World in brief

Afghan drug war kills seven

KABUL, Afghanistan - Four days of fighting between rival warlords competing to control their local cut of the narcotics trade in northeastern Afghanistan has left seven people dead and eight wounded, officials said Sunday.

Fighting flared between the militias of the district chief and the police chief of an area called Argo, near the town of Faizabad, in the province of Badakhshan, said Gen. Mohammad Daoud, the top military commander in northeastern Afghanistan. The two men had been at loggerheads for three months, and the clash was only stopped when a Defense Ministry delegation intervened, the general said.

DARWIN, Australia - Three U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested on charges of raping two sisters in the northern city of Darwin while on shore leave, authorities said Sunday.

Police said the sailors are suspected of assaulting the women after returning to their apartment from a nightclub Friday night.

The sailors, whose names were not released, are assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu, said Lt. Chris Davis, public affairs officer with the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group. The sailors will remain in Darwin while their ship, which is based in San Diego, leaves Australia, and the Navy will cooperate with the investigation, Davis said.

MEXICO PROTEST: Interior Department officials have agreed to meet with leaders of a group that forced its way onto the family ranch of President Vicente Fox, a department spokesman said.

TRADE PACT: The United States and Australia reached a free-trade agreement that officials say will eliminate duties from more than 99 percent of American manufacturing exports to Australia.

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