax cut on the fly.

"Pursuing a 10-year phase-out of the income tax while trying to find offsets that even the governor couldn't find would be a daunting task at best and of great potential risk to the state at worst," the Council for a Better Louisiana said in a statement. "And simply phasing out the income tax without offsets would be irresponsible."

Representative Joel Robideaux, the Republican Ways and Means chairman who was the sponsor of Jindal's plan, also has weighed in on the side of finding offsets.

House Democratic Caucus Chair John Bel Edwards accused Jindal of being more worried about building a record for a possible presidential run than addressing Louisiana's needs.

"The governor is looking to court folks outside of Louisiana instead of addressing the concerns we have here," Edwards said. "Until we can adequately fund our priorities, we should not even begin to discuss dismantling our tax system."

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Xavier Briand)

The red-jacketed man appeared to be trying to address the crowd instead of attacking President Nicolas Maduro, but the interruption raised instant fears of assassination.

"He could have shot me here," Maduro said, dressing down his security detail before continuing with his address.

Barely five minutes into the speech, the man in a red, long-sleeved jacket ran on stage and said "Nicolas, my name is Jenry" before security converged from all sides.

The broadcast on state television cut away, then returned to the lectern and Maduro, who continued his speech.

The incident marred the ceremony in which Venezuela's ruling party to cement its grip on power. The socialist government packed thousands of red-clad supporters into the streets outside the inauguration of late leader Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, who is battling to establish his own authority.

The crowds were smaller and more subdued than those that turned out for Chavez, however, and the opposition boycotted Maduro's swearing-in, hoping that the ruling party's last-minute decision to allow an audit of nearly half the vote could change the result in a the bitterly disputed presidential election.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles said the audit announced Thursday night will prove he won the presidency. Government officials appear to be confident there will be no reversal of the result by a weeks-long audit that's only slated to begin days after Maduro's swearing-in.

Still, the audit was a sudden reversal for a government that insisted all week that there would be no review of Sunday's vote and took a hard line against the opposition that included allegedly brutal treatment of protesters.The announcement appeared to stem from pressure from some of the South American leaders who held an emergency meeting in Lima, Peru, Thursday night to discuss Venezuela's electoral crisis and wound up endorsing Maduro's victory.

Even if it leaves the vote standing and calms tensions, the recount will strengthen Venezuela's opposition against a president whose narrow victory left him far weaker than his widely popular predecessor Chavez, analysts said. That will complicate Maduro's effort to consolidate control of a country struggling with shortages of food and medicines, chronic power outages, one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates and steep inflation that's around 25 percent and accelerating.

Hundreds of red-clad Chavistas marched through Caracas ahead of the inauguration, shouting and blowing trumpets, led by riders on horseback and even massive bulls yoked in pairs. But the showing, at least by mid-morning, was a faint echo of the rallies that drew tens of thousands to the streets during the Chavez era.

"The most significant thing to emerge from this is the political victory" for the opposition, said Maria Isabel Puerta, a political science professor at the University of Carabobo. "The opposition's role is strengthened and Capriles' leadership is consolidated."

Maduro, 50, was declared the winner of Sunday's election by a slim 267,000-vote margin out of 14.9 million ballots cast. That did not include more than 100,000 votes cast abroad, where more than 90 percent were cast for Capriles in an earlier election against Chavez last October.

Venezuelans voted on computers that issued paper receipts used to confirm the accuracy of the electronic vote. Authorities checked 54 percent of the electronic vote against the paper receipts and registers containing the names, signatures and fingerprints of each voter.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council said just before the start of the meeting in Lima that it would audit 46 percent of the vote not already scrutinized on election night. An electoral official told The Associated Press that the new process, to start next week, would replicate the one from election night.

Capriles has alleged a series of vote irregularities, some of which would be turned up by a new audit, such as charges that there was damage to 3,535 voting machines, representing 189,982 votes, and that voting rolls included 600,000 dead people. He said that many of those irregularities took place in polling locations that weren't audited on election day.

Capriles had demanded a full vote-by-vote recount but said he accepted the ruling.

"We are where we want to be," a satisfied but cautious-looking Capriles told a news conference after the Thursday night announcement. "I think I will have the universe of voters needed to get where I want to be."

Some analysts said the government-controlled recount would almost certainly confirm Maduro's victory and force the opposition to accept it. Others saw the possibility the audit could turn up enough irregularities to throw the election result into question and spawn turmoil.

