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Warrant issued for suspected cop killer

LAKEWOOD, Wash., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- An arrest warrant was issued for the man law enforcement officials accuse of killing four Seattle-area police officers, an official said.

Meanwhile police said a search of a home didn't turn up the suspect, Maurice Clemmons, whom police consider dangerous, The Seattle Times reported Monday.

A $125,000 reward was posted for information leading to Clemmons's arrest, the Times said on a Twitter page.

Four officers were shot and killed Sunday morning as they worked on their laptops at Forza Coffee Company, a coffee shop popular with police in Parkland, about 40 miles from Seattle. The two officers shot were "flat-out executed," and the other others died trying to stop the suspect, Pierce County, Wash., sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. Clemmons may have been seriously hurt as he fled, Troyer said.

The victims were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, and officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Gregory Richards.

Troyer said officials know Clemmons was wounded because they detained several people police said helped Clemmons after the shootings. They said they didn't know the extent of the injuries.

Investigators didn't indicate whether Clemmons had a motive against any of the police officers who died, Troyer said.

"He was upset about being incarcerated," Troyer said. "He was just targeting cops."

Police said they believe Clemmons could be in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood, which was cordoned off Sunday, the Times said. Barricades were removed Monday, but the Seattle Public Schools security office said Leschi Elementary School was closed Monday because of the standoff, Times reporters posted on the newspaper's Twitter page.

Clemmons, who has a lengthy criminal history in Arkansas and Washington, was released from jail in Pierce County a week ago. He was facing a charge of raping a child, the Times said. Family members described him as being in a deteriorating mental state.

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Report: Speech has troop surge, exit plan

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama's speech on U.S. strategy for Afghanistan is expected to include an exit plan for U.S. troops, senior administration officials said.

White House officials said Obama wants to use his address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Tuesday not only to announce the immediate order to deploy about 30,000 more troops, but also to reveal how he intends to hand off the fight to the Afghan government, The New York Times reported Monday.

"It's accurate to say that he will be more explicit about both goals and time frame than has been the case before and than has been part of the public discussion," a senior official told the Times. "He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down."

Officials who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity did not disclose a time frame, but said it wouldn't be linked to particular conditions on the ground or as firm as the schedule for withdrawing troops in Iraq. Obama committed to pulling most combat forces by August and all troops by the end of 2011.

Obama's speech also was expected to describe commitments from Afghan President Harmid Karzai and specific benchmarks his government must meet, including cracking down on corruption, deploying well-trained security forces and focusing on development, the aides said.

Obama was expected to be less specific about Pakistan, the Times said. The country's fragile government suffered another hit last week when Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari ceded his position in Pakistan's nuclear command structure to the prime minister, in what observers said could be an attempt to avoid impeachment or prosecution, and remain at least a figurehead leader.

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Colleague kills six Afghan police officers

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- An Afghan police officer fatally shot six other officers and wounded two more at a checkpoint in the province of Nimroz, authorities said Monday.

The attack in western Afghanistan occurred Sunday as the officers were manning the checkpoint, police spokesman Abdul Jabbar told KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency.

The gunman fled and was killed in a shootout with Afghan law enforcement officials later Sunday, authorities said.

It was the third time in recent weeks that rogue officers were involved in fatal shootings.

Last month, a police officer killed five British soldiers in southern Afghanistan and another officer killed two U.S. soldiers in the central province of Maidan Wardak, KUNA reported. The Taliban claimed the two were militants who had infiltrated the Afghan police and army.

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'Acqua alta' floods Venice

VENICE, Italy, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Much of Venice, Italy, including St. Mark's Square, has been flooded by waters rising more than 4 feet above normal, officials said.

The Venetian "acqua alta" (or "high water") swamped the city Monday, with as much as 43 percent of the lagoon city's surface below water, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Meteorologists said the phenomenon was set to return with Monday's evening high tide and last the rest of the week, with water levels expected to top out at 3.8 feet above normal. But, they warned, with heavy rains in December, Venetian water levels could be pushed to nearly 5 feet above average.

ANSA said the record acqua alta for Venice came in 1966 when flood waters rose to 6.4 feet above normal, causing huge amounts of damage.

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Al-Qaida may be behind worker kidnappings

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Three Spanish aid workers may have been kidnapped by al-Qaida followers in the west African country of Mauritania, the Spanish interior minister said Monday.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said "everything points" to al-Qaida being responsible for the kidnapping, a senior aide traveling with Rubalcaba told CNN.

While saying he wasn't absolutely certain al-Qaida was behind the abductions, Rubalcaba said he was concerned that "we are facing a kidnapping by Islamic radicals," his aide said.

The three aid workers from the Barcelona Solidarity Action humanitarian organization were traveling in a car Sunday that became separated from the rest of a 13-vehicle aid convoy for "unknown reasons," Spanish officials said. The convoy was traveling from Mauritania southward toward Dakar, Senegal, Spain's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

The ministry said it could not confirm Spanish news reports said the vehicle carrying the abducted aid workers was the last in the convoy and that valuables were inside the vehicle. The news reports said the assailants were armed, which CNN said the ministry also could not confirm.