NKorea detains US citizen, the 3rd American being held there

NKorea detains US citizen, the 3rd American being held there
 

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea has detained a U.S. citizen, officials said Sunday, bringing to three the number of Americans now being held there.

Tony Kim, who also goes by his Korean name Kim Sang-duk, was detained on Saturday, according to Park Chan-mo, the chancellor of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Park said Kim, who is 58, taught accounting at the university for about a month. He said Kim was detained by officials as he was trying to leave the country from Pyongyang's international airport. A university spokesman said he was trying to leave with his wife on a flight to China.

The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang said it was aware of a Korean-American citizen being detained recently, but could not comment further. The embassy looks after consular affairs for the United States in North Korea because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

The State Department said it was aware of the report about a U.S. citizen being detained, but declined further comment "due to privacy considerations."

Park said Kim had taught at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China before coming to Pyongyang. He said he was informed that the detention had "nothing to do" with Kim's work at the university but did not know further details.

As of Sunday night, North Korea's official media had not reported on the detention.

The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is the only privately funded university in North Korea. 

It held its first classes in 2010. It is unique in the North for its large number of foreign staff.

Colin McCulloch, the director of external affairs, said the university was not under investigation and was continuing its normal operations. He said he could not immediately confirm Kim's hometown.

Though no details on why Kim was detained have been released, the detention comes at a time of unusually heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Both countries have recently been trading threats of war and having another American in jail will likely up the ante even further.

Last year, Otto Warmbier, then a 21-year-old University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in prison after he confessed to trying to steal a propaganda banner.

Kim Dong Chul, who was born in South Korea but is also believed to have U.S. citizenship, is serving a sentence of 10 years for espionage.

Another foreigner, a Canadian pastor, is also being detained in North Korea. Hyeon Soo Lim, a South Korean-born Canadian citizen in his 60s, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges of trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens.

Manhunt underway for man who livestreamed homicide

Manhunt underway for man who livestreamed homicide
 

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A manhunt is underway for a suspect who police say killed a man on the street Sunday while streaming it live on Facebook.

Law enforcement is searching the Cleveland area and beyond for Steve Stephens, the suspect police say walked up to an elderly man and shot him while on video, said Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams.

The victim has been identified as 74-year-old Robert Goodwin Sr.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson publicly urged Stephens to turn himself into police and not to "do anymore harm to anybody."

"Any problems he is having, we can have a conversation," Jackson said.

In the video, Stephens claimed to have killed more than a dozen other people. Williams said police have not verified that information.

"There are no more victims that we know are tied to him," he added.

The chief also said they've been talking with Stephens' friends and family.

"What happened today was senseless," Williams said.

Authorities say Stephens broadcast the video live on the social media network Sunday afternoon. It was up for about three hours before it was removed. Stephens Facebook page has also been removed.

"This is a horrific crime and we do not allow this kind of content on Facebook," said a spokesperson for Facebook. "We work hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, and are in touch with law enforcement in emergencies when there are direct threats to physical safety."

Police say Stephens should be considered armed and dangerous.

Williams said Stephens may be driving a newer model white Ford Fusion, possibly with a temporary license plate. He is described as a black man with a bald head and beard, standing 6 foot 1 inch and weighing 240 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

Chicago-area chef, cancer worker charged in terrorist case

Chicago-area chef, cancer worker charged in terrorist case

CHICAGO (AP) -- Two suburban Chicago men who posed for photos holding a black Islamic State group flag at a Lake Michigan beach park were arrested Wednesday on federal terrorist charges, and an undercover operative said one of the men suggested homosexuals should be thrown off the city's tallest building.

An FBI sting begun in 2015 compiled evidence that Joseph D. Jones and Edward Schimenti sought to provide material support to Islamic State, including by provided cellphones to one person working for the FBI and posing as an IS supporter believing the phones would be used to detonate car bombs in Syria, the 65-page complaint says.

Jones, a part time chef, and Schimenti, who worked at a cancer treatment center, drove the FBI operative to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport last week on what they thought would be the first leg of a journey to Syria. The complaint says Schimenti told him to "drench that land ... with blood."

