Karzai: NATO strike killed 8 children

Karzai: NATO strike killed 8 children

KABUL

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed that an airstrike carried out by the international coalition killed eight children in eastern Afghanistan.

The Afghan leader said in a statement that the strike took place Wednesday in the Najrab district of Kapisa province, and that he has assigned a delegation of high-ranking officials and lawmakers to launch a comprehensive probe into the affair.

The coalition confirmed only that there was a “situation in Najrab district” that was being assessed by a team to determine what had happened.

British fugitive nabbed in Missouri

OZARK, Mo.

A British armored-car guard suspected of driving off with a fortune worth $1.5 million back in 1993 has been captured in rural Missouri, where he had been working as a cable guy and raising a son who apparently knew nothing of his father’s past.

Edward John Maher, now 56, was dubbed “Fast Eddie” in news reports after the heist in England, but he quickly vanished. After nearly two decades as a fugitive, he was arrested Wednesday in an apartment in the tiny town of Ozark, 160 miles southeast of Kansas City, where he had been living under a brother’s name, Michael Maher.

Santorum: Obama wants nukes in Iran

OKLAHOMA CITY

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday accused President Barack Obama of actively seeking ways to allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapon and suggested that the administration had betrayed Israel by publicly disclosing what may be a plan to attack the Muslim nation.

“We’re throwing Israel under the bus because we know we’re going to be dependent upon OPEC,” Santorum said during a speech in Oklahoma City. “We’re going to say, ‘Oh, Iran, we don’t want you to get a nuclear weapon — wink, wink, nod, nod — go ahead, just give us your oil.’ Folks, the president of the United States is selling the economic security of the United States down the river right now.”

The U.S. doesn’t purchase oil from Iran, but its allies do. Pulling Iranian oil from the world market would wreak havoc on oil prices in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Brazil files injunction against Twitter

SAO PAULO

A request for an injunction to stop Twitter users from alerting drivers to police roadblocks, radar traps and drunken-driving checkpoints could make Brazil the first country to take Twitter up on its plan to censor content at governments’ requests.

Twitter unveiled plans last month that would allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.

10 states gain leeway on education law

WASHINGTON

It could be the beginning of the end for No Child Left Behind.

The goal was lofty: Get all children up to par in math and reading by 2014. But the nation isn’t getting there, and now some states are getting out.

In a sign of what’s to come, President Barack Obama on Thursday freed 10 states from some of the landmark law’s toughest requirements.

Those states, which had to commit to their own, federally approved plans, will now be free, for example, to judge students with methods other than test scores.

They also will be able to factor in subjects beyond reading and math.

Associated Press