Thursday, August 30, 2012
Australian troops killed in attack
CANBERRA, Australia
Australia says it has suffered fatalities in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led military coalition there reported that a man in an Afghan army uniform had killed three of its troops.
The Australian Defense Force said in a statement Thursday that Australian soldiers have been killed in an incident in Afghanistan.
It did not say how many. More details are to be released after the families of the soldiers are notified.
NATO said in a statement Wednesday that the latest attack came a day earlier in southern Afghanistan.
Abortion ban fails to get on Colo. ballot
DENVER
The nation’s only pending ballot measure to ban abortion in all circumstances has failed to advance to voters in Colorado.
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced Wednesday that backers of the divisive “personhood” amendment fell about 3,900 valid signatures short of the some 86,000 needed.
The rejection was a major setback for abortion foes in the home state of Personhood USA, which said the Colorado proposal was the only measure pending for ballots this fall. Other initiatives are aimed for future years but not this fall, Personhood USA spokeswoman Jennifer Mason said Wednesday.
Cops: Driver, 100, hits 11 people
LOS ANGELES
A 100-year-old man backed his car on to a sidewalk and hit 11 people, including nine children, across from an elementary school in South Los Angeles just after classes had ended Wednesday, authorities said.
Four of the children were in critical condition when firefighters arrived, but they were stabilized and were in serious condition at a hospital, city fire Capt. Jaime Moore said. Everyone was expected to survive, he said.
Some of the victims were trapped under the powder-blue Cadillac before witnesses helped pull them out, Moore said.
Police identified the driver as Preston Carter and said he was being very cooperative. Carter talked to television reporters just after the crash, saying he has a license and will be 101 years old Wednesday.
Yoko Ono, son form anti-fracking group
NEW YORK
Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, on Wednesday launched a coalition of artists, musicians and filmmakers who oppose hydraulic fracturing in New York state.
The formation of the group Artists Against Fracking was announced at a news conference in Manhattan with Ono, Lennon and Mark Ruffalo, who long has been outspoken on the issue. Other celebrities joining the coalition’s cause include Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney and Alec Baldwin.
The group’s formation comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares to decide whether to allow shale-gas drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing — known as hydrofracking, or fracking.
US Marines patrol in anti-drug effort
GUATEMALA CITY
A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala’s western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
The Marines are deployed as part of Operation Martillo, a broader effort started Jan. 15 to stop drug trafficking along the Central American coast. Focused exclusively on drug dealers in airplanes or boats, the U.S.-led operation involves troops or law- enforcement agents from Belize, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain.
Associated Press