World/Nation Briefs March 14, 2012

Afghan villagers recount soldier's shooting spree

BALANDI, Afghanistan - As bullets flew, the Afghan woman scooped up her 3-year-old niece and ran for their lives. Moments later, the woman was dead and the girl lay bleeding from a gunshot wound.

It was the closing scene of a massacre that left 16 civilians, including nine children, dead in two villages in southern Kandahar province.

The U.S. is holding an Army staff sergeant that military officials say slipped off a U.S. base before dawn Sunday, walked to the villages, barged into their homes and opened fire. Some of the corpses were burned. Eleven were from one family. Five other people were wounded.

The military said Tuesday there was probable cause to continue holding the soldier, who has not been named, in custody. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said he could face capital punishment.

U.S. calculating final stages of Afghan pullout

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is only beginning to calculate the pace of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan beyond this summer, facing an endgame fraught with political risk and complicated by shocking setbacks like the alleged U.S. slaughter of Afghan civilians.

At stake is not only President Barack Obama's pledge to prevent Afghanistan from reverting to the terrorist haven it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but also his commitment to wind down the war while crafting a long-term security relationship with the Afghans.

U.S. military commanders want to keep as many troops in the country as possible until the Dec. 31, 2014, target date for having all combat forces out. They fear a too-rapid pullout would risk surrendering the security gains they have made in recent years.

Encyclopaedia Britannica to stop print edition

CHICAGO - Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. said Tuesday that it will stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia for the first time since the sets were originally published more than 200 years ago.

The book-form of Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768. It will stop being available when the current stock runs out, the company said. The Chicago-based company will continue to offer digital versions of the encyclopedia.

Officials said the end of the printed, 32-volume set has been foreseen for some time.

"This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google," Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. President Jorge Cauz said. "This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people."

- Associated Press