NEW YORK (AP) – The FBI arrested a Florida doctor and a New York martial arts expert on federal terrorism charges, saying they conspired to treat and train terrorists, federal prosecutors announced Sunday.

Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York, were charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Both men are American citizens.

Prosecutors said Sabir agreed to treat jihadists, or holy warriors, in Saudi Arabia. Shah allegedly agreed to train them in hand-to-hand combat.

The one-count complaint details a sting operation from 2003 to 2005 in which the two men took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida.

Sabir was arrested Saturday and was held at the Palm Beach County Jail. It was not immediately known where Shah was being held.

Both men were scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Tuesday.

Teen accused of killing mother

FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) – A 12-year-old Long Island girl choked her mother to death, police said Sunday.

Freeport police detectives went to the family’s home Saturday just before midnight on a report of a woman not breathing. The 45-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 12:43 a.m., Nassau County police said in a press release.

The county medical examiner found the woman had been strangled and notified the homicide squad.

Investigators determined the strangler was the woman’s daughter, who was to be charged as a juvenile delinquent in Family Court later, police said. The girl was in the custody of protective services on Sunday.

Police say deaths a murder-suicide

SHERMAN, Conn. (AP) – A man shot a woman to death and apparently killed himself at a police officer’s home Sunday, state police said.

The man and woman were in their late 20s or early 30s and did not live at the house, state police said. Their relationship was not immediately clear.

The names of the victims and the Danbury officer who owns the home were not released Sunday.

The gunman apparently performed construction work at the officer’s home, which is near the New York border.

The family that lives in the house on Hardscrabble Road was at church at the time of the incident and was preparing to have a reception for a christening at their home, according to broadcast reports.

A caterer went to the home to deliver food for the party shortly before noon and encountered a man holding a gun to a woman’s head, state police said. The caterer was ordered to leave the home and called police.

State troopers responded and evacuated homes in the immediate area. They tried to establish contact with the gunman but were not successful. They heard several gunshots and entered the home, finding the man and woman dead in the master bedroom, state police said.

Investigators tentatively identified the gunman. Their bodies were brought to the chief medical examiner’s office in Farmington for autopsies.

State police were investigating.


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