Vincent Elkaim / AP via The Canadian Press

Iraq war resister Kimberly Rivera speaks at a press conference in Toronto in August. Rivera, who is pregnant with her fifth child, returned to to the U.S. in September and on Tuesday was sentenced to 10 months in prison for desertion.

DENVER -- An Army private believed to be the first female U.S. soldier to seek refuge in Canada rather than return to duty in Iraq was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to desertion, military officials in Colorado said on Tuesday.

Kimberly Rivera, who said she grew opposed to the war during a three-month tour of duty in Iraq, pleaded guilty at a court-martial proceeding in Fort Carson, Colo., on Monday and was sentenced immediately.

In addition to the prison time, the 30-year-old private was reduced in rank, ordered to forfeit pay and benefits and given a bad-conduct discharge, base spokeswoman Meghan Williams said.

Rivera fled to Toronto in 2007 while on leave after serving in Iraq with Fort Carson's 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Baghdad, according to her lawyer, James Branum.

She surrendered to authorities at the U.S. border in upstate New York last September after a Canadian court ordered her deported to the United States, capping several years spent by Rivera unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Canada.

Branum said Rivera was the first and, as far as he knows, the only female U.S. military deserter to flee to Canada during the Iraq war. The advocacy group War Resisters Support Campaign has said Rivera was the first U.S. female soldier to seek asylum in Canada to avoid redeployment to Iraq.

Rivera, who had been living in Toronto with her partner and four children, deserted because she developed an opposition to the U.S. military mission in Iraq based on her experience there, the group said.

Her case had drawn attention of such international human rights advocates as retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who urged Canadian authorities to allow Rivera to stay.

Under a deal struck with military prosecutors, Rivera agreed to plead guilty in exchange for having her prison term limited to 10 months. Rivera faced a maximum five-year sentence and a dishonorable discharge had she been convicted at trial, military authorities said.

Rivera approached a U.S. military chaplain in Iraq to express her moral reservations about continuing to serve in the conflict but was not informed of her right to seek conscientious objector status, a move that might have headed off prosecution for desertion, her lawyer said.

Rivera will remain at a county jail in Colorado for seven to 10 days before she will be transferred to a military prison, mostly likely the brig at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, Branum said.

Rivera is pregnant with her fifth child, and Branum said he will appeal to an Army judge for clemency on "humanitarian grounds."

Related:

10 years after Iraq invasion, troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'

Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' as Bush vowed?

Full Iraq coverage from NBC News

While the possible construction of the Keystone XL pipeline has made for contentious disagreements from the halls of Congress to ranches in Nebraska, the real environmental debate begins in a place most Americans have never heard of.

Nearly 700 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border sits Fort McMurray, Alberta, the unofficial capital of oil sands country, and the heart of the Keystone controversy.

Canada's oil reserves rank third largest in the world and sit beneath the vast Alberta forest. Oil mining companies like Shell, Syncrude and Suncor surround the town. They are big industrial operations in an even bigger forest.

Oil here is not the liquid black gold you think of in Texas or Oklahoma or the Gulf of Mexico.  It is a tar-like substance called bitumen.  It is excavated by mining or steam assisted drilling, where it is literally melted a quarter mile beneath the earth.  This oil is so heavy it must be upgraded or diluted before it can transported.

At Shell's Jackpine Mine in the oil sands, the company digs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Twenty-eight trucks burning 45 gallons of diesel fuel an hour transport the goods once lifted from the ground.

The whole operation is a carbon intensive process sending more global warming gases into the atmosphere. How much depends on your point of view. The oil industry downplays the impact, but opponents claim it is up to 37 percent more carbon intensive to produce a barrel of crude from oil sands.

The State Department, in its review of Keystone, says the oil from this area produces 17 percent more greenhouse gasses than conventional crude.  Those emissions are the heart of the environmental debate in Alberta, and a big reason why opponents call this "dirty oil."

Jeff Mcintosh / AP file

This Sept. 19, 2011 aerial photo shows an oil sands mine facility near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada.

The oil sands industry here plans to more than double its production by 2030. Shell Vice President Tom Purves explains, "We have a massive resource here that's oil from a country that's very stable, it's a democratic country. We're able to transport this oil on pipelines safely to the US and other parts of the world, other parts of North America. And I think we'll be using fossil fuels for a long time - this will be an important part of it."

