road blocks to Arizona's tough new law on illegal immigration that has thrust the state into the national spotlight

PHOENIX A referendum drive and a lawsuit have emerged as potential road blocks to Arizona’s tough new law on illegal immigration that has thrust the state into the national spotlight.The legal action set to be filed Thursday in federal court is aimed a preventing enforcement of the controversial measure, while the ballot question could put it on hold until 2012.

Signed last week by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, the law requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.A draft of the proposed lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press shows the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders will seek an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the law. The group argues federal law pre-empts state regulation of national borders, and that Arizona’s law violates due-process rights by allowing suspected illegal immigrants to be detained before they’re convicted.

Other Hispanic and civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, are also planning lawsuits. And U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal government may challenge the law.On Wednesday, a group filed papers to launch a referendum drive that could put the law on hold until 2012 if organizers wait until the last minute to turn in petition signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.

Opponents of the law have until late July or early August to file the more than 76,000 signatures  the same time the law is set to go into effect. If they get enough signatures, the law would be delayed until a vote.But the deadline to put a question on the November ballot is July 1, and a referendum filing later than that could delay a vote on the law until 2012, officials with the Secretary of State’s Office said.”That would be a pretty big advantage” to the law’s opponents, said Andrew Chavez, head of a Phoenix-based petition-circulating firm and chairman of the One Arizona referendum campaign.The legislation’s chief sponsor, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said he has no doubt voters will support the new law at the ballot box, which would then protect it from repeal by the Legislature. In Arizona, measures approved by voters can only be repealed at the ballot box.The clergy group’s lawsuit targets a provision allowing police to arrest illegal-immigrant day laborers seeking work on the street or anyone trying to hire them, according to the draft. It says the solicitation of work is protected by the First Amendment.

State Rep. Ben Miranda, a Phoenix Democrat who will serve as the local attorney on the case, said it was important to file the suit quickly to show local Latinos and the rest of the country that there’s still a chance the law won’t be enacted.”I think there’s real damage being caused right now,” Miranda said. “How do you measure the kind of fear … going on in many parts of this community?”At least three Arizona cities also are considering lawsuits to block the law. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said the measure would be “economically devastating,” and called on the City Council to sue the state to stop it from taking effect.

The council rejected that idea Tuesday, yet the mayor told reporters he retained legal counsel to prepare a lawsuit to file on behalf of the city.Tucson leaders also are considering their options to block the law, and Flagstaff City Councilman Rick Swanson said the city had a duty to protect its residents who might be targeted.

Meanwhile, the effect of the law continued to ripple beyond Arizona.A Republican Texas lawmaker said she’ll introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law next year. Texas Rep. Debbie Riddle of Tomball said she will push for the law in the January legislative session, according to Wednesday’s editions of the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle.And Republicans running for governor in Colorado and Minnesota expressed support for the crackdown. “I’d do something very similar” if elected,” Former Rep. Scott McInnis, told KHOW-AM radio in Denver.

missing 11-year-old central Florida girl with Asperger syndrome was found alive on Tuesday

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. A missing 11-year-old central Florida girl with Asperger syndrome was found alive on Tuesday, four days after she disappeared into an alligator-infested swamp a half-mile from her suburban home. Nadia Bloom was taken to a hospital in nearby Longwood, Fla., where she will be evaluated and treated for dehydration and insect bites, said Winter Springs Police Chief Kevin Brunelle.

“If I never believed in miracles, I sure do now,” Brunelle said during an afternoon news conference. Brunelle said Nadia told rescuers two things: “I’m glad you guys found me” and “I can’t believe you guys rescued me.

” Her sister has said Bloom, who has an autism-related disorder called Asperger syndrome, may have gone into the dense woods hoping to make a nature video. It took nearly two hours for rescuers to carry Nadia out of the thick brush and swamp. It wasn’t police who located her.

James King, who goes to church with Nadia’s family, found her Tuesday morning in a dry patch in the middle of the swamp and called authorities. King climbed a tree and unfurled toilet paper in an attempt to draw attention to where they were. Brunelle said he dispatched a helicopter to look for King and Nadia, but it didn’t work.

Using cell phone signals, authorities found King and Nadia. “Mr. King is a hero right now,” said Brunelle. “He led us to her.” Brunelle added that detectives are questioning both King and Nadia for more details on the rescue and how the little girl spent her time while she was missing.

