UK teachers, civil servants strike over pensions (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Teachers and civil servants marched through the streets and picketed government buildings across Britain on Thursday in protest at planned pension reforms, launching what could be a long period of labor unrest over austerity measures.

Echoing protests across Europe against spending cuts imposed to reduce debt, the strikes closed many schools, as well as courts and other institutions, but the impact otherwise seemed limited and rallies were largely peaceful and modest in size.

The year-old, center-right government said the majority of civil servants had not gone on strike. But labor leaders warned of further waves of action by Britain's 6 million public sector workers against moves to cut pensions for state employees.

"This country is being led by people who are privileged, people who earn too much money... The gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. We don't think it should be us who are made to suffer for it," said Martin Pitcher, 35, a primary school teacher taking part in the biggest march in central London.

Police said the march, which stopped traffic on some of the capital's main thoroughfares and around parliament, involved up to 15,000 people carrying banners and blowing whistles.

There was no sign of the violence seen in recent days in Greece over its austerity plans, or at previous mass protests in London in December and March against government spending cuts, although there were small scuffles with police and 18 arrests for minor offences.

"We are here to protect our own pensions. We are also fighting for pensions and against overall government cuts generally. I'm worried about my own retirement because when I add up what I'm going to get, it's just not liveable," said Simon Korner, a 54-year-old lecturer.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union called the walkout the "biggest coordinated public sector strike for a generation" and said 84 percent of its 285,000 members had gone out on strike.

However, ministers said that of some half a million people working directly for government ministries, only about 100,000 had not turned up for work. Contingency measures meant essential public services were still running.

Exact numbers of strikers were not expected until later in the day. Unions which had declared the strike represent some 750,000 people.

"What today has shown is that the vast majority of hard working public sector employees do not support today's premature strike and have come in to work today," said Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, a member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party.

SCHOOLS CLOSE

Around half of schools in England and Wales were closed or disrupted by the stoppage, the government said. Air travelers faced some delays as immigration officials joined the walkout. Courts and government buildings were also affected.

London's Metropolitan Police said 95 percent of staff dealing with calls from the public did not turn up for work, meaning it was taking slightly longer to answer emergency calls.

Dozens of marches and rallies were arranged across the country, and were generally peaceful.

"It's about standing up to the bully," said sports teacher Martin Patching at a rally in Welwyn Garden City, north of London. "I hate striking but it gets to the point where you've got to stand up with your colleagues and say enough's enough."

Cameron has condemned the strikes as irresponsible, saying that talks between unions and ministers have not concluded.

However, other unions are gearing up for mass stoppages later this year if talks break down.

One teaching union, the ATL had never held a strike before in its 127-year history but joined on Thursday:

"It's not something we do lightly," a spokeswoman said.

"But the bottom line is we're worried about what the government is going to do to the long term future of teaching."

CHANGE NEEDED

Cameron argues that longer life expectancy means public sector pensions must change, as many in the private sector have done, to ensure that they are affordable. The changes are part of government plans by 2015 to virtually wipe out a budget deficit that peaked at more than 10 percent of national income.

Consequently, workers face higher contributions to their pensions and retiring later in life. The proposals have hit a raw nerve at a time of wage freezes and job insecurity.

Union leaders assert that their members are bearing the brunt of a financial crisis caused by rich bankers.

Analysts said the protests would challenge the government anew after it retreated on plans to restructure state-funded health care following lobbying from the medical profession.

Markets, which have reacted positively to government deficit-cutting plans, could take fright at any sign of a government climb-down over an issue like pensions.

Some Britons sympathize with the strikers but others say they are being unrealistic at a time when households have suffered their biggest fall in disposable income for more than 30 years.

"They're not paying for my pension. I work for myself -- I have to provide my own pension," said Martyn Hall, a 50-year-old IT consultant from London.

"I think they should realize a lot of people have become unemployed and had their wages cut. I think it's a case of get real, this is the way it is."

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby, Adrian Croft and Michael Holden; Writing by Keith Weir and Jodie Ginsberg; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alastair Macdonald)

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NATO air strike kills fighter linked to Afghan hotel attack (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO aircraft killed an insurgent leader linked to a deadly hotel attack in the Afghan capital this week, the coalition said on Thursday, a raid that raised questions about whether Afghan forces are ready for the looming security transition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the Intercontinental, one of two major hotels used by foreigners and Afghan government officials, a rare night-time raid that began on Tuesday and ended five hours later with 12 killed.

However, the NATO-led Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network had also been involved in the assault by nine suicide bombers and gunmen.

ISAF identified the Haqqani network leader killed in an air strike as Ismail Jan, who it described as a deputy to the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan.

It said he and "several Haqqani fighters" were killed in the air strike in the Gardez district of Paktia province south of Kabul on Wednesday.

"The Haqqani network, in conjunction with Taliban operatives, was responsible for the Tuesday night attack on the Kabul Intercontinental hotel which killed 12 people, including a provincial judge," ISAF said in a statement.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops, with 10,000 to leave by the end of this year and another 23,000 by the end September 2012.

Obama's announcement preceded the start of a gradual transition of responsibility to Afghan forces from next month that will end with all foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

With that transition process to begin in seven areas next month, the hotel raid raised serious questions about whether Afghan forces, particularly the police, were ready to take over.

"It shows one of the concerns is that the Afghan security forces are growing in quantity, not in quality," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network.

SNIPERS

The attack ended when snipers on board a NATO helicopter killed the last three attackers fighting from the roof of the hotel. Earlier television footage showed Afghan forces firing wildly into the air.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that some police had refused to fight back.

ISAF has been training members of the 126,000-strong Afghan National Police since 2009.

Afghan police, who will be at the front line of the security transition in villages and towns across Afghanistan, have long been viewed as inept and lagging behind the training of the better-equipped army, which had been the focus of training efforts since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.

Violence has risen to record levels across Afghanistan over the past 18 months as NATO troops, especially U.S. forces, hit back against a growing insurgency, especially in the Taliban heartland in the south.

