Afghanistan: Allied troops claim valley

Advancing coalition forces claimed control today of the Shah-e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, sweeping up all but a few small groups of al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts as allied troops worked their way through the warren of mountain caves.

The announcement by U.S. forces came after high-flying U.S. B-1 bombers pounded al-Qaida and Taliban positions on a ridgeline that U.S. officers dubbed “the whale.” The dull thud of distant detonations could be heard this morning in Gardez, about 20 miles northeast of the front line.

“In the past 24 hours our Afghan allies … have seized the objective area, the ridgeline known as the ‘whale’ … and the whole Shah-e-Kot valley,” said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division.

Hilferty said no more than 100 fighters were believed to still be in the area. “The al-Qaida and Taliban are free to surrender,” he said. “We’d love to have them surrender. But so far, they have all decided to die.”

New York: Church shooting suspect charged with murder

A man with a rifle walked into a church and opened fire Tuesday, killing the priest who was on the altar giving Mass and a 73-year-old worshipper sitting in a pew.

The suspect was captured at a nearby apartment house in Lynbrook after a daylong standoff with police. The 34-year-old man was apprehended after he attempted to stab an officer with a small folding knife, Inspector Pete Matuza said.

The Rev. Lawrence Penzes, 50, was speaking to about 40 parishioners at Our Lady of Peace Church when he was shot in the back and fell near the altar, the mayor said. Eileen Tosner was shot in the face, Scarpato said.

The suspect, Peter Troy, 34, of Lynbrook, was charged Tuesday night with two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder, said Nassau County police spokeswoman Joan Eames. It was unclear whether he had obtained a lawyer, and there was no telephone number listed for him at the address given by police.

Washington, D.C.: Government belatedly sends hijackers’ visa notification

The Florida flight school where two Sept. 11 hijackers had trained received belated, formal notification this week that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had approved the men’s requests for student visas.

Huffman Aviation received the paperwork Monday acknowledging the INS approvals for Mohamed Atta, 33, of Egypt and Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23, of the United Arab Emirates.

Atta and Al-Shehhi trained at Huffman in Venice, Fla., in July 2000, and were aboard separate flights that struck the towers of the World Trade Center. The two initially entered the United States on visitor’s visas but applied for an M-1 student visa, given to immigrants attending technical schools in the United States.

A spokesman for the immigration service, Russ Bergeron, said the INS already had notified the men and the school last summer about the approvals and described the paperwork Huffman received this week as “backup notification.” The INS approved Atta’s request in July 2001 and Al-Shehhi’s request the following month, Bergeron said.