World datelines

Afghanistan: 17 officers killed

KABUL — Militants killed 17 Afghan police officers across Afghanistan, while four suspected Taliban fighters died in a clash with NATO and Afghan troops, officials said Wednesday.

Six police officers were killed when their convoy was ambushed along the Kabul-Kandahar highway, a ribbon of road that connects Afghanistan's two major cities. Long stretches of Highway 1 run through areas controlled by Taliban militants.

Bolivia: Rewriting constitution

LA PAZ — President Evo Morales' backers in an assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution have proposed allowing the populist leader, as well as future presidents, to seek re-election for an unlimited number of consecutive terms.

Bolivian law limits presidents to two nonconsecutive five-year terms. But delegates are now debating a change to rule in the Constituent Assembly, convened by Morales last year to write a new framework giving greater political voice to Bolivia's long-suffering indigenous majority.

Delegates from Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, on Friday presented a proposal that would allow Bolivia's president and vice president to be "re-elected consecutively by the will of the people."

Haiti: DEA chases suspect

LES CAYES — A former rebel leader and presidential candidate has gone into hiding after Drug Enforcement Administration agents launched a military-style operation to arrest him in this Haitian town, a member of his party said Wednesday.

Ronald Etienne, a deputy in Haiti's lower house of parliament, told The Associated Press that DEA and Haitian anti-drug agents raided Guy Philippe's home Monday but did not find him. Philippe has long denied accusations of ties to drug trafficking.

Iran: Detainees on TV

TEHRAN — Two detained Iranian-Americans were shown on state television Wednesday night in a program contending they tried to foment regime change in Iran with the support of the U.S. government.

The 50-minute program showed a montage of disparate quotes from Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh combined to form what could be interpreted as incriminating statements, which their supporters and the U.S. government called illegitimate and coerced.

The scholars appeared alongside footage of anti-government protests in the former Soviet Union and of President Bush calling for the spread of democracy.