KABUL, Afghanistan
Civilians were killed in fighting, U.S. says
U.S.-led airstrikes targeting Taliban militants who had attacked NATO forces slammed into homes in southern Afghanistan, killing or wounding at least 30 people, a local official said Saturday.
Villagers reported casualty tolls close to 100, but government officials could not confirm that.
The U.S. acknowledged some civilians were killed during fighting in Helmand province’s Gereshk district late Friday after fighters sought shelter in village homes.
The battle began when Taliban fighters tried to ambush a joint U.S.-Afghan military convoy late Friday before fleeing into the nearby village of Hyderabad for cover, said Mohammad Hussein, Helmand’s provincial police chief.
TOKYO
Japan official slammed over A-bomb comment
Japan’s defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, drawing criticism from atomic-bomb survivors.
“I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn’t be helped,” Kyuma said in a speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, in the world’s only nuclear attacks.
Kyuma, who is from Nagasaki, said later that his comments had been misinterpreted, telling reporters he meant to say the bombing “could not be helped from the American point of view.”
“It’s too bad that my comments were interpreted as approving the U.S. bombing,” he said.
SEOUL, South Korea
South to send fuel oil to North within 2 weeks
South Korea will send within two weeks its first shipment of heavy fuel oil promised to North Korea in exchange for the shutdown of the communist country’s main nuclear reactor, officials said Saturday.
The shipment is part of 50,000 tons of energy aid the North was promised in return for shutting down its 5-megawatt Yongbyon reactor under a February disarmament deal.
South Korea will “do its best to complete” the total aid delivery within 20 days of the first shipment, the country’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.
North Korea would ultimately get aid worth 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil along with political concessions.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan
President gives himself lavish birthday gifts
Turkmenistan’s president awarded himself a large gold and diamond pendant and a 30 percent raise to celebrate his 50th birthday, an echo of the lavish personality cult built around his autocratic late predecessor.
The government also issued 200 gold and 200 silver commemorative coins decorated with Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov’s portrait, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said Saturday.
Berdymukhamedov, elected in February, has signaled more openness in this impoverished ex-Soviet republic, where the average monthly salary is $90.
Yet he has also vowed to adhere to the course set by Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in December after a two-decade rule that quashed dissent and cultivated an extravagant personality cult.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras
Troops storm prison seized by inmates
More than 600 soldiers and police in ski masks stormed a prison where guards had lost control and armed prisoners were running free, the government said Saturday.
The soldiers and police confiscated weapons and locked down cellblocks late Friday at the National Penitentiary, north of Tegucigalpa, the capital, said Assistant Security Minister Jorge Rodas.
