Report: Afghan police ill-trained
The American-trained police force in Afghanistan is incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement duties, a U.S. government report found.
The joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has been circulated to members of relevant congressional committees, the New York Times reported Sunday night on its Web site. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus and Pentagon spokesman Todd Vichan said Sunday night they could not comment on the report.
Managers of the $1.1 billion training program cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to the police force are now, said the report, issued by the inspector generals’ offices at the Pentagon and the State Department.
MANILA, Philippines
U.S. Marine gets 40 years for rape
A U.S. Marine was convicted today of raping a Filipino woman and sentenced to 40 years in prison, ending an emotional trial that has strained U.S.-Philippine ties and tested a joint military pact.
Three other Marines accused of cheering him on were acquitted.
Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, 21, of St. Louis, was the first American soldier convicted of wrongdoing in the Philippines since the country shut down U.S. bases here in the early 1990s.
Smith, who was in the country for joint training, did not deny having sex but said it was consensual.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the courthouse, demanding the government scrap the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement that allows U.S. troops to train with Philippine forces.
DARAGA, Philippines
Up to 1,000 dead following typhoon
The Red Cross estimated Sunday that as many as 1,000 people may have died in the typhoon that unleashed walls of black mud on entire villages in the Philippines. The country’s president declared a state of national calamity.
Typhoon Durian struck the Philippines with winds reaching 165 mph and torrential rains on Thursday, causing ash and boulders from Mayon volcano on Luzon island to swamp villages around its base – a scene Philippine Sen. Richard Gordon described Sunday as a “war zone.”
Official figures as of Sunday recorded 425 dead, 507 injured and 599 missing.