Karzai doubtful soldier acted alone
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 16 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the families of people allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier he distrusts the U.S. military's version of what happened.
The president said the killing spree has pushed U.S.-Afghan relations to "the end of the rope," CNN reported. Karzai said U.S. officials appeared to be withholding information.
The soldier, whose identity has yet to be released, is being held in Kuwait, The New York Times said. On Sunday, he allegedly left an outpost in Kandahar province, Camp Belambay, and shot nine children, three women and four men in nearby villages.
"We tried to talk to the soldier involved, but there was no cooperation from America," Karzai told the families. "Based on what you are saying, the killer was not just one person."
Karzai said Afghan investigators are suspicious of U.S. video footage captured by security cameras, CNN said.
The soldier has been described as a decorated veteran of three combat tours in Iraq. He was in his first deployment in Afghanistan. His unit was based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
He reportedly suffered a serious head injury in 2010 in a vehicle rollover in Iraq.
Annan sending monitors to Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria, March 16 (UPI) -- The U.N.-Arab League special envoy on Syria Friday urged the U.N. Security Council to speak with "one voice" and said he is sending monitors to Damascus.
"I will be sending teams in this weekend to pursue the discussions on the proposals we left on the table," Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, told reporters after briefing the Security Council in New York, the BBC reported. He said his main objectives are an immediate cease-fire, the initiation of political dialogue and access for humanitarian organizations.
Annan, who met last weekend with Syrian President Bashar Assad, said the international community must avoid "miscalculations" that could lead to "escalation" of the conflict, Voice of America reported.
"We need to handle the situation in Syria very, very carefully," he said.
Syria said it is prepared to cooperate with Annan but added it will not waiver in its battle against "terrorists."
Meanwhile, gunfire and explosions were heard in Syrian cities Friday. Opposition activists said security forces were making arrests in the northeastern city of Deir Ezzor and shot at least one civilian, CNN reported.
Gulf states close embassies in Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria, March 16 (UPI) -- Four countries in the Arab Gulf region closed their embassies in Damascus Friday to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside, officials said.
Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar joined Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by closing their embassies in the capital, The New York Times reported.
Several Western countries, including the United States, have already closed their embassies in Syria to push Assad to step down.
The embassy closures come a day after a massive protest -- dubbed the "Global March for Syria" -- took place in Damascus to mark the one-year anniversary of the first demonstrations against Assad's regime.
Demonstrations for Syria took place in cities around the world Thursday, including in Paris, which has a sizable Syrian population, Radio France Internationale reported.
CBO: Obama budget adds $3.5T to deficits
WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- President Obama's 2013 budget plan would add $3.5 trillion to budget deficits through 2022, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.
The CBO said the president's budget blueprint would raise the deficit next year by $365 billion, The Hill reported.
The CBO estimate is nearly a mirror opposite of White House reports last month that Obama's budget would reduce deficits by $3.2 trillion during the next 10 years.
The Hill said differences between the two estimates could be traced to different baselines and economic assumptions. One big reason the non-partisan CBO said it expected the deficit increase was that it assumed all Bush-era tax rates would expire at the end of this year.
Obama's budget reflects the continuation of the middle-class tax cuts, something reflected in his budget.
Over 10 years, the CBO estimate said, the Obama budget contains $6.4 trillion in new deficits, which is better than the new deficits of $6.7 trillion White House had predicted.
Roommate guilty in Rutgers webcam case
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., March 16 (UPI) -- A former Rutgers University student was convicted Friday in New Jersey of using a webcam to spy on his gay roommate, who subsequently killed himself.
Dharun Ravi, 20, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison for bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, CNN reported. The jury heard four weeks of evidence and deliberated for more than two days before reaching a verdict.
Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, N.J., jumped from the George Washington Bridge in 2010, a few weeks into his freshman year. A few days earlier, he asked for another roommate because he believed Ravi, from Plainsboro, N.J., was spying on him.
"We had a 20-year-old's life in our hands," juror Bruno Ferreira told The (Newark) Star-Ledger. "We were deciding his fate."
Ravi remains free on $25,000 bail.
