World
A joint Afghan and US military investigation has concluded that an airstrike last week killed 37 civilians and wounded 35 more after Taliban militants launched an ambush from the cover of a village, the US military said. A string of mistaken US airstrikes this year have killed at least 150 Afghan civilians, prompting President Hamad Karzai to call on US President-elect Barack Obama to make it his priority to stop innocents from being killed.
Congo's Army advanced toward rebel lines Saturday, with renewed fighting near the provincial capital of Goma threatening a fragile cease-fire. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, who defected from the Congolese Army in 2004, is accused of crimes against humanity by a UN envoy.
Inspired by Barack Obama's election, French politicians from the left and right signed a "manifesto," published Sunday, that calls on employers to hire more minorities and urges the government to fight racism and improve schools in ethnically diverse neighborhoods. The Journal du Dimanche said first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy supported the manifesto but couldn't sign it because of her political status.
Late-season tropical storm Paloma weakened rapidly Sunday after hitting Cuba the day before. Winds that were 145 m.p.h. over the Caribbean subsided to 70 m.p.h., but not until the storm toppled power lines and damaged homes. Government officials estimated that Paloma and hurricane Ike in September destroyed 30 percent of Cuba's crops.
Iraqi Christians and other minorities are guaranteed fewer seats on provincial councils than the UN had recommended after Iraq's presidential council approved a quota bill on Saturday. The legislation calls for giving minorities six instead of 12 of the 440 seats on ruling councils in Iraq's 18 provinces.
New Zealand entered a new era of conservative rule Sunday, with Prime Minister-elect John Key promising to be a moderate amid concerns that some of the country's policies on global warming and indigenous rights could be rolling back. Voters elected the former currency market trader to guide them through the financial meltdown, handing long-serving left-wing Prime Minister Helen Clark a crushing defeat.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic policies came in for criticism Sunday in a published letter from a group of 60 independent economists. They cited "tensionmaking interaction" with the outside world that has deprived Iran of foreign investments.
Thailand's former prime minister can't return to London, British authorities confirmed Saturday a decision to revoke his entry visa and inform airlines not to let him or his wife board British-bound flights. Thaksin, Shinawatra, who is thought to be in China, had fled to London in August to escape corruption charges, for which he was sentenced, in absentia, to two years in prison.
Thousands of supporters attended the burial ceremonies in Tenggulun, Indonesia, for three militants who were executed Sunday by firing squad for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. The bodies of the men from the militant group Jemaah Islamiah were flown from prison to their hometowns.
Rescuers, including a US team, continued their search Sunday in Haiti for survivors amid the rubble of a three-story, hillside school building that collapsed Friday in suburban Port-au-Prince. The death toll reached 88, with 150 others injured and many more still missing. Haitian police have charged Fortin Augustin, the preacher who owned the building, with involuntary manslaughter.
