AFGHANISTAN:

United Nations Tells Taliban To Surrender Bin Laden or Face New Sanctions

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday gave Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia a month to surrender Usama bin Laden and close terrorist training camps or suffer new sanctions. The move was sponsored by the United States and Russia in a rare show of cooperation. The United States and Russia lobbied the 13 other Security Council members hard to adopt the resolution. They argued the country was a "haven of lawlessness" whose hard-line Islamic rulers protect terrorists at home and support terrorism abroad.

The sanctions call for an arms embargo on the Taliban, including foreign military assistance purportedly given by Pakistan. The sanctions also require all Taliban offices overseas to be closed, and a ban on exports of acetic anhydride used to manufacture heroin - a bid to deprive the militia of its alleged opium revenue. The sanctions will go into effect in one month if Taliban authorities fail to close terrorist camps in its territory and deliver bin Laden to the United States or a third country for trial in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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