A quarterly report by the United Nations secretary-general to the Security Council about Afghanistan found that the number of security incidents since March had risen 51 percent on the same period in 2010, with suicide attacks rising sharply.

Attacks in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar were especially worrying. "The city of Kandahar and its surroundings registered the majority of the incidents during the reporting period, with a quarter of the overall attacks and more than half of all assassinations recorded countrywide," the report said.

But Ruttig said the attack also highlighted other problems confronting Afghanistan before the transition process, which also includes handing the running of civil institutions and projects over to Afghans, begins.

Not the least of those is the political paralysis that has gripped the country for months.

"The fact that neither NATO nor the Afghans were able to prevent it says something -- that transition needs to be something more than just security," Ruttig said of the hotel attack.

"Security forces are only part of transition. There also needs to be a strengthening of political institutions and, at the moment, the parliamentary crisis has brought politics to a standstill," he told Reuters.

Last week, a special poll court set up by a decree by President Hamid Karzai overturned the results for a quarter of the seats in parliament from elections last year, effectively throwing out 62 MPs who had been declared winners.

The move, and the court itself, have been branded unconstitutional and illegal by Afghan and Western officials and observers. Critics have said the court was set up by Karzai to further his own political agenda and silence opposition.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Nigeria's main unions warn of pay strike (AFP)

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria's main labour unions Thursday gave the government a two-week ultimatum to pay workers a minimum wage agreed to a year ago, or face a nationwide strike, including in the key oil sector.

"Organised labour under the auspices of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) hereby issued a two-week ultimatum for full implementation of the minimum wage across the country," NLC leader Abdulwahed Omar told reporters.

Omar told unions in both public and private sectors to start "mobilisation of Nigerians for a nationwide strike action at the expiration of this ultimatum."

In July last year, after months of negotiations, unions settled for a 240 percent pay hike to 18,000 naira ($118) from 7,500 ($49) per month that had been paid for over a decade. They had initially demanded an almost 700 percent rise.

Just before the April general election, President Goodluck Jonathan in March signed into law, a bill for the application of the new national minimum wage.

But now some of the country's 36 state governments are saying they are unable to pay the new wage because their revenue cannot support it.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and leading oil exporter, some of the continent's richest people live in luxury on a scale unimaginable to the impoverished masses.

The powerful blue-collar oil workers National Union of Petroleum and Gas Union (NUPENG), an affiliate of the NLC, said it will also down tools.

"NUPENG workers have agreed to join in the strike," its general secretary, Owei Lakemfa, told AFP.

The NLC claims to have 42 affiliate unions and a membership of around five million workers.

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U.S. drone strike kills 6 in Pakistan

Monday's suspected drone strike was the 37th this year, compared to 111 in all for 2010.Intelligence officials say the drone fired on a militants' vehicleThe Monday strike is the 37th so far this year

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed six suspected militants on Monday, intelligence officials told CNN.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the suspected drone fired two missiles on a militants' vehicle in the Shawal area of South Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Monday's suspected drone strike was the 37th this year, compared to 111 in all of 2010.

The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

CNN

Libya: Strike killed 15, including kids

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- NATO said Monday that a residential building west of Tripoli was targeted early Monday in an airstrike that the Libyan government alleges killed 15 people, including three children.

NATO said in a statement that, while it could not confirm the casualties, "we would regret any loss of civilian life and we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties."

The organization added that the strike was justified. "This was a precision strike on a legitimate military target -- a command-and-control node which was directly involved in coordinating systematic attacks on the Libyan people," NATO said in the statement.

"The facility which was struck was identified as a command-and-control node through rigorous analysis based on persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance carried out over a prolonged period of time," it said.

"This strike will greatly degrade the Gadhafi regime forces' ability to carry on their barbaric assault against the Libyan people," said NATO Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, referring to the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Monday's incident occurred about 4 a.m. (10 p.m. ET Sunday), said Libyan government spokesman Musa Ibrahim, and included strikes from eight rockets. Five houses and a farm were hit in the Surman area, he said. Surman is west of Tripoli.

One of the homes belongs to Khaled el-Kweldi, a top aide to Gadhafi, Ibrahim said. He was not home at the time of the attack, but Khaleda el-Kweldi, a 6-year-old girl, was killed, along with Khalid el-Kweldi, a 4-year-old boy, the spokesman said. Another 6-year-old, Salam Lanouri, was also killed, according to Ibrahim.

Monday's strike in Surman came a day after NATO acknowledged an errant airstrike in Tripoli may have caused "a number of civilian casualties." Libya's government said Sunday that nine people were killed and six wounded when a NATO strike hit a residential neighborhood in the Libyan capital.

NATO said Sunday that a military missile site was the intended target. "However, it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure," a NATO statement said.

Bouchard said the organization "regrets the loss of innocent lives."

"This is cold-blooded murder," Ibrahim said at the scene of the Sunday attack. "Is this the protection of civilians? Is this really the search for peace and democracy in Libya, to attack peaceful neighborhoods of Tripoli?"

Cmdr. Mike Bracken said Sunday that NATO was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties, citing a case last week in which a missile was diverted after it was fired.

NATO noted that the air campaign over Libya has involved more than 11,500 sorties, "and every mission is planned and executed with tremendous care to avoid civilian casualties. NATO remains fully committed to this operation."

On Saturday, the alliance denied earlier Libyan allegations it was killing civilians.

"The claims made by Gadhafi and members of his regime are outrageous. It is Gadhafi and his regime that have been systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in response to Libyan government accusations.

The European Union's Foreign Affairs Council, meeting Monday in Luxembourg, stepped up sanctions on Gadhafi's regime, freezing assets of "six port authorities under the regime's control."

"The EU is taking further action against the military arsenal used by the regime against its own citizens," the organization said. Humanitarian shipments are exempt from the measure, it added.

