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U.S. forces kill 9 local police in raid mixup

By Times Wires
Published January 25, 2008

Afghanistan

At least nine Afghan police officers and a civilian were killed early Thursday in a firefight between U.S. forces and the officers in a village on the outskirts of the town of Ghazni, local officials said. The U.S. forces were searching houses and blew open the gates of a house, officials said. District police officers heard the explosion and rushed to the scene, but were mistaken for Taliban and shot by the U.S. soldiers, the officials said. The killings set off protests in the town on Thursday afternoon. The Afghan government has repeatedly requested that U.S. forces coordinate with local authorities and take along Afghan security forces during operations because there have been many instances in which Americans have inadvertently killed civilians or local police officers. A lawmaker said the U.S. forces involved had not coordinated with any government authority before or during the raid.

Brazil

Extra police to fight deforestation

Brazil will combat rising deforestation in the Amazon by sending extra federal police and environmental agents to areas where illegal clearing of the rain forest jumped dramatically last year, officials said Thursday. Authorities will monitor the areas in an attempt to prevent anyone from trying to plant crops or raise cattle there, Environment Minister Marina Silva said. On Wednesday, the environment ministry announced that up to 2,700 square miles of rain forest was cleared from August through December. That puts Brazil on course to lose 5,791 square miles for the year ending in August - a 34 percent increase from the previous 12-month period.

City to hand out morning after pill

The city of Recife will be the first to hand out morning-after birth control pills during this year's festive Carnival, prompting condemnation from the church Thursday in the world's largest Roman Catholic country. Pills will be given out at public health centers throughout four days of wild partying that begin Feb. 2, according to Mayor Joao Paulo Lima e Silva. The city, with a population of about 1.4-million, hosts one of Brazil's most colorful and frenzied carnivals. City officials say pills will not be given out wantonly, rather for cases of rape and broken condoms.

Elsewhere

Israel: The Holocaust memorial launched an Arabic version of its Web site Thursday, including vivid photos of Nazi atrocities and video of survivors' testimony, to combat Holocaust denial in the Arab and Muslim world. The English Web site is at yadvashem.org.

France: Some 400,000 people took the streets across the country Thursday to protest job cuts and press for higher salaries, the CGT labor union said. Teachers, hospital workers, firefighters and postal workers were among the demonstrators.

Bolivia: The national police commander, Gen. Miguel Vasquez, said Thursday that his own department's intelligence service had spied on politicians and journalists and angrily accused a subordinate of directing the "dirty work." Vasquez has vowed to weed out corruption in Bolivia's police forces.

Brazil: A third suspect in the brazen theft of paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari Dec. 20 from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art turned himself in on Thursday, authorities said. Moises Manoel de Lima Sobrinho, 25, is a former TV chef. The paintings were found Jan. 8.

Times wires

[Last modified January 25, 2008, 00:18:17]