International News Briefs

First Posted:

Britain’s obsession with reality television reached new heights — or depths — Wednesday night with the broadcast of the assisted suicide of the 59-year-old terminally ill American at a Swiss clinic.

Photographs of Chicagoan Craig Ewert’s final moments dominated Britain’s newspaper front pages Wednesday — “SUICIDE TV” screamed one tabloid — and prompted a debate in Parliament, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quizzed about the propriety of the decision to air the program.
Care Not Killing, an anti-euthanasia group aligned with the Catholic Church and other religious organizations in Britain, denounced the broadcast as “a cynical attempt to boost television ratings” and persuade Parliament to legalize assisted suicide.
KABUL, Afghanistan
Afghan cops killed in error
U.S. Special Forces killed six Afghan police and wounded 13 Wednesday in a case of mistaken identity by both sides after the police fired on the Americans during an operation against an insurgent commander.
A U.S. military statement said police fired on the American forces after the troops battled and killed an armed militant in the city of Qalat, capital of the southern province of Zabul. The Americans returned fire on the police but only later learned their identities. An Afghan civilian was also killed in the exchange.
Gulab Shah Alikhail, the province’s deputy governor, said U.S. Special Forces carried out an operation in a village near a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Qalat. The police, thinking it was a Taliban attack, opened fire, he said. Then a helicopter fired on the security post and destroyed it, he said.
HARARE, Zimbabwe
Cholera death toll rises
The death toll from Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak has risen sharply, the United Nations said Wednesday, reporting 775 deaths and 16,141 cases of the waterborne disease in the southern African nation.
Cholera has spread rapidly in Zimbabwe because of the country’s crumbling health care system and the lack of clean water. Last week, Zimbabwe declared a health emergency because of cholera and the collapse of its health services.
The latest figures from the World Health Organization show a jump of nearly 200 deaths from Tuesday, when the U.N. humanitarian office reported that 589 people had died out of 13,960 cases.
TAMPA, Fla.
Crime boss pleads guilty
The suspected boss of the Gambino crime family’s Tampa enterprise has pleaded guilty to participating in two murders and other criminal activities.
John E. Alite acknowledged his role as a top Gambino associate and admitted conspiring to kill several men. He also admitted trafficking cocaine and using the proceeds to invest in businesses and properties in four states, including Florida and New York.
The guilty plea was entered in January but kept sealed until Wednesday.
Alite was arrested by Brazilian police in 2004 and extradited two years later.