6 Palestinians die in new Gaza clashes

Six Palestinians were killed Friday in the Gaza Strip in air strikes and battles with Israeli troops, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The strikes followed a Palestinian ambush this week at an Israeli fuel terminal supplying gasoline to the Gaza Strip.

The Nahal Oz fuel transfer site, the only source of gasoline for Gaza, remained closed after two Israeli civilian employees were killed Wednesday by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated the border fence in a raid.

Israeli tanks pushed into the coastal strip hours after the attack on the fuel terminal, and at least 15 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes.

Early Friday, an Israeli airstrike near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis killed two fighters from Hamas, which took control of Gaza last summer. Hamas officials said the Israeli missile struck a small militant-training site.

Later in the day, four Palestinian teenagers were killed during an Israeli tank incursion into Bureij refugee camp near the center of the coastal strip, according to medical sources.

Katmandu, Nepal

Vote counting starts — but it'll be a while

Authorities began the arduous task Friday of tallying votes in Nepal's first election in nine years — a historic vote meant to secure lasting peace in a land riven by communist insurgents and an autocratic king.

Scattered shootings and clashes that killed two people on election day Thursday — and eight others in the days leading up to the poll — did not deter millions from casting ballots.

The election of a 601-seat Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution has been touted as the cornerstone of a 2006 peace deal struck with former rebels, known as the Maoists, following weeks of unrest that forced Nepal's king to cede power seized the year before.

No party is expected to win a landslide, and with 20,000 voting stations spread throughout the Himalayan land — some of them a seven-day walk from the nearest paved road — officials say it could be several weeks before a complete tally is ready.

Harare, Zimbabwe

Opposition might defy ban on political rallies

Police banned political rallies on Friday as the crisis deepened over Zimbabwe's unresolved presidential election. The opposition said it was considering whether to defy the ban and call a general strike.

"We cannot accept a declaration of a police state," said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The opposition accused President Robert Mugabe's regime of waging a violent crackdown in an attempt to keep power, two weeks after a presidential election whose results have yet to be released. Independent tallies suggest Mugabe lost, but that a runoff would be needed because no one won more than 50 percent of the vote.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won outright and has traveled the region in recent days asking neighboring leaders to push for Mugabe to resign after 28 years in power.

Zimbabwe's neighbors hoped for a resolution today at an emergency summit in Zambia, but Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper said late Friday that Mugabe will not attend. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Joey Binha and three Cabinet members will represent the country instead.

Nabanga, Sudan

Rebel fugitive no-show for truce

A fugitive rebel leader failed to show up in a jungle clearing Friday to sign a peace agreement, quashing the latest hopes for a resolution to a vicious Ugandan insurgency.

Rebels and government negotiators had been gathered at the remote area near the Congolese border since Thursday, waiting for Joseph Kony, who has not been seen in public since 2006.

When Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, didn't show, government representatives packed up and headed home.

Kony's rebels are behind a 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda.

Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba

Defense: "Friendly fire" caused soldier's death

A U.S. soldier who died in a firefight in Afghanistan may have been killed accidentally by his comrades — not by a young Canadian facing a war-crimes trial at Guantánamo, a military defense lawyer said Friday.

The accounts of other U.S. troops interviewed by attorneys for Omar Khadr suggest that someone other than the prisoner could have thrown the grenade that killed the soldier, said the lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler.

The U.S. government insists Khadr threw the grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, of Albuquerque, N.M. The Canadian, who was 15 at the time of the firefight, faces life in prison if convicted.

Kuebler said he knows of no physical evidence that would confirm that so-called friendly fire killed Speer, but other U.S. soldiers recalled throwing grenades around the time that he was killed in July 2002.

Khadr's defense has previously noted inconsistencies in accounts of the assault on the compound near Khost, Afghanistan.

Also

Extradition blocked: A Colombian court has temporarily blocked the extradition of one of the country's most feared warlords while it decides whether he should first finish a sentence in Bogotá, a lawyer said Friday. Carlos Mario Jimenez is wanted by the United States on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorist groups. His extradition was approved April 2.

Pacific quake: A 7.1 earthquake hit near the remote Australian territory of Macquarie Island today, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage, and no tsunami alert has been issued.

Seattle Times news services