Opponents say this is not about stopping development. They realize this is a natural resource crucial to Canada's future. For them, it's about the pace, the scale and how it adds to Canada's carbon footprint. They worry approval of the Keystone pipeline will turbo-charge growth.

Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation understands the booming industry brings modern conveniences. It also brings, she says, modern problems threatening the forest and wildlife that are still part of the First Nations culture and have been for centuries.

"There has to be a balance, and respect for human - fundamental human rights and the rights to human subsistence and survivals. What we're seeing is that balance is out of whack here in Alberta. I think we're seeing development take precedence over the preservation of peoples and people's basic right to human survival," she said.

At the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank, the focus is about carbon dioxide.  If things continue the way they are, says Jennifer Grant, Pembina's Oil Sands director, Canada will not meet its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Right now between 2005 and 2020, we're expecting 67 million tons of reductions from other sectors in Canada's economy.  During that same timeframe we're expected to see 72 million tons oil sands greenhouse gas emissions growth," Grant said.

Todd Korol / REUTERS file

Oil, steam and natural gas pipelines run through the forest at the Cenovus Foster Creek SAGD oil sands operations near Cold Lake, Alberta, in a July 9, 2012, photo.

Aware of the concerns in Canada and in the U.S. about climate change, the industry is quick to point out it has reduced carbon emissions intensity – that is, the emissions created per barrel – 26 percent from 1990 to 2009. But overall emissions are still growing because of increases in production. Shell hopes to have the ability to capture some of the carbon emissions at one of its facilities by 2015.

But there is no perfect way to extract oil. Cenovus, a Canadian company which drills for oil, uses natural gas to make steam. Al Reid, vice president of Cenovus' Christina Lake operation, says reducing the amount of natural gas it burns shrinks the carbon footprint and helps the bottom line. But he admits there's only so much they can do.

"With today's technology, we will not get emissions down to zero. Can we continue to decrease them? I think that's very possible and that's something that we work on every single day," he said. "And over time there may be a technology that allows us to do that but we don't have that technology today."

There's no question the debate in the U.S. over Keystone is having an impact in Canada. This month, Alberta's government floated the idea of raising its price on carbon to force the industry to do more to reduce emissions. Will that be enough to convince President Barack Obama to approve a pipeline that carries oil with a bigger carbon footprint?

It's not just the environment. There are issues of energy security and economic impact. The State Department says the extension would provide 3,900 construction jobs over a  1 to 2 year period  and another 38,200 positions associated with the construction over the same time frame. Once built it says the pipeline would create 35 permanent jobs and 15 temporary ones, according to the government study released last month. It is multifaceted issue that will dominate discussion for months to come.

MONTREAL, Canada -- Eric Andreasen is a college student from Portland, Maine, who has his sights set on a career working for a lawmaker in the nation’s capital.

But even though the political science major plans to go straight to Capitol Hill when he graduates this spring, he will have a degree from a Canadian college -- McGill University in Montreal.

NBC News

Eric Andreasen, 23, from Portland, Maine, is studying political science at McGill University in Montreal.

Back when Andreasen, 23, was deciding where to go to college, he applied to a dozen U.S. schools. When it came time to choose, he narrowed it down to either George Washington in D.C. or McGill just north of the border.

McGill offered him a full undergraduate university education for what it would have cost for just one year at G.W.
“When the financial packages came in, it was a no-brainer for me,” Andreasen said.

Indeed, with strained family budgets and the soaring cost of tuition at American schools, the coveted university degree often comes with just too much debt for many students.

About one in six people who owe money on their student loans is in default. Such a debt load is a harsh reality that is forcing a growing number of young people to look north to Canada for an education they can better afford.

NBC News

Leah Ott, 20, from Houston, Texas, is a physiology major at McGill University.

Six percent of McGill’s student body is American, and the ranks are growing. The number of U.S. students at Canadian colleges rose 50 percent in a decade, and now about 10,000 Americans attend Canadian colleges, according to the Institute for College Access & Success.

That institute also says graduates from an American university can expect, on average, to carry more than $26,000 in debt. And about 9 percent of those grads default on student loans within two years.

The largest cost of going to school in the United States is the tuition, which is astronomical compared to Canada. At schools such as the University of Chicago and New York University, the annual tuition tops $40,000, far above their Canadian counterparts, which benefit from a tradition of robust government support.

