7 US troops killed in Afghanistan

7 US troops killed in Afghanistan

KABUL

Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan’s embattled southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five kidnapped campaign aides working for a female candidate in the western province of Herat.

Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday, and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July’s high of 66.

Is it the last word for dictionary?

LONDON

It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing. Oxford University Press, the publisher, said Sunday so many people prefer to look up words using its online product that it’s uncertain whether the 126-year-old dictionary’s next edition will be printed on paper at all.

The digital version of the Oxford English Dictionary gets 2 million hits a month from subscribers, who pay $295 a year for the service in the U.S. In contrast, the current printed edition — a 20-volume, 750-pound ($1,165) set published in 1989 — has sold about 30,000 sets in total.

Gunman kills 5, self

LAKE HAVASU CITY, ARIZ.

A gunman entered a western Arizona home and began shooting, killing the mother of his two children and three others before fleeing with the kids to California where he fatally shot himself, police said Sunday.

In all, six people died. Officers said they found four people dead and two others wounded. One of the injured died of his wounds Sunday, police said.

The alleged gunman, identified as 26-year-old Brian Diez, was found dead hours later at a residence in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The two young children — a 4-year-old and a 13-month-old — were unharmed at the house with relatives, police said.

2 police officers shot

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Two police officers were fatally shot in a tiny Native village in southeast Alaska and authorities were in a standoff Sunday with the suspect, local officials said.

Bob Prunella, acting Hoonah city administrator, said officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka died after the shooting late Saturday. He didn’t know what led to the shooting.

The suspect, 45-year-old John Marvin Jr., barricaded himself in his home, and Alaska State Troopers and other law-enforcement agencies were at the scene Sunday, authorities said.

Miners must move tons in own rescue

SAN JOSE MINE, CHILE

The 33 trapped Chilean miners who have astonished the world with their discipline a half-mile underground will have to aid their own escape — clearing thousands of tons of rock that will fall as the rescue hole is drilled, the engineer in charge of drilling said Sunday.

After drilling three small bore holes in recent weeks to create lines of communication with the miners and deliver basic food and medicine, Chile’s state-owned Codelco mining company will begin boring a rescue hole this afternoon that will be wide enough to pull the men up through 2,300 feet of earth.

Associated Press