Events at a Glance

MILITARY FRONT

Anti-Taliban forces backed by U.S. airstrikes seemed poised to capture Mazar-i-Sharif, a key city in northern Afghanistan. The former opposition stronghold, which fell to the Taliban three years ago, would be a huge victory and could open up a supply route from Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, in Kabul, a Red Cross warehouse was hit by a U.S. bomb.

DIPLOMACY

Fearful that intensifying military action will topple the fundamentalist Taliban regime before a political framework is in place, Pakistan and the United States are scrambling to assemble a successor body that would include royalists, tribal and ethnic groups, overseas Afghans and “moderate elements” of the Taliban.

ANTHRAX

The powdered toxin sent to the Capitol office of Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) was determined to be highly potent and easily inhaled. The FBI found similarities between the letters sent to Daschle and NBC. U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said anyone perpetrating an anthrax hoax would be dealt with harshly.

AID

Even before the United States and Britain began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7, the international relief community faced huge challenges in its effort to stave off a humanitarian disaster. there. Now, that community is facing a nightmare.

INVESTIGATION

U.S. officials say Yemen has opened its evidence files on last year’s bombing of the destroyer Cole since Sept. 11. The result: mounting proof that the attack on the ship is linked both to the suicide hijackings in the U.S. and the 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa.