Afghanistan: U.S.-trained soldiers, officers graduate

More than 350 Afghan soldiers trained by the U.S. military marched briskly past President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim on Tuesday in a graduation ceremony, raising hopes that the country will eventually have a full-fledged army that can ensure stability.

The graduation of the 350 enlisted men and 36 officers of the 1st Battalion was held at the Kabul Military Training Center, where the bombed-out buildings had to be rebuilt before training could begin.

The Afghans were trained by soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group. A second similar-sized group is being trained by the French army.

These groups are the small beginning of an army that the United Nations says should eventually number about 60,000.

Moscow: Former CIA agent who defected dies

Edward Lee Howard, who maintained he was innocent to charges he betrayed his homeland and caused the collapse of the CIA operation in Cold War Moscow, died July 12 at his home in an exclusive suburb of the Russian capital. He was 50.

Howard was the first known former CIA officer to defect to the Soviet Union, and information he gave the KGB was said to have led to the execution of Soviet citizens for treason.

Howard, a native of New Mexico, started at the CIA in 1981 and was fired by the agency in June 1983 after he was suspected of selling secrets to the Soviets.

In 1985, Howard escaped FBI surveillance in Santa Fe, N.M., and fled to Moscow. He used a dummy in his car to evade the agents, and his wife later reportedly made a telephone call using a recording of his voice to throw them off his trail. His whereabouts were unknown publicly until a 1986 report in an official Soviet newspaper said he had been granted political asylum.

Jerusalem: Ultra-Orthodox Jews exempted from military

Israel’s parliament approved a law Tuesday that defers military service for ultra-Orthodox seminarians, legalizing a system in place for decades.

Full-time ultra-Orthodox seminarians will be exempt from service when they turn 18. At that age, other Israeli men must serve three years.

The new law will take effect in six months.

Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe Jewish law demands they study the Bible as a way of life. Their rabbis say the army’s secular atmosphere would be a distracting influence.

Under the new law, seminary students will be able to leave their studies at the age of 22 for a year without being drafted. They would then have to decide whether to resume studies or complete a shortened period of service of up to nine months.

Other options include national service hospital work, for example.

Kuwait: Delegation to visit prisoners in Cuba

A Kuwaiti security delegation will visit the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, next month to interrogate 12 Kuwaitis being held there on suspicion of ties to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, a senior Kuwaiti official said Tuesday.

The team of security officials that was formed about two months ago is expected to leave Aug. 16, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The official said the group would identify and interrogate the Kuwaiti detainees and will be briefed on the U.S. investigation.

Relatives of the detainees have said they were in Afghanistan performing humanitarian work with Muslim charitable organizations and are not members of bin Laden’s network, which was blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in the Untied States.