U.N. cites errant Afghan fire in attack
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said that its findings indicate the Afghan military had mistakenly fired the mortars this week at a busy market in southern Helmand province that inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
According to a statement from the office of the Helmand provincial governor, Gen. Mohammad Yasin, a car bombing and mortar shells struck the market in Sangin district on Monday, killing 23 people, including children. The Taliban and the Afghan military blamed each other for the attack.
A series of tweets late Tuesday from the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said that "multiple credible sources" have asserted that the Afghan army fired the "mortars in response to Taliban fire, missing [the] intended target."
The tweet made no mention of any car bomb but it indicated that there was a battle between the Taliban and Afghan forces at the time of the attack.
The Afghan government has insisted there was no military activity in the Taliban-controlled area at the time of the attack.
24 people slain in Mexico rehab center
MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen burst into an unregistered drug rehabilitation center in central Mexico and opened fire Wednesday, killing 24 people and wounding seven, authorities said.
Police in the north-central state of Guanajuato said the attack occurred in the city of Irapuato. Three of the seven wounded were reported in serious condition.
State police said nobody was abducted. Photos of the scene suggest that those at the center were lying down when they were shot.
Guanajuato is the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco cartel and a local gang, and the state has become the most violent in Mexico.
No motive was given in the attack, but Gov. Diego Sinhue said drug gangs appeared to have been involved.
"I deeply regret and condemn the events in Irapuato this afternoon," Sinhue wrote. "The violence generated by organized crime not only takes the lives of the young, but it takes the peace from families in Guanajuato."
Mexican drug gangs have killed suspected street-level dealers from rival gangs sheltering at such facilities in the past. It was one of the deadliest attacks on a rehabilitation center since 19 people were killed in 2010 in Chihuahua city in northern Mexico.
French officers accused of violations
PARIS -- French authorities came under mounting pressure Wednesday to disband a special police unit in one of the country's poorest regions because it is facing at least 15 investigations into officers suspected of drug trafficking, violence, theft or falsifying police reports.
News of the investigations has reignited French anger over police abuse, after weeks of protests in France demanding racial justice and accountability for officers who overstep their authority.
Six officers with the CSI 93 unit in the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris are in the custody of an internal police watchdog, accused of theft, drug possession, or extorting money from drug dealers, according to a judicial official. The six are targeted by a formal judicial inquiry.
In addition, about 15 other preliminary investigations are underway into officers at the unit over similar alleged violations, the official said.
Favoring sons harms girls, report says
UNITED NATIONS -- More than 140 million girls are considered "missing" today because of a preference for sons over daughters and extreme neglect of young girls leading to their deaths, the U.N. Population Fund said in its annual report released Tuesday.
The agency also said 1 in 5 marriages that take place today is to an underage girl, and an estimated 4.1 million girls are at risk this year of being subjected to female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation, which has been condemned by the United Nations.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, the agency's executive director, said: "Harmful practices against girls cause profound and lasting trauma, robbing them of their right to reach their full potential."
According to the State of World Population 2020 report, at least 19 harmful practices ranging from breast ironing to virginity testing affect millions of girls and are considered human-rights violations. The report focuses on the three most prevalent -- gender bias, child marriage and female genital mutilation.
The agency called the preference for sons "a symptom of entrenched gender inequality" that has distorted population ratios in countries, making it unable for large numbers of men to find partners and have children. The agency said it also can exacerbate gender-based violence including rape, coerced sex, sexual exploitation, trafficking and child marriage.
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