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100 militants reported killed in three battles

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 7, 2007

AFGHANISTAN

Fierce fighting broke out around Afghanistan on Friday, with battles in three separate regions killing more than 100 militants, officials said. The governor of northeastern Kunar province said villagers were reporting that airstrikes had killed dozens of civilians, though he said he could not confirm the reports. The fighting - in the south, west and northeast - continues a trend of sharply rising bloodshed in the past five weeks. In the country's east, two NATO soldiers died and several others were wounded during an operation Thursday, the coalition said. It did not release the soldiers' nationalities.

SOMALIA

Land mine blast kills five children

Five children who stopped to play with a land mine on the way to Friday prayers in Mogadishu died when one of them threw the device against a wall, causing a blast that sent their bodies flying through the air. The deaths of the children - between the ages of 7 and 12 - were shocking even in the capital, which has seen little peace since a radical Islamic movement was ousted in December. Roadside bombs, assassination attempts and gunbattles have become common, and civilians are caught in the crossfire.

ISRAEL

Group says settlers seeking more land

Nine in 10 Israeli settlements sprawl beyond their official boundaries in an attempt to grab more land in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim for a future state, a group that tracks Israeli construction in the territory said Friday. Israel's settlements encroach on unallocated land even though most of the area in their own jurisdictions remains empty, according to the report from the dovish Peace Now. According to the report, 91 percent of the land allocated to settlements by the government is still empty, indicating that the use of land outside settlement boundaries does not "derive from a land shortage in the settlements" but from "a desire to expropriate more land."

Elsewhere

Thailand: A panel appointed by Thailand's coup leaders to draw up a new constitution agreed on a final draft Friday and scheduled a referendum in August, making elections a possibility later this year.

Colombia: The country's former chief of the secret police was arrested Friday on charges of colluding with paramilitary death squads. Jorge Noguera had been freed from jail three months ago due to procedural errors with this arrest.

Mexico: Rescuers called off their search Friday after pulling 32 bodies from a Mexican passenger bus buried when a rain-soaked mountainside gave way on Wednesday. Officials initially speculated as many as 60 people were aboard the bus.

Morocco: The government raised its terror alert to its highest level and ordered stepped up security nationwide Friday, citing a "serious threat of a terrorist act."

[Last modified July 7, 2007, 01:42:21]