Afghan soldier wounds NATO troop
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 11 (UPI) -- An Afghan soldier fired on NATO troops, wounding a Polish soldier, and then fled, military officials said Sunday.
The injured soldier remained hospitalized after the Saturday attack in the eastern province of Ghazni and international forces and Afghan troops were searching for the shooter, CNN reported.
The Afghan National Army soldier opened fire during an argument, the country's defense ministry said.
Attacks on NATO troops by Afghan soldiers have been on the rise, with the Taliban claiming responsibility and saying its members have infiltrated Afghan forces.
A U.S. soldier was killed by an Afghan soldier in a December shooting that also injured two Italians at a shared base. And in November, an Afghan police officer fatally shot five British soldiers in the southern province of Helmand.
Document: Kissinger halted Condor warning
WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Henry Kissinger, while U.S. secretary of state, stopped a plan to warn South American dictators against international political assassinations, a document shows.
The Los Angeles Times reports the newly declassified document reveals Kissinger halted the warning days before a bombing linked to Chile killed two people in Washington.
Peter Kornbluh, an analyst with the non-profit National Security Archive, which uncovered the document and made it public Saturday, said the document, cabled from Kissinger to his top Latin American deputy, halted U.S. diplomats' efforts to warn Chile, Uruguay and Argentina against involvement in the covert plan "Operation Condor." The South American dictators' secret program of planned international assassinations began in 1975 and targeted political opponents throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States.
In the Sept. 16, 1976, cable, Kissinger rejected delivery of a proposed warning to the government of Uruguay about Condor operations and ordered "no further action be taken on this matter" by the U.S. State Department.
Five days later, Chilean exile Orlando Letelier and an American colleague were killed in a Washington car-bombing later linked to Chilean secret police working through the Condor network, the Times said.
"The document confirms that it's Kissinger's complete responsibility for having rescinded a cease-and-desist order to Condor killers," said Kornbluh, the author of a 2004 book on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
In a statement, Kissinger charged Kornbluh "distorted" the cable's meaning and said it was meant to stop a specific approach for dealing with Uruguay and was not a cancellation of warnings to other nations involved in Operation Condor.
Former State Department officials who worked under Kissinger at the time said the cable disrupted the U.S. effort to curtail Operation Condor, not only with Uruguay but also with other countries in the region, the Times said.
Kissinger learned of Condor from the CIA in mid-1976 and at first ordered U.S. ambassadors in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and other countries involved in the operation to issue formal diplomatic warnings to leaders that "Condor activities would undermine relations with the United States."
In his statement, Kissinger said, "The instructions were never rescinded."
Sudanese cast ballots in historic election
KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 11 (UPI) -- Sudanese voters, using a system officials said was intended to avert fraud, cast ballots Sunday in the country's first multiparty elections since 1986.
Many of the country's more than 16 million registered voters cast ballots in presidential, parliamentary and state assembly elections in the first of three days of polling, Radio France Internationale reported.
The election, which came as a result of the deal that ended the war between northern and southern Sudan, has been marred by fraud accusations and logistical glitches.
An estimated 100,000 police officers were on hand to prevent violence at polling places, and hundreds of international election observers monitored voters as they cast ballots, many for the first time in their lives.
The BBC reported several key parties and politicians opposed to President Omar al-Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989, were boycotting the election over fraud concerns.
Balloting went smoothly in the capital, Khartoum, but in southern Sudan and elsewhere, confusion among election workers, missing ballots and delayed openings were reported.
"I believe the National Election Commission has done a good job although there might be some slow delivery of material, but they have three days to correct that," former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center is monitoring the election, told reporters.
In semi-autonomous South Sudan, President Salva Kiir is running against former Foreign Minister Lam Akol, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Akol said he voted for the first time in his life and hoped the election would bring the "formation of a democratic process in South Sudan."
Conservative Fidesz party gains in Hungary
BUDAPEST, Hungary, April 11 (UPI) -- Victor Orban's conservative opposition party defeated the socialist MSZP government in first-round parliamentary elections in Hungary Sunday, officials said.
With 99 percent of votes counted, MSZP conceded defeat to Orban's Fidesz party, which had garnered nearly 53 percent of votes to 19 percent for the Socialists, The New York Times reported. The far-right Jobbik party, which has attacked "Gypsy crime" and Jews, captured 16.7 percent of the vote.
Fidesz won 206 seats in the 386-member parliament, the Socialists 28 and Jobbik 26.
"Hungarians voted on Hungary and Hungary's future," Orban said. "Today Hungary's citizens have defeated hopelessness."
The economic downturn and accompanying high unemployment led many voters to back Orban's party, which promised tax cuts to stimulate the economy.
President Laszlo Solyom said the results brought a "fundamental shift" to Hungarian politics.
"It is unprecedented ... for a winning party to secure such a clear and broad-based mandate that we can see now from the numbers," he said.
Socialist Party Chairwoman Ildiko Lendvai conceded, saying, "If results do not change materially, then one thing is clear: The Hungarian Socialist party has lost the opportunity to govern" but wants to "be the strongest opposition party."
Runoffs are set for April 25 in districts where no candidate won at least half the votes.
