In the World

AFGHANISTAN

Protest against French publication injures 24

Police clashed with protesters at a demonstration against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Saturday, injuring at least two dozen people, said Afghan police officials and witnesses.

Since the Jan. 7 attack by gunmen on the magazine's offices in Paris that killed 12 people, small demonstrations have continued. Protesters denounced the publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

But Saturday's protest in Kabul, involving gunfire and rock-throwing youths, was believed to be the first that turned violent. At least 17 police and seven protesters suffered injuries, said police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai, after armed men among the demonstrators opened fire. Five protesters were arrested, he added.

While police officials claimed they were fired upon first, some witnesses said it was the police who fired upon the demonstrators after protesters began moving menacingly toward the policemen. Some demonstrators and witnesses claimed that two protesters were killed, but police officials said there were no deaths. - Washington Post
SWITZERLAND

Avalanche kills four

Police in Switzerland say four people are dead after an avalanche hit a group of skiers in the southeast of the country. Police in Graubuenden canton say the avalanche on the slopes of the Piz Vilan mountain Saturday afternoon swept away seven members of a nine-strong group of skiers. Rescuers recovered three bodies and four seriously injured people, who were flown to hospitals. Police say a fourth person died at a hospital. There was no immediate word on what triggered the avalanche. - AP

ISRAEL

Troops shoot 2 Palestinians

The Israeli military says troops have shot a pair of Palestinians who were throwing firebombs at Israeli vehicles in the West Bank. Palestinian officials say one of them, Ahmad Najar, 18, was killed and another was slightly wounded. The military says troops fired toward the lower extremities of the firebomb hurlers and that Saturday's incident was being investigated. The incident took place in the northern West Bank, near Nablus, on a road that serves Jewish settlers in the area. The military has recently beefed up security in the West Bank after a Jewish girl was seriously wounded by a firebomb that set her family car on fire. - AP