"It opens a sort of Pandora's box," said Edgar Gutierrez, an independent political analyst in Caracas.

In a declaration released after the 3 1/2-hour meeting, the South American presidents asked "all parties who participated in the election to respect the official results" and said they "took positive note" of the electoral council's audit decision.

Maduro, in a Twitter message, proclaimed the meeting a "great success."

Aura Chacon, a 67-year-old retired nurse, said Chavez's backers would "never let them steal this victory from us. The opposition will never, ever come back into power. We'll push forward with Maduro, and after Maduro other fighters will come, and keep moving forward."

Maduro had never rejected the audit publicly, and it was possible pressure from the military or more moderate members of his ruling clique were a factor. Maduro heads a faction believed to be more radical.

"This is a concession to Capriles, but it is also a way of calling his bluff. It is exceedingly unlikely that such an audit will show a different result," said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia.

The so-called Chavistas control all the levers of power in Venezuela, so the electoral council's flip-flop can only be seen as having the government's imprimatur.

A petition to halt Maduro's inauguration had been rejected earlier Thursday by the country's highest court.

The late president, who succumbed to cancer last month after 14 years in power, endeared himself to the poor with generous social spending but, Capriles argued, had put the country with the world's largest oil reserves on the road to ruin.

Capriles, 40, called on his supporters to back down from confrontation and play music, preferably salsa, instead of banging on pots in protest, as they have done nightly all week since the council ratified Maduro's victory.

The man who had been calling Maduro illegitimate and belittling him as incompetent was now saying the inauguration should go forward.

"This government will continue to govern until this thing gets resolved," Capriles said. "It's a history of chapters."

As for the vote count, which will be accompanied by both sides, "we know where the problems are," Capriles said.

Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena said 12,000 voting machines would be audited beginning next week in a process that she said would take a month to complete.

The opposition has been battered for years by Chavez and many of its members say political repression has only increased under Maduro, including the arrests of more than 300 protesters this week for staging marches against the alleged election theft.

In less than two weeks preceding the election, Maduro had squandered a double-digit lead in the polls as Venezuelans upset by the troubled economy, and other social problems turned away from a candidate many considered a poor imitation of the charismatic leader for whom he long served as foreign minister.

No independent international election monitor teams scrutinized the vote, and Capriles said some members of the military had been arrested for trying to prevent abuses.

__

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Eduardo Castillo, Christopher Toothaker and Frank Bajak contributed to this report.

___

Vivian Sequera on Twitter: http://twitter.com/VivanSequera

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Canadian investigators say Raed Jaser, 35, and his suspected accomplice Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, received "directions and guidance" from members of al-Qaida in Iran. Iran said it had nothing to do with the plot, and groups such as al-Qaida do not share Iran's ideology.

Charges against the two men include conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group. Police tipped off by an imam worried about one of the suspects' behavior said it was the first known attack planned by al-Qaida in Canada.

In a brief court appearance in Montreal, a bearded Esseghaier declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer. He made a brief statement in French in which he called the allegations against him unfair.

"The conclusions were made based on facts and words which are only appearances," he said in a calm voice after asking permission to speak.

Jaser appeared in court earlier Tuesday in Toronto and also did not enter a plea. He and was given a new court date of May 23. He had a long beard and wore a black shirt with no tie, and was accompanied by his parents and brother. The court granted a request by his lawyer, John Norris, for a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.

"I don't know nothing. Let the police do their job," his father, Mohammed Jaser, said outside the courtroom in a crush of journalists.

The men's case has raised questions about the extent of Shiite-led Iran's relationship with the predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network. Relations between the two have been rocky for many years, but some al-Qaida members were allowed to stay in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan following the U.S. led invasion there. Iran watched them carefully and limited their movements.

U.S. intelligence officials track limited al-Qaida activity inside Iran. Remnants of al-Qaida's so-called management council are still there, though they are usually kept under virtual house arrest by the Iranian regime. There are also a small number of financiers and facilitators who help move money, and sometimes weapons and people, throughout the region from their base in Iran.

Last fall, the Obama administration offered up to $12 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of two al-Qaida leaders based in Iran. The U.S. State Department described them as key facilitators in sending extremists to Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Treasury Department also announced financial penalties against one of the men.

Officials in Canada said Jaser and Esseghaier had "direction and guidance" from al-Qaida members in Iran but no financial assistance, and there was no reason to think the planned attacks were state-sponsored.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters on Tuesday that groups such as al-Qaida have "no compatibility with Iran in both political and ideological fields."

