Civilians

CAIRO - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used her first meeting with Egypt's new Islamist president to press Mohammed Morsi to start a dialogue with military leaders as a way of preserving the country's transition to democracy. Clinton voiced support for the "full transition" to civilian rule at a time when Morsi's backers are in a political standoff with the generals who have ruled since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year. Resolving the impasse "requires dialogue and compromise, real politics," Clinton said.

Ecuador: Assange seeking asylum QUITO, Ecuador - Embattled WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange took refuge Tuesday in Ecuador's embassy in London and is seeking political asylum, the South American nation's foreign minister said. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said the government of President Rafael Correa was weighing the request. He did not indicate when a decision might be made. The move comes less than a week after Britain's Supreme Court rejected Assange's bid to reopen his attempts to block extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning after two women accused him of sexual misconduct during a visit to the country in mid-2010.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's president said Saturday the United States had put the two countries' security pact at risk with a unilateral air strike that killed 18 civilians, and a Taliban suicide bomber killed four French soldiers responding to a tip-off about a bomb hidden under a bridge. The violence and the dispute highlight the muddled nature of the international mission in Afghanistan as NATO coalition countries try to shift to a training role in a country still very much at war. The majority of NATO and U.S. forces are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2014, but the exit is looking far from neat at the beginning of the hot summer months, when fighting typically surges.

PATROL BASE PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan - The top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan offered a somber apology on Friday in an eastern province where officials say 18 civilians - half of them children - were killed in a coalition air strike this week. U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen spent several hours with local Afghans to express his regrets about Wednesday's predawn raid to capture a Taliban operative in Baraki Barak district of Logar province. "We take these deaths very seriously, and I grieve with their families," Allen told the provincial governor, an elderly man with a long, white beard and gray turban.

A very strange story, a 6,000-word front-page New York Times piece on how, every Tuesday, Barack Obama shuffles "baseball cards" with the pictures and bios of suspected terrorists from around the world and chooses who shall die by drone strike. He even reserves for himself the decision of whether to proceed when the probability of killing family members or bystanders is significant.   The article could have been titled "Barack Obama: Drone Warrior. " Great detail on how Obama personally runs the assassination campaign.

Music icon Bob Dylan and Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, were among 13 people honored Tuesday as President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom. "What sets these men and women apart is the incredible impact they have had on so many people, not in short blinding bursts, but steadily over the course of a lifetime," Obama said during a ceremony at the White House. The medal is the nation's highest civilian honor. It is presented to people for "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

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.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - President Bashar al-Assad's forces killed at least 50 civilians, including 13 children, in central Syria on Friday, activists said, in one of the highest death tolls in one specific area since an internationally brokered cease-fire went into effect last month. Syrian troops using tanks, mortars, and heavy machine guns pounded the area of Houla, a region made up of several towns and villages in the province of Homs, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist groups said.

KHAR, Pakistan - A teenager blew himself up near a Pakistani market close to the Afghan border Friday, killing 20 people, officials said. The suicide bombing came a day after the U.S. released letters seized from Osama bin Laden's compound that criticized Pakistani militants for killing too many civilians. Five of the dead in the blast in the northwestern Bajur tribal area were local members of the security forces, including one who had received an award for bravery in fighting Islamist militants, government administrator Abdul Haseeb said.

CAIRO - Egypt's ruling generals repeated their pledge Thursday to transfer power to a civilian government within two months, a day after deadly clashes stoked by political tensions brought fresh accusations that the military was trying to create chaos so it could cling to power. At the same time, the ruling military council warned protesters that deadly force would be used against them if they approached the Ministry of Defense. At least 11 people were killed in clashes that broke out Wednesday when apparent supporters of the military rulers attacked a mostly Islamist crowd staging a sit-in outside the Ministry of Defense in Cairo to call for an end to the generals' rule.