Afghanistan

Embassy blast occurs after Rumsfeld visit

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld took a ride Thursday on Afghanistan’s bumpy road to recovery, finding modest signs of progress alongside grim reminders the country remains torn by violence and crammed with weaponry.

Rival Afghan warlords, responsible for much of the violence, are disarming only slowly, according to a British military commander, and there has been a Taliban resurgence two years after that group’s rule ended. Suspected militants ambushed a convoy of government census workers Thursday in the southwest, killing one and wounding others.

Underscoring the country’s fragile security, even in Kabul, a rocket exploded in a field near the U.S. Embassy two hours after Rumsfeld met with President Hamid Karzai in another part of the city. No one was injured in the explosion, blamed on Taliban fighters or their ally, renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Argentina

Papers reflect Kissinger support to junta

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger lent verbal support to Argentina’s military junta, which had been cracking down on dissidents, according to newly declassified documents obtained by a U.S. watchdog group.

“We would like you to succeed,” Kissinger told Argentine Foreign Minister Adm. Cesar Augusto Guzzetti during an Oct. 7, 1976, meeting in New York, according to the U.S. government records.

His comments were revealed in papers obtained and released Thursday by the National Security Archives, an independent Washington-based group that monitors Freedom of Information Act issues.

Kissinger did not immediately respond to calls for comment, but he has repeatedly denied ever condoning human rights abuses.

Vatican City

Catholic journal defends wartime role of Pius XII

The Vatican’s wartime pope, Pius XII, learned of the Nazi roundup of Jews in Rome only after it had occurred and tried to gain their release and prevent further arrests, a Catholic journal reported Thursday, citing newly unearthed World War II-era documents.

The article, in the Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica, challenges claims that Pius did little or nothing to protect Jews from slaughter by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The article in Civilta Cattolica, which has close ties to the Vatican, comes as the church digs into its archives to defend Pius as part of its efforts to beatify the wartime pope, a step toward declaring him a saint.

Pius XII, who became pontiff in 1939, was denounced as “Hitler’s Pope” in a 1999 best seller by John Cornwell for not using his moral authority to aid the Jews — an allegation echoed by some Jewish groups and other authors.

The pope’s defenders, however, say he used private diplomacy to help the Jews, knowing that a public denunciation of the Nazis would only anger Germany.

Mexico City

Oil investments split political party

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, the country’s oldest and largest political party, is split by a bitter battle on whether Mexico should open its oil industry to foreign investment and whether international trading blocs devastate and weaken developing countries.

A majority of lawmakers voted Wednesday to oust Elba Esther Gordillo as their congressional leader because she was perceived as supporting economic reforms proposed by President Vicente Fox. She was replaced with party stalwart Emilio Chuayfett, a former governor of the state of Mexico who also served as the country’s interior minister.

Fox has proposed expanding the national sales tax to include items that have long been exempt — such as food, medicine and books — and changing Mexico’s constitution to allow foreigners to invest in the oil and electricity sectors.

Saudi Arabia

Militant video triggers terror warnings

A videotape discovered in a raid on terror suspects shows militants had a Western housing compound in the Saudi capital under surveillance, triggering U.S. and British warnings that panicked residents of the complex, its manager said Thursday.

The compound was never attacked, although heightened security was apparent Thursday in Riyadh after the warnings and two rounds of deadly attacks since May on compounds housing foreigners. American and Saudi officials have blamed the attacks on the al-Qaida terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.

Richard May, the British manager of the complex, said warnings issued by the U.S. and British embassies after the discovery of the videotape frightened the mostly Western residents of Seder Village despite extensive security arrangements already in place.

India

Ruling coalition wins key state elections

India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party soundly defeated the secular Congress Party in key state elections that were widely seen as a dry run for national polls slated for next year, according to election results released Thursday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which heads India’s ruling coalition, unseated Congress-led governments in three of four states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgargh — in the country’s Hindi-speaking heartland, losing only in the capital state of Delhi, the results from Monday’s election showed.

The outcome of the voting, which defied opinion polls, was a significant blow to the Congress Party, which dominated Indian politics for almost half a century after independence in 1947 and has been trying to position itself for a comeback in next year’s parliamentary elections.

The results were an important victory for the BJP and especially for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who continues his efforts to improve relations with Pakistan.