Wednesday, December 30, 2009; A06

AFGHANISTAN

Afghan government and foreign military officials sparred Tuesday over reports that 10 civilians died during a military operation Sunday -- claims that further inflamed public sentiment against the international military presence as tens of thousands of additional U.S. and allied troops prepare to deploy.

Also Tuesday, NATO said a U.S. service member died in a shooting in northwestern Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed anger over the alleged deaths Sunday of civilians -- who he said included eight young students -- in a village in the eastern province of Konar. A NATO official said initial reports from troops involved in the fighting had identified the victims as insurgents.

The reported incident is the most serious allegation of accidental killings of civilians by Western forces since early December, when Afghan officials said 12 civilians were killed in an airstrike in neighboring Laghman province. An investigation into that incident continues.

A delegation of government officials and lawmakers, appointed by Karzai, met with Konar provincial officials Tuesday to probe the latest allegations.

NATO offered no details on the U.S. service member killed Tuesday, but Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said the American was killed and two Italian soldiers were injured when an Afghan soldier opened fire on a base in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis province.

-- Associated Press

Sudan's parliament on Tuesday passed a law governing a southern vote on independence, ending months of wrangling between the partners in the north-south coalition government.

Analysts predict that southern Sudan will vote in the January 2011 referendum to separate from the north, with which it fought a civil war that cost the lives of 2 million people.

But many say that even though the referendum is just one year away, there has been little planning for separation by either the Sudanese or the international community, with many potential flash points still unresolved, including the border and the status of the oil-rich Abyei region.

-- Reuters

Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the military to allow Palestinians to travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel's practice of reserving some roads for Jews.

The 10-mile-long West Bank section of a 20-mile road linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was closed to Palestinians in 2002, after militants shot at Israeli vehicles on the highway and killed several motorists.

Palestinians living in villages along the route petitioned to reopen it in 2007, as the uprising against Israel wound down.

"It's a huge victory," said Melanie Takefman, a spokeswoman for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which represented the Palestinians in the case.

-- Associated Press

5 Sunni guards killed in Iraq: Gunmen killed five Sunni security guards -- including one by beheading -- in gruesome pre-dawn slayings at a checkpoint in a village about 30 miles north of Baghdad, officials said. The five victims were members of the Awakening Councils -- a Sunni-dominated security force now on the government payroll that has been targeted in revenge attacks after it helped turn the tide against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

-- From news services