Judge says Texas cannot ban family planning group from health program

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that the state cannot ban Planned Parenthood, for now, from offering health care to low-income women through a state-run program even though some of the group’s family planning and health clinics perform abortions.

“This is another victory for the women in Texas,” Pete Schenkkan, a lawyer representing the group, told reporters after state District Judge Stephen Yelenosky said he would halt enforcement of the Texas law while Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit contesting the state ban proceeds.

Although the Texas health program does not pay for abortions, earlier this year the state decided to enforce a law that had been on the books for several years barring funding for abortion providers and affiliates.

Planned Parenthood said it does not provide abortions at clinics that participate in the Texas Women’s Health Program, but it is the nation’s leading reproductive health and abortion provider and the state objects to its affiliation with clinics that do provide abortions.

A state district judge last month issued a temporary order blocking the state from enforcing the ban. That order was set to expire Friday. Planned Parenthood argued in court on Thursday that the ban is invalid under state law.

The Obama administration told Texas this week that federal funding – which pays for most of the Women’s Health Program’s $ 40 million annual cost – will stop at the end of the year. The program provides care such as breast and cervical cancer screenings and birth control, and Planned Parenthood says it serves nearly half the 115,000 Texas women who participate.

“We cannot continue to provide full federal funding for a program that is not in compliance with federal law any longer than is necessary to minimize disruption in care to beneficiaries,” Cindy Mann of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told Texas health officials in a letter on Wednesday.

In state district court in Austin on Thursday, Patricio Gonzales, chief executive of a Planned Parenthood affiliate in South Texas, testified that losing the funding would lead to the closure of two or three of his four clinics.

Mann told Texas officials: “It remains very important to us that the state complete its transition of the program before the end of the year to ensure there is not an abrupt end to services for beneficiaries.”

Governor Rick Perry has said that the Texas is ready to roll out a state-funded program.

Planned Parenthood sued in state court after a federal appeals court declined to reconsider a ruling allowing Texas to exclude it. Earlier this week, the family planning organization filed a motion asking for its federal lawsuit to be paused while it pursues the state case.

Perry said on Thursday Planned Parenthood’s efforts to bring suits in different courts were a “stalling tactic.”

“Venue shopping and courtroom sleight-of-hand in no way helps the women of Texas. We see their stalling tactic for what it is – yet another attempt to unashamedly defy the will of Texas voters and taxpayers.”

(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Greg McCune and Jackie Frank)

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The Loneliness of David Cameron

Inside his 10 Downing Street office, David Cameron has surrounded himself with friends of two decades or more—contemporaries from his time at Eton and Oxford and his early days as a political researcher. Once he steps outside his front door, the 46-year-old prime minister’s life is lonelier. In Parliament lawmakers from his Conservative Party are rebelling in unprecedented numbers and with increasing frequency. Conservative newspapers, which once feted him, have turned hostile. If there were an election tomorrow, voters say they’d back the Labour Party, which enjoys a 10-point advantage in the polls.

Cameron’s signature policy—an austerity plan meant to wipe out the structural budget deficit by the 2015 election—has caused pain among voters and is certain to cause more. The government will have implemented £37 billion ($ 59.11 billion), less than a third of the £126 billion of cuts planned, by the end of the fiscal year. Welfare payments for housing have been capped, forcing some poor people to move out of expensive areas such as London. Pay has been frozen for police, teachers, nurses, doctors, and other public-sector workers.

The success of the austerity plan depended on the economy returning to a growth rate of 2.3 percent in 2011 and 2.8 percent in 2012. It didn’t; the economy is only now emerging from a double-dip recession. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research forecast on Nov. 2 that the economy in 2013 will be 5.3 percent smaller than forecast in 2010. The deficit-elimination target has been pushed back to the fiscal year ending April 2017. That means the government will go into the 2015 election promising further spending cuts and tax hikes.

On Oct. 31, Cameron suffered his first House of Commons defeat at the hands of his own party’s lawmakers on a vote over contributing to the European Union budget. In a vote designed to embarrass Cameron, Tory MPs wanted him to call for a cut in the budget. Cameron argued that calling for a budget freeze was more realistic. It was eight years before former Tony Blair lost a vote; it’s taken Cameron two. “On the specific issue of Europe, Conservatives in this Parliament are the most rebellious since dinosaurs ruled the earth,” says Philip Cowley, professor of politics at the University of Nottingham. “But it’s not just Europe. He’s retreated on a series of issues where he would have been defeated.”

The setback with the greatest impact may be Cameron’s abandonment of plans to introduce elections to the House of Lords. Although a popularly elected upper house has long been a cherished policy goal of his coalition allies, the Liberal Democrats, Cameron dropped the effort in the face of opposition from Tory traditionalists. In retaliation, the Liberal Democrats said they’d block a redrawing of electoral boundaries, which at the moment favor Labour. Evening up the sizes of districts would have helped the Conservatives win more seats, but Cameron will have to campaign in the next election with the same handicap that helped cost him a majority in 2010.

Cameron’s aloofness hurts his cause. Speaking of Parliament and its members, Cowley asks, “How often is he in the tea rooms? Does he talk to them in the corridors? The answer is no.”

According to Tim Bale, author of The Conservatives Since 1945, Cameron’s loyalty to his friends and his meteoric rise through his party to become leader at the age of 39 contribute to his alienation from other Tory lawmakers. “It’s admirable that he doesn’t let people go and move on, but that means other people think there’s no room for them in his circle,” Bale says. “If he’d spent 10 years in the lower reaches of the party, he might have had time to meet more people from different parts of the country and different backgrounds.”

Andy Coulson was one of the few who managed to get into the inner circle without having known the young Cameron. The working-class former editor of the News of the World, hired as Cameron’s press chief in 2007, quickly acquired trusted status. Coulson resigned from Downing Street at the beginning of 2011 as the hacking scandal at his former paper deepened. On the day his former aide was arrested, in July of that year, Cameron told reporters that Coulson “became a friend and is a friend.”

Cameron’s response to that scandal—to set up a media ethics inquiry—has angered Conservative-supporting papers. News Corp.’s (NWS) Sun newspaper supported the Conservatives in the 2010 election. Since the arrest of at least 10 of its journalists for alleged bribery, it has been hostile to Cameron, and in October it helped force the resignation of a member of Cameron’s cabinet, Andrew Mitchell, after he swore at a policeman guarding Downing Street.

A Populus survey in September found voters frequently describing Cameron as “out of touch” and “arrogant.” On the positive side, they were less likely to describe him as “out of his depth” than they were the leaders of Britain’s other two main parties. Nonetheless, the prime minister is holding fewer of the “Cameron Direct” town hall events that he did almost weekly when the Conservatives were in opposition and regularly in the early days of his premiership.

For all his problems, Cameron has one faithful friend: the bond market. Helped by the Bank of England’s debt purchase program, the yield on Britain’s 10-year bond is around 1.75 percent, a third that of Spanish debt. He also has two and a half years until the next election, and if the economy recovers his fortunes will improve.

Cameron’s options for now remain limited. The government can’t afford tax cuts. His Liberal Democrat coalition allies block anything he might do that would appeal to his party’s lawmakers and traditional supporters, such as tougher immigration laws. Conservative Party lawmakers have put Cameron on notice that they have the numbers and will to defy him if he softens his position on hot-button issues such as further integration with Europe. The prime minister needs a new strategy if he’s to widen his circle of friends.

The bottom line: Cameron still has to cut £89 million from the budget to eliminate the deficit. Voters and party members are getting restless.

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Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the EU‘s 2014-2020 budget.

“We always have to do something that will stand up to public opinion back home. Not all of the expenditure that has been earmarked has been used with great efficiency … We need to address that,” she said.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on November 22-23 to try to secure a seven-year budget for the 27-nation bloc amid signs of differences of opinion over what action should be taken.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the EU‘s 2014-2020 budget.

“We always have to do something that will stand up to public opinion back home. Not all of the expenditure that has been earmarked has been used with great efficiency … We need to address that,” she said.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on November 22-23 to try to secure a seven-year budget for the 27-nation bloc amid signs of differences of opinion over what action should be taken.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Youth support drives passage of California tax-hike measure

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California‘s 74-year-old governor, Jerry Brown, engineered a surprise victory for his tax-hike ballot proposition by tapping support at the other end of the age spectrum.

Proposition 30, a temporary $ 6 billion tax hike, passed with a solid 54 percent approval on Tuesday, driven largely by a higher-than-expected turnout of young voters, pollsters and analysts say.

The measure, a rare attempt by a state to raise taxes at a time of small-government fervor, was the cornerstone of Brown’s plan to balance the state’s $ 91 billion budget. Without it, the state would have to cut spending on schools and universities.

But in recent days, the proposition had seemed destined for failure, according to several polls. Brown, who began campaigning heavily for it in the last weeks of the election, held rallies at colleges, and many younger voters responded.

“It’s the reversal of a historic trend,” said Dan Schnur, director of the University of Southern California/Los Angeles Times poll, speaking about the normal difficulty of winning support for a tax measure in the waning days of a campaign. At the end of October, his poll showed only 46 percent of voters for the measure.

Young people made up about 28 percent of those who voted on Proposition 30, according to an exit poll from CNN, and 65 percent of them voted yes.

“We saw this amazing engagement that was fed by social media, on Facebook, on Twitter,” said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, an advocacy group.