"Time is not on Gadhafi's side," the organization said. "He has lost all legitimacy to remain in power. ... The time has come for a new chapter where Libyans can choose their own future."

Late Monday, Gadhafi forces fired three rockets near the port in rebel-held Misrata, said CNN reporters, who saw the strikes from their hotel. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Fighting was ongoing Monday between rebels and troops in Dafniya, west of Misrata. Several rounds of bombardments could be heard by a CNN crew, and three dead rebels were taken to a field hospital near the front lines. Hospital staff said 20 wounded rebels were taken to the hospital. Earlier Monday, the bodies of three other rebels were taken to a second field hospital.

At least eight people died and 30 were wounded Sunday in the fighting, according to records at Al-Hikma hospital and a field hospital. Most of the dead appeared to be rebel fighters.

Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said Sunday the government holds NATO, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama "responsible morally and legally for this murder and crimes" for the Sunday incident.

On Saturday, NATO acknowledged its aircraft had mistakenly struck vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the hotly contested eastern oil city of al-Brega. NATO expressed regret.

NATO did not provide details as to how many casualties, if any, resulted from the al-Brega strike, which took place Thursday. But in a statement Saturday, NATO admitted its forces hit vehicles that were "part of an opposition patrol," an incident the military alliance described as "unfortunate."

For weeks, NATO forces have been targeting forces loyal to Gadhafi in an effort to prevent them from inflicting civilian casualties. Most of those strikes have come from missiles fired from off-shore ships or aircraft flying high above the North African nation, though this month British and French attack helicopters flew closer to the ground in al-Brega to go after targets in that city more precisely.

Al-Brega is on a frontline -- east of Gadhafi's base in Tripoli and west of the rebels' headquarters in Benghazi -- in fighting that has taken place between the two sides over the past several months.

NATO said that "a column of military vehicles, including tanks" was spotted Thursday around al-Brega where Gadhafi forces "had recently been operating." During what it called "a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario," leaders in the military alliance ordered a strike after determining these vehicles posed "a threat to civilians."

"We regret any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident," NATO said.

CNN's Per Nyberg, Stefan Simons, Mary Rogers and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

CNN

Libya: NATO strike hit residential neighborhood

NATO admitted its aircraft mistakenly hit vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the eastern oil city of al-Brega.NEW: At least 4 are killed and 30 injured in fighting around Dafniya, hospital records showNEW: NATO says it is looking into allegations it struck a residential neighborhoodA Libyan official blames NATO, Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama for "murder and crimes"

Dafniya, Libya (CNN) -- The Libyan government said a NATO strike hit a residential neighborhood in Tripoli on Sunday, killing at least three people, according to Libyan state TV.

It said the attack in the residential neighborhood of Aradah also injured many others.

"This is cold-blooded murder," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said at the scene in Tripoli. "Is the the protection of civilians? Is this really the search for peace and democracy in the Libya, to attack peaceful neighborhoods of Tripoli?"

NATO said it was aware of the allegations and looking into them. On Saturday, the alliance denied earlier Libyan claims it was killing civilians and

"The claims made by Gadhafi and members of his regime are outrageous. It is Gadhafi and his regime that have been systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu in response to Libyan government accusations.

Separately, at least four people were killed and 30 were wounded in fighting in Dafniya, west of Misrata, according to the publicly viewable hospital records at Al-Hikma hospital, which is treating casualties. At least three of the four dead are rebel fighters, according to the hospital.

Bombardments began in the Dafniya area beginning Sunday morning, and they have been continuing on a fairly regular basis since then, CNN heard.

A stream of wounded people flowed into a makeshift hospital in Dafniya, and witnesses reported seeing intense artillery fire coming from both sides of the clashes.

A local radio station in Misrata was calling for people to donate O-positive blood to meet increased demand after the fighting Sunday.

Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said the government holds NATO, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama "responsible morally and legally for this murder and crimes" for the alleged strike that killed three in Tripoli on Sunday.

State TV reported that the three people killed belonged to the same family. The network broadcast footage of a destroyed building and a chaotic scene of rescue teams and civilians pulling a body from the rubble.

The incident occurred a day after NATO acknowledged that its aircraft had mistakenly struck vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the hotly contested eastern oil city of al-Brega. On Saturday, NATO expressed regret over the incident.

NATO did not provide details as to how many people, if any, died or were injured in the al-Brega strike, which took place on Thursday. But in a statement released Saturday, NATO admitted that its forces hit vehicles that were "part of an opposition patrol" -- an incident the military alliance described as "unfortunate."

For weeks, NATO forces have been targeting forces loyal to Gadhafi in an effort to prevent civilian casualties. Most of those strikes have come from missiles fired from off-shore ships or aircraft flying high above the north African nation, though earlier this month British and French attack helicopters did fly closer to the ground in al-Brega to go after targets in that city more precisely.

Al-Brega is on a frontline -- east of Gadhafi's base in Tripoli and west of the rebels headquarters in Benghazi -- in fighting that has taken place between the two sides over the past several months.

In its statement, NATO said that "a column of military vehicles, including tanks," were spotted Thursday around al-Brega where Gadhafi forces "had recently been operating." During what it called "a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario," leaders in the military alliance ordered a strike after determining these vehicles posed "a threat to civilians."

"We regret any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident," NATO said in its statement.

CNN's Ben Wedeman, Yousuf Basil and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

CNN

Air Canada, CAW in pension compromise; strike over (Reuters)

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Air Canada Inc and striking customer service workers reached a tentative contract agreement on Thursday, settling on a compromise on the biggest obstacle to a deal: the issue of pension benefits and who should pay for them.

Air Canada's almost 4,000 unionized airport check-in and call-center staff will return to work on Friday after going on strike early on Tuesday.

With the threat of government back-to-work legislation hanging over them, Air Canada, the country's biggest airline, and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union agreed to put the issue of whether new hires should have a defined-benefit pension plan to binding arbitration.

