AFGHANISTAN

Afghan forces said they killed a Taliban commander who played a key role in the kidnapping of 23 aid workers.

Mullah Mateen was killed along with 16 other militants in the central province of Ghazni, where the insurgents seized the South Koreans on July 19, said Deputy Gov. Kazim Allayar. Two of the hostages were killed and the others were released.

Allayar said another Taliban leader also wanted in the abduction, Mullah Abdullah Jan, remained at large.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said seven fighters were killed in the clash. He said the Taliban did not have a commander called Mullah Mateen.

SWITZERLAND 4 convicted in 2002 air collision

Four employees of a Swiss air traffic control company were convicted of negligent homicide in the 2002 collision of a passenger plane and cargo jet that killed 71 people, most of them Russian schoolchildren.

Three managers received one-year suspended prison sentences. A project manager was ordered to pay an $11,200 fine.

Only one Skyguide air traffic controller was on duty at the time of the collision in German airspace. That man, Peter Nielsen, was stabbed to death in 2004 by a Russian whose wife and children were killed.

JAMAICA Premier not ready to give up in vote

Jamaica’s first female prime minister faced pressure to concede defeat as officials began a final tally of ballots.

With her party apparently suffering a razor-thin loss in Monday’s vote, Portia Simpson-Miller refused to give up, saying the final count could shift enough close races for her People’s National Party to win.

Preliminary returns gave the Jamaica Labor Party 31 of the 60 seats in the lower house.

MEXICO Drug lord gets more prison time

A Mexican judged sentenced Benjamin Arellano Felix, a top member of a notorious drug clan, to an additional 22 years in prison on drug trafficking and organized-crime charges. The sentence comes on top of a five-year term handed down in April. Arellano Felix is in a maximum security prison in central Mexico.

From Times Wire Reports