Nato

SANGIN, Afghanistan -- The British army compound in a drug lord's former villa, with its sandbagged windows and lookout posts and shrapnel-scarred walls, is a reminder that until just a few weeks ago, Sangin was among the most dangerous towns in Afghanistan's most dangerous province, Helmand. Since their arrival last spring in this lawless region of mountains and desert, British troops have lost 64 men in almost daily combat against a Taliban force second to none in size and ferocity in the country.

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir V. Putin suspended his country's participation in a Cold War-era conventional arms-control pact yesterday, which is looked upon as a cornerstone of European security, further deepening the rift between the Kremlin and Western governments. By imposing a moratorium on its involvement in the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, or CFE, Russia is no longer bound by the treaty's limits on the size of its conventional weapons arsenal west of the Ural Mountains.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar in central Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 17 other people and injuring 51, officials said. At least a dozen of the dead were children, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement. It was one of the most deadly attacks in a year that has already seen an escalation in suicide bombings by Taliban insurgents. "Some of the children were walking to school, while other children were selling goods in the market," said Gen. Qasem Khan, the police chief of Oruzgan province, where the explosion ripped through a bazaar in the town of Deh Rawood.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Somber, impatient and angry, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan accused the U.S. military and its NATO allies yesterday of carrying out "careless operations" that led to civilian casualties, asserting that "Afghan life is not cheap and should not be treated as such." His remarks, made on the front lawn of the presidential palace, came in response to a week in which more than 100 civilian deaths have been reported from airstrikes and artillery fire against the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO forces said yesterday that they were investigating reports that 25 Afghan civilians were killed in overnight airstrikes in southern Afghanistan. The mounting civilian casualty toll in Afghanistan is eroding public support for the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. After the report of the latest deaths, Karzai told the BBC that accidental killings and injuries of civilians at the hands of coalition forces are "difficult for us to accept or understand."

TIRANA, Albania -- President Bush, making a historic and welcome appearance yesterday in this former communist nation where no previous sitting American president has set foot, pledged full commitment to promoting Albania's admission to NATO. But Bush appeared less certain about his stated commitment to the independence of neighboring Kosovo, with the president insisting that he will push for international agreement on the autonomous province's freedom from Serbia - yet questioning whether he had actually called for a deadline.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Sixteen Afghan policemen were killed and six more wounded in an ambush yesterday morning on the main road that runs from the capital to the southern city of Kandahar. The ambush took place amid reports of heavy fighting in several places in southern Afghanistan, in particular in Helmand province, where a NATO helicopter crashed Wednesday night, possibly brought down by Taliban fire. The policemen were driving from Zabul province toward the capital, Kabul, when they came under fire at 9 a.m. at Shah Joy, a district known for robberies and ambushes, which lies on an infiltration route used by insurgents heading to the mountains.

NATO chief arrives in Texas for 2 days of talks with Bush CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush welcomed the NATO secretary-general to his home here yesterday for two days of meetings focusing on holding together the fragile coalition fighting in Afghanistan and on dealing with new tensions with an assertive Russia. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived at Bush's 1,583-acre property late yesterday afternoon for what aides said would be a working dinner with the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

ZERKOH, Afghanistan -- Scores of civilian deaths over the past months from heavy U.S. and allied reliance on airstrikes to battle Taliban insurgents are threatening popular support for the Afghan government and creating severe strains within the NATO alliance. Afghan, U.S. and other foreign officials say they worry about the political toll the civilian deaths are exacting on President Hamid Karzai, who the week before last issued another harsh condemnation of the U.S. and NATO tactics, and even of the entire international effort here.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin obliquely compared the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech yesterday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, apparently in an escalation of anti-American rhetoric within the Russian government. The comments were the latest in a series of sharply worded Russian criticisms of U.S. policy on Iraq, missile defense, NATO expansion and, more broadly, U.S. unilateralism in foreign affairs. Many Russians say the sharper edge reflects a frustration that Russia's views, in particular opposition to NATO expansion, have been ignored in the West.