Louisiana

Two officers killed, 3 wounded in shootout

A gunman ambushed a police SWAT team as they approached a house with a search warrant Thursday, killing two officers and wounding three others. In the ensuing two-hour gun battle, the man also died.

The injured officers were in stable condition, authorities said. No names were released.

Alexandria Police said the gunman was wanted by probation and parole officers. They said the SWAT team was searching for a man wanted for ambushing another officer in the same neighborhood on Wednesday.

ATLANTA

CDC: Stroke deaths vary by race, geography

The first county-by-county atlas of U.S. stroke deaths confirmed in detail Thursday that Southerners and blacks are more likely to die of a stroke.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed that blacks are 40 percent more likely than whites to die of a stroke.

Experts suspect blacks have more strokes because they have higher rates of blood pressure. They believe the South has a higher stroke rate because it has more poor cities with less access to health care.

BALTIMORE

Judge releases records for teen sniper suspect

Most of sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo’s juvenile court records were unsealed Thursday in response to lawsuits filed by media organizations.

About 70 lines in the 88 pages of records were blacked out. Attorneys for several news organizations had asked a judge three months ago to unseal the federal records.

The documents detail uncertainty about Malvo’s identity and age after he was arrested with John Allen Muhammad in Maryland in October.

JERUSALEM

Israeli troops kill three; diplomacy continues

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians during a West Bank dragnet Thursday and locked down the Gaza Strip in an operation against the militant Islamic group Hamas.

The tough military measures were in tandem with tentative steps toward a possible truce to end 29 months of Mideast violence.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have been holding talks in London, where U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met Palestinian Cabinet ministers.

Pakistan

Air force chief among plane crash victims

A Pakistani military plane crashed Thursday into a mountainside in dense fog in a remote region of northwestern Pakistan, killing all 17 people on board, including the chief of the air force.

The Fokker-27 turboprop lost contact with the control tower at the Kohat Air Base shortly before it was to land there, Pakistani officials said.

Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad ruled out the possibility that the plane had been shot down.

The crash killed air force chief Mushaf Ali Mir, 57, his wife, seven other air force officials and eight crew members.

South Korea

N. Korean fighter jet crosses South border

Rattling nerves along the border, a North Korean fighter jet violated South Korean airspace Thursday over the Yellow Sea before turning back as warplanes in the South scrambled. The flight — the first such incursion in 20 years — was the latest in a series of North Korean provocations.

The incursion, which lasted two minutes, came only days after North Korea threatened to abandon the armistice keeping peace along the border if the United States imposes sanctions on the regime.

HAVANA

Cuba confirms Castro’s departure for Asia

President Fidel Castro has left Cuba for a trip to Asia that will include stops in Vietnam, China and Malaysia, where he will attend next week’s Non-Aligned Movement summit.

The Cuban government announcement of the trip came Thursday, hours after the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said Castro would arrive there today. Castro has visited communist Vietnam twice before, in 1973 and 1995.