The 35-year-old men looked tired standing in street clothes with their hands folded behind their backs during a brief initial hearing Wednesday in federal court in Chicago. When Magistrate Judge David Weisman asked if they understood the charges, both answered calmly that they did.

If convicted, the two would face a maximum prison term of 20 years. A detention hearing was set for Monday, after which they would enter pleas.

The complaint includes photos of them holding the IS flag at the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, where they live. It also included details of postings on their social media accounts.

While he helped the man he believed would go to Syria get into condition at a local gym, Schmimenti conceded he wasn't close to fighting shape, the complaint says. "I'm all big, fat," he is quoted as saying. "But (God willing), the brothers will just have me be the one to cut the neck."

Schimenti, who also went by "Abdul Wali," allegedly told one person in on the sting in February that he was angry about a co-worker because the person was gay. Under Islamic Law, Schimenti was quoted as saying, "We are putting you (homosexuals) on top of Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) and we drop you."

A photo posted on Schimenti's Google Plus profile shows a masked man holding a knife, and caption written in capital letters says that if you can't travel abroad to fight, "then slaughter the pagans next to you." After watching an IS video of captured soldiers being burned alive as they spoke a language he didn't understand, Schimenti says, "I don't know what they're saying but I love it," the complaint says.

A video was posted on Jones' Google Plus profile entitled, "Some of the Deadly Stabbing Ways: Do not Forget to Poison the Knife," the complaint says. Another time, a person in on the FBI sting asked Jones if he ever thought about traveling to Syria to live in Islamic State territory. Jones, who was also known as "Yusuf Abdulhaqq," allegedly answered: "Every night and day."

This is the latest of several area cases related to Islamic State. A Chicago federal judge last year sentenced former Illinois National Guard Hasan Edmonds to 30 years in prison and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, to 21 years for plotting to join Islamic State fighters and to attack a National Guard armory just outside Chicago.

The complaint makes a brief reference to Schimenti allegedly suggesting in March that the Naval Station Great Lakes, a training ground for U.S. sailors just south of Zion, could be a terrorist target.

The sting started in September 2015 when an undercover agent approach Jones at the Zion Police Department - where Jones was being questioned about the killing of one of his friends - and the two began talking about Islam. The complaint didn't offer details about the killing.

Schimenti grew increasingly suspicious about the undercover agents, suggesting that at least some weren't actually Islamic State sympathizers. He once suggested something was "fishy" about them, adding that he had a good sense of that because of his own criminal history. Jones also spoke about past convictions, the complaint says.

Michigan boy, 11, hangs himself after social media prank

Michigan boy, 11, hangs himself after social media prank
  

DETROIT (AP) -- Tysen Benz was at home when he saw social media posts indicating that his 13-year-old girlfriend had committed suicide. The posts were a prank, but the 11-year-old boy apparently believed them.

Moments later, his mother found him hanging by the neck in his room in Marquette, Michigan. Now a prosecutor is pursuing criminal charges against a juvenile accused of being involved in the scheme, which Katrina Goss described as "a twisted, sick joke."

Goss described her son as appearing "fine" just 40 minutes before she found him.

"I just want it be exposed and be addressed," Goss said of school bullying in general and cyberbullying in particular. "I don't want it be ignored."

Using a cellphone he bought without his mother's knowledge, Tysen on March 14 was reading texts and other messages about the faked suicide and decided he would end his life too, his mother said.

After seeing the posts about his girlfriend, Tysen replied over social media that he was going to kill himself, and no one involved in the prank told an adult, Goss said.

The boy died Tuesday at a Detroit-area hospital.

Authorities would not release the age of the juvenile charged or comment on what relationship the person had with Tysen. The juvenile is being charged with malicious use of telecommunication services and using a computer to commit a crime.

The girl whose death was faked and friends who were in on the prank attended the same school as Tysen, Goss said. Even though the prank occurred outside of school, she said, the school should have done more to protect her son.

"The principal, the assistant principal - that's their job, especially for little kids," she said. "Kids take things to heart."

