Civilians

Nearly a dozen civilian supervisors in the Police Department's radio room will remain in their jobs while the city appeals a state ruling that uniformed supervisors were unfairly replaced by the civilians last October. The creation of supervisory positions for civilians in the radio room was done at the behest of the blue-collar municipal union, but the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled July 1 that the city should have bargained with the police union even before making the transfers.

Rebel soldiers who staged this month's coup attempt against the government of President Corazon C. Aquino received extensive financial and logistical support from civilians, Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos said yesterday. Ramos did not name any of those civilians, but he added that military authorities were investigating the possibility that those loyal to former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who died in September, had helped underwrite the unsuccessful rebellion, the most dangerous of the six that Aquino has faced.

I'VE READ the Daily News over the last few months and noticed an abundance of people wanting harsher penalties for anyone who assaults or shoots a cop. I have no problem with that. A police officer is in a position of authority and should be respected. But I must ask: Is a cop's life more important than that of any other citizen of Philadelphia? Where is the outrage when everyday citizens are shot or assaulted? No one asks how the police get the information needed when one of their own is attacked, it's just assumed to be good police work, no matter how they get it. Here's an idea: If a person can get a lengthy amount of jail time for assaulting a cop, why don't cops get a harsher penalty for abusing their power?

As military analysts see it, yesterday's car bombing of a downtown Baghdad hotel is the latest in a surge of attacks on "soft targets" - poorly protected civilians - in the shadowy war to disrupt Iraq's march toward pro-U.S. democracy. Iraqi officials and officials of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority are bracing for even more carnage around the first anniversary - tomorrow in the United States, Saturday in Iraq - of the start of the war to topple Saddam Hussein. The idea, as some U.S. and Iraqi officials see it, is to wreak enough havoc to scare off the foreigners whose capital and engagement are key to Iraq's opening up to the West after decades of isolation.

GAZAHIYA, Libya - A 22-year-old student balanced an unloaded grenade launcher on his shoulder, grunted loudly in place of an explosion as he pulled the trigger, then handed the weapon to the next man. The military drill on the lawn of a clinic in a remote village in government-controlled western Libya was part of what Moammar Gadhafi's regime has tried to portray as a large-scale arming and training of the home front. Reporters on a government tour were also taken to a school where two teenage boys fired Kalashnikov rifles in the air. The scenes appeared to have been hastily arranged.

In his recent endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president, retired Gen. Colin Powell, a former secretary of state and chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a view of American foreign policy that has received little notice. "We have to do a lot more with respect to poverty alleviation and helping the needy people of the world," Powell said, "because when you help the poorest in the world, you start to move them up an economic and social ladder, and they're not going to be moving toward violence or terrorism of the kind that we worry about.

It's a bright, sunny day here in Texas. Not a cloud in the sky. I step outside to relish the perfect weather. "They'll be having an exciting time in Cape Canaveral," I tell myself. My phone rings. I hurry inside. My secretary, calling from my office, says with obvious excitement: "Have you been watching television?" "I've been working. " "The space shuttle just blew up in Florida. " Long pause. "On the launch pad?" "Offshore. One minute into flight. " Gasp.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition on Sunday disputed reports that eight civilians, including children, were killed in a NATO air strike in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan. Afghan officials said an air strike Saturday night killed eight members of a family, but a senior NATO official said that so far, there is no evidence of any civilian casualties. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information. Both Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO commanders ordered an investigation into the reports, according to the New York Times.

WASHINGTON - It cost nearly $2 billion over the last two years to send hundreds of extra U.S. civilians to Afghanistan to help with development projects, the economy, and training Afghan government officials, a report said Thursday. Sending just one employee to Afghanistan for one year, excluding infrastructure and security needed to support that person, costs the government between $410,000 and $570,000, according to the joint report by the offices of the State Department inspector general and the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

Graciela Galiana stared in horror as a Salvadoran soldier pressed his knife to the throat of a young man whose hands were tied behind his back. The soldier yanked the blade, and the young man crumpled to the ground. "We saw him do this," she said nervously, drawing a finger across her throat. "Then his body fell to the ground. . . . I saw that. I saw it. " The young man was one of nine people who died in Santa Ana's La Union barrio on Nov. 12. Graciela, 26, said leftist guerrillas had escaped the area and the soldiers took revenge on the civilians.

