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NATO has admitted for the first time Libyan civilians were killed and injured during its seven-month bombing campaign that led to the ouster and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The acknowledgment came after a New York Times investigation revealed at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by NATO air strikes, including at least 29 women or children

Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil leaders called Monday for an international war crimes inquiry into events during the final stages of the country's civil war, criticizing a commission report that cleared government forces of deliberately targeting civilians.

The United States, meanwhile, expressed concerns that the report did not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations. The State Department called on the Sri Lanka to address those shortcomings, but stopped short itself of supporting an international inquiry.

HADITHA, IRAQ — In the accounting of what was won and lost in America’s Iraq war, this sleepy farming town deep in the western desert will rank as a place where almost everything was lost.

It was here, on Nov. 19, 2005, that a group of Marines went on a shooting spree in which 24 Iraqi civilians were killed. Their patrol had been hit by a roadside bomb and one of their comrades was dead. They ordered five men out of a taxi and gunned them down. Then they went into three nearby homes and shot 19 people, including 11 women and children.

BAGHDAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of Iraqi civilians killed in attacks fell in November, health ministry figures show, despite fears that the looming end of the eight-year presence of U.S. troops could open the door for new bloodshed.

Washington is pulling its last troops out of Iraq by year's end after invading in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. Violence has dropped since sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shi'ite militia still mount attacks.

The health ministry figures showed 112 civilians killed in attacks in November, down from October's year high of 161. Forty-two Iraqi police and 33 soldiers were also killed, according to the interior...