In a statement released Thursday, Marquette Area Public Schools Superintendent William Saunders agreed with Goss's concerns about the dangers of social media. He said the district has been educating students and parents through its health curriculum, health fairs, community forums and other efforts.

"After the gut-wrenching loss of a student, we ask ourselves, 'How can we do more?'" Saunders wrote.

Most states, including Michigan, have enacted legislation designed to protect children from bullies.

Michigan's anti-bullying act, signed in 2011 by Gov. Rick Snyder, requires school districts to have anti-bullying policies on the books. It was known as "Matt's Safe School Law" after Matt Epling, a 14-year-old who killed himself after a 2002 hazing incident.

The law was updated two years ago to direct school districts to add language to those policies that address cyberbullying.

Former Republican state Rep. Phil Potvin, who sponsored the original bill, said schools have a responsibility to do more than include anti-cyberbullying rules in their written policies.

"They have to have a person - spelled out - to make sure that policy is followed," said Potvin, of Cadillac in northern Michigan. "Some schools have failed to do that. They may have put something in, but there is no follow-up. There is no checking up on these things."

In 2006, Megan Meier committed suicide after a woman who lived in her family's neighborhood in St. Charles County, Missouri, encouraged the 13-year-old to kill herself. The woman had created a fake MySpace admirer named "Josh," who befriended Megan.

The woman was convicted in a California federal court of three misdemeanors, but a judge overturned the conviction.

Pranks "definitely happen," said Tina Meier, who runs a national bullying and cyberbullying prevention foundation named after her daughter.

"The problem is when they are pranking somebody ... to them it's just been a joke," Meier said. "To the other person, it's been real."

Gorsuch heads for confirmation as Senate tears up own rules

Gorsuch heads for confirmation as Senate tears up own rules

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. signals a thumbs-up as he leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 6, 2017, after he led the GOP majority to change Senate rules and lower the vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees from 60 votes to a simple majority in order to advance Neil Gorsuch to a confirmation vote.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a confrontation that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations, Republicans tore up the Senate's voting rules Thursday to allow Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch to ascend to the high court over furious Democratic objections.

Democrats denounced the GOP's use of what both sides dubbed the "nuclear option" to put Gorsuch on the court, calling it an epic power grab that would further corrode politics in Congress, the courts and the nation. Many Republicans bemoaned reaching that point, too, but they blamed Democrats for pushing them to it.

"We will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court," declared Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

"This is going to be a chapter, a monumental event in the history of the Senate, not for the better but for the worse," warned Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior Republican.

A final confirmation vote on Gorsuch is expected Friday, and he should be sworn in soon to hear the final cases of the term. He was nominated by President Donald Trump shortly after the January inauguration.

The Senate change, affecting how many votes a nominee needs for confirmation, will apply to all future Supreme Court candidates, likely ensuring more ideological justices chosen with no need for consultation with the minority party. Trump himself predicted to reporters aboard Air Force One that "there could be as many as four" Supreme Court vacancies for him to fill during his administration.

"In fact, under a certain scenario, there could even be more than that," Trump said. There is no way to know how many there will be, if any, but several justices are quite elderly.

Even as they united in indignation, lawmakers of both parties, pulled by fierce political forces from left and right, were unwilling to stop the confirmation rules change.

The maneuvering played out in a tense Senate chamber with most members in their seats, a rare and theatrical occurrence.

First Democrats tried to mount a filibuster in an effort to block Gorsuch by denying him the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote. That was successful only briefly, as Gorsuch fell five votes short. Then Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., raised a point of order, suggesting that Supreme Court nominees should not be subjected to a 60-vote threshold but instead a simple majority in the 100-member Senate.

McConnell was overruled, but he appealed the ruling. And on that he prevailed on a 52-48 party-line vote. The 60-vote filibuster requirement on Supreme Court nominees was effectively gone, and with it the last vestige of bipartisanship on presidential nominees in an increasingly polarized Senate.

The developments were accompanied by unusually bitter accusations and counter-accusations. And yet in many ways the showdown had been pre-ordained, the final chapter in years of partisan warfare over judicial nominees.