The ability for the first time to complete the entire voter-registration process online contributed to the passage of the measure, he believes, because “young voters who registered online were more engaged.”

As election day neared, polls from the Public Policy Institute of California, the California Business Roundtable with Pepperdine University, and the respected Field Poll, all showed less-than-majority support for Prop 30, and at best they labeled its chances a toss-up.

But Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, saw signs Brown could persuade undecided voters and told several reporters ahead of the election that Proposition 30 had a shot.

He cited data in his poll showing that undecided voters shared many characteristics with voters who favored Proposition 30, including a favorable view of Brown, a sense that they were paying about the right amount in taxes, and concern over budget cuts that could kick in if the measure failed.

“If you looked at the 14 percent that were undecided, they held views that were more in line with “Yes” voters,” said DiCamillo. “All it needed was about three points from the undecided.”

Brown’s push in recent days for the initiative undoubtedly helped, including his visits to colleges and his attendance at a group of last-minute events, the pollsters said. On Monday, for example, Brown touted the measure at gatherings in San Diego, Burbank, Fresno, Sacramento and San Francisco.

(Editing by Peter Henderson and Philip Barbara)

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Country duo Civil Wars cancel tour, cite discord

LONDON (Reuters) – Grammy Award-winning country-folk duo The Civil Wars have cancelled their British tour dates, citing “irreconcilable differences” via Twitter and Facebook.

The pair made the announcement shortly after performing at the Roundhouse in north London late on Tuesday, but they added that they hoped to record together soon.

“We sincerely apologize for the canceling of all of our tour dates,” said the band, which comprises Joy Williams and John Paul White.

“It is something we deeply regret. However, due to internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition we are unable to continue as a touring entity at this time … Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013.”

The band said it would “do its best” to reimburse fans who had made travel reservations to see them.

The Civil Wars released their debut studio album “Barton Hollow” last year and went on to scoop two Grammy Awards – the highest prize in music – for best folk album and best country duo/group performance.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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U.S. soldier in Afghan rampage had no sign of PTSD: superior

TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a rampage earlier this year was an outstanding leader who had difficulty sleeping but no signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, his immediate superior testified on Wednesday.

Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of gunning down the villagers – mostly women and children – when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.

In testimony that could hobble any defense that Bales was seriously impaired on the night in question, First Sergeant Vernon Bigham told a pre-trial hearing that Bales had undergone surgery for sleep apnea but did not complain of PTSD, traumatic brain injury or headaches.

Bigham, Bales’ company supervisor, described the decorated serviceman as a capable sergeant “doing an outstanding job.” He testified via video-link from Afghanistan‘s Kandahar Air Field before a hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that will determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a court martial.

“I was trying to groom him, to help him make the next step,” Bigham said of Bales.

Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

The shootings in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

CHAFING AT RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Bales’ lead defense attorney, John Henry Browne, has suggested that PTSD or a concussion, combined with steroids and alcohol, may have played a part in the events of March 11.

But Bales’ lawyers have not said directly what their defense will be, and Bigham’s testimony could hurt any effort to portray the soldier as impaired by stress or mental injuries.

Bigham reluctantly told lead prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse that Bales was a “family man” who frequently discussed his children but complained about marital issues.

He had been “very excited” about his latest deployment, Bigham said, acknowledging that Bales preferred aggressive field tactics.

“Was he frustrated with the rules of engagement?” Morse asked. “Uh, yes,” Bigham answered.

Several witnesses on the first two days of the hearing testified that Bales had been upset by the lack of action over an attack on a patrol several days before the shootings in which one soldier had the lower part of a leg blown off by a bomb.

Bigham’s remarks came a day after another soldier’s testimony appeared to cast doubt on the government’s contention – supported by several witnesses on Monday – that Bales, 39, left and entered the compound twice on his own, and acted alone.

Private First Class Derek Guinn testified on Tuesday that he was told by Afghan guards that two U.S. soldiers were seen entering Camp Belambay, where Bales was based, in the early hours of March 11 and one was seen leaving again.

But Guinn, who spoke to the guards through an interpreter, said he personally did not see anyone leaving or entering the camp.

PHOTO EVIDENCE SHOWN

Two U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command agents, in testimony later on Wednesday, presented photographs that prosecutors suggested tied Bales directly to the murders.

Agent Trayce Lang identified photos of Bales’ blood-splattered camouflage clothing and his tan boots, boxer briefs, a T-shirt, ammunition belts and pants taken from him on the night in question.

“In the pocket was a box of matches,” Lang said. Bales is charged with burning 10 of the bodies.

Lang said she also found blood in the barrel of a 9-millimeter pistol surrendered by Bales after he returned to the base.