Related:
NYT: Free college options still exist for those willing to build ships, milk cows, salute

According to each university, here is what it costs for a year of undergraduate tuition at a select group of U.S. and Canadian universities:
• University of Chicago - $45,945
• George Washington - $45,780
• Stanford - $41,250
• McMaster (Hamilton, Ontario) - $20,966
• McGill - $14,561
• University of Winnipeg - $11,115

For Leah Ott, the financial differences were hard to ignore.

NBC News

Students on the campus of McGill University in Montreal.

“There are three girls in our family and we’re all attending university now,” said Ott, 20, a physiology major from Houston who said she was impressed with the academic reputation of McGill. “Money is definitely a factor.”

Not only are the costs of tuition lower, but American students can even use college savings plans, U.S. student loans and apply for scholarships at some schools in Canada.

And according to the students, the application process is simpler, with Canadian universities typically putting less emphasis on essays, recommendations and interviews.

Said Kathleen Massey, registrar at McGill, “It is the grades and the SAT scores, that combination is what we consider when we look at an applicant’s file.”

A bachelor's degree from a Canadian university meets a global standard, said Paul Davidson, President of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

“Undergraduate students that complete in Canada have tremendous access to the best graduate programs right around the world,” he said. “So, if you're a student that wants to pursue graduate studies, a Canadian degree will serve you very well, indeed…. They also are a passport to good jobs.”

Which, along with the price, makes it all the easier for American students to head north.

“I’m coming out with minimal debt,” said Andreasen. ”It brightens up the prospect of the future for me.”

Shaun Best / Reuters file

A Via Rail Canada passenger train pulls into Dorval Station in Montreal, in this July 22, 2009 file photo. Canadian police authorities said on Monday they had arrested and charged two men with an "al Qaeda-supported" plot to derail a passenger train.

Canadian security forces say they have thwarted an al-Qaeda-backed plot to blow up a rail line between Canada and the United States, and officials announced two arrests on Monday afternoon.

The suspects had sought to attack a passenger train that left from the U.S. bound for Toronto once the train crossed the Canadian border, sources told NBC News. The suspects may have scouted trains departing from New York.

Canadian officials worked closely with the FBI throughout the investigation, which began last year.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced the two accused, Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, were conspiring to carry out a terrorist attack against a "VIA Rail Canada" passenger train. VIA runs trains in partnership with Amtrak.

Authorities said the men were planning to attack a route, not necessarily a specific train.

Exactly how the men planned to attack was still unclear, only that it was a threat to kill people, officials said.

The men were receiving support from al-Qaeda elements in Iran, according to officials, who added that there was no information to indicate the support was state-sponsored.

Charges against the pair include conspiring to carry out an attack against, and conspiring to murder persons unknown for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group, officials said. Police were searching the suspects homes Monday afternoon.

The men "had the capacity and intent to carry out these criminal acts," but "there was no imminent threat to the public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure," James Malizia, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said.

The suspects will appear in a Canadian court tomorrow for bail hearings.

In a statement, Amtrak said it was aware of the situation and is working with Canadian authorities during the ongoing investigation.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

NBC's Jon Dienst and Rich Esposito contributed to this report

Doug Bellfeuille / Minnesota Pollution Control Agency via Reuters

Crews work to recover an estimated 30,000 gallons of crude oil that leaked from three tanker cars involved in a derailment near Parkers Prairie in Minnesota on Wednesday.

A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, spilling 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border.

The major spill, the first since the start of a boom in North American crude-by-rail transport three years ago, came when 14 cars on a 94-car Canadian Pacific train left the tracks about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis near the town of Parkers Prairie, the Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, the country's second-largest railroad, said only one 26,000-gallon tank car had ruptured, adding it was a mixed freight train.

CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said he did not know if the crude was from Canada's tar sands or from conventional oil fields.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesman Dan Olson said up to three tank cars were ruptured and an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 gallons - or 475 to 715 barrels - leaked out.

Cold weather had made the crude thicker, hindering the ability to recover the oil, Olson said, adding the initial cleanup was expected to continue for a day or two.

