AFGHANISTAN
Taliban suicide squad hits U.S. base in south
KANDAHAR | A Taliban suicide squad armed with bombs and rockets attacked the largest U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, injuring one NATO soldier and two civilians.
An initial rocket attack on Kandahar airfield, which left the three wounded, was followed by a suicide-bomb attack that sparked an hour-long gunbattle, officials said.
RUSSIA
Wildfires raging out of control
KADANOK, Russia | Some of the devastating wildfires sweeping across western Russia are out of control, Russia’s emergency chief said Tuesday, as fears grew there were not enough firefighters to battle them.
Tens of thousands of troops and volunteers were helping some 10,000 firefighters battle blazes in more than a dozen western Russian provinces, seven of which were under a state of emergency. Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday evening there were 246 fires burning on a total of 310,000 acres.
SUDAN
Bashir to visit Libya, despite arrest warrant
KHARTOUM | Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an international warrant for genocide, will start a two-day visit to Libya on Wednesday, Sudan’s official news agency reported.
The president will be accompanied by intelligence chief Mohammed Atta to discuss “bilateral relations” with Libyan leader Moamar Gadhafi, the Suna news agency reported.
Mr. Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with genocide and war crimes during the war, was in Libya in March to attend an Arab summit.
RUSSIA
Chemical-weapons deadline pushed back
MOSCOW | Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the country will push back its deadline for destroying chemical-weapons stockpiles by as much as three years due to budget and technical problems.
Under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, Russia was to eliminate all its chemical weapons by 2012.
But the Interfax news agency cited the ministry as saying Tuesday that because of the global financial crisis “we have run into objective financial and technical difficulties which oblige us to extend by 2.5-3 years the period of concluding the liquidation.”
AFGHANISTAN
Code of conduct seeks to win hearts, minds
SPIN BOLDAK | An updated Taliban code of conduct urges fighters to avoid killing civilians and forbids them from seizing weapons and money, a directive aimed at winning hearts and minds of Afghans also being courted by international forces.
But the document declares that people working for international forces or the Afghan government are “supporters of the infidels” and can be killed. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar took a similar hard line in orders to insurgents that NATO forces said they intercepted in early June.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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