World in brief: U.S.-led troops launch offensive
Hundreds of U.S.-led troops have launched an offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in an area of eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden once hid, officials said Wednesday.
A bomb attack near the capital, meanwhile, killed three German police officers assigned to protect their country’s embassy, and a British national was shot and killed in Kabul.
The offensive involving ground troops and airstrikes in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar province is targeting “hundreds of foreign fighters” who are using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Capt. Vanessa Bowman.
A U.S. official in Washington with knowledge of the operation said it was “intelligence driven” and had been “piggy-backed” on top of a previously planned action against extremists.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said it was not clear exactly who was being targeted, but that those believed to be in the area included Taliban officials who could be accompanied by some mid-level members of al-Qaida’s leadership, but not the top echelon.
Beijing
China to crack down on false news
China announced the launch of a broad crackdown on false news reports and illegal publications Wednesday as authorities struggle with a spate of scandals and look ahead to the most important event on the country’s political calendar.
Although China’s one-party leaders face no popular election, they are sensitive before major political meetings, which tend to be heavily scripted. Wednesday’s announcement comes as President Hu Jintao moves to consolidate his power at a Communist Party congress expected in October, set the terms of his second term and secure his legacy.
China is battling a wave of bad press at home and abroad over the safety and quality of toys, tires, toothpaste, seafood, pet food, pharmaceuticals and food additives, among others. But the media crackdown, announced on a central government Web site and in the People’s Daily, the main party organ, is ostensibly a reaction to two recent scandals.
In one, a television station reported that pork buns were being stuffed with cardboard. The report received widespread attention, but the government ruled the story was a fake and sentenced the recently hired journalist to a year in jail.
In another case, a journalist was beaten to death in January while reporting about a coal mine.
The Hague, Netherlands
Bishop advocates calling God ‘Allah’
A Dutch Catholic bishop who once said the hungry were entitled to steal bread and advocated condom use to prevent AIDS has made headlines again, this time by saying God should be called Allah.
“Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will call God Allah?” Bishop Tiny Muskens said in an interview broadcast this week. “God doesn’t care what we call him.”
In this nation where religious tolerance has been eroded in recent years by a rise in radical Islam, the comments drew little support.