"We are focusing on drawing up the loose (oil) ... and once that has been taken up, they will then pump up the remaining oil in the tanks," Olson said. "Because of the winter conditions, the ground is frozen and there is not any damage to surface water or ground water. After the initial recovery we will see if the oil has soaked into the soil at all."

In an updated statement, CP said just one car was compromised and other two cars leaked while being moved during the response to the derailment and were contained.

Greenburg said that the safe clean-up efforts were progressing well and without concern.

"There have been reports that clean-up has been challenging. Our crews are taking appropriate steps in ensuring clean-up is conducted appropriately."

A photo provided by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency showed several large tank cars lying at the side of the railroad tracks in snow-covered fields, as clean-up crews examined the spill and maneuvered pump trucks into position.

"We have options to reroute traffic, so we've been able to continue to move trains while we do the thorough job of cleaning up the area," said Canadian Pacific's Greenberg.

A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said two representatives of the U.S. rail regulator are investigating the incident.

There has been a rapid increase in rail transport of crude in the last three years as booming North American oil production has outgrown existing pipeline capacity.

Canada is the top exporter of crude to the United States, due to rising output of crude from its vast tar sands deposits.

Around 40,000 barrels per day on average were shipped to the United States in 2012, according to data from Canada's National Energy Board.

Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO, Canada's largest oil company, pulled the plug on its long-delayed and partially built Voyageur oil sands upgrading project in northern Alberta on Wednesday, citing surging volumes of crude from the Bakken.

'Good business for the rails and bad safety for the public'
Environmentalists have complained about the impact of developing the reserves, and have sought to block TransCanada Corp's controversial Keystone XL project, which would carry oil produced from the oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast refining center.

Some experts have argued oil-by-rail carries a higher risk of accidents and spills.

"It is good business for the rails and bad safety for the public," said Jim Hall, a transportation consultant and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

"Railroads travel through population centers. The safest form of transport for this type of product is a pipeline. This accident could - and ought to - raise the issue for discussion."

Others noted that spills from rail cars are rare, and crude-by-rail has opened up opportunities for companies to develop huge volumes of oil production in places like the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota, which are not well served by pipelines.

Total shipments of petroleum on U.S. railroads rose more than 46 percent last year to 540,000 carloads, the Association of American Railroads said in January.

"It's not very good publicity, but railroads are incredibly safe, they don't spill often," said Tony Hatch, independent transportation analyst with ABH Consulting in New York who has done work for major railroads. "It should not change the opportunity railroads have to make us more energy independent."

Supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline were quick to jump on the derailment as a reason to build the pipeline.

"It should be clear that we need to move more oil by pipeline rather than by rail or truck," said Don Canton, spokesman for North Dakota Senator John Hoeven, who has been one of the chief political proponents of the line. "This is why we need the Keystone XL. Pipelines are both safe and efficient."

Hoeven has supported the line as it would help carry oil produced in North Dakota to higher priced refining centers on the coast, and could help further expand production in the state that now pumps more oil than Alaska.

A Canadian man who visited San Diego was charged with rape by intoxication by the district attorney’s office.

Whistler resident Nelson Drake, 39, was arrested in Dallas, Texas, on Feb. 20 after an arrest warrant for $1 million was placed the day before. He was then extradited to San Diego and placed in the South Bay Detention Facility.

Read more stories at NBCSanDiego.com

At Drake’s arraignment, prosecutors said the rape occurred when he was in San Diego for a business convention.

Drake’s bail was placed at $100,000. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.

IDF

Arielle Werner, 21, originally of Minnetonka, Minn., is a combat soldier with Israel's co-ed Caracal Battalion. "Women in combat can only bring good things," she said. "Two halves of a whole together can only be good."

Even before she moved to Israel, Minnesota-born Cpl. Arrielle Werner was certain she possessed what it took to fight on the front lines. 

"I realized that I couldn't be the passive Minnesotan," said the 21-year-old member of Israel's majority female Caracal Battalion, a combat unit which patrols the volatile border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. "I knew this was the place for me. My friends back in the States are shocked … now I’m the wild combat soldier."

The self-described "peace keeper of the family" said she is prepared to "give everything" on the battlefield. 

That's the sort of gung-ho attitude that military brass appreciate in any soldier -- but it isn't an attitude many expect from a woman.

