Karzai: Stop all NATO airstrikes on homes

Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared Tuesday that NATO aircraft can no longer fire on homes under any circumstances, an indication that the conflict over NATO airstrikes that kill civilians — including one that left 18 dead last week — remains unresolved.

Following an outcry over the attack in Logar province, which killed children, teenagers and adults, NATO imposed new limits on airstrikes aimed at houses but still wants to use them to defend troops on the ground.

Karzai and the coalition met last weekend to discuss airstrikes. However, the two sides offer different interpretations about what they agreed upon at the meeting.

“Even when they are under attack, they (coalition forces) cannot use an airplane to bomb Afghan homes,” Karzai said at a news conference. To underscore his point, he repeated: “Even when they are under attack.”

WHO: Diesel fumes are cancer threat

Diesel fumes cause cancer, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency declared Tuesday, a ruling it said could make exhaust as important a public health threat as secondhand smoke.

The risk of getting cancer from diesel fumes is small, but since so many people breathe in the fumes in some way, the science panel said raising the status of diesel exhaust from “probable carcinogen” to “carcinogen” was an important shift.

The Diesel Technology Forum, representing Mercedes, Ford, Chrysler and others, disagreed. “Diesel exhaust is only a very small contributor to air pollution,” the group said. “In Southern California, more fine particles come from brake and tire wear than from diesel engines.”

Egypt’s Mubarak fears prison doctors

Hosni Mubarak’s condition stabilized Tuesday but his lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said the former president does not trust his doctors in the prison hospital and fears they are out to kill him. El-Deeb said he had asked concerned authorities to transfer Mubarak, 84, to a better-equipped military hospital because of his fragile health.