Bomb kills 17 villagers

Bomb kills 17 villagers

kabul

A roadside bomb struck a motorcycle-drawn cart carrying women and children between two villages Tuesday in western Afghanistan, killing all 17 people on board, a grim reminder of the dangers facing Afghan civilians ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of foreign combat troops.

International troops already have pulled back into a largely advisory and training role as they try to prepare Afghan soldiers and police to take over their own security. That effort has been marred by a series of attacks by Afghan troops or insurgents disguised in their uniforms.

The roadside bomb that struck the cart was aimed at stopping a joint patrol of Afghan soldiers and police that was pursuing a group of Taliban militants in the western province of Herat, police Lt. Sher Agha said. But the bomb exploded next to the cart carrying the villagers, killing 12 women, four children and a man, Agha said.

Judge to rule on issue of teen’s texts

sanford, fla.

The Florida judge presiding over George Zimmerman’s trial has ended the court session without ruling whether she will allow Trayvon Martin’s text messages dealing with fighting to be introduced at Zimmerman’s murder trial.

Judge Debra Nelson said late Tuesday that she would issue a ruling on Wednesday.

Defense attorneys want to introduce the texts because they say the messages show Martin had an interest in fighting. Prosecutors are opposed to jurors seeing the texts, claiming they are misleading.

Car bomb injures dozens in Lebanon

beirut

A powerful car bomb exploded in a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, wounding at least 53 people in the most troubling sign yet that Syria’s civil war is beginning to consume its smaller neighbor.

The blast in the heart of the Shiite militant group’s bastion of support raised the worrying specter of Lebanon being pulled into the violent Sunni-Shiite struggle in the region, with sectarian killings similar to those plaguing Syria and Iraq.

Pentagon orders review of MIA group

washington

The Pentagon said Tuesday it will take a “second look” at how it goes about accounting for missing Americans on foreign battlefields, after the disclosure of an internal assessment that the work is “acutely dysfunctional” and at risk of failure.

“We have a sacred obligation to perform this mission well,” Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters, referring to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, which is based in Hawaii and run by a two-star general.

The U.S. estimates there are more than 83,000 Americans missing from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

IRS cuts bonuses

washington

Citing budget cuts, the Internal Revenue Service is canceling this year’s employee bonuses for managers and is working to cancel bonuses for union workers, the agency announced Tuesday.

Acting IRS head Danny Werfel told workers in an email that he is canceling the bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year. The agency was scheduled to spend nearly $98 million on employee bonuses this year — $76 million for union workers; $19.3 million for nonunion workers, including managers; and $2.5 million for executives.

Associated Press