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Myanmar's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, exits the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon, the country's capital, after meeting Wednesday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. His visit with Suu Kyi marked the highest-ranking talks in 14 years between a U.S. official and the dissident, who has received a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. Khin Maung Win/Associated Press

By Wire Reports
Published: 11/5/2009 2:30 AM
Last Modified: 11/5/2009 5:10 AM

Kabul: Afghan police officer kills 5 British soldiers

An Afghan police officer opened fire on British soldiers in the volatile southern Helmand province, killing five before fleeing, authorities said Wednesday, raising concerns about discipline within the Afghan forces and possible infiltration by insurgents.

Training and operating jointly with Afghan police and soldiers is key to NATO's strategy of dealing with the Taliban-led insurgency and, ultimately, allowing international forces to leave Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. David Wakefield, a spokesman for the British forces, told Sky News that the soldiers had been mentoring Afghan national police and had been working and living in the police checkpoint in Helmand's Nad-e-Ali district.

Asuncion, Paraguay: President Lugo fires country's military chiefs

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo fired his military chiefs Wednesday, a day after he denied that he had worries about a coup amid calls for his impeachment.

In a statement given to journalists at the presidential palace, Lugo named new commanders for the army, air force and navy without explaining his reasons. The new chiefs will assume their posts Thursday, said the statement signed by the president.

There was no immediate reaction from the military or from the political opposition, which controls Congress.

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Gunmen kill 6 in bar in Mexico border city

A gang of gunmen killed six men in a bar in the Mexican border

city of Ciudad Juarez early Wednesday, prosecutors said.

A total of 26 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez in the first four days of November.

About 1,900 people have died in drug-related killings in Ciudad Juarez so far in 2009. The city across the border from El Paso, Texas, has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Rio de Janeiro: Man appears alive at own funeral in Brazil

A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by showing up alive at his funeral.

Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday car crash in Parana state in southern Brazil, police said, but he showed up the next day at the funeral to let relatives know he was alive.

Goncalves had spent the night at a truck stop having drinks with friends, his niece Rosa Sampaio told O Globo newspaper.

The body was correctly identified later Monday, police said, but they declined to release the actual victim's name.

Paris: Prosecutors won't appeal decision to try Chirac

Paris prosecutors said Wednesday they would not appeal a judge's decision to order a trial of former French President Jacques Chirac in an alleged corruption case that predated his presidency.

The case would mark the first time a former leader of modern France would be forced to defend himself in court.

If convicted, the conservative former leader could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined $221,800 and disqualified from public office for 10 years. However, observers have said a prison sentence would be highly unlikely.

The investigative Judge Xaviere Simeoni shocked France on Friday by deciding to try Chirac for embezzlement and breach of trust in a corruption case dating back to his 1977-1995 tenure as mayor of Paris. Simeoni has been probing whether people in Chirac's circle were given sham jobs as advisers and paid by Paris City Hall, even though they weren't working for it.

Dublin: Report: IRA veterans aid N. Ireland dissidents

Irish Republican Army dissidents are posing their greatest security threat in Northern Ireland since the province's peace accord 11 years ago — and are receiving help from a handful of IRA veterans in plotting gun and bomb attacks, an expert panel found Wednesday.

The Independent Monitoring Commission, which reports regularly on the underground activities of Northern Ireland's myriad paramilitary groups, said dissidents backed by a "small number" of mainstream IRA members are responsible for a surge in violence since March.

The surge in dissident activity seeks to undermine Northern Ireland's power-sharing government of British Protestants and Irish Catholics. By Wire Reports

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