Defined benefit plans are typically paid for by companies and are becoming rarer as employers struggle to fund yawning pension shortfalls and look to switch employees to self-funded defined contribution plans.

Air Canada, which has a market value of C$560 million ($572 million) and a pension deficit of about C$2.1 billion, was pushed to the edge of bankruptcy two years ago by heavy pension funding demands.

Under the tentative contract deal, existing employees' defined benefit plans will see only "very slight modifications", starting in 2013, and they will not suffer the large reductions that the airline wanted, CAW President Ken Lewenza told a news conference.

"The defined benefit plans that we have bargained collectively for the past 40 years ... are completely intact," Lewenza said.

He said he regretted not being to get the same guarantee in with the airline for new hires, but added that it was in the best interest of union members not to prolong the strike.

He declined to detail the wage increases agreed to in the four-year contract, but called them "very good". Other media reported the increases at 9 percent over four years.

"The agreement will help ensure the long-term sustainability of Air Canada while maintaining industry-leading compensation and benefits for our employees," said Duncan Dee, Air Canada's executive vice-president and chief operating officer.

Air Canada's stock soared nearly 9 percent to as high as C$2.19 after news of the tentative deal, later closing at C$2.17 for a gain of 16 Canadian cents.

A two-week union ratification vote starts on Monday.

Lewenza said it was not the government's threat of back-to-work legislation, a move he described as an assault on workers, that speeded up an agreement.

The House of Commons formally introduced legislation on Thursday to end the strike and also debated a motion to speed it through.

Air Canada had deployed 1,700 of its managers at airports across Canada to take the reins at check-in and ticketing desks, and diverted customer calls to centers in the United States. Disruptions appeared to be minor and mostly confined to flight delays.

The Montreal-based company is also in contract talks with four other unions, including its pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers, after agreements expired earlier this year.

Ottawa's move to legislate striking employees back to work signals that no other Air Canada union "will be able to strike for any length without triggering a similar move by the government", National Bank Financial analyst Cameron Doerksen said in a note to clients.

(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer and Louise Egan in Ottawa and Allison Martell in Toronto; editing by Peter Galloway and Rob Wilson)

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Labour Minister eyes forcing an end to postal strike (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada Post locked out all its employees on Wednesday, saying more than a week of rotating strikes by unionized letter carriers and other postal workers had cost it too much money.

The move immediately caught the attention of Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, who is preparing legislation to end a strike at Air Canada and is now consulting cabinet colleagues on whether to do the same with Canada Post.

"We have all kinds of options, and everybody knows what those options are according to the Canada Labour Code," Raitt told reporters.

Canada Post and the workers are engaged in a contract dispute complicated by questions over how the postal system can survive in a era when letter writers use email and bills are delivered and paid via the Internet.

Key discussion points are pensions and wages as well as health and safety issues.

Raitt defended the decision not to introduce Canada Post legislation so far, saying that the union's rotating 24-hour strikes had not shut down the postal system, but the lockout had now done so.

"We've had...rolling strikes, and we really haven't heard a lot of public outcry. It's different from 1997, when we saw a lot of people concerned about a general mail strike. Now we have email, we have package services," she said.

Contrasting the current situation with the initial rolling strike, she said: "This is different. This is now a lockout... We're going to go back and take a look at the parameters."

Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) President Denis Lemelin told an Ottawa news conference that back-to-work legislation would be unfair.

"Free bargaining is important. It's the only way that the parties can achieve something."

CUPW launched a series of 24-hour strikes 12 days ago, rotating among different communities across the country. Canada Post says the job action has already cost it C$100 million ($103 million).

"The accelerating decline in volumes and revenue combined with the inability to deliver mail on a timely and safe basis has left the company with no choice but to make this decision," the federal corporation said in a statement.

The leader of about 15 postal workers picketing outside a Toronto post office said the union had been trying to be fair by not launching a nation-wide strike, but said Canada Post was trying to prompt the threat of legislation.

"They want us to be legislated back so that we don't get a fair deal on our contract. That's why they're doing what they're doing -- they're blackballing themselves," said Pamela Lepine, union captain at the post office.

Propped against the building were signs reading: "Tyrant bosses locked us out", and "Locked out by mindless greedy tyrants". Streetcar drivers honked as they passed by.

Canada Post, which is owned by the federal government but operates independently as a for-profit company, had already cut mail delivery in urban areas to three days a week in response the labor action.

Canada Post has offered raises to existing employees, but has said its survival depends on it being able to impose a lower wage scale on workers hired in the future so that it can compete better with other delivery companies, which have lower cost structures.

The union says the company is profitable, but refuses to listen to CUPW's proposals to deal with increasing competition by providing nontraditional services such as banking at post offices.

Canada Post has also said it needs changes in its pension plan because it is currently running a C$3.2 billion deficit, but the union says that figure is exaggerated.

Queen's University labor relations expert George Smith said the lockout was expected.

"The only surprise with this move by management is that it took this long," he said. "The union declared a strike at the beginning of June and slowly escalated it over the days. Canada Post management tolerated it for a while in hopes a settlement could be reached without a full-scale strike."

($1=$0.97 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Allan Dowd in Vancouver; editing by Rob Wilson and Peter Galloway)

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Greeks strike, clash with police over austerity (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) – Stone-throwing Greeks clashed with police and tens of thousands of protesters marched on parliament on Wednesday to oppose government efforts to pass new austerity measures for the debt-stricken euro zone state.

Unions representing half the five-million-strong workforce also launched a nationwide strike, shutting ports, schools and other basic services in the Mediterranean state.

Prime Minister George Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts and sell-offs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.

He not only faces public protests and resistance from a conservative opposition that has surpassed his Socialist party in opinion polls, but a few backbenchers in his own parliamentary grouping are also threatening to reject the plan.

Political analysts said he would be able to push through the package with support from his PASOK party and possibly a handful of opposition deputies, but that protests had introduced some uncertainty. One PASOK deputy defected on Tuesday, reducing the party's number of seats in parliament to 155 out of 300.