Brunelle did say that Nadia told them that she had not talked to anyone since going into the woods on Friday. Authorities began searching for Nadia in wooded areas near Lake Jesup, one of the most alligator-filled lakes in Central Florida. The fifth-grader was last seen riding her bike on Friday, and authorities became alarmed when they found her bike and helmet. She did have a backpack with her. Shortly after word came that Nadia was alive, her father briefly spoke to the media. “It all came so fast and it just shows the compassion of the human spirit.

It should give everybody encouragement,” her father, Jeff Bloom, told reporters after rescue crews lifted her into an ambulance. When asked how he felt, Bloom said: “I can’t even describe it. Let’s give the glory to God.”

Afghanistan played down on Wednesday recent anti-Western remarks by President Hamid Karzai

Afghanistan played down on Wednesday recent anti-Western remarks by President Hamid Karzai, saying they were not aimed at specific countries and would not affect relations between Kabul and the international community.A war of words between Karzai and the White House escalated on Monday following accusations by the Afghan president last week that the West carried out election fraud in Afghanistan.

Karzai has not backed down from his remarks and appeared to sharpen the criticism further by singling out the United Statesfor blame. Washington said it was frustrated by the comments and attempts to settle the feud had so far failed.On Wednesday, Karzai’s chief spokesman, Waheed Omer, said the statements were aimed at individuals who had made fraud allegations and were “not necessarily” directed at any specific country.

“When it comes to fraud in elections, you know, there (were) lots of discussions over the past six or seven months … one-sided views mainly made by certain figures that I will not name here,” Omer told a news conference in Kabul.Those figures “do not necessarily represent the country or represent any international organization,” he said.

Karzai made his remarks, Omer said, to avoid a repeat of these fraud allegations in the upcoming parliamentary election.”So that’s why the president did that, and that was not necessarily targeting any specific country or any specific group of countries,” Omer said.

NO EFFECT ON RELATIONS WITH WEST

In his speech last week, Karzai said foreigners had bribed and threatened election workers to carry out fraud in last year’s presidential election, and singled out the former deputy head of the U.N. mission in Kabul — U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith — as well as the French head of a European Union monitoring team.

Omer played down the effects Karzai’s remarks could have on relations with the West.”It did not have any effect on the strategic relations with the United States and the international community. Our stance and position are the same,” he said.

“Issues that create conflict should be discussed and we hope that these relations get strengthened and reinforced.”U.S. President Barack Obama met Karzai in Kabul last month during a brief night-time visit to Afghanistan but that visit has largely been overshadowed by Karzai’s remarks.On Tuesday, the White House suggested it might cancel a meeting between the two leaders in Washington next month.

Omer said Washington needed to clarify whether the trip would be canceled.”Regarding its cancellation, we don’t have anything specific. This (the visit) is the proposal made by the United States, they should give clarification,” he said.

ELECTION OFFICIALS STEP DOWN

In a development that could help placate Western concerns over fraud ahead of a parliamentary poll in September, Omer said the head of the country’s government-appointed election body and his deputy were to be replaced.Last year’s presidential election damaged Karzai’s standing among Western countries with troops in Afghanistan after allegations of widespread fraud, including that carried out by officials in the Independent Election Commission (IEC).

It led to months of political limbo, with the IEC declaring Karzai the winner but a separate U.N.-backed body rejecting enough ballots to lower Karzai’s total below 50 percent and force a second round.”The working period of Mr. Azizullah Ludin, director of the Independent Election Commission, has finished and will not be extended,” Omer said.

“Daoud Ali Najafi has also resigned from his position which has been approved by the president,” he added, referring to the body’s chief electoral officer.There have been several calls for Ludin to step down since last year’s August 20 vote, and Western diplomats have said the international community would not be pleased if Karzai reappointed him.

Opponents accuse Ludin, a presidential appointee, of favoring Karzai.Omer said both IEC officials would be replaced soon, adding they would be offered high-ranking positions elsewhere. He did not give more details.Holding a free and fair parliamentary election is seen as a crucial test for Afghanistan, which faces a resurgent Taliban, despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western troops, more than eight years since the militants’ removal from power.(Reuters)

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday, challenging government assertions crackdowns have weakened the group.Homegrown Taliban rebels are seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been pressured to hand over some of his key powers, such as dissolving parliament and appointing military chiefs.

A senior military officer and four paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the attack in Orakzai, a day after Pakistani jets killed nearly 50 people, mostly militants, in strikes on a school and a seminary in the same region, a government official said.Fourteen soldiers were wounded in the Taliban assault.

