Afghanistan

U.S. helicopters bomb tent, killing Taliban commander

U.S. helicopters bombed a tent in southern Afghanistan, killing two Taliban militants, including a top commander, as well as 10 nomadic tribesmen, a deputy governor in Zabul said Saturday.

The U.S. military confirmed the attack and said it killed Mullah Mohammed Gul Niazi, a former Taliban commander in the capital Kabul. Deputy governor Mullah Mohammed Umer said Gul Niazi had been leading attacks against U.S.-led forces for the past year.

Umer told The Associated Press by satellite phone that the incident took place Thursday night in the district of Naubahar, 120 miles northeast of Kandahar, though a statement by the U.S. military spoke of an operation on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe

Frail vice president dies at 81

Vice President Simon Muzenda, a longtime loyal aide of Zimbabwe’s autocratic leader, died Saturday, state radio reported. He was 81.

The report said Muzenda died at the main Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare. It gave no cause of death.

Muzenda had become increasingly frail in the past year and all but withdrew from public life. He attended few state functions and seldom appeared in public. He carried out his official duties as the senior of two vice presidents.

Though it left President Robert Mugabe without the most trusted political associate in his “old guard,” Muzenda’s death was not expected to change the political landscape in the troubled southern African country. Zimbabwe is in the middle of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.

Florida

Episcopal diocese rejects decision to allow gay bishop

The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida voted Saturday to repudiate a decision by the denomination’s national convention to confirm a gay man as bishop.

The diocese also rejected a decision by the General Convention that said same-sex blessing ceremonies were consistent with church teachings.

Other dioceses have rejected the decision to approve Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a bishop, but the central Florida diocese was the first to do so in a formal diocesan convention after a vote involving several hundred delegates.

The 400 clergy and lay delegates also voted to ask the world’s Anglican leaders, or primates, to intervene during a meeting next month to be held by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pakistan

Train smashes into bus, killing at least 27, injuring 6

A passenger train plowed into a packed bus as it crossed over railway tracks in central Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 27 passengers and injuring six others, officials said.

The country’s main emergency relief agency, the Edhi Foundation, said 35 people were killed in the crash. However, Pakistan Railways, police and doctors reported the lower figure.

The crash outraged residents, who accused the government of ignoring their pleas to improve safety at the crossing despite two earlier accidents.