Thousands of activists and unionists converged on the central Syntagma square on the parliament's front steps to try to stop lawmakers from entering to debate the bill they hope to pass by the end of the month.

"Thieves, traitors!" many chanted. "Where did the money go?"

"These measures are not taking us anywhere. They only lead to unemployment, hunger and poverty," said Panayotis Dounis a 60-year-old pensioner. "We wouldn't be here if the politicians had made sacrifices as well. We are absolutely disappointed."

About 1,500 police closed a large part of the city center and erected two-meter metal barricades in front of the assembly, creating a corridor to hold back protesters as lawmakers drove up to the building in official limousines.

Riot police fired several rounds of tear gas at dozens of masked youths who pelted them with rocks and a few petrol bombs. Several activists also hurled oranges at Papandreou's car as he drove past, a police official said.

Several groups in the protest clashed between themselves. Police said one person was injured and they detained 40 people.

"CRUEL AS A TIGER"

The new austerity package foresees 6.5 billion euros ($9.4 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts this year, doubling measures agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed unemployment to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year.

The plan includes: new luxury taxes; a crackdown on tax evasion; tax hikes on soft-drinks, swimming pools, restaurant bills and real estate; and cutting the Mediterranean state's 750,000-strong public work force by a fifth.

With those and other measures worth total savings of 28 billion euros through 2015, it also aims to raise 50 billion euros by selling off state-owned firms.

Papandreou appealed for national consensus on the laws, on which hang the EU and IMF release of a further 12 billion euros in aid next month that Athens needs to pay off maturing debt or face default.

"We are at a historically crucial moment ... and I believe that national consensus is important for the country's interest," Papandreou told President Karolos Papoulias during a meeting. "We will proceed with the responsibility for the necessary decisions to see the country exit the crisis."

Papandreou was planning to talk to party leaders later on Wednesday and then make a statement, a government official said.

On Tuesday, euro zone finance ministers failed to reach agreement on how private holders of Greek debt should share the cost of a new bailout for Athens worth an estimated 120 billion euros before a June 23-24 summit.

The European Central Bank opposes such a move, saying that if such participation is involuntary it could be deemed default that could shock markets and put weaker euro states at risk.

The lack of agreement pushed the cost of insuring Greek debt against default to a new record high on Wednesday, while shares in Greek banks fell 7 percent on fears of political uncertainty.

The PASOK deputy who defected said he could not back the package. "You have to be as cruel as a tiger to vote for these measures. I am not," George Lianis said in a letter to Parliament Speaker Filippos Petsalnikos on Tuesday.

Another PASOK member said he would vote against it. But analysts said the party, which still holds a majority, would pass the package by the end of the month before working on another set of laws on how to implement it.

"My gut feeling is that at the end of the day they will get enough MPs... I'd say there is a 70 percent chance that it will go through," said Diego Iscaro, IHS Global Insight.

"The other option (voting it down) would be quite destabilizing. That will drive MPs to vote for it."

The cabinet is also expected to survive the turmoil in the short term. A poll on Sunday showed 62 percent of Greeks expect the government to call early elections before its term ends in 2013, although 59 percent thought they did not need a vote now.

(Additional reporting by Yannis Behrakis, Ingrid Melander, Harry Papachristou and Yiorgos Karahalis; Writing by Michael Winfrey; editing by Mark Heinrich and Elizabeth Piper)

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4 killed in suspected drone strike

Based on a CNN count, Wednesday's suspected drone strike was the 33rd this year compared to 111 in all of 2010.NEW: Ten militants killed, sources sayA suspected U.S. drone strike happened in Pakistan, officials saidThe strike was in Wana, South Waziristan

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed 10 suspected militants on Wednesday, two intelligence officials told CNN.

The suspected drone fired four missiles on two militants' hideouts in the area of Wana in South Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Wednesday's suspected drone strike was the 33rd this year compared to 111 in all of 2010.

The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

CNN's Nasir Habib contributed to this report.

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Greeks protest for 19th day, utility union to strike (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) – More than 20,000 Greeks protested against austerity measures in Athens on Sunday and workers at state-owned utility PPC announced strikes to oppose government plans to sell the company.

In the 19th straight day of demonstrations against a new austerity campaign the Socialist government hopes to pass this month, protesters gathered in front of parliament in Athens' central Syntagma square, shouting "Thieves! Thieves! Thieves!"

Having failed to meet fiscal targets under Greece's 110 billion euro ($160 billion) bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the government wants to raise taxes and slash spending more than planned this year in a bid to avoid default.

It has slated more measures through 2015 to cut the fiscal deficit to 1.1 percent in 2015 from 10.5 percent of gross domestic product last year, including a plan to sell state assets worth 50 billion euros.

A central part of the sell-offs is state energy producer PPC. But labor unions, opposition parties and some backbenchers of Prime Minister George Papandreou's ruling PASOK party oppose selling some Greek state-owned firms.

"We are against the sell-off of the country. We will not close our eyes," the GENOP DEH union of PPC workers said in a news release late on Saturday. "The union has decided to start 48-hour strikes from Monday June 20."

The mid-term austerity plan includes an extra 6.4 billion euros of cuts for this year, almost doubling originally agreed steps that have added to a 5.5 percent economic contraction in the first quarter and driven unemployment over 16 percent.

It has sparked daily protests and caused Papandreou's party to fall behind the conservative opposition in opinion polls. The government aims to begin discussion of the plan this week in parliamentary committees and approve it by the end of June.

Demonstrators have become frustrated with what they say are corrupt politicians who refuse to crack down on wealthy tax-evaders and instead try to solve debt problems by taxing less well-off Greeks.

On Sunday, they jeered at the parliament building and waved banners that read: "We won't leave if they don't leave," and "We don't owe anything, we won't pay anything."

Unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers in the public and private sectors are planning a nationwide strike on Wednesday, June 15.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Michael Winfrey; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Air Canada customer agents serve strike notice (Reuters)

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – The union representing customer service and ticket sales agents at Air Canada Inc on Friday gave the airline 72 hours notice of a strike after negotiators failed to agree on a new labor contract.

