KABUL, Afghanistan
Afghan president removes two top security officials
Afghan President Hamid Karzai removed two of the country’s top security officials over an attack on a national conference exploring peace with the Taliban.
The removals Sunday of the interior minister and intelligence chief surprised U.S. officials and may cause major disruption within Afghanistan’s intelligence and security establishment as the United States and NATO escalate the war and the Afghan government commits to offering peace to the insurgents.
The move is likely to fuel speculation over differences within the Karzai administration over its efforts to reconcile with the Taliban — including the possible release of hundreds of detained militant suspects.
The head of the National Directorate of Security, Amrullah Saleh, was a senior figure in the Northern Alliance that helped the United States oust the Taliban regime in 2001. Interior Minister Hanif Atmar served in Afghanistan’s Communist-era intelligence agency and fought mujahedeen opposed to the Soviet occupation.
SAO PAULO
Millions jam city’s avenues for annual gay pride parade
Millions of gays and lesbians jammed several of Sao Paulo’s main avenues for the 14th annual gay pride parade.
Dancing to music blasting from sound trucks Sunday, they condemned homophobia and demanded equal rights for homosexuals. They also said they would push candidates in this year Brazil’s presidential election to support their cause.
A river of gay men, lesbians, cross-dressers and heterosexual couples flowed down Avenida Paulista in what is billed as the world’s biggest gay pride parade.
Organizers expected about 3.2 million people, but will not release a tally until today. Police have not provided a crowd estimate. The event has become a huge tourist draw.
DALLAS
Checker cab Oswald rode sold to Illinois museum
The Checker cab Lee Harvey Oswald took after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has been sold at auction to an Illinois museum.
Canadian auction house RM Auctions said Sunday that the 1962 Checker Marathon was among the holdings sold Saturday from the defunct Pate Museum of Transportation near Fort Worth, Texas. The former Dallas cab sold for $35,750 for display at the Historic Auto Attractions museum in Rockford, Ill.
Checker Motors Corp. donated the cab to the Pate museum in 1979.
BOSTON
Longtime Globe reporter, editor dies of stroke at 84
A longtime reporter and editor for the Boston Globe who earned a place on the White House enemies list during Richard Nixon’s administration has died. Robert L. Healy was 84.
The Globe said Healy died Saturday of a massive stroke at his home in Jupiter, Fla. He had served at the paper as executive editor, Washington bureau chief, political editor and columnist.
Healy played touch football with Robert F. Kennedy and tennis with President Jimmy Carter’s chief of staff.
He served as executive editor of the Globe from 1969 to 1979. He wrote his last regular op-ed column in 1988 but continued to contribute to the paper.
Healy served as an adviser on the Northern Ireland peace talks in 1997 and 1998. He was working on a book about the peace process before he died.
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