Events at a Glance

MILITARY FRONT

Taliban forces were collapsing and in retreat across a large swath of northern Afghanistan on Saturday, opposition forces claimed a day after seizing the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif. And U.S. warplanes continued to bomb several thousand Taliban troops as they fled west and south from Mazar-i-Sharif, the Northern Alliance’s interior minister, said.

POLITICS

He’s brought it up in Paris and Turkey, Britain and the United States. Pakistan’s president keeps on asking, even though Western leaders have repeatedly dismissed his plea. Gen. Pervez Musharraf has little choice: The Ramadan question won’t go away. The holiest month on the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is imbued this year with political significance.

ANTHRAX

Small amounts of anthrax were discovered in four new locations on Capitol Hill, including the Hart building offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), but they do not threaten the health of anyone who worked or visited there, officials said. The anthrax findings are “trace amounts,” insufficient to be inhaled and damage the lungs or to enter the body through a skin lesion, said Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician.

DIPLOMACY

A stern President Bush brought his counter-terrorism campaign to the United Nations, urging all members of the organization to join the fight because “every other country is a potential target” of Osama bin Laden and his followers. “Every nation has a stake in this cause. . . . This struggle is a defining moment for the United Nations itself,” Bush told the General Assembly.