World Briefs

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile targeting a Taliban commander killed 13 people near the Afghan border Friday, a sign that the U.S. is not heeding Islamabad's pleas for a halt to the strikes.

There has been a surge in U.S. cross-border attacks since August, angering Pakistani officials who say the raids violate the country's sovereignty and undermine its anti-terror war in the border region.

Repairing strained ties while keeping the pressure on al-Qaida and Taliban commanders leaders hiding in the lawless frontier area will be a key challenge for Barack Obama in January.

The latest attack took place in Kam Sam village in North Waziristan region, a stronghold for militants blamed for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan and suicide blasts within Pakistan.

KAANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – A U. S. coalition airstrike and clashes with the Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan earlier this week killed 37 civilians and 26 insurgents, according to an Afghan government report released Friday.

The report also accused the Taliban militants of seeking shelter near a wedding party in Shah Wali Kot district shortly after ambushing a coalition patrol on Monday.

The report said that another 27 civilians were wounded in the strike. It added that the government has already paid $2,000 to families of each victim, and $100 to those who were wounded — a standard practice in these cases.

The majority of the civilians killed were woman and children, the report said.

After the strikes and the clashes, villager Abdul Jalil told an AP reporter that U.S. troops and Taliban fighters had been fighting about a half mile from his home.

NAIROBI, Kenya – The largest UN peacekeeping force in the world is stretched to the limit as fighting in eastern Congo threatens to engulf the region, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

"We must put the cycle of violence behind us," Ban said at a summit of seven African leaders, including Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who wields strong influence over Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.

The conflict between the government of Congo and Tutsi-led rebels is fueled by ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda and from Congo's civil wars.

Nkunda called a cease-fire last week but it appeared to be unraveling.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, who has held separate talks with Kabila and Kagame, urged both sides to respect the cease-fire. But he said direct talks were not on the agenda Friday.

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