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, which represents 3,800 employees at airports and call centers across Canada, said its members will walk off the job at 11:59 pm EDT on Monday unless an agreement can be reached before then.

"After 10 weeks of negotiations, there are still a number of important issues halting progress at the bargaining table, such as demands for dramatic cuts to the pension plan...," the CAW said in a statement.

Air Canada, the country's biggest carrier, said in a statement it continues to work toward a deal with the union but has a contingency plan to continue "operating a full schedule" and minimize disruptions for customers.

Air Canada is in labor talks with five of its unions, including its pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers, after their contracts expired earlier this year.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Canada Post strike highlights mail's fading role (Reuters)

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – A rolling postal strike, followed by deep service cuts, has highlighted the fading role of Canada's mail service in the age of the Internet, with neither side likely to end up ahead.

On one side of the dispute are postal workers who are looking for higher wages and more job security -- saying the company is ignoring their ideas to modernize as consumers increasingly pay bills online and use e-mail for letters.

On the other is Canada Post, which, in addition to seeing declining demand, faces what the company says is a yawning C$3.2 billion deficit in its pension system, at a time when more than a third of its workers are within 10 years of retirement.

"The pie they are trying to cut up is already shrinking," said George Smith, who teaches at Queen's University and is a veteran of labor negotiations in the railway and broadcast industries.

Smith said the limited action so far indicates the sides know they will both get hurt if the postal service shuts down entirely and the public does not care.

The unionized postal workers started their industrial action last week, staging 24-hour rotating strikes in different parts of the country to press their demands.

The independent, government-owned corporation responded by idling workers and reducing urban delivery to three days a week. It says mail volumes are down 50 percent since the strike began and the workers' demands will doom the company.

Canada Post, which traces its roots to the country's founding, reported a C$319 million profit last year on revenue of C$6.1 billion.

But, like postal systems around the world, it has suffered as letter writers turn to e-mail and customers pay bills electronically, and use courier firms like FedEx Corp for parcels and urgent deliveries.

Letter volumes were down 4.2 percent last year and the average number of letters delivered to each address is off 17 percent from 2005, according to the company.

Canada Post says its latest offer would increase the top wage for current workers to C$26 an hour and keep its defined benefit pension system. But it wants a lower pay scale for new hires and other contract changes.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents the 48,000 urban postal workers, says it understands the difficulties facing Canada Post but it accuses management of not listening to fresh ideas such as offering banking services.

The union says the company is demanding other unfair concessions in areas including wages, staffing and safety.

The company says negotiations have stalled.

There has been surprisingly little public outcry at the reduced deliveries, although the dispute is pinching companies and government agencies that use the postal system for direct mail advertising and billing.

"While Canada Post volumes are dropping, the postal service still delivers 11 billion pieces of mail each year and remains relevant to the Canadian economy," the Canadian Marketing Association said in a release on Thursday.

The West Coast province of British Columbia faces an extra problem if the dispute escalates -- it is scheduled to hold a mail-in vote later this month on whether to repeal a controversial sales tax deal with the federal government.

John McCallum, a University of Manitoba finance professor, said the two sides need to reach a compromise that will sustain Canada Post for the long term, but he admitted that is very difficult given how quickly its competition is evolving.

"The problem with the future is that it doesn't come with a manual," McCallum said.

The federal government has urged the sides to keep talking, but has not said if it plans to intervene and legislate an end the dispute.

(Reporting Allan Dowd; editing by Janet Guttsman and Rob Wilson)

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Lightning strike at Mississippi military base sends 77 to hospital

NEW: The 77 were college students enrolled in Air Force ROTCThe military sends the 77 cadets to hospitals for evaluation after lightning strikeAll of them were responsive and in stable condition, the military says

(CNN) -- A lightning strike Wednesday afternoon sent 77 Air Force ROTC cadets to hospitals in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, area, where they were all responsive and in stable condition, according to spokeswoman Maj. Deidre Musgrave of Camp Shelby.

Two of the 77 were sent by ambulance, and the remaining 75 were sent to the hospital by Camp Shelby buses, Musgrave told CNN.

All 77 were college students enrolled in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, which uses Camp Shelby as its summer training site, Musgrave said.

The personnel were sent for medical evaluation because they were in the area of the lightning strike at a training site on Camp Shelby around 2 p.m., Musgrave said in a news release.

"We always want to be safe," she told CNN.

The remaining personnel at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center quickly responded to the situation to ensure that anyone injured received medical attention, Musgrave said.

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Canada Post cuts deliveries due to rotating strike (Reuters)

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Mail delivers in Canadian cities will be cut to three days a week because rotating strikes have slashed mail volumes by up to half, Canada Post officials said on Wednesday.

Mail workers began rotating strikes last week in a contract dispute that both sides acknowledge is rooted in how the country's postal system will survive in the era of e-mail and digital bill payments.

Canada Post, which normally delivers mail every weekday said it will also cut staffing levels at mail processing plants, but post offices will keep their current hours and rural deliveries will continue five days a week.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers launched its strike action on June 3, accusing the federal corporation of ignoring proposals that the union says would protect workers while helping Canada Post adapt to changing times.

Canada Post regularly reports an annual profit, but says it cannot afford the union's demands as mail volumes continue to fall and as it struggles with a C$3.2 billion pension deficit. It says CUPW's proposal would increase the top wage rate to C$26 an hour.

(Reporting Allan Dowd; editing by Rob Wilson)

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India police break anti-graft yoga guru hunger strike (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Police swooped on India's most famous yoga guru on Sunday, using teargas and batons to break up a fast against graft, risking more political headaches for scandal-tainted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Swami Ramdev began his hunger strike with tens of thousands of followers at a tent in New Delhi on Saturday. Less than 24 hours into the fast, police detained him and flew him to near Haridwar in northern India, center of his global yoga business.