In 2005, with the Senate under GOP control, Republicans prepared to utilize the "nuclear option" to remove the filibuster for lower-court nominees. A bipartisan deal at the time headed off that change. But then in 2013, with Democrats in charge and Republicans blocking President Barack Obama's nominees, the Democrats did take the step, removing the filibuster for all presidential appointments except the Supreme Court.

McConnell accused Democrats of forcing his hand by trying to filibuster a highly qualified nominee in Gorsuch, 49, a 10-year veteran of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver with a consistently conservative record.

"This is the latest escalation in the left's never-ending judicial war, the most audacious yet, and it cannot and will not stand," McConnell said.

But Democrats were unable to pull back from the brink, partly because they remain livid over McConnell's decision last year to block Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, who was denied even a hearing after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Instead McConnell kept Scalia's seat open, a calculation that is now paying off for Republicans and Trump.

Even as Graham and other senior Republicans lamented the voting change, McConnell and some allies argued that all they were doing was returning to a time, not long ago, when filibusters of judicial nominees were unusual, and it was virtually unheard-of to try to block a Supreme Court nominee in that fashion. Even Clarence Thomas got onto the court without a filibuster despite highly contentious confirmation hearings involving sexual harassment claims.

Some senators fear that the next to go could be the legislative filibuster, one of the last remaining mechanisms to force bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware were circulating a letter to colleagues Thursday in support of keeping the filibuster in place for legislation.

With his final vote set for Friday, Gorsuch counts 55 supporters: the 52 Republicans, along with three moderate Democrats from states that Trump won - Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. A fourth Senate Democrat, Michael Bennet from Gorsuch's home state of Colorado, refused to join in the filibuster Thursday but announced he would vote against Gorsuch's confirmation.

Pressure builds on Syria's Assad after chemical attack

Pressure builds on Syria's Assad after chemical attack
 

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov speaks with The Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Peskov tells The Associated Press that Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not unconditional, with Putin's Spokesman talking just days after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a Syrian rebel-held province.

  

BEIRUT (AP) -- President Bashar Assad's government came under mounting international pressure Thursday after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional.

Turkey, meanwhile, said samples from victims of Tuesday's attack, which killed more than 80 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, indicate they were exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.

Syria rejected the accusations, and Moscow warned against apportioning blame until an investigation has been carried out.

The United States said it hopes for a vote late Thursday on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn the chemical attack. President Donald Trump hinted at military action and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Assad should no longer have a role in governing the Syrian people.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Associated Press that "unconditional support is not possible in this current world."

But he added that "it is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow. This is totally wrong."

Russia has provided military support for the Syrian government since September 2015, turning the balance of power in Assad's favor. Moscow has used its veto power at the Security Council on several occasions since the civil war began six years ago to prevent sanctions against Damascus.

The two countries "enjoy a relationship of cooperation, of exchange of views and full mutual support," said Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin. Assad and his army are "the only real power in Syria that can resist terrorists on the ground," he said.

Syria maintains it didn't use chemical weapons, blaming opposition fighters for stockpiling the chemicals. Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun.

"I stress, once again, that the Syrian Arab Army did not and will not use such weapons even against the terrorists who are targeting our people," Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told reporters in Damascus.

Trump said the attack crossed "many, many lines," and put the blame squarely on Assad's forces. Speaking Thursday on Air Force One, Trump would not discuss what the U.S. might do in response but hinted at military action. He said the attack "shouldn't have happened, and it shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Asked if Assad should remain in power, he said that "he's there and I guess he's running things so something should happen."

On Wednesday, his U.N. envoy Nikki Haley strongly hinted some U.S. action was coming if the Security Council doesn't act.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes Trump will take military action, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying.

Erdogan said Turkey would be prepared to do "whatever falls on us" to support possible military action, the news agency reported.

At the U.N., the United States, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, it drafted a resolution along with Britain and France that condemns the use of chemical weapons, particularly in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, "in the strongest terms."

Russia objected to key provisions in the resolution and negotiations have been underway to try to bridge the differences.