Orakzai, one of seven Pakistani tribal regions near the Afghan border, also known as agencies, has seen a surge in military attacks in recent months, targeting militants who were driven out of their bastion of South Waziristan.Pakistan mounted two offensives last year in the northwestern Swat Valley and in South Waziristan on the Afghan border, which it says threw al Qaeda-linked militants into disarray.But despite losing ground, the Taliban hit back with bombings that killed hundreds, prompting troops to step up attacks in other northwestern regions where militants are believed to have taken refuge after offensives.In the latest attack, about 150 Taliban launched a pre-dawn assault on a checkpoint in Orakzai, triggering fierce fighting.

“They attacked from three sides which continued for nearly three hours in which a lieutenant colonel and four other security officials were killed,” said government official Khaista Rehman.”Security forces launched the counter-attack in which 24 militants have been killed,” he said. A paramilitary official, said as many as 30 militants may have been killed.

Army jets and helicopter gunships later targeted suspected militant hideouts in various parts of Orakzai and killed another 10 militants, said government official Mohammad Asghar Khan.Orakzai is considered a militant stronghold of Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who is widely believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in January.

Pakistani action against militants along its Afghan border is seen as crucial to the U.S. efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, particularly as Washington sends more troops there to fight a raging Taliban insurgency before a gradual withdrawal starts in 2011.

The two allies pledged increased cooperation in tackling militants during two days of talks in Washington that ended on Thursday, with Washington promising to speed up overdue military payments.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Pakistan for increased coordination over stabilizing Afghanistan, including the recent arrest of a key Afghan Taliban commander in what has been described as a joint American-Pakistani raid in Karachi.(Reuters)

terrorist strike in Mumbai,2 Indians arrested

MUMBAI, India Indian police said Sunday they prevented a major terrorist strike in Mumbai by arresting two men who were preparing to attack several targets in the city, the country’s financial and entertainment hub.K.P. Raghuvanshi, chief of Mumbai’s anti-terrorism squad, said the two Indian men – both residents of the city – had targeted a popular shopping mall, a market and a state-owned gas facility. He said Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali were arrested late Saturday in Mumbai’s Matunga suburb.

Police said the men had links with terror groups in Pakistan and were acting on directions from handlers there.”They were getting instructions from Pakistan to execute their activities here,” Raghuvanshi said.India has blamed Pakistan-linked Islamist militant groups for a deadly November 2008 terror attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. Last month, 16 people were killed in a bombing in a popular bakery in the nearby city of Pune.

It was not immediately clear whether the men were preparing to attack the offices, oil tankers or a housing estate belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Raghuvanshi said.The suspects will remain in custody until Thursday, when they will appear before a judge and be assigned lawyers, Raghuvanshi said.Mumbai has been on high alert since the Pune bombing. Following the latest arrests, police have further tightened security measures with additional police patrolling markets and cinemas. (AP)

MADONNA has become a model for the famous brand Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabanna

MADONNA has become a model for the famous brand Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabanna. Now, chanter “Material Girl” is the latest iconic  MDG sunglasses from Dolce & Gabbana. And, starring in new product advertising campaigns. Photocall was perpetuated by a celebrity photographer who is also a friend of Madonna, Steven Klein. MDG ad campaign will circulate until February 2011. Such as Legal  from Justjaredbuzznet, Sunday (14/3/2010). In recent times photocall, Luz Jesus lover’s sensual posing with sunglasses and applying lipstick bright red color. While earlier, the widow of Guy Richie is working with Iconix Brand Group based in the United States to create a new line labeled MG Icon.

“For me, joining Iconix can bring my fashion ideas for the consumer, so it is very interesting,” he said. And Iconix CEO Neil Cole, chief of a portfolio of American origin brands, including Ed Hardy and Badgley Mischka said, “We are delighted to announce the first in a series of new brands that will be developed from our cooperation with Madonna.”

“We believe that the ‘Material Girl’ will be a dynamic brand exclusive to Macy’s department store, and we look forward to working with Madonna, Lourdes, and the Iconix team,” he continued. In line with Neil, Chief Merchandising Officer of Macy’s express, gait Madonna in their stores will bring a fresh breeze. “Madonna is a fashion icon who can bring a new dimension to our junior customers. ‘Material Girl’ will increase rapidly passion for fashion at Macy’s,” said Jeff Gennette.

Pakistan A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday

LAHORE, Pakistan A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 39 people in this eastern city and wounding nearly 100, police said. It was the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm.About ten of those killed were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz Rathore.

