Taliban insurgents kill translator
Taliban insurgents have killed the kidnapped translator of an Italian journalist whose own release from captivity followed a controversial swap for Taliban prisoners, a government official said Sunday.
The government official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed Ajmal Naqshbandi’s slaying hours after a purported Taliban spokesman telephoned news agencies in Kabul to say the interpreter had been beheaded.
Naqshbandi was working with Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in the troubled southern province of Helmand, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, when the two men and their driver were kidnapped March 5.
The driver was beheaded soon afterward, but Mastrogiacomo was released March 19 after Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to free five Taliban prisoners.
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, six Canadian soldiers serving with NATO forces were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle outside the city of Kandahar, the Canadian Defense Ministry said on its Web site. A seventh soldier with the alliance was killed in a similar incident, a spokesman for the international security forces in Afghanistan said.
LONDON
Captured Britons able to sell stories
The 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran for nearly two weeks have permission to sell their stories to the media, the Ministry of Defense said Sunday.
The decision drew complaints from some opposition politicians who said it could tarnish the image of Britain’s armed forces.
Serving service personnel are usually not allowed to enter into financial arrangements with media organizations, but exceptions are allowed, the defense ministry said in a statement.
After their release last week, the crew members told reporters in Britain they were subjected to constant psychological pressure in detention.
In an attempt to refute that claim, Iran broadcast new video Sunday showing some of the crew playing chess and watching television during their captivity.
A newscaster said the video proved “the sailors had complete liberty during their detention, which contradicts what the sailors declared after they arrived in Britain.”
TEHRAN, Iran
Bus collision kills at least 26, hurts 18
At least 26 people were killed and 18 others injured after a truck smashed into a bus Sunday in western Iran, state-run television reported.
The broadcast said eight of the bus passengers were killed immediately and another 18 died from serious injuries at a local hospital.
The bus tumbled down into a valley after the truck strayed into oncoming traffic, hitting the bus on a bridge on the highway linking Ilam to Kermanshah, about 441 miles southwest of Tehran, the capital.
HANOI, Vietnam
Mouse delays plane departure to Japan
A fugitive mouse delayed the departure of a Japan-bound airliner for more than four hours Sunday.
A passenger spotted the white mouse running on the floor of the plane on an initial leg of the Vietnam Airlines flight, prompting a hunt by about a dozen technicians worried that it could chew through a vital wire.
The mouse was found in a food storage area and the Boeing 777 was cleared for takeoff, said Tran Tien Dung, head of the airline’s air safety department.
Chan said Vietnamese aviation authorities suspect that a passenger carried the mouse in hand luggage.