World Scene

MEXICO

Archaeologists find Aztec tomb

MEXICO CITY — Mexican archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar have detected underground chambers they think contain the remains of Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztecs when Christopher Columbus landed in the New World. It would be the first tomb of an Aztec ruler ever found.

The find, reported by the Associated Press, could provide an extraordinary window into Aztec civilization at its apogee. Ahuizotl, an empire-builder who extended the Aztecs’ reach as far as Guatemala, was the last emperor to complete his rule before the Spanish Conquest.

Accounts written by Spanish priests suggest the area was used by the Aztecs to cremate and bury their rulers. But no tomb of an Aztec ruler has ever been found, in part because the Spanish conquerors built their own city atop the Aztec’s ceremonial center.

AFGHANISTAN

U.S.-led strikes kill senior Taliban figures

KANDAHAR — U.S.-led air strikes hit a Taliban gathering in volatile southern Afghanistan and killed at least three senior figures of the militant group, government officials said yesterday.

The attacks in Helmand province’s Baghran district struck militants who had gathered to watch the hanging of two men accused by the Taliban of spying for the government, the Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The ministry said its intelligence reports indicated three militant leaders, including Taliban commander for Helmand province Mullah Rahim, were among those killed Thursday. The Taliban commander for all of southern Afghanistan, Dadullah Mansoor, was at the scene but his fate was not immediately known.

CHINA

Scores arrested for pro-Dalai Lama rally

BEIJING — Scores of people were arrested in a traditionally Tibetan area of western China following public calls for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reports said yesterday.

Police and army reinforcements were sent to the town of Lithang in western Sichuan province following the incident Wednesday at an annual horse festival that attracts thousands.

Also yesterday, China moved to tighten its control over Tibetan Buddhism by asserting the communist government’s sole right to recognize Buddhist reincarnations of the lamas that form the backbone of the religion’s clergy.

RUSSIA

Belarus gas supply will not be cut

MOSCOW — Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly will not cut gas supplies to its former Soviet neighbor Belarus after Minsk paid a “significant part” of a $456 million gas debt before a yesterday morning deadline, the national gas monopoly said.

All-night negotiations between Russia and Belarus in Gazprom’s towering suburban offices yielded a deal that gives Belarus one week to pay the remaining debt in full, allaying fears of supply disruptions through key export pipes to Europe.

BRITAIN

Car-attack suspect dies from burns

LONDON — The man suspected of driving a gas-laden Jeep Cherokee into a terminal at Glasgow International Airport in June has died without being questioned or charged by police.

Kafeel Ahmed, 27, died Thursday at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, police said. He is suspected of being at the center of the car-bomb attack, which occurred a day after two cars packed with gas canisters were discovered in Central London.

Witnesses to the June 30 incident said that Mr. Ahmed, an Indian engineer, set himself ablaze and struggled with police and passers-by who tried to put out the flames.

From wire dispatches and staff reports