The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities. Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances. Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari.”Oh my God! Oh my God! Who are these beasts? Oh my God!” Bukhari can be heard shouting after the blast in a mixture of English and Urdu.Senior police official Tariq Saleem Dogar said 39 people were killed, and another 95 were hurt. Some of the wounded were missing limbs, lying in pools of blood after the enormous explosions, eyewitness Afzal Awan said.

“I saw smoke rising everywhere,” Awan told reporters. “A lot of people were crying.”No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida.The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks in U.S.-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some 600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive along the Afghan border.In more recent months, the attacks were smaller, fewer and confined to remote regions near Afghanistan.But on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where police interrogated high-value suspects – including militants – killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.Also this week, suspected militants attacked the offices of World Vision, a U.S.-based Christian aid group, in the northwest district of Mansehra, killing six Pakistani employees, while a bombing at a small, makeshift movie theater in the main northwest city of Peshawar killed four people.The attacks show that the loose network of insurgents angry with Islamabad for its alliance with the U.S. retain the ability to strike throughout Pakistan despite pressure from army offensives and American missile strikes against militant targets.

The violence also comes amid signs of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants known to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are believed to have lost their top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a U.S. missile strike in January. The group has denied Mehsud is dead but has failed to prove he’s still alive.

Militant attacks in Pakistan frequently target security forces, though civilian targets have not escaped.During the bloody wave of attacks that began in October – coinciding with the army’s ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area – Lahore was hit several times.In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three security facilities in the eastern city, a rampage that left 28 dead. Twin suicide bombings at a market there in December killed around 50 people.(AP)

Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim urged Meir Dagan, the director of Israel's Mossad spy agency

Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim urged Meir Dagan, the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, to “be a man” and admit that Israel stands behind last month’s killing of Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, according to a report Saturday in Emirati newspaper Al-Khaleej. Tamim also told the paper that Dubai has DNA evidence from one of the assassins and fingerprints from the crime scene.

Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in what Dubai police have said they are near certain was a hit by Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Police said the killers traveled to the Gulf Arab emirate using forged passports from the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.The Dubai police chief also said he believes Mabhouh’s assassins are currently in Israel. He said he is seeking the creation of an international team of investigators from the five countries whose passports were used in the killing, and said those governments are all working closely with Dubai. Tamim reiterated that if Mossad is found to have been behind the assassination, he would seek the arrest of Dagan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

United Arab Emirates officials say at least two more fraudulent Irish passports

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates officials say at least two more fraudulent Irish passports have been linked to the alleged hit squad accused of killing a Hamas commander in Dubai. They also say some of the 18 suspects visited the Gulf city for a reconnaissance mission at least once before the Jan. 19 killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room.The officials, who are close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The latest allegations mean the list of fraudulently obtained passports tied to the killing include six British, five Irish and one French and German. Two Palestinians are in custody and three suspects remain unidentified.The UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the Gulf country is deeply concerned that the suspected assassins used expertly doctored passports from nations that don’t require advance UAE visas.

Dubai police say at least 11 suspects used altered British, Irish, French and German passports before the Jan. 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.”The UAE is deeply concerned by the fact that passports of close allies, whose nationals currently enjoy preferential visa waivers, were illegally used to commit this crime,” Gargash said in a statement, carried by the Emirates’ state-run news agency WAM on Sunday.

Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has blamed Israeli’s Mossad secret service.”The abuse of passports poses a global threat, affecting both countries’ national security as well as the personal security of travelers,” the Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan was quoted saying in the same statement.

The statement gave no updates on the investigation, but said the Emirates’ and Dubai authorities continue to scrutinize events that led to al-Mabhouh’s slaying and its aftermath. The authorities also remain in “close contact with the concerned European governments,” the statement added and listed the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Germany and Austria.Earlier this week Tamim told reporters in Dubai that the alleged assassins used foreign cell phone cards to avoid being traced while calling a “command center” in Austria.(AP)

