Warlords

The warlord who rules northern Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, met for the first time with Taliban officials, agreeing to hold peace talks even as fighting raged north of the capital. A day earlier, Dostum met with members of Afghanistan's ousted government, led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani's government, meanwhile, offered an immediate cease-fire if the Taliban, an Islamic militia that ousted Rabbani and captured Kabul on Sept.

Iran has closed the offices of a former Afghan warlord who opposes Afghanistan's interim government and the strong new U.S. role in that country, one of his aides said Sunday. The closing of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's offices in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the eastern city of Mashhad appears to be a conciliatory gesture toward the United States. U.S. officials have accused Iran of trying to destabilize the new Afghan government.

Colombian police seized $25 million in properties from a paramilitary warlord extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges. Authorities took over luxury ranches, farms and plots of land owned by warlord Salvatore Mancuso, police said in a statement. Mancuso was one of 14 paramilitary leaders extradited Tuesday to the U.S.

At least 22 people have been killed in fierce fighting between rival warlords north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents and medical officials said. The latest deaths bring to 45 the number of people killed in fighting in the last week, and medical officials said the number of wounded stood at 85. The violence in Mogadishu pits the militias of warlords Muse Sudi Yalahow and Mohammed Dheere, but the reason for the fighting is still not clear.

Rival warlords Atta Mohammed and Abdul Rashid Dostum in northern Afghanistan said they had reached a truce and would begin withdrawing tanks and other weapons within 48 hours. But with soldiers squared off along a tense battlefield, it was not clear that the cease-fire would hold. Much of the fighting has occurred about 12 miles west of Mazar-i-Sharif. The United Nations said the fighting resulted in "high numbers of casualties" but did not have precise figures.

Congress passed a bill reducing punishments for right-wing warlords who disarm, a key step in President Alvaro Uribe's strategy to wind down Colombia's decades-long civil war. But opponents said it would let killers off the hook. The legislation demands that paramilitary leaders confess their crimes, return stolen goods and compensate victims. In exchange, prison terms are limited to eight years. Uribe was expected to enact the legislation this week.

Russian authorities said they had confirmed that a man killed over the weekend in a clash with Russian border guards in the Dagestan region was Ruslan Gelayev, 39, one of Chechnya's most powerful rebel warlords. Officials cited a leg wound, personal effects and statements from rebel suspects in making the identification. Russian officials have in the past repeatedly reported Gelayev's death.

An Afghan factional commander's forces took control of part of a remote provincial capital in a fresh challenge to President Hamid Karzai's effort to disarm warlords. Abdul Salaam's forces overran parts of Chaghcharan, capital of the central province of Ghor, after firing hundreds of rockets that landed in civilian areas, said Zaman, the provincial security commander. He said he had no information on casualties. Zaman, who uses only one name, said the government still held part of the town.

One of Colombia's most notorious paramilitary warlords, convicted mass murderer and wanted cocaine trafficker Hernan Giraldo, handed over his weapons under a peace deal that could let him off with a relatively light jail sentence. Giraldo and his followers gave up rifles, pistols and other weapons in a ceremony at Quebrada El Sol in northern Colombia.

Singled out by Time magazine as the "single exhibition not to be missed in New York City" last November, "Spectacular Helmets of Japan" is installed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco through Jan. 26. The show consists of 75 rare, fragile helmets dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries. These fantastic sculptural symbols of power and status come from the age of the great Japanese warlords.