WORLD BRIEFS

AFGHANISTAN: Karzai gets an earful in Marjah

Elders in the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah berated and challenged President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, delivering a litany of complaints about government corruption and NATO's military operations on the leader's first visit. Karzai said that's exactly what he had come to hear. "Today, I'm here to listen to you and hear your problems," he told about 300 men who sat shoulder to shoulder on the floor of a mosque. U.S., NATO and Afghan troops seized the town of 80,000 from the Taliban last week. Yesterday, many of the assembled elders complained, sometimes shouting, about corruption among former government officials. They lamented how their schools were turned into military posts by international forces. They said shops were looted during the offensive. Elsewhere in the country, three NATO service members were killed in attacks Sunday.

NIGERIA: 200 slain with machetes

Rioters slaughtered more than 200 people with machetes overnight as religious violence flared anew between Christians and Muslims, witnesses said. The bodies of the dead, including women and children, lined dusty streets in three mostly Christian villages south of the regional capital of Jos. Torched homes smoldered after the attacks at 3 a.m. Sunday.