Afghanistan

Karzai says bin Laden is not in Afghanistan

President Hamid Karzai said Friday that Osama bin Laden wasn’t in Afghanistan, saying his government has no idea of his whereabouts.

“God knows where he is,” he said. “We don’t know. … He is not in Afghanistan.”

The comments come just days after Pakisani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the al-Qaida leader wasn’t in Pakistan and could be hiding in southeastern Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have said they believe bin Laden to be hiding somewhere in rugged mountains between the two nations.

Also Friday, a purported Taliban spokesman reiterated a claim that a missing American commando was being interrogated by the Taliban and would soon be killed.

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore declined to comment on the latest claim that a U.S. Navy SEAL commando has been captured, except to say that “we are continuing to search for him.”

Brazil

Agreement reached on reduced AIDS drug price

Brazil and a U.S. drug maker reached an agreement late Friday on a reduced AIDS drug price, prompting the Latin nation to end plans to break the company’s patent, the Health Ministry said Friday.

The agreement, reached after 10 days of negotiations, calls for Abbott Laboratories to significantly reduce its price for the drug Kaletra over the next six years, according to a ministry statement.

The Health Ministry had warned it would break the patent and produce a cheaper, generic version unless the two sides could work out an arrangement.

The Health Ministry said Abbott’s price reduction will allow Brazil to save about $260 million over six years.

The Brazilian government said the plan will allow more patients to be treated with Kaletra without increasing in the drug’s annual cost.

As part of the agreement, Abbott also agreed to Brazilian production of a generic drug after 2015, the statement said.

Germany

Creator of `Sasser’ worm gets suspended sentence

The teen creator of the “Sasser” Internet worm, which caused millions of dollars in damage worldwide, won’t be going to jail despite his conviction Friday on charges including computer sabotage.

Sven Jaschan, 19, who was fingered with the help of reward money from Microsoft Corp., instead got a 21-month suspended sentence and was ordered to do community service, court spokeswoman Katharina Kruetzfeld said.

Jaschan could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison. But, because he was a minor when arrested, prosecutors had only sought a two-year suspended sentence.

“Sven Jaschan avoided a jail sentence by the skin of his teeth because he was arrested within days of his 18th birthday,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for anti-virus vendor Sophos PLC. “In many ways, Sven Jaschan was lucky that the police caught him when they did.”

Following the conviction Friday, Microsoft said two people who had helped identify Jaschan would share a $250,000 reward, the first bounty to be paid under its $5 million reward program.

Microsoft would not identify the reward recipients but said it was convinced they were not involved in any way.