Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

CENTRAL ASIA
FOUR AMERICAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHAN BOMBING
KABUL, Afghanistan – Four American soldiers were killed and three were injured yesterday when an improvised explosive device ripped through a convoy of armored Humvees driving in a remote area of southern Afghanistan, American military officials said.
The bombing in the Deh Chopan district of Zabol province was one of a series of assaults yesterday launched by insurgents across the country’s south and east, even as American and Afghan forces continued a major offensive to flush them from their mountain hideouts in advance of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18.
On the outskirts of Kabul, the capital, two American Embassy staff members on “routine business” were lightly injured when a bomb was detonated near their armored sport utility vehicle, officials said. The embassy spokesman, Lou Fintor, said the incident was under investigation.
– The Washington Post
MIDDLE EAST
SADDAM VOICES SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN ARABS
AMMAN, Jordan – Facing trial and possible execution for the massacre of his fellow Muslims, ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sought in a letter published yesterday to cast himself as a martyr, writing that his “soul and existence is to be sacrificed” for the Arab cause.
The letter was believed to have been the first letter sent by Saddam to someone other than a family member since the ousted leader was captured in December 2003. Its defiant tone, flowery Arabic, and support for Palestine were similar to old speeches by Saddam. “It is not much for a man to support his nation with his soul and all he commands because it deserves it since it has given us life in the name of God and allowed us to inherit the best,” he wrote in what appeared to be a call to Arabs to follow in his footsteps.
– Associated Press
PERSIAN GULF
IRANIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES EUROPE ON NUCLEAR ISSUE
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s hard-line president scolded Europeans yesterday, accusing them of being willing to sell their goods to Iranians while at the same time trying to strangle Tehran’s nuclear program. In a speech to parliament, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not name any European country but was clearly alluding to Britain, France, and Germany – Iran’s largest European trading partners.
Some legislators, meanwhile, criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet nominees, with one lawmaker asserting that the new president’s proposed government had autocratic leanings. Conservative lawmaker Emad Afrough lambasted the nominee for interior minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, describing the former intelligence official as a leading religious hard-liner. The new government showed “radical autocratic tendencies,” Mr. Afrough said.
– Associated Press
NORTH AMERICA
CANADIAN WARSHIPS SET SAIL FOR ARCTIC
Canadian warships were sailing toward the Arctic yesterday in the latest act of gunboat diplomacy over control of the frozen wastes there.
Ottawa has launched a series of Arctic sovereignty patrols to assert its territorial claims and fend off rivals Denmark, Norway, Russia, and America. Its scramble for the Arctic is a consequence of global warming and the retreat of the polar ice. This has raised the prospect of once-inaccessible areas becoming available for oil and mineral extraction. It has also revived the dream of a North-West Passage for shipping, linking the Atlantic and Pacific.
Canada and America are at odds over control of the North-West Passage and the resource-rich Beaufort Sea, while Canada and Russia both claim overlapping parts of the Arctic continental shelf.
– The Daily Telegraph