KABUL - Taliban units moved swept into the capital of Afghanistan on September 27th and swiftly brought an end to the fighting that has plagued the country since the Russian invaders left in 1989. The former Soviet puppet Najibullah was found hanged the next day outside the palace. Mullah Umar Rabbani Naqshbandi, leader of Taliban, has declared that Islamic shariah shall be strictly enforced throughout the nation.

The Taliban victory came quickly on the heels of their taking of Jalalabad 15 days previous. They met little resistance from government forces. Former President Buhanuddin Rabbani escaped under cover of night.

JERUSALEM- Massive demonstrations shook Palestine and Jerasulem to protest the opening Sept. 24th of a tunnel with access to the Dome of the Rock. Many demonstrators were killed and wounded as police and army took a "no-holds-barred" policy of indiscriminate shooting. International protest over the Israeli army"s handling of the demonstrations has increased as the Israeli army took control of areas under Palestinian authority.

KARACHI - Murtaza Bhutto, estranged brother of Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, died in the operating room shortly before midnight Friday, September 20, after he was shot in a clash with police, officials and relatives said. The shoot-out occurred when police stopped two cars escorting Murtaza's Pajero vehicle for a check, police said, hours after Murtaza vowed there "would be trouble" if police tried to arrest him without a legal warrant on charges laid Thursday.

Police Thursday had formally charged Murtaza and his supporters with assaulting policemen and ransacking two police stations Tuesday night after one of his key supporters, Ali Sonara was arrested. Murtaza was also the focus of a police investigation into two bomb blasts in Karachi Wednesday, but had denied the charge, instead accusing his sister's government of carrying out the blasts in which one man died and three were injured. Benazir Bhutto expressed her sense of "deep shock and grief over the ugly incident" in Karachi, an official statement in Islamabad said.

ANKARA - Turkey's Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan on Friday, September 20, made clear his opposition to further US attacks on Iraq. Breaking a silence maintained since the upsurge of violence in Iraq on August 31, Erbakan was quoted in Friday's press as saying a US attack "could aggravate the situation." He continued: "The United States doesn't know what needs to be done. It does not seem to have decided on a stance on Iraq and northern Iraq. It does not have a clear and defined strategy which is free from contradiction. The problem stems from this fact."