Media said at least 30 people were injured in the pre-dawn raid at a tent where his followers, from poor villagers to foreign tourists and civil servants, had gathered. Some Ramdev supporters threw stones at police.

"The permission was for a yoga camp for 5,000, not for 50,000 people for agitation. We have canceled the permission and asked them to move out," said Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat.

Ramdev's campaign was already an embarrassment for a Congress party-led coalition hit by graft scandals including allegations of kickbacks at the Commonwealth Games and a telecoms scam that may have cost the government up to $39 billion.

The eviction could harden Ramdev's stance, spark protests by his millions of supporters and dent the government's popularity in the electorally important northern states of India, where Ramdev is hugely popular.

"My hunger strike has not ended. I will continue fasting," a defiant Ramdev, who plans to launch a political party to contest the 2014 general election, told a news conference from Haridwar, located in the foothills of the Himalayas.

HUGE TV FOLLOWING

The saffron-robed Swami Ramdev, who rose from an illiterate family to host a television show with 30 million viewers, carries such weight in India that four government ministers met him when he arrived by private jet in New Delhi.

Negotiations to end the protest appeared to be making ground on Saturday. But New Delhi is a city run by the ruling Congress party and the sweep by police will likely be seen as a politically motivated against the guru.

Tapping into spiraling voter anger at corruption as Asia's third largest economy booms, the guru has called on the government to pursue billions of dollars in illegal funds abroad and the withdrawal of high denomination bank notes.

Graft has long been a part of daily life from getting an electricity connection to signing business deals, but the latest scandals - that have seen a minister jailed and business billionaires questioned - are unprecedented.

Investors worry the latest troubles will again force the government to pay less attention to reform bills, such as making it easier for industry to acquire land, postponed due to opposition protests over graft causing parliamentary deadlock.

The main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed the government and called for a 24-hour protest, while Congress leaders said police action was justified.

But senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who had earlier questioned the Swami's luxurious lifestyle and called it a "five-star" protest, accused Ramdev of inciting people.

"Now you can't allow people like Ramdev to run riot in a capital like Delhi. Some laws, some rules have to be followed," Singh said. "And where as he has taken permission for yogic shivir (camp), what was he doing there?...he was trying to agitate people."

Some analysts said the government may try to paint the protest as political.

"The movement was going to the BJP's hands," political commentator Amulya Ganguly said. "The government will claim it is a BJP movement."

Ramdev, who turned an ancient spiritual tradition into a mass healing movement, runs a $40 million-a-year global yoga and health empire and says he can cure cancer.

Critics say he is linked to a radical Hindu nationalist group.

Ramdev's fast came after a similar one by social activist Anna Hazare, whose April campaign rang a chord with millions of Indians and forced the government to make legislative concessions on an anti-corruption bill that effectively gives India an independent ombudsman to battle graft.

Both campaigns have underscored how India's traditional national parties are struggling to deal with the growing anger at middle class Indians increasingly fed up with graft, leaving a political vacuum that figures like Ramdev can fill.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

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Al Qaeda's 'military brain' killed in Pakistan drone strike

(CNN) -- The man described by counterterrorism officials as al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan, a spokesman for his group, the jihadist Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, said.

Pakistani and U.S. officials, however, said they have not confirmed Kashmiri's death.

Kashmiri was killed, along with some aides, in a strike at 11:15 p.m., spokesman Abu Hanzla Kashar said.

"The oppressor U.S. is our only target and, God willing, we will take revenge on the U.S. soon with full force," he said.

A senior Pakistani military official said that in all, nine were killed by the drone strike. The official reiterated that they had not confirmed Kashmiri's demise.

Kashmiri, who was known to operate in North Waziristan, had moved to South Waziristan and was seen at the site of the attack on Friday, the official said.

If confirmed, his death would be the first major kill or capture since Osama Bin Laden, and the highest profile drone target since Beitullah Mehsud in 2009.

It could also be seen as an embarrassment for Pakistanis, who have twice in just over one month, had a major al Qaeda figure killed on their territory without their participation.

U.S. drones now operate entirely autonomously in Pakistan, a Pakistani intelligence source has told CNN. Whereas before the United States cooperated with Pakistan and used their intelligence, today, the Americans have an intelligence network that allows them to go after terrorists unilaterally.

Kashmiri, a veteran jihadist, is considered one of the most dangerous men in the world by counterterrorism officials on three continents.

He was commander of "Brigade 313" of Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, which has formed a close relationship with al Qaeda.

Kashmiri is also said to have ties with David Coleman Headley, the U.S. citizen who confessed to helping scout

targets for the Mumbai attack in November 2008. After his arrest, Headley said he had twice met Kashmiri.

During questioning by India's National Intelligence Agency, which was given access to him in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2010, Headley said he'd been taken to Pakistan's tribal territories to meet Kashmiri early in 2009.

A copy of the interrogation obtained by CNN reveals that Kashmiri sent Headley on another trip to survey targets in India. One place he said he videotaped was a bakery that was later attacked in Pune in February 2010.

Kashmiri in his early years fought the Indians in the disputed territory of Kashmir and the Russians in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye.

He famously escaped from an Indian jail and went to fight with a unit of Pakistan's special forces. Eventually, he fell out with his sponsors in the Pakistani military, and moved his operations to North Waziristan.

At one point, he was arrested in connection with an attempt to assassinate Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in 2003. For reasons unknown, Kashmiri was released a short time later.

CNN's Nasir Habib, Nick Paton Walsh and Tim Lister contributed to this report.

CNN

Key al Qaeda man killed in Pakistan by drone strike (Reuters)

(Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Pakistan after a tipoff from local intelligence, a Pakistani intelligence official said on Saturday.

The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, appeared to be another coup for the United States after American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to Islamabad on May 2.

Islamabad's cooperation in the killing could help repair ties with Washington, badly damaged when it was discovered that bin Laden had apparently been living in Pakistan for years.

