CENTRAL ASIA

AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBER KILLED BY SUSPECTED TALIBAN REBELS

KABUL, Afghanistan – One American service member and at least 16 suspected Taliban rebels were killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan, the American military said yesterday. Two American troops also were wounded yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in eastern Ghazni province.

The American was killed when Afghan and American forces came under attack during a patrol Monday in southern Zabul province’s Day Chopan district, triggering a firefight, the American military said in a statement. The service member’s name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the statement said.

Also in Ghazni province, in the Andar district, suspected Taliban insurgents attacked a medical clinic on Monday, killing a doctor before being set upon by villagers in fighting that left one villager dead, provincial Governor Haji Sher Allam said yesterday. Two wounded militants were captured, while two others escaped.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

ABBAS PROMISES JANUARY ELECTIONS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Mahmoud Abbas yesterday urged Palestinian Arabs to maintain calm during Israel’s upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and promised to hold long-overdue legislative elections in January.

The Palestinian leader told lawmakers a smooth Israeli withdrawal will boost the image of Palestinian Arabs in the world’s eyes. But he also cautioned against excessive celebrations because the pullout falls far short of the Palestinian Arab goal of full independence in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem.

The Israeli army yesterday closed part of the northern West Bank to Israeli civilians to keep opponents of the withdrawal out of the area. The army already has turned Gaza into a closed military zone, barring non-residents from entering.

While the withdrawal is a pivotal step for the Palestinian Arabs, it has been staunchly opposed by several of the rank and file of the ruling Likud Party. Yesterday, Israeli legislator Uzi Landau, a leading opponent of the plan, said he would challenge Prime Minister Sharon for the Likud leadership.

Earlier this week, Likud hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as finance minister in an apparent bid to wrest control of the party from Mr. Sharon. Yesterday, the government approved the appointment of a close Sharon ally, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, as the new finance minister.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

HALF OF OIL-FOR-FOOD COMPANIES MADE ILLEGAL PAYMENTS

UNITED NATIONS – Half the 4,500 companies that took part in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges and are being given a chance to respond to the accusations, two top investigators told the Associated Press.

The U.N.-backed probe is expected to release a major report in early September on the $64 billion operation and a final report in October on the companies involved in the purchase of Iraqi oil or sale of humanitarian goods under the program, the investigators said.

Paul Volcker, who heads the investigative team, said “the definitive list” of more than 4,500 private contractors involved in the program will include for the first time the entities behind so-called front companies. Richard Goldstone, a former Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor and a member of Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee, said that many contracts were accompanied by side-letters containing “evidence of kickbacks.”

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

THIEVES STEAL NEARLY $68 MILLION IN BRAZIL’S LARGEST HEIST

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Thieves spent three months tunneling under a busy city boulevard in northeastern Brazil to break into a Central Bank vault and pull off the biggest robbery ever in South America’s largest country.

The crime that netted $67.8 million was remarkably similar to a tunnel heist last year in which more than $1 million was stolen from a Sao Paulo company that transports money for banks. The suspected mastermind of that caper reportedly had escaped from prison three years earlier – by digging a tunnel.

The vault, in the city of Fortaleza, about 1,550 miles northeast of the capital, was plundered over the weekend “by a group of highly sophisticated thieves,” a federal police spokeswoman, Sabrina Albuquerque, said. Not a single shot was fired, she said, adding that while no one has been arrested, at least eight suspects have been identified. She did not know if more thieves were involved.

The Central Bank has begun its own internal investigation.

The heist took place sometime between 6 p.m. Friday, when the vault closes for the weekend, and 8 a.m. Monday, when it reopens.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

MAOIST REBELS KILL 40 NEPALESE SOLDIERS

KATMANDU, Nepal – Communist insurgents killed at least 40 soldiers in fierce clashes between the military and Maoist rebels in the country’s remote, mountainous northeast over the past couple of days, Nepal’s army said in a statement yesterday.

The soldiers, among about 200 troops at an army base camp that came under attack Sunday night, appeared to have been lined up and shot in the head execution-style, the Royal Nepalese Army said. The fighting continued through Monday morning. Rebels said 26 of their fighters were killed.

Scores of soldiers had been reported missing after the attack near the village of Tilli, in Kalikot district, about 340 miles northwest of the capital, Katmandu. Hundreds of troops, backed by helicopter gunships, combed the region by foot and found 111 of the missing soldiers.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

REMAINS OF VIETNAM VETERANS RETURNED TO AMERICA

The remains of 12 servicemen listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War have been identified and are returning home, 37 years after they died in a fierce battle near the Laos-Vietnam border, the Defense Department announced yesterday.

The 11 Marines and one Army soldier are the largest group of MIAs identified since the war, according to the military.

“Now we don’t have to wonder anymore,” said Steven Fritsch of Cromwell, Conn., who will bury his older brother Sunday at St. John’s Catholic Church in Cromwell. He said the news has been “bittersweet” for his parents.

Marine Lance Corporal Thomas W. Fritsch and four others will be buried by their families. The other seven will be buried as a group in Arlington National Cemetery in October, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s missing personnel office, Larry Greer, said. The Marines were killed during a 10-hour battle on May 9, 1968, on a football field-sized area in South Vietnam, Mr. Greer said.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

JAPANESE REMEMBER ATOMIC BOMB

NAGASAKI, Japan – The second and last city ever attacked by an atomic bomb marked the 60th anniversary of its devastation yesterday with a Catholic Mass, a moment of silence, and an impassioned plea for a global ban on nuclear arms. About 6,000 people, including hundreds of aging bomb survivors, crowded into Nagasaki’s Peace Memorial Park, just a few hundred yards from the center of the blast, for a solemn remembrance and moment of silence. Nagasaki’s mayor, Iccho Itoh, then had some angry words for the leaders of the nuclear powers, and especially America. Soon after, Prime Minister Koizumi, a staunch supporter of the American presence, placed a wreath before the monument to the dead. He vowed to advocate a nuclear ban but kept his comments brief. “This is an occasion to remember the victims and pray for world peace,” he said.

– Associated Press