U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | Ohio soldier dies

Ohio soldier dies

WASHINGTON

The military says a 25-year-old soldier from Ohio who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom has died in Africa.

Staff Sgt. Bradley C. Hart was from Perrysburg, less than 10 miles southwest of Toledo. The Department of Defense says Hart died Thursday at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti after he was injured in a noncombat incident. The military didn’t release details of what happened.

Hart was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Shutdown possible?

WASHINGTON

Few memories haunt Republicans more deeply than the 1995-96 partial shutdown of the federal government, which helped President Bill Clinton reverse his falling fortunes and recast House Republicans as stubborn partisans, not savvy insurgents.

Now, as Congress careens toward a budget impasse, government insiders wonder if another shutdown is imminent — and if Republicans again would suffer the most blame.

Leaders of both parties say they are determined to avoid a shutdown. But they have not yielded on the amount of spending cuts they will demand or accept. Meanwhile, shutdown talk is rippling through Washington and beyond.

Pirate: Ship shadows hijacked yacht

MOGADISHU, Somalia

A warship is shadowing a yacht with four Americans on board that was hijacked by Somali pirates, a pirate said Sunday, as the vessel was reported to be moving closer to the Somali coast.

The yacht Quest was hijacked Friday off the coast of Oman, but is now in the waters between Yemen and Somalia, two pirates and a Somali government official told The Associated Press.

One pirate who gave his name only as Hassan said a warship with a helicopter on its deck is near the Quest.

The pirate’s claim could not be independently verified, and U.S. officials on Sunday did not release any information about the yacht.

Officials probe claims of deaths of civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan

Tribal elders in a remote part of northeastern Afghanistan claimed Sunday that NATO forces killed 64 civilians in air and ground strikes over the past four days. The international coalition denied the claim, saying video showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents.

Coalition and Afghan officials will go to the Ghazi Abad district of Kunbar province, a hotbed of the insurgency, today to investigate. Civilian casualties have been a constant source of friction between coalition troops and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Tribal elders said air strikes hit a village in the area and that “women and children had been killed inside their houses,” said Nawrdin Safi, a member of the Kunar provincial council.

Orphanage fire kills 10 kids in Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia

A fire raced through an orphanage for disabled children in western Estonia on Sunday, killing 10 of them, a rescue service spokesman said.

There were 37 children and nine adults inside the wooden building when the fire started in the coastal town of Haapsalu, said Viktor Saaremets, a spokesman for the Western Estonia Rescue Services Center.

Ten children were killed, one adult was injured, Saaremets said. Most of the victims were in wheelchairs and were unable to escape the rapidly spreading fire, he said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

Associated Press