World datelines

Afghanistan: 7 killed

KABUL — Seven civilians were shot dead on Friday as they were apparently mistaken for a group of insurgents trying to cross the frontier from Pakistan, an Afghan police official said Saturday.

The Afghan official, Abdul Raziq, who leads the border police in Kandahar province, said the seven men were from a village in Shorabak, a remote district on the Pakistani border. They were killed when they strayed close to a checkpoint manned by Afghan border police, who opened fire because they believed that their post was going to be overrun.

The border guards "thought they were insurgents," Raziq said.

The guards were detained after the shooting as part of an investigation, Raziq said. The bodies of the civilians were taken back to their village, called Sortano.

No U.S. or other foreign troops were present during the shooting, Raziq said.

U.S.: Detainee home

LOS ANGELES — An American missionary who strode illegally into North Korea on Christmas Day and was detained by the communist regime for 43 days was welcomed back to the United States Saturday evening in an emotional reunion with family members at Los Angeles International Airport.

Robert Park was greeted by his parents and brother in a private location at the airport after arriving on a commercial flight from Beijing. Earlier Saturday, the 28-year-old Korean-American from Tucson, Ariz., flew to the Chinese capital from Pyongyang.

Robert Park crossed the frozen Tumen River from China into North Korea on Dec. 25, carrying letters calling on leader Kim Jong Il to close the country's notoriously brutal prison camps and step down from power — acts that could have risked execution in the hard-line communist country.

France: Hostage freed

PARIS — A French agronomist who was kidnapped in Chad in November was freed Saturday in Sudan after 89 days in captivity, International Committee of the Red Cross reported.

The organization said employee Laurent Maurice "is tired but appears to be in good health."

The agronomist was kidnapped Nov. 9 by armed men while working in the village of Kawa near Chad's eastern border with Sudan. He had been in the African nation for 10 months before being abducted, the statement said.

Spokeswoman Carla Haddad says 37-year-old Maurice was freed Saturday in al-Geneina, in Sudan's western Darfur region.

She said the organization had not paid any ransom and expressed her thanks to "the Sudanese authorities among all other parties who helped secure this release."

N. Ireland: Disarmed