Afghanistan

U.S., Afghan troops kill 5 Taliban, officials say

U.S. and Afghan troops battled rebels in a mountainous Taliban stronghold, killing five and capturing seven, officials said Friday.

Four other people were reported killed in separate clashes in Uruzgan province.

The first clash occurred Wednesday near Daychopan, 190 miles southwest of Kabul, said Ali Khel, a spokesman for the provincial government.

U.S. spokesman Maj. Rick Peat said one Afghan soldier was injured in the fighting, which broke out when a joint U.S.-Afghan patrol encountered a group of militants.

Peat said the detained fighters were carrying rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs.

England

Gay clergyman named dean of cathedral

A gay clergyman whose appointment as a Church of England bishop was derailed by international protests faced more opposition Friday in his new post as a cathedral dean.

The Rev. Jeffrey John, who withdrew under pressure from appointment as a bishop last year, was appointed dean of St. Albans Cathedral, the shrine of England’s first Christian martyr.

John, 51, has said he was involved in a celibate relationship.

Opponents of the appointment expressed dismay before Friday’s installation service at the cathedral. Two parishes in St. Albans diocese have withheld their contributions to diocesan funds.

France

Ten defendants found guilty in pedophilia trial

A pedophilia trial that stunned France ended Friday with 10 of 17 defendants convicted and raised questions about the fairness of the justice system.

The country has been riveted and shocked by the trial, which involved allegations of sex abuse of 18 children between 1995 and 2000.

Thierry and Myriam Delay, an unemployed couple at the center of the scandal, were sentenced to terms of 20 and 15 years, respectively, for multiple counts of rape and sexual assault.

According to testimony, the abuses took place in the Delay’s apartment in a housing project in the northern town of Outreau, near the Belgian border.

Turkey

Car bomb raises fear of violence in southeast

A car bomb in a bustling street killed three people and injured 24 others Friday in eastern Turkey, sparking fears of renewed separatist fighting in the country’s mainly Kurdish area. The government quickly vowed to keep up its fight against the rebels.

The apparent target of the attack, Hikmet Tan, the governor of the city of Van, was not injured when the remote-controlled bomb exploded in a busy shopping area. He accused autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, who last month ended a unilateral cease-fire, of carrying out the attack.

The rebels, however, denied any involvement. Militant leftists and Islamic groups also are active in Turkey.

Spain

Cabinet OKs plan to put troops in Afghanistan

Spain’s Socialist government approved a plan Friday to send hundreds of additional troops to Afghanistan to help NATO provide security for post-Taliban elections in September.

The proposal would increase the number of Spanish troops in Afghanistan from 137 to about 1,000 for the vote; some would be rotated out, leaving 540 in place at the end of the year.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal to send an undetermined number of police to join the U.N. force in Haiti.