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Diplomats expelled from Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Afghanistan formally expelled a senior U.N. official and the acting head of the European Union's mission there for allegedly meeting with Taliban militants.

Irishman Michael Semple with the European Union and Briton Mervyn Patterson with the United Nations stand accused of meeting with Taliban militants in defiance of the wishes of the central Afghan government in Kabul.

Officials with the European Union and the United Nations lobbied the Afghan government to reverse its decision, which one unnamed U.N. official described as "foolish" and harmful to the reconstruction progress, The Times of London said Thursday.

Afghan officials issued expulsion orders following a visit by the pair to Musa Qala in the drug-laden Helmand province to meet with various Afghan leaders following a British-led effort to drive out Taliban militants.

Unidentified Afghan sources told The Times that Taliban leaders paid the diplomats and claimed they supported the insurgency against Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wishes but British officials claimed the meetings involved low ranking Taliban members and that the Afghan government sanctioned the meeting.

A spokesman United Nations in Kabul, Aleem Siddique, said the pair engaged tribal elders in Musa Qala on a fact-finding mission following the British mission to expel Taliban militants.

Siddique added that security mandates forbid U.N. diplomats from engaging Taliban leaders.

Abbas visits Olmert's home talking peace

JERUSALEM, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem was the key topic for peace talks Thursday between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, officials said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his official Jerusalem residence for the first time since the U.S.-brokered summit in Annapolis, Md., late last month, Haaretz reported.

Prior to the meeting Palestinian media said two issues are considered deal-breakers by Abbas: Israel's decades-old annexation of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as a capital of their eventual state, and Israel's construction of new settlements inside the so-called Green Line near East Jerusalem.

Negotiating teams from both sides have met twice since the Annapolis meeting and each time ran into roadblocks on the issues, the newspaper said.

Other issues the two leaders could discuss included the removal of checkpoints in the West Bank, the Hamas control of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, officials told Haaretz.

U.S. President George Bush is scheduled to visit the region in January with a goal of encouraging both sides to move forward.

U.S. reports 11 Iraqi militants killed

BAGHDAD, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A U.S.-Iraqi raid on a suspected terror cell in a city southeast of Baghdad Thursday resulted in 11 militants being killed, the U.S. military said.

The firefight began when a coalition convoy came under fire in the city of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, CNN reported. The military statement said as a result of the deaths, no suspected were detained.

In Baghdad, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials reported two insurgent bombings Thursday. The first was planted under a minibus and killed two passengers and injured 12 others, the ministry said. The second happened 30 minutes later when a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi police convoy passed. Two civilians and two police officers were hurt in the blast, the report said.

In a separate statement, the Multi-National Force released a statement saying two suspects had been arrested after operations Monday and Tuesday in connection with the abduction of three U.S. soldiers last May 12 near Mahmudiyah, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported.

The body of one of the soldiers was later found but the fate of the other two remains unknown.

Arrests made in Seattle-area massacre

CARNATION, Wash., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Two people who knew the six family members massacred at a rural home outside Seattle have been arrested, local media reported Thursday.

King County sheriff's deputies announced Wednesday night they had arrested Joseph McEnroe and Michele Anderson, both 29, in the shootings Tuesday night and the discovery of the bodies Wednesday.

Anderson is reportedly the daughter of one of the victims, Wayne Anderson, 60. Neighbors and friends told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Anderson's wife Judy, the couple's son Scott, his wife Erica and their two children, ages 3 and 6, were killed in the home.

A member of the Anderson family told reporters after the arrests Michele Anderson had a long-running dispute with her parents over money, the newspaper said.

Late Wednesday, King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said someone inside the home called 911 during the shootings, but the caller hung up without saying anything. When deputies responded, they found the gate to the property locked, the Seattle Times said.

"From everything I'm hearing, it wouldn't have made a difference," Urquhart said.

Calif. tiger-mauling site a crime scene

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The San Francisco Zoo's Lion House was sealed off as a crime scene Thursday as police tried to sort out a deadly Siberian tiger escape Tuesday evening.

Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, was killed and two of his friends, ages 19 and 23, were mauled and listed in stable condition Thursday after multiple surgeries, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Police said there is no video surveillance of the area around the big cat enclosure, and asked for witnesses to come forward to clarify how the 350-pound tiger named Tatiana got out.

The cats' enclosure is surrounded by a 25-foot moat and a 14-foot high wall.

Four police officers responding to an escaped animal call spotted the tiger sitting beside one of the victims. It briefly attacked the man again and then turned on the officers. All four opened fire, killing it, the report said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Sousa, along with a necropsy on the tiger, police said.

The zoo was closed Wednesday but officials were considering partially reopening it Thursday, the newspaper said.