WASHINGTON – The Defense Department said yesterday it has shelved a plan to take greater control in parts of Afghanistan where NATO is in charge, after the Dutch and British agreed to extend their commands.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Netherlands and Britain will stay in control in southern Afghanistan for a full year as the military alliance fights a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
The U.S. has complained that changing commands every nine months and rotating troops even more frequently do not provide the necessary continuity for an effective fight against the insurgency, particularly in Afghanistan's volatile south.
Associated Press
Tasmanian devils
falling to cancer
HOBART, Australia – The Tasmanian devil was listed as an endangered animal in its home state of Tasmania yesterday because of a deadly, contagious cancer that has cut its population by up to 60 percent.
Associated Press
Oscar Arias treated
for a benign cyst
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Doctors have ordered Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to rest his voice for four weeks to allow a benign cyst on his vocal cords to clear up, his office said yesterday. Arias, a 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, underwent medical examinations in Philadelphia on Tuesday after losing his voice last week.
Reuters
Tainted liquor kills
150 in south India
BANGALORE, India – At least 150 people have died in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after drinking bootleg liquor laced with chemicals, and another 88 are seriously ill, police said yesterday.
Reuters
More separatist
suspects arrested
PARIS – French and Spanish police arrested two more suspects yesterday in a crackdown on the Basque separatist group ETA that netted the alleged head of the organization in a raid late Tuesday in the French city of Bordeaux, officials said.
Security officials and political leaders in both countries said the arrest of Francisco Javier López Peña, the alleged political and military leader of ETA, was a significant blow to the group and demonstrated the close anti-terrorism cooperation between France and Spain.
The Washington Post
