Around the world

teenager sues parents

over damage to his car

MADRID, Spain — A speeding motorist who killed a teenage cyclist is suing the boy’s parents over damage to his luxury car, the government says. Enaitz Iriondo, 17, died instantly in August 2004 when businessman Tomas Delgado’s Audi A8 crashed into him at 100 mph near Haro in northern Spain, an Interior Ministry traffic report said. The speed limit was 55 mph.

Iriondo was not wearing reflective clothing or a helmet, the ministry report said. As the sun had set when he crossed the path of Delgado’s car from a side road, a regional court found both parties at fault and closed the case, the report said.

Delgado, whose insurance company paid Iriondo’s parents $48,500 in compensation for their son’s life, filed a suit in late 2006 to recover $29,400 in damages to his car and car rental costs, the ministry traffic report said.

US coalition soldier

killed, 3 wounded in

eastern Afghanistan clash

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents while searching a compound near the Pakistani frontier on Friday, leaving one coalition soldier dead, a statement said.

Troops called in airstrikes, which "destroyed an insurgent cell” after the clash in Nari district of Kunar province, the coalition statement said.

The nationalities of the dead and three wounded soldiers were not released. Most of the troops in that area are American.

An Afghan soldier and an interpreter working for the coalition were also wounded, the statement said. It did not say how many suspected militants were killed.

U.S. troops are fighting Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country’s east, which borders Pakistan. The number of attacks in the Afghan border areas has decreased recently, as militants step up assaults on Pakistani forces across the frontier.

Also Friday, Britain defended its forces against comments by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which he reportedly accused them of making the security situation in the country’s volatile south worse.

According to The Times newspaper Karzai was quoted as telling journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that mistakes by Britain and the U.S. allowed the Taliban to make inroads in Helmand province.

"Both the American and the British forces guaranteed to me they knew what they were doing and I made the mistake of listening to them,” Karzai was quoted as saying. "And when they came in, the Taliban came.”

Karzai accused Britain and the U.S. of setting the security situation in Helmand back 18 months by dismissing the province’s governor without having a proper replacement ready, the report said. He also said forces did not come to Helmand in sufficient numbers and did not have enough information about the province.

Britain’s Foreign Office rejected the claim, saying its policy was to work in consultation with Karzai’s government.

"Our strategy in Helmand has been to work with the Afghan government to extend their authority throughout the province, creating a secure environment which allows political and economic development,” a spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with ministry practice.

"Our armed forces have suffered losses and shown great determination and bravery to achieve that objective,” the spokesman said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was in Davos on Friday, has promised to provide long-term assistance to Afghanistan. Britain has about 7,700 military personnel there, most of them fighting a resurgent Taliban in the country’s south.

An Associated Press count based on official figures found that more than 6,500 people — mostly militants — died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.