"We oppose any terrorist and violent action that would jeopardize lives of innocent people," he said.

Mehmanparast called the Canadian claims part of hostile policies against Tehran, and accused Canada of indirectly aiding al-Qaida by joining Western support for Syrian rebels. Some Islamic militant factions, claiming allegiance to al-Qaida, have joined forces seeking to topple the regime of Bashar Assad, one of Iran's main allies in the region.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations after Canada unilaterally closed its embassy in Tehran in 2012 and expelled Iranian diplomats from Ottawa.

Police said the men are not Canadian citizens and had been in Canada a "significant amount of time," but declined to say where they were from or why they were in the country.

Norris, Jaser's lawyer, said his client would "defend himself vigorously" against the accusations, and noted his client was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. He refused to say where Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonizing him.

The investigation surrounding the planned attack was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Canadian police said the men never got close to carrying out the attack.

RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan said Monday that Jaser and Esseghaier were targeting a route, but did not say whether it was a cross border route.

In New York, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne declined to discuss reports that the plot targeted a passenger line between New York City and Canada. However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that Canada has kept New York posted on the investigation.

"I can just tell you that you are probably safer in New York City than you are in any other big city," Bloomberg told reporters Tuesday without discussing details.

Police in Canada said Jaser and Esseghaier had been under investigation since last fall.

Muhammad Robert Heft, who runs an outreach organization for Islamic converts, and Hussein Hamdani, a lawyer and longtime advocate in the Muslim community, said one of the suspects is Tunisian and the other is from the United Arab Emirates. Heft and Hamdani were part of a group of Muslim community leaders who were briefed by the RCMP ahead of Monday's announcement.

In Abu Dhabi, a UAE source informed about the attack plot said there was "no UAE citizen" with the name Raed Jaser. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

Authorities were tipped off by members of the Muslim community, Best said

Toronto lawyer Naseer Syed said a Toronto imam tipped off police. Syed would not say what, exactly him off. He said he was speaking for the imam, who wished to remain anonymous.

"I was involved in alerting police about the suspect.I made some calls on behalf of the imam over a year ago," he said from his Toronto office."The Muslim community has been cooperating with authorities for a number of years and people do the right thing when there is reason to alert authorities."

A spokeswoman for the University of Sherbrooke near Montreal said Esseghaier studied there in 2008-2009. More recently, he has been doing doctoral research at the National Institute of Scientific Research, a spokeswoman at the training university confirmed.

Julie Martineau, a spokeswoman at the research institute, said Esseghaier began working at the center just outside Montreal in 2010 and was pursuing a Ph.D. in nanotechnology.

A LinkedIn page showing a man with Esseghaier's name and academic background said he helped author a number of biology research papers, including on HIV and cancer detection. The page says he was a student in Tunisia before moving to Canada in the summer of 2008.

The page carries a photo of a black flag inscribed with the Muslim declaration of faith: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The same flag was used by al-Qaida in Iraq and then started being used by ultraconservative Islamic groups in Egypt, Tunisia, Mali and elsewhere across the region.

In Markham, Ontario, north of Toronto, police tape cordoned off half of a duplex, with officers remaining at the scene well into Monday night. Sanjay Chaudhary, who lives in the other half of the duplex with his family, said the RCMP questioned him about his neighbor Jaser, asking whether he knew him or spoke to him often.

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Associated Press writers Charmaine Noronha in Ontario, Benjamin Shingler in Montreal, Tom Hays and Jennifer Peltz in New York, Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Brian Murphy in the United Arab Emirates contributed to this story.

The burly, moon-faced Winters, a major influence on contemporary comedians like Robin Williams and Steve Martin, died on Thursday of natural causes at his Montecito, California home, surrounded by family and friends, said long time family friend Joe Petro III.

Winters had standout roles in 1960s comedy films "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming."

He also made regular appearances on "The Tonight Show" with hosts Jack Paar and then Johnny Carson, "The Andy Williams Show" and his own TV variety shows, "The Jonathan Winters Show" and "The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters," in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Winters' outlandish riffing style and repertoire of madcap characters made him a leading stand-up performer in the late 1950s but the pressure of being on the road led to a mental breakdown in 1959. He spent time in mental hospitals and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Winters was a comedian who rebelled against telling jokes and entertained in a stream-of-consciousness style that could veer into the surreal.

"I love improvisation," he told Reuters in an interview nearly 13 years ago. "You can't blame it on the writers. You can't blame it on direction. You can't blame it on the camera guy. ... It's you. You're on. You've got to do it, and you either sink or swim with what you've got."