Britain's deputy ambassador Peter Wilson said "what we want is a unanimous resolution ... and we want to see this done soon."

A day earlier, Russia had argued against holding Assad's government responsible.

France's U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre indicated difficulty in reaching agreement on a resolution.

"We have engaged into negotiations in good faith to adopt a resolution - but make no mistake about it we need a robust text," he said. "We cannot be willing to have a text at any cost."

"There are fundamentals we cannot compromise with when it's about the barbaric murder of civilians, among them many children, with chemical weapons," Delattre said adding that he didn't know whether the council will be able to adopt a resolution. If Russia cast a veto, he said, "that would be a terrible responsibility in front of history."

But Delattre told the AP later he thought there was "still a chance" for an agreement with Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the attack "barbaric" and a war crime, and she said everything must be done to investigate it urgently. She also criticized the Security Council for failing to pass a resolution condemning the attack, saying those who don't support it "should think about what responsibility they are shouldering."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault urged a resumption of peace talks and said he wants Assad's government prosecuted. He told CNews television that a U.N. resolution and peace negotiations should be a top priority - not new military interventions.

"France is still seeking to talk with its partners on the Security Council ... Russia in particular," Ayrault said.

"These crimes must not remain unpunished. ... One day, international justice will rule on Assad," he added.

After the attack, hospitals around Khan Sheikhoun were overwhelmed, and paramedics sent victims to medical facilities across rebel-held areas in northern Syria, as well as to Turkey. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at 86.

The attack happened in Syria's Idlib province about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Turkish border, and the Turkish government - a close ally of Syria's rebels - set up a decontamination center at a border crossing in Hatay province, where the victims were treated initially.

Turkish officials said nearly 60 victims of the attack were brought to Turkey for treatment and three of them died.

Victims showed signs of nerve gas exposure, including suffocation, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, constricted pupils and involuntary defecation, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders said. Paramedics used fire hoses to wash the chemicals from the bodies of victims.

Visuals from the scene were reminiscent of a 2013 nerve gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus that left hundreds dead.

In Turkey, Anadolu and the private DHA news agencies on Thursday quoted Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as saying "it was determined after the autopsy that a chemical weapon was used."

The Turkish Health Ministry said later that "according to the results of the first analysis, there were findings suggesting that the patients were exposed to chemical substance (sarin)."

WHO experts took part in the autopsies in the Turkish city of Adana late Wednesday, Turkish media reported.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has "initiated contact" with Syrian authorities and its Technical Secretariat has been collecting and analyzing information about the allegations. 

"This is an ongoing investigation," it said.

Russia has warned against fixing blame for the attack until an investigation is completed.

At a news conference in Damascus, Moallem echoed that statement, saying the Syrian army bombed a warehouse belonging to al-Qaida's branch in Syria that contained chemical weapons. He did not say whether the government knew in advance that the warehouse contained chemical weapons.

The minister said al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been bringing chemical weapons from neighboring Iraq.

Asked whether Syria would give access to a fact-finding mission on the use of chemical weapons, Moallem said: "Our experiences with international investigating committees were not encouraging, because they come out of Damascus with certain indications, which then change at their headquarters."

Syria wants guarantees that any investigation would be impartial and not politicized, Moallem said.

The area of Khan Sheikhoun is difficult to access, and as more time passes since the attack, it will be increasingly difficult to determine exactly what happened.

Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official with the U.N.'s Syria office, said he believes an awareness of the need to protect civilians is finally "sinking in."

He expressed hope for a "watershed moment" with "all of these world leaders saying that they have again woken up to the suffering of the civilians that we see every day."

Mounting confidence nerve gas was used in Syria attack

Mounting confidence nerve gas was used in Syria attack

Britain's United Nations Ambassador Matthew Rycroft speaks during a meeting of the Security Council on Syria at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Rycroft said the attack in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province "bears all the hallmarks" of President Bashar Assad's regime and the Britain believes a nerve agent capable of killing over a hundred people was used.