Matthew Hoffman, an Army reservist and police detective who supervised the Army’s investigation into the shootings, said his team found bullet casings that matched the pistol and semi-automatic rifle that Bales carried during the shootings.

He identified photos of blood-spattered walls in four mud homes in the villages of Alkozai and Najiban where Bales is accused of killing the 16 victims and wounding six more.

Hoffman said investigators couldn’t get to the crime scenes in the two villages near Camp Belambay for three weeks because of the risk of attack by enraged Afghans.

In the final testimony of the day, Army physician Major Travis Hawks described wounds inflicted on five Afghan civilians who were brought to the Forward Operating Base Zangabad medical facility.

Hawks identified the most seriously injured, a young girl called Zardana, from a photograph showing an exposed head wound with brain matter knotted into her dark hair. Zardana survived the night and was evacuated by two U.S. Army helicopters to a NATO hospital in Kandahar.

One other female and three males were also treated, Hawks said, including a boy, aged about 7, who sustained gory head injuries below his left ear. A male in his 40s sustained a neck wound. Each of the five survived after receiving extensive medical care, Hawks said.

(Writing By Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Ciro Scotti and Eric Walsh)

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Walmart moves “Black Friday” earlier on Thanksgiving night

(Reuters) – Walmart will kick off its holiday sales rush at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest start ever, and will guarantee that those who line up can buy a trio of gadgets as it places a big bet that shoppers are ready to spend this holiday season.

The holiday season is critical for Wal-Mart Stores Inc , the world’s largest retailer, and its Walmart U.S. division. More than a quarter of its annual sales come during the holiday season.

“We bought deep, very deep, and we bought deep on items that matter to our customers,” said Walmart U.S. Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer Duncan Mac Naughton.

Retailers are coming up with fresh ways to entice shoppers this year, as holiday spending is only expected to rise 4.1 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, down from 5.6 percent growth in 2011.

Walmart kicked off layaway a month earlier than last year, in mid-September. Layaway allows shoppers to keep a product on hold at the store and pay for it over time. Chains such as Walmart and Target have already published toy catalogs.

While the holiday shopping season traditionally kicks off on the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, the push to sell Christmas presents and other items has been moving earlier and earlier in recent years.

Retailers say that shoppers want earlier deals.

“‘We got customer feedback that says ‘I like to shop earlier so I can go to bed earlier,’” Mac Naughton said.

Thanksgiving will be observed on November 22 this year.

SPECIAL OFFERS

At 8 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving, Walmart‘s offers will include deals on video games starting at $ 10 and home appliances such as a Crock Pot slow cooker and a Mr. Coffee maker for $ 9.44 each.

Walmart also said it would guarantee that three items will be available that night to people standing in line in its stores between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving, though the items are not among the hottest new gadgets of the year.

Those shoppers are guaranteed access to an Apple iPad 2 16GB with Wi-Fi, a March 2011 version, priced at $ 399 with a $ 75 Walmart Gift Card; a 32-inch Emerson 720p LCD TV at $ 148, $ 80 below the usual price; and an LG Blu-ray player for $ 38 that Walmart does not typically sell but said goes for $ 68 to $ 79 elsewhere.

After a round of specials focused on electronics at 10 p.m. Walmart will take a break from special deals, giving shoppers a chance to get some rest or perhaps visit other stores.

Walmart now keeps its stores open overnight between Thanksgiving and Black Friday after an employee was trampled to death when a Long Island store opened on Black Friday in 2008.

Last year, key competitors including Target Corp began their special offers at 12 a.m. on Friday.

Other items to be offered during the night include brands such as Vizio, Samsung, Nikon, Nook and Beats by Dr. Dre.

“I think we have the brands that our customers want,” Mac Naughton said.

A variety of items from Goodyear tires to a Singer Sewing Machine go on sale at 5 a.m. on Black Friday.

Last year, Target, Best Buy , Macy’s and Kohl’s were closed on Thanksgiving and kicked off Black Friday sales at the stroke of midnight, their earliest starts ever. Best Buy Co Inc , Macy’s and Kohl’s all plan to open at midnight again, while Target has not given its plans yet.

Sears Holdings Corp’s Sears and Kmart stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Last year, Sears kept its discount chain Kmart open on Thanksgiving but the Sears chain was closed.

This year, Sears stores will open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and stay open overnight until 10 p.m. on Black Friday. Kmart has been open on Thanksgiving for the last 21 years.

In 2011, Walmart began with deals on toys, home items and clothing at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving, followed by electronics deals at midnight and other offers at 8 a.m. on Friday, November 25.

Most Walmart stores will be open on Thanksgiving, unless they are required to close by local or state law.

Walmart has faced protests in various U.S. cities lately and some workers have planned to walk off the job on Black Friday. Such actions are being sponsored by groups including a contingent of workers called OUR Walmart that receives union support.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

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