Afghanistan

Suspected Taliban killed by U.S. forces

U.S. soldiers killed about two dozen suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan after their convoy came under attack, the military said Sunday.

The suspected militants ambushed the convoy Saturday near the town of Spinboldak, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Douglas Lefforge.

The American troops returned fire, killing five attackers and pursuing the rest into the surrounding hills, Lefforge said.

U.S. Apache helicopter gunships chased the group and killed an estimated 19 of the suspected Taliban, he said. There were no coalition casualties.

Also Saturday, some 60 suspected Taliban fighters attacked a border post in southern Afghanistan before escaping across the border into Pakistan. None of the Afghan soldiers at the post was hurt.

Kuwait

Cabinet will propose women’s rights bill

Kuwait’s Cabinet will seek to amend a law that bars women from voting or running for office in the Gulf state, the new prime minister said Sunday.

Kuwait’s 1962 constitution grants equal rights to men and women, but an election law of the same year allows only men over 21 to exercise political rights.

“I would like to … assure women in Kuwait that they are on the agenda of future (Cabinet) meetings, and we will adopt this issue,” Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah told the state-owned Kuwait News Agency.

He did not provide details.

Sheik Sabah was reacting to criticism that he did not mention women’s suffrage when he outlined the government’s agenda in a speech to Parliament on Saturday.

Kuwait’s emir granted women the right to vote and run for office in 1999, but the Parliament voted down his decision.

Iran

Inquiry confirms journalist was beaten

An Iranian-Canadian journalist died from a fractured skull caused by a beating, an inquiry conducted by five Cabinet ministers has concluded, Iran’s official news agency said Sunday.

Zahra Kazemi, 54, died in hospital on July 11, nearly three weeks after she was arrested for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison. She was never formally charged with any crime.

Authorities initially said she died of a stroke.

President Mohammad Khatami called for an inquiry after Kazemi’s family and friends alleged she was beaten to death by security agents.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported late Sunday that the inquiry — headed by five government ministers — found that Kazemi “died from (a) physical attack.” It quoted the inquiry’s findings as saying Kazemi died from a brain hemorrhage caused by a “break in her skull.”

The IRNA report did not say who attacked Kazemi or where the attack occurred.