   

BEIRUT (AP) -- Diplomats at the U.N. Security council sparred Wednesday over whether to hold President Bashar Assad's government responsible for a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people in northern Syria, while U.S. intelligence officials, Doctors Without Borders and the U.N. healthy agency said evidence pointed to nerve gas exposure.

The Trump administration and other world leaders said the Syrian government was to blame, but Moscow, a key ally of Assad, said the assault was caused by a Syrian airstrike that hit a rebel stockpile of chemical arms.

Early U.S. assessments showed the use of chlorine gas and traces of the nerve agent sarin in the attack Tuesday that terrorized the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, according to two U.S. officials who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

Israeli military intelligence officers also believe Syrian government forces were behind the attack, Israeli defense officials told the Associated Press. Israel believes Assad has tons of chemical weapons still in his arsenal, despite a concerted operation three years ago by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to rid the government of its stockpile, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief the media. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also blamed the Syrian government for the attack.

In Khan Sheikhoun, rescue workers found terrified survivors still hiding in shelters as another wave of airstrikes battered the town Wednesday. Those strikes appeared to deliver only conventional weapons damage.

Among those discovered alive were two women and a boy found hiding in a shelter beneath their home, the Civil Defense search and rescue group told the AP.

The effects of the attack overwhelmed hospitals around the town, leading paramedics to send patients to medical facilities across rebel-held areas in northern Syria, as well as to Turkey. The Turkish Health Ministry said three victims died receiving treatment inside its borders. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for 

Human Rights monitoring group put the toll at 86 killed.

Victims of the attack showed signs of nerve gas exposure, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders said, including suffocation, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, constricted pupils and involuntary defecation. Paramedics were using fire hoses to wash the chemicals from the bodies of victims.

Medical teams also reported smelling bleach on survivors of the attack, suggesting chlorine gas was also used, Doctors Without Borders said.

The magnitude of the attack was reflected in the images of the dead - children piled in heaps for burial, a father carrying his lifeless young twins.

The visuals from the scene were reminiscent of a 2013 nerve gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus that left hundreds dead and prompted an agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia to disarm Assad's chemical stockpile. Western nations blamed government forces for that attack, where effects were concentrated on opposition-held areas.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis said during his general audience that he was "watching with horror at the latest events in Syria," and that he "strongly deplored the unacceptable massacre."

Tuesday's attack happened just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Turkish border, and the Turkish government - a close ally of Syrian rebels - set up a decontamination center at a border crossing in the province of Hatay, where the victims were initially treated before being moved to hospitals.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned the Trump administration would take action if the Security Council did not in response to the attack.

"When you kill innocent children, innocent babies - babies, little babies - with a chemical gas that is so lethal, people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many, many lines," Donald Trump said in the White House Rose Garden. The president declined to say what the U.S. would do in response, but he did say that his "attitude towards Syria and Assad has changed very much."

The council was convened in an emergency session to consider a resolution that would back an investigation by the chemical weapons watchdog into the attack and compel the Syrian government to cooperate with a probe. It was drafted by the U.S., Britain and France.

Syria's government denied it carried out any chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, but Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft dismissed that account, saying the U.K. had seen nothing that would suggest rebels "have the sort of chemical weapons that are consistent with the symptoms that we saw yesterday."

Diplomats were also meeting in Brussels for a major donors' conference on the future of Syria and the region. Representatives from 70 countries were present.

A top Syrian rebel representative said he held U.N. mediator Staffan De Mistura "personally responsible" for the attack. Mohammad Alloush, the rebels' chief negotiator at U.N.-mediated talks with the Syrian government, said the envoy must begin labeling the Syrian government as responsible for killing civilians. He said the U.N.'s silence "legitimizes" the strategy.

"The true solution for Syria is to put Bashar Assad, the chemical weapons user, in court, and not at the negotiations table," said Alloush, who is an official in the Islam Army rebel faction.

Syria's rebels, and the Islam Army in particular, are also accused of human rights abuses in Syria, but rights watchdogs attribute the overwhelming portion of civilian causalities over the course of the six-year war to the actions of government forces and their allies.