LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "There was big smoke
in the sky, and there were many dead bodies." Mohammad Ismail, a vegetable seller injured in one of several blasts
Tuesday that killed dozens in Kandahar, Afghanistan Article, this pageTop Taliban confirm leader Mehsud died
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Pakistani Taliban commanders acknowledged Tuesday that the militants' top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was dead, ending weeks of claims and counterclaims over his fate after a U.S. missile strike on his father-inlaw's home this month.
Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, two of Mehsud's top aides and reportedly rivals to succeed him, called The Associated Press to say that their leader had died Sunday of injuries from the Aug. 5 strike in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
"He was wounded. He got the wounds in a drone strike, and he was martyred two days ago," Hakimullah Mehsud said.
Rehman later repeated the same claim.
The Taliban had insisted for weeks - in periodic, sometimes contradictory calls to media from various commanders - that Baitullah Mehsud was still alive after the missile strike, while U.S. and Pakistani officials said he was almost certainly dead and that a leadership struggle had ensued.
Hakimullah Mehsud and Rehman also denied reports of infighting in their Tuesday evening call, repeating an earlier announcement that Hakimullah Mehsud now leads the Pakistani Taliban and adding that Rehman would head the al-Qaida-linked movement's wing in South Waziristan.
Wildfire contained, Greeks blast officials
ATHENS, Greece - With a wildfire contained after raging for days near Athens, the Greek government faced a different kind of fire Tuesday as opposition parties and media lambasted its response to the blaze as inadequate.
Firefighters patrolled smoldering areas north and east of the capital Tuesday, guarding against flare-ups while assessing the damage.
At least 150 homes have been damaged, officials said, while thousands of acres of pine forest, olive grove, brush and farmland have been destroyed.
It was the most destructive blaze in decades in the Attica region, and the worst in Greece since the 2007 wildfires that burned for more than two months and killed 76 people while laying waste to 679,500 acres.
Main opposition Pasok party leader George Papandreou called the devastation "a crime."
Papandreou accused the government of failing to coordinate its response, not taking decisive action against rogue developers and not making proper use of volunteers.
The conservative government defended its effort in fighting the fire, which involved water-dropping aircraft from Italy, Cyprus and France. Government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said the effort had been "well-coordinated."Reeking Italy grotto
shut off to tourists
ROME - Police say they have made Capri's Blue Grotto off-limits to tourists after its waters started smelling bad.
The closure was ordered a week after police discovered that raw cesspool sewage was being dumped into the cave's deep-blue waters.
Health and environmental authorities were investigating Tuesday to see whether the stink and an unexplained white foam might have been caused by the cesspool dumping in mid-August.
Police have arrested two men who were found reportedly using a hose to pump contents of some of the island's cesspools directly into the waters.
Seeing the inside of the grotto by rowboat is a popular tourist attraction on Capri, a picturesque island off Naples.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 08/26/2009