SAN'A, Yemen - The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the evils of al-Qaeda, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters. The talk worried residents, who feared it would bring retaliation from the extremists, and even the cleric's father wanted him to stop. In the end it wasn't al-Qaeda that killed Sheikh Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber - but a U.S. drone. Yemeni security officials confirmed that three extremists - along with Salem and his cousin, who were going to meet them apparently to discuss his sermons - were killed in a drone strike in August.

There is something bizarre about the debate over how the United States should respond to the Syrian regime's likely use of chemical weapons against its own people. The White House said Thursday that Syria may have used deadly sarin gas, after France, Britain, and Israel had made similar assessments. This puts President Obama in a pickle. He has said that use of chemical weapons by the regime would cross a "red line" and be a "game-changer. " There are bipartisan calls in Congress for a response; the Pentagon is preparing options that include commando raids to secure chemical stockpiles and strikes on Syrian airplanes.

WASHINGTON - Senior Pentagon leaders are taking another look at sharply reducing the number of unpaid furlough days that department civilians will have to take in the coming months, suggesting they may be able to cut the number from 14 to as few as seven, defense officials said Thursday. If the number is reduced, it would be the second time the Pentagon has cut the number of furlough days. It had initially been set at 22 days. The officials say no decision has been made and that they are not ruling out efforts to drop the furloughs entirely.

Cadets at Valley Forge Military Academy & College have some suggestions for their new president: "They could put more money into the barracks," said Justin Schaller, a freshman at the college. "Better food," said Jacob Outland, also a first-year college student. "A turf field," said 10th grader Eddie Michaels. He plays numerous sports, including soccer, and said the grass isn't great to run on. A campus-wide meeting to introduce the new leader was not to start until 4 p.m. Wednesday, but a few students had already heard about a new hire.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan officials released harrowing new details on Thursday about an attack in a western province where assailants shot everyone in their path, sending terrified people jumping from windows trying to escape the assailants who killed at least 46 civilians and security forces. Civilians have frequently been caught up in the fighting between militants and Afghan and U.S.-led combat forces, but the U.N. condemned Wednesday's attack, saying civilians were targeted at the courthouse and other government offices in Farah province.

KABUL, Afghanistan - International forces accidentally killed two Afghan boys during an operation in southern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said Saturday. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, offered his personal apology and condolences to the boys' family and said the coalition took full responsibility for the deaths. A statement issued by the coalition said the boys were killed Thursday when coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces in the Shahid-e Hasas district of Uruzgan province.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon warned 800,000 civilian employees worldwide Wednesday that they will be forced to take unpaid leave if deep budget cuts take effect next week, fueling growing anxiety about the impact of the automatic spending reductions on the nation's economy and security. In the most detailed account of the ramifications of across-the-board cuts, called the sequester, Defense Department officials said civilian personnel could be put on leave one day a week for 22 weeks - effectively cutting their pay by 20 percent for nearly six months.

IMPHAL, India - Tens of thousands of Indian troops are deployed to these remote borderlands, their mission to fight a decades-long armed separatist rebellion. But for years, residents have alleged that security forces have also waged a separate war of rape and murder of civilians, one they continue with impunity because federal law virtually prohibits the prosecution of soldiers in conflict zones. Now, 1,500 miles away in the capital of New Delhi, there is a new demand to change that.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The number of U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan rose sharply last year compared with 2011, the United Nations said Tuesday. The increase was a sign that unmanned aircraft are taking a greater role as Americans try to streamline the fight against insurgents while preparing to withdraw combat forces in less than two years. The U.N. figures were released as part of its annual report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Overall, the full-year toll of civilian deaths in 2012 declined to 2,754, a 12 percent decrease from 3,131 in the same period a year earlier.

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai announced Saturday that he intends to ban Afghan ground forces from calling in NATO air strikes on residential areas - even though his country's fighters have had to rely on such air power in operations against the Taliban. "Our forces ask for air support from foreigners, and children get killed in an air strike," Karzai said in a speech at a military academy here, reinforcing his often truculent posture toward the U.S.-backed international coalition that has long supported his government.