Actor Robert Morse, who starred with Winters in the 1965 movie "The Loved One," marveled at the agility with which Winters could transform an ordinary object into an instrument of rapid-fire gags.

"Most of us see things three-dimensionally," Morse once mused in The New York Times. "I think Jonny sees things 59-dimensionally. Give me a hairbrush and I see a hairbrush. Give Jonny a hairbrush and it will be a dozen funny things."

Steve Martin paid tribute on Twitter on Friday: "Goodbye, Jonathan Winters. You were not only one of the greats, but one of the great greats."

SALTY MAUDIE, DRAWLING SUGGINS

His characters included Maudie Frickert, the salty old lady with a razor for a tongue, and Elwood P. Suggins, the drawling, overall-clad hick who "was fire chief a while back until they found out who was setting the fires."

Winters joined the U.S. Marine Corps at 17 and fought in the Pacific during World War Two. After the war he returned to his native Ohio, attended art school and married Eileen Schauder.

At her urging he entered a talent contest, which led to a show on a Dayton radio station on which he would create characters and interview them using two voices.

Winters moved to New York and with his many impressions, facial expressions and sound effects, quickly made a reputation in the city's stand-up comedy clubs, leading to high-profile appearances on television variety shows.

Winters' career derailed in 1959 when he began crying on stage at a nightclub in San Francisco. He was later taken into custody by police who found him climbing the rigging of a sailboat, saying he was from outer space.

Wrung out from the solitude of the road and stress of performance, Winters spent eight months in a psychiatric facility.

"I almost lost my sense of humor," he said in the interview with Reuters, recalling that his role as furniture mover Lennie Pike in the 1963 ensemble comedy film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" marked a turning point in his recovery.

"I was fresh out of the hospital. I didn't know if I was up to doing a picture such as this," he said. But he took the part at his wife's urging, and "I finally opened up, I realized I was back, and I was in charge of myself and my mind."

Winters once admitted he felt the need to be "on" at all times - staying on the set after filming was done to entertain the crew, breaking into characters to amuse strangers on an elevator or joking with customers in a store.

"I was the class clown," Winters told The New York Times in recounting his high school days. "Other guys had more security, steady dates and all that ... I didn't. They only thing that kept me together was my comedy."

In 1981 Winters was cast in the sitcom "Mork and Mindy," teaming him with Williams, an ardent admirer whose own gift for off-the-wall improvisation made him the Jonathan Winters of his generation.

Winters also became familiar for his commercial work on behalf of such brands as Hefty trash bags, Good Humor ice cream and the California Egg Commission.

He won an Emmy in 1991 for his work on the short-lived sitcom "Davis Rules" and was given the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.

Recent work included providing the voice of Papa Smurf in the 2011 live action "The Smurfs" movie, and a sequel due for release in July.

His wife Eileen, with whom he had two children, died in 2009 of breast cancer.

(Reporting By Bill Trott, Eric Kelsey and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Vicki Allen and David Brunnstrom)

The parks, Isla Pingino Coastal Marine Park and Makenke Coastal Marine Park, are home to penguins, sea lions, dolphins and other animals, which will receive more protections under the designation, according to a release from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an environmental group.

The Isla Pingino Coastal Marine Park extends 12 miles (19 kilometers) out to sea, encompassing some 720 square miles (1,800 square kilometers) of ocean and cliff-bordered coastline. It's home to South American sea lions, red-legged cormorants and one of the biggest colonies of imperial cormorants in the world (with more than 8,000 breeding pairs). The park also hosts one of the only colonies ofin the country, according to the WCS.

The Makenke Coastal Marine Park, farther to the south, is home to the biggest group of rare red-legged cormorants in the country. Visitors can also find dolphin gulls andin the area, the WCS noted. [.]

Each park, established by the Argentine National Congress, is known for its historical significance. In 1833, Charles Darwin voyaged to Isla Pingino on the HMS Beagle, writing about the wildlife he found there. Ferdinand Magellan passed by what is now Makenke Coastal Marine Park on his first voyage around the world, marooning and executing a group of mutineers on the coast there.

"We commend the Government of Argentina for their conservation stewardship in creating this new network of marine protected areas," said Cristin Samper, WCS president, in a statement. "Isla Pingino and Makenke Coastal Marine Parks now protect vital wildlife populations for posterity and create new opportunities for Argentina's ecotourism industry."

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