The Malaysian Insider

KABUL, Nov 7 – Over two dozen Afghan and Nato troopers were killed and injured as Nato-led aircraft mistakenly pounded the position of forces in Badghis province northwest of Afghanistan, Deputy to provincial police chief Abdul Jabbar said Saturday.

“A contingent of Afghan and international troops came under Taliban attack in Balamirghab district on Thursday and the troops called in air support. But the aircraft mistakenly pounded the troops’ position leaving over a dozen soldiers dead and injured,” Jabbar told Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

Those killed in the so-called “friendly fire”, he added, include three militants, three police and two Afghan soldiers. Twelve more Afghan soldiers and one Afghan police constable sustained injuries in the air strike, he said.

KILLEEN (Texas), Nov 7 — Investigators searched yesterday for the motive behind a mass shooting at a sprawling US Army base in Texas, in which an Army psychiatrist trained to treat war wounded is suspected of killing 13 people.

The suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents, was shot four times by police, a base spokesman said. He was unconscious but in stable condition.

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 7 — Madagascar's political rivals struck a deal late yesterday on the make-up of a unity government, paving the way for an end to a 10-month political crisis that has rocked the Indian Ocean island.

The agreement sees coup-instigator Andry Rajoelina remain president, accompanied by two new co-presidents after former leader Marc Ravalomanana (picture) refused any accord which saw his successor retain sole leadership of the oil and mineral-endowed country.

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 7 — An agreement to end a four-month political crisis in Honduras collapsed yesterday after two rival leaders failed to form a unity cabinet to heal the damage from a June coup.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya declared the pact dead just a week after it was signed and called on Hondurans to boycott presidential elections this month because, in a surprise move, de facto leader Roberto Micheletti said he would form a new government without him.

RAMALLAH, Nov 7 —Younger Palestinian leaders were in no rush yesterday to step into the shoes of President Mahmoud Abbas after he said he did not want to run for re-election in January.

Making clear Abbas' Fatah movement is, so far, unwilling to take the 74-year-old president at his word, none of the men seen as potential successors threw his hat into the ring after Abbas's announcement on Thursday.