US forces on Wednesday absolved themselves of blame for the deaths of nine children in an air strike, but refused to release their internal inquiry.
The children, aged nine to 12, were killed when a fighter-bomber strafed a mud-walled compound in Ghazni, central Afghanistan, in December. A prompt US apology was made.
The target, a suspected Taliban commander, was not killed, possibly because the wrong house was attacked.
A US spokesman in Kabul, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, said the investigation had found that the pilot followed "appropriate" rules of engagement. The report could not be made public, he said, given "the intelligence and the targeting involved." The UN condemned the killings at the time and has repeatedly called for a public inquiry.
"We did slightly change our rules of engagement after [the] investigation," Colonel Hilferty said, but these changes were also "top secret."
Some 200 tribal chiefs and elders have spent 10 days in Kabul complaining of US tactics in south-eastern Paktika. Their leader, Sher Khan, accused soldiers of detaining and beating innocent people.
"We want US forces to coordinate with us before launching operations, otherwise the misunderstandings and mistrust will grow," he said.
Another chief, Haji Arsala, said the Americans had behaved worse than the Soviet Union's Red Army in the 80s: "They've not done a single bit of reconstruction work in our district. All they've done is give chewing gum to the kids."
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
RSS