There have long been barriers to women at war, never mind those assigned to fight at the tip of the spear. But the U.S. government's announcement on Jan. 24 that it was dropping its ban on women in combat units changed everything. (While not officially in combat units, American women have long served side-by-side with male service-members -- in fact, 152 women died while being deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

Despite living in a country "where some still think women should stay in the kitchen," Werner feels accepted by male colleagues.

"There is a little bit of a glass ceiling (but) ... you see women every day getting higher and higher," said Werner, who is originally from Minnetonka, Minn. "As long as you want to succeed and want to get stronger … you’re able to handle everything."

While many worry whether society has the stomach to accept women being killed, and being killers, Werner is in no doubt about her place on the battlefield.  And she doesn't mince words about her fellow females in the co-ed Caracal Battalion.

"These girls are tough," she said.

Werner, who has been on stationed on the border since October, admitted that she has noticed differences between the sexes.

"Guys are able to really to put a tough face on things (while) girls really take time to put emotion into something," she added. "Women in combat can only bring good things. Two halves of a whole together can only be good."

Not practical or not relevant?
As the U.S. military implements its new and controversial policy ahead of a January 2016 deadline, it will be seeking lessons from Israel and the handful of other countries that currently do not bar women from front-line combat. They include all of Scandinavia, Australia, Eritrea, France, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Poland and Romania.

Despite examples set by these countries, one of the biggest worries remains that integration will undermine the essential cohesion of the so-called band of brothers that has long defined the camaraderie among fighting men.

"(In the British military) the argument always comes down to the pure practicalities of the effectiveness of the unit rather than if a woman can't do it," said Amyas Godfrey, a former infantry officer and associate fellow at British security think tank the Royal United Services Institution (RUSI).

Atef Safadi / EPA, file

Israeli female soldiers take positions during clashes with Palestinian protesters from the West Bank village of Nabi Salah on Dec. 28.

The United Kingdom is almost alone among Western European countries in not allowing women into front-line combat roles.

"It comes down to 18-to-22-year-old boys not being able to ignore the fact that there is a woman in their midst," he said. Integrating combat units and concentrating on making space for women also "doesn't fit with the practicality of closing with and killing the enemy," he said.

Norwegian Brigadier Odin Johannessen, who served in Bosnia and Afghanistan and commanded military units for 12 years, disagreed with the idea that men and women could not be trained to serve together.

"In mixed units, what is most important is to become a soldier," said the 51-year-old who formerly ran the Norwegian Army Academy in Oslo. "That you are a good soldier tends to be the most prized factor of all, if you are a male or female doesn’t matter."

"It's called a band of brothers. I would rather rephrase it to a band of brothers and sisters," he added. 

Johannessen's exposure to military women colored the rest of his career.

"My first day in the military I met Sgt. Bente Karlsen and she has been present in my mind for my entire service for the professional way she led us," he said.  

Karlsen had the essential ability to convey instructions and orders, but also clearly cared about the young men under her command, Johannessen said. 

"She was a brilliant sergeant and showed me that it matters not if you are male of female," he said. 

Norway has no official restrictions on women joining any of its operational units, although no women are members of its special forces. Nine percent of combat roles in Norway are made up of women, and the armed forces' aim to increase that the proportion of females in military positions to 15 percent.

'Masculine warrior culture'
With its "no-exclusion policy," Canada is also recognized internationally as one of the few militaries to have officially removed all barriers to women. Canadian women have served and died on the front line in Afghanistan, and make up four percent of the roles in Canada's so-called combat arms divisions, and 14.8 percent of military roles overall. 

Getty Images, file

Canadian Master Corporal Tera Avey of Edmonton, Alberta, a mother of two and one of three female combat soldiers, wakes up on March, 2002 in the rocky Shahi Kot mountains in Afghanistan. Hundreds of American and Canadian troops were lifted into the mountainous region at high altitude to search and destroy Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Karen Davis, a gender integration expert for Canada's armed forces, acknowledges that women have to adapt to the "masculine warrior culture" of combat units.

But when Canadian men and women were sent to fight on the front lines in Afghanistan, fears that women's presence would hurt all-important unity did not bear out, she said.

"What we learned when we went into Afghanistan is that Canadian soldiers are trained to do a job, no matter if they were men or women," Davis said, adding that proper and rigorous training before deployment helped make this happen.

Whether women can or should be treated and tested differently from their male counterparts is at the heart of any discussion on how to integrate military operations, especially front-line combat troops.

