U.S. forces investigated

President Hamid Karzai on Friday ordered an investigation into the killings of eight people in a raid that U.S. forces said had targeted al-Qaida members but police said were civilians – the second time in a week his government has questioned the military’s tactics.

The inquiry into Thursday’s deaths in eastern Kunar province was Karzai’s latest show of displeasure in the coalition forces that he depends on to protect his weak government from resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

A statement released by Karzai’s office said he had ordered a “thorough investigation” into the killings, including the death of a 10-year-old child. Kunar’s governor and local lawmakers have gone on a fact-finding trip to the area.

The U.S. military said a joint American-Afghan force descended on a compound in Shigal district to nab an “al-Qaida facilitator” wanted for attacks on coalition and Afghan forces in the region.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Fire damages Trinity Cathedral

A fire raged through a 19th-century cathedral Friday, collapsing the main cupola atop the stately church in Russia’s former imperial capital and sending clerics scurrying to save treasured icons.

The fire erupted in the early evening and burned through scaffolding outside the soaring blue central dome of Trinity Cathedral, a duty officer at the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. The cause was not immediately known.

The central dome collapsed and one of four smaller cupolas surrounding it – painted a striking light blue and in some cases spangled with gold stars – was also destroyed, St. Petersburg emergency department spokeswoman Lyudmila Rubasova said. There were no reports of injuries, she said.

Rubasova said one of the three remaining domes had been damaged but that the fire was contained.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Citizens evacuate amid fighting

Fighting between Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the eastern and northern parts of the country, the U.N. food agency said Friday.

The figure rose from about 182,000 to 204,000 in just a week, and the numbers are still increasing, Jeff Taft-Dick, country director of the World Food Program, told reporters. He cited the most recent figures from the U.N.’s refugee agency.

Small-scale skirmishes between Tamil Tiger separatists and security forces have been on the rise since December, but in June the military launched its first ground offensive since a 2002 cease-fire, and the country was put back on a war footing.