"We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies," said the Pakistani intelligence official.

Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a U.S. drone.

A Pakistani television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) which is allied to al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.

"We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander in chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in an American drone strike on June 3, 2011, at 11:15 p.m.," Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.

"God willing ... America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America."

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

Kashmiri's death is good news for Pakistan, which has failed to subdue militants seeking to topple its unpopular government despite a series of army offensives against their strongholds.

"It will be a very big blow to militants and Pakistan will be a major beneficiary because he was behind attacks on Pakistani defense and military installations," said retired Brigadier Asad Munir, a former Pakistani intelligence officer.

Kashmiri, said to be a former Pakistani military officer, and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.

He said they were in a house in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, that was believed to be the headquarters of Kashmiri's group, which has been described as an operational wing of al Qaeda.

"We were closing in on him and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place," the official added. "It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements."

Five of his close allies were also killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, along with two other militants, intelligence officials said.

U.S. ASKED PAKISTAN TO GO AFTER KASHMIRI

A U.S. embassy spokesman said he could not confirm the killing of Kashmiri or whether Pakistan provided support for an operation.

The killing of bin Laden aroused international suspicions that Pakistani authorities had been complicit in hiding him, and led to domestic criticism of them for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team that killed him.

Kashmiri was on a list which the United States gave Pakistan of senior militants it wanted killed or captured, said a Pakistani official.

Drone strikes have increased under the Obama administration, sometimes killing civilians and fuelling anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.

While Pakistani leaders publicly criticize the attacks, analysts say killing high-value targets like Kashmiri would not be possible without Pakistani intelligence.

Washington reiterated its call on Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. aid, to crack down harder on militancy after it was discovered that bin Laden had been living about a two-hour drive from intelligence headquarters.

The U.S. Department of State has labeled Kashmiri a "specially designated global terrorist."

Last year, the U.S. attorney's office quoted a Chicago taxi driver charged with sending money to Kashmiri as saying the Pakistani militant had told him he "wanted to train operatives to conduct attacks in the United States."

Kashmiri battled Soviet occupation troops in the 1980s in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye. His group also fought Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

He has been linked to attacks including the 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai which killed 166 people.

"This will be a huge loss for al Qaeda," said Kamran Bokhari of global intelligence firm STRATFOR. "Everyone will benefit, the United States, Pakistan and India."

The Pakistani media has speculated that Kashmiri was the mastermind of an attack on the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi last month which humiliated the Pakistani military.

In that operation, six militants held off 100 security forces, including commandos, for 16 hours.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Hafiz Wazir in South Waziristan, Faisal Aziz in Karachi and Myra MacDonald in London; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Postal workers prepare for rotating strike (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Postal workers will start limited rotating strikes around the country on Thursday night unless a last-minute contract deal can be reached with Canada Post, the employees' union said on Thursday.

"The strike will begin at 11:59 p.m. EDT in Winnipeg. The Winnipeg local will be on strike for 24 hours, after which the strike will continue in other locations to be announced later," the Canadian Union of Postal Workers said in a statement.

"The purpose of this strike activity is to encourage Canada Post Corporation to abandon their proposals for significant concessions and instead negotiate solutions to the very real problems that are being experienced by 48,000 postal workers," the union said.

Canada Post says its letter mail volume has declined by 17 percent in the last five years as e-mail has increased. The government corporation says it cannot afford the union's wage demands and says it needs to introduce new rules to reduce sick leave.

Its last annual report, for 2009, showed a profit for the 15th consecutive year, but said its financial future was weak.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; editing by Rob Wilson)

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Afghans say NATO air strike kills 12 children, two women (Reuters)

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An air strike called in by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed 12 children and two women, Afghan officials said on Sunday, one of the worst civilian death tolls by foreign forces in months.

A U.S. Marine base came under fire from insurgents in Taliban stronghold of Helmand on Saturday, the Helmand governor said in a statement, leading the base to call for help from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"ISAF's air strike took place on two civilian houses. Unfortunately 14 innocent civilians were killed and six civilians wounded," the Helmand governor's statement said.

It said seven boys, five girls and two women were among the dead. Three children were among the six wounded, it said.

An ISAF spokesman in Kabul said: "We are aware of the reports that alleged civilians were killed yesterday in Helmand." He said an assessment team had been sent to the area and would issue its findings shortly.

The mistaken killing of civilians by foreign troops, usually during air strikes or "night raids," is a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, and complicates efforts to win support from ordinary Afghans for an increasingly unpopular war.

On Saturday, Karzai ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of so-called "night raids," saying Afghan troops should be carrying out the sensitive operations themselves.

Afghans say the raids, carried out in darkness on houses suspected of harboring insurgents, often lead to civilian casualties.

Residents and local officials from Helmand's Nawzad district, where the air strike took place, said the attack began at around 11 p.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Friday night.

Bereaved male relatives cradled the bodies of several young children on Sunday, who were wrapped in bloody sheets and placed side to side, and brought them in the back of a truck to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, Reuters pictures showed.

"My house was bombarded in the middle of the night and my children were killed ... the Taliban were far away from my home, why was my house bombed?" relative Noor Agha told Reuters.

The NATO air strike comes at a time of high anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan and days after deadly protests by thousands of people against a night raid by NATO troops in which four people, including two women, were killed.

Twelve people were killed during those violent protests and clashes with police in usually peaceful northern Takhar province and more 80 were wounded.

In February, four days of joint operations by Afghan and foreign troops killed 64 civilians in the eastern Kunar province, including many women and children.

That assault followed a NATO rocket attack last July which killed 39 civilians, almost all women or children, in Helmand.

Under a plan agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon last year, foreign troops will begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghan troops from July, with a plan to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan last year reached its deadliest phase since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, with record casualties on all sides. This year is following a similar trend.

The Taliban this month announced the start of a long-awaited "spring offensive" vowing to carry out attacks, including suicide assaults, on foreign and Afghan troops and government officials.

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Paul Tait)

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