In Israel, where women have formed part of the military since before the founding of the state and face conscription, the training process "accepts differences between men and women and just deals with them," according to Capt. Eytan Buchman, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

"Everybody comes in with their own baggage and physiological differences," he added.

Johannessen, for his part, advises trainers and commanders to not give women under their command special treatment. 

"Say there are two females in the unit. If you want to do it wrong, pay special attention to them," he said.  

To this end, gender-neutral physical standards are also essential, he said.

According to Davis, Canada's success at integrating women also came about as a result of a rigorously enforced non-fraternization policy. And the onus for making sure relationships don't happen lies not just on the women, but also the men throughout the chain of command, she says.

But beyond policies and rules, Norway's Johannessen says that more women make militaries better and smarter.

Slideshow: All-female U.S. Marine team in Afghanistan

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

View images of the women deployed as the second Female Engagement team in Afghanistan

Launch slideshow

"Men and women are looking at a problem from different positions," he said. "Having the possibility for a different view is many times better."

While integrating women into combat can be down to well-thought-out polices, effective leadership and rigorous training -- natural attributes for any well-run military organization -- an important lesson is that change will most likely not come quickly or implemented uniformly.

Gender integration expert Davis admits that even her own thinking changed radically from the time she joined an all-female land-bound unit in the Canadian Navy in 1978. At the time, she agreed that women did not belong in many roles in the military. But in 1985 that changed: Davis was asked to be one of two women to go to sea for 12 days on a formerly all-male ship.

"I came back questioning everything," Davis said. "I had joined and completely accepted everything I had been told, but in fact none of it was rational, it could all be dismantled." 

Related:

Female veterans cheer new era: 'It's about time!'

Women in the infantry? Forget about it, says female Marine officer

An elderly couple was slain inside their Florida home, police said.

The pair was due to meet neighbors for lunch Wednesday but never showed up, according to investigators. When the neighbors attempted to visit their friends in the Three Islands neighborhood of Hallandale Beach, Fla., a day later, they found the bodies.

Police were notified at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The couple was aged in their early 70s.

More news from NBCMiami.com

The victims were "snowbirds" who were originally from Canada but live in Florida during the winter, neighbors said.

U.S. Postal Inspection Service

Toronto police say they arrested Leonard Nwafor on an extradition warrant in the Canadian city on Wednesday.

TORONTO -- An American fugitive convicted in a $1-million health-care fraud scheme in California was arrested Wednesday in Canada.

Police said Leonard Nwafor was detained on an extradition warrant at his Toronto residence. The U.S. Marshals Service contacted Toronto authorities in August to seek their help in finding Nwafor and issued the extradition warrant last month.

Nwafor was convicted on two counts related to health-care fraud for submitting false claims to Medicare through his Los Angeles-based company in 2008. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, most of the claims were for power wheelchairs costing up to $7,000 each that were not required by patients.

Federal prosecutors said he made more than $1.1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, the U.S. government's health-care program for the elderly and disabled, and received more than $500,000 in payments.

Nwafor fled California after the conviction. In 2010, he was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison and ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution and $25,000 in fines.

He was also ordered to forfeit more than $500,000 in stolen funds to the U.S. government.

Full international coverage from NBC News

Authorities believe he had been living in Canada since he fled.

Nwafor was also wanted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which had placed him among its 10 most-wanted fugitives.

The agency charges that Nwafor opened fraudulent credit card accounts in Arizona and used the cards in Southern California.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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A US Airways jet briefly caught fire on Monday evening at its gate in the Phoenix airport. No injuries were reported.

The fire started at 10:55 p.m. ET in the plane’s auxiliary power unit – a small motor that provides power to the aircraft when the engines are not running.

Two pilots and three flights attendants were on board when they noticed a problem to the rear.  The Phoenix Fire Department was then called to investigate a fuel leak, Phoenix Fire Department public information officer Jonathan Jacobs told NBC News.

Fire crews found a small blaze at the back of the jet and quickly sprayed the plane with foam.

There were no passengers on board the Vancouver, Canada-bound jet at the time, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport spokeswoman Kris Commerford told The Associated Press. The plane had arrived earlier in the day from California.

The flight's 101 passengers were put on a different US Airways flight, scheduled to leave two hours later.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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