World in brief

Ambush in Afghanistan kills two CIA workers

WASHINGTON - Two CIA operatives were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan over the weekend, the agency said Tuesday, bringing to four the number of CIA operatives acknowledged to have been killed in the line of duty since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The two men were described by the agency as veterans of military special operations units who were killed while tracking terrorists in the region of Shkin, a village in southeastern Afghanistan. A statement released by the agency said they were working as contractors for the agency's Directorate of Operations, which conducts clandestine intelligence gathering and other covert activities.

The two were identified as William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines, N.C., and Christopher Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego. The CIA does not normally identify its covert employees, but the agency said in the statement that it had decided to release their names after consulting with the men's families and determining that the information would not jeopardize continuing operations.

REBELS KILLED: U.S.-led coalition troops and Afghan militia killed 18 rebel fighters during a six-hour firefight in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, calling in airstrikes to help repel the attackers, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

Six Afghan militiamen were wounded in the fighting that began Saturday morning, the coalition said in a statement. There were no coalition casualties.

U.S.-backed Afghan militia members were patrolling 27 miles south of a base in Shkin, a town in Paktika province, when they ran into as many as 25 anti-coalition fighters at 7:45 a.m., the military said. The coalition said a rapid reaction force from its Shkin base, 135 miles south of Kabul, was called in to reinforce the Afghan soldiers.

TORONTO - A bill that bans human cloning and sets guidelines on stem cell research won approval Tuesday in Canada's House of Commons.

The chamber voted 149-109 to send the measure to the Senate for review. With Parliament expected to end its session as soon as Nov. 7, it was unclear if the bill would pass in time.

HOSTAGES FREED: Former paramilitary fighters released four journalists and three other hostages Tuesday after the government promised to pay the ex-soldiers for their services during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.

Former members of the paramilitary Civilian Self-Defense Patrols, formed by the government in 1982 to help it fight leftist guerrillas, seized the hostages in La Libertad on Sunday.

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