Afghanistan

McCain wants military presence to remain

The United States needs permanent military bases in Afghanistan to protect its “vital national security interests” in the region, Arizona Sen. John McCain said Tuesday after talks with the Afghan president.

McCain’s remarks were the latest indication of American and British aspirations to cement their influence in this former al-Qaida stronghold on the doorstep of Iran, China and nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.

McCain, part of a five-member Senate delegation that met President Hamid Karzai at his palace in the Afghan capital, said he was committed to a “strategic partnership that we believe must endure for many, many years.”

Asked by reporters what such a partnership would entail, he identified “economic assistance, technical assistance, military partnership including — and this is a personal view — joint military permanent bases and also cultural exchanges.”

North Korea

Kim may return to nuclear talks

China urged the United States and North Korea on Tuesday to be more flexible in trying to resolve their nuclear standoff after communist leader Kim Jong Il said his government would return to six-party disarmament talks if Washington shows sincerity and meets his conditions.

Kim said in a rare comment on the nuclear dispute that his government remained committed to a peaceful solution.

“We will go to the negotiating table anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks thanks to the concerted efforts of the parties concerned in the future,” the reclusive leader told a visiting Chinese envoy, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. He expressed the hope that the United States would show “trustworthy sincerity,” it said.

Egypt

Human Rights Watch says nation used torture

The Egyptian government had shown a “shameless” lack of accountability by failing to name the 2,400 people it had detained for the Sinai terror attacks and tell their relatives where they are held, a U.S. human rights advocacy group said Tuesday.

Some of the detainees were tortured so severely that their hands were disabled, an Egyptian doctor and activist told a news conference sponsored by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and local rights advocacy groups.

A 48-page report by Human Rights Watch also said the government has not said whether the detainees have been charged.

Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady received a copy of the report but did not comment. A Foreign Ministry statement said the government received the report one day before it was issued, which it said did not give it enough time to study it.

Indonesia

Garbage dump collapse kills at least 33

Rescuers dug through mountains of debris Tuesday to look for survivors after a 30-foot wall of garbage and mud collapsed onto a neighborhood in central Indonesia, killing 33 people, police said. At least 70 others were still missing.

Police spokesman Lt. Suwaji said the landslide at a garbage dump near the West Java town of Bandung early Monday was sparked by torrential rains that have hit the region recently.

Suwaji said 29 bodies had been pulled out of the debris by Monday night, and four others were uncovered Tuesday morning. But the 30-foot high pile of garbage had covered dozens of nearby homes, and authorities said they still could not account for about 70 people.

The missing included scavengers who eke out a living by sorting through the refuse and reselling recyclable items.

Bandung is about 110 miles southeast of Jakarta.