7 CIA workers killed in Afghanistan

Canadian soldiers

KABUL The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for infiltrating a CIA post with a suicide bomber who set off an explosion that killed seven American intelligence staffers and wounded six others in an attack believed one of the worst in the agency’s history.In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta said the seven killed in Wednesday’s attack “were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism.”The attack was a blow to the CIA, which has lost only four operatives in this country since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It also was the deadliest for Americans since eight soldiers were killed Oct. 3 when insurgents attacked a remote base, also in eastern Afghanistan.Among those killed was the chief of the CIA’s operation at Camp Chapman in the Khost province of eastern Afghanistan, The Associated Press has learned. Former CIA officials said the base chief, a mother of three, would have directed and coordinated CIA operations and intelligence gathering in the province, a hotbed of Taliban and insurgent activity because of its proximity to Pakistan’s lawless tribal region.”There’s still a lot to be learned about what happened,” said CIA spokesman George Little. “The key lesson is that counterterrorism work is dangerous. Our fallen and wounded colleagues were on the front lines, conducting essential operations to protect our country.”A U.S. intelligence official said the attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations, and said the climate at CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Va. is “determined.”Earlier, a U.S. official who was briefed on the blast said eight U.S. civilians and an Afghan were killed.

Harold E. Brown Jr., of Fairfax, Va., was among the dead, according to his father, Harold E. Brown Sr. The elder Brown said Thursday that his 37-year-old son, who grew up in Bolton, Mass., served in the Army and worked for the State Department. He is survived by a wife and three children ages 12, 10 and 2.The attack, which wounded six according to Panetta, came on a bloody day for NATO forces. A roadside bombing, also claimed by the Taliban, killed four Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist in southern Afghanistan. Elsewhere, police said militants beheaded six Afghans on Thursday for cooperating with government authorities.

Also Thursday, the United Nations said a preliminary investigation showed that a raid last weekend by foreign troops in a tense eastern Afghan province killed eight students. The attack sparked protests by Afghans against foreign troops. Meanwhile, France’s Foreign Ministry said two French journalists and their local guides were missing in Afghanistan.

It was unclear how the suicide bomber was able to circumvent security at the U.S. base.Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base and blew himself up inside the gym. The U.S. official said it took place in the gym.There was no independent confirmation that the bomber in the attack on the U.S. base was a member of the Afghan military. Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said no Afghan National Army soldiers are at the base.

But an Afghan official in Khost said the U.S. has hired about 200 Afghans to help with security at the base. They are usually deployed on the outer ring of its walls, although some work inside, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.”It’s not the first time that Afghan forces have conducted such an attack to kill Americans or foreigners,” the Taliban statement said, citing the alleged killing of an American soldier and the wounding of two Italians this week in Badghis province. NATO has provided no details of that incident, but Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said an Afghan soldier opened fire on a base in the province’s Bala Murghab district.

An online message posted by the Afghan Taliban said 20 CIA staff were killed and 25 other people were wounded, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorist tracking organization. The Taliban routinely exaggerate claims of enemy casualties.
Afghan officials said no members of the Afghan National Army or Afghan National Police worked at the base.Only four known CIA operatives had been killed in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. CIA officer Micheal “Mike” Spann was killed in a prison uprising in November 2001. An agency officer died in a training exercise in 2003, and two contractors operating out of a CIA base in Shkin district of Paktika province were killed the same year.

Forward Operating Base Chapman used to be a military base, but was later turned into a CIA base, according to a U.S. official. Some military men and women work there on a Provincial Reconstruction Team, one of several joint civilian-military units that secure and develop areas of Afghanistan. A NATO spokesman said “other personnel” operate from Chapman as well, but he said he could not elaborate.All the U.S. officials and former CIA officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.Chapman is not the only U.S. base in Khost city. Also there is a major U.S. military base known as Camp Salerno, which includes a large Soviet-built airfield.

Camp Salerno and its outlying fire bases have been the focus of repeated militant suicide, artillery and sniper attacks over the past several years. One of the most brazen of the war occurred in August 2008 when a group of about 100 Taliban fighters broke through the perimeter of the base, which houses about 2,000 allied troops. After a two-hour firefight, the guerrillas were forced to retreat by attacking helicopter gunships.In Wednesday’s other attack, NATO said the four Canadian soldiers and the reporter embedded in their unit died when their armored vehicle hit a bomb while on an afternoon patrol south of Kandahar city.

Michelle Lang, a 34-year-old health reporter with the Calgary Herald, was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan. She arrived in the country just two weeks ago. Lang “was one of those journalists who always wanted to get to the bottom of every story so this was an important trip for her,” said a Calgary Herald colleague, Colette Derworiz.The Canadian military identified the four soldiers as Sgt. George Miok, Sgt. Kirk Taylor and Cpl. Zachery McCormack.According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, 32 Canadian troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year; in all, 138 have died in the war.(AP)