KABUL, Afghanistan

Taliban suicide blast kills 17; violence elsewhere kills four

A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among men washing in a bathhouse ahead of Friday prayers, killing 17, in an attack that showed militants can still largely strike at will in southern Afghanistan despite a NATO offensive.

Roadside bombs also killed three NATO service members in the south and east, while gunmen shot dead a police inspector in Kandahar’s provincial capital, bringing the day’s death toll to 21. Authorities said they suspect the Taliban assassinated the police inspector.

The day’s violence underscored the dangers in southern Afghanistan — and in particular Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban. Some of the fiercest fighting in the nearly 10-year war has taken place in the south, where international forces, bolstered by the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops over the summer, are battling to disrupt the insurgents’ network.

ACCRA, Ghana

President won’t add troops to Ivory Coast intervention

The president of Ghana on Friday said his country is not able to send troops to oust the leader of Ivory Coast who is unwilling to cede office after losing presidential election in late November.

The announcement could complicate a move by a regional bloc of 15 nations in West Africa to mount a military intervention in order to allow the internationally recognized winner of the election Alassane Ouattara to assume his functions. He and his staff are barricaded inside a hotel, his exits blocked by soldiers loyal to Gbagbo.

ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, has twice sent a delegation to try to persuade Gbagbo to step down.

After the second attempt failed this week, the group began deliberating the military option. The move is controversial, however, since it could entail civilian casualties as well as reprisal attacks against expatriates from ECOWAS member countries living in Ivory Coast.

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills said he backs ECOWAS, but said his troops are already committed to other peace missions around the world — including in Ivory Coast

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique

Former priest who vanished amid sex abuse charges dies

Laurence Brett, a former priest who vanished twice amid accusations that he sexually abused more than two dozen children in the U.S., has died in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, an official said Friday.

Brett died at the Pierre Zobda Quitman hospital in the capital of Fort-de-France on Christmas Eve, said Joelle Louisor, a hospital administrator.

Louisor said she did not know the cause of death. But the Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut reported he apparently fell down some stairs and hit his head. The Courant said he was 73.

Brett disappeared in 1993 and was found by the Courant in 2002 on the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten. The newspaper reported that he was living in a villa by a lagoon and that he had identified himself to acquaintances as a writer, a businessman and a CIA agent.

Brett then vanished again.

SANTIAGO, Chile

Chile follows U.N. resolution recognizing Palestinian state

Chile recognized Palestinian statehood on Friday, joining other South American nations in a push for Palestinians and Israelis to keep negotiating toward a lasting peace.

Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said Chile is following U.N. resolutions with its decision to recognize the existence of the state of Palestine as “a free, independent and sovereign state, coexisting in peace with the State of Israel.”

Chile’s decision follows a meeting in Brazil between Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been lobbying his counterparts to show their support. Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador recognized Palestinian statehood last month, and Uruguay and Paraguay are expected to join them in the coming weeks.

Chile, whose Palestinian population of about 400,000 is among the largest outside the Arab world, also had been lobbied intensely Israeli representatives.

WASHINGTON

Package for Napolitano ignites at postal facility

A package an official said was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited Friday at a Washington postal facility, a day after fiery packages sent to Maryland’s governor and transportation secretary burned the fingers of workers who opened them. Authorities were bracing for more packages to surface.

“Right now we don’t have any other packages, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

Initial information indicated the parcel that ignited in northeast Washington about 2:45 p.m. was similar to the two packages opened in Maryland on Thursday, authorities said. The Washington postal facility was evacuated after an employee discovered a parcel that looked similar to the Maryland mailings, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The Maryland packages contained a note railing against highway signs urging motorists to report suspicious activity, investigators revealed.

PEARL, Miss.

Sisters freed on condition that one gives other kidney

Sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott left prison on Friday for the first time in 16 years, yelling, “We’re free!” and “God bless y’all!” as they pulled away in a silver SUV. That freedom, though, comes with an unusual condition: Gladys has one year to donate a kidney to her ailing sister.

Now, with their life sentences for armed robbery suspended, their future is uncertain. Who will pay for their medical care? Would the conditional release hold up in court? And are they a compatible match for the kidney transplant?

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour agreed to release 38-year-old Jamie Scott, who is on dialysis, because of her medical condition, and 36-year-old Gladys Scott must donate the kidney within one year as a condition of her release. The women weren’t eligible for parole until 2014. The supporters who fought for the sisters’ release insisted that Jamie Scott may not live that long without a new kidney.

The sisters are moving to Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle to live with their mother. They hope to qualify for government-funded Medicaid insurance to pay for the transplant and for Jamie Scott’s dialysis, which officials said had cost Mississippi about $200,000 a year.

WASHINGTON

House vote sets the stage for health law repeal vote

House Republicans cleared a hurdle Friday in their first attempt to scrap President Obama’s landmark health care overhaul, yet it was little more than a symbolic swipe at the law.

The real action is in states, where Republicans are using federal courts and governors’ offices to lead the assault against Obama’s signature domestic achievement, a law aimed at covering nearly all Americans.

In a post-election bow to tea partiers by the new GOP House majority, Republican lawmakers are undertaking an effort to repeal the health care law in full knowledge that the Democratic Senate will stop them from doing so.

Republicans prevailed Friday in a 236-181 procedural vote, largely along party lines, that sets the stage for the House to vote next week on the repeal.