World News from the BBC.
An Afghan army soldier has killed two American civilians and a fellow soldier at a military base in northern Afghanistan. Several other people were wounded. The shooter was also killed, and an investigation is under way into the circumstances of the deaths. The incident happened during a routine weapons training session. Last week, three British soldiers were killed by a renegade Afghan soldier.
The British Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said that military spending plans inherited from the previous government are unaffordable. Dr Fox said the defence industry would have to find cost savings in existing contracts, or the government would cut
procurement
programmes. Britain is reviewing its defence spending as part of a wider effort to reduce its budget deficit. Dr Fox said Britain wanted to maintain a strong defence industry, but the long-term prosperity of the companies involved depended on providing better value for money.
"We can't prepare for the threats that we might face in the future if we are constantly funding the legacy programmes of the Cold War. We can't have lots of flicks of different things doing the same thing, so we've got to become much more efficient. We can't carry the costs of unnecessary infrastructure and spares and training, so we've got to become much more efficient across defence."
Two French international footballers, Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema, have been put under formal criminal investigation over accusations that they'd paid for sex with an underage woman. Their accuser said she was less than 18 at the time of the alleged incidents. Under French law, paid sex with somebody under 18 is