In the World

KABUL, Afghanistan - A security guard working for the international shipping company DHL opened fire yesterday, killing the company's country director and his deputy before turning the gun on himself, officials said.

The shooting took place in front of the DHL office in downtown Kabul. One Briton and one South African were killed in the attack, the British Foreign Office and South African government said.

The preliminary investigation found one of the Afghan security guards protecting the DHL compound opened fire on the car carrying the two foreigners when it pulled into the company headquarters, said Mirza Mohammad Yarmal, an Interior Ministry official.

- AP

HEBRON, West Bank - Nearly 600 newly trained Palestinian troops took up positions in this tense city yesterday, as part of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' attempt to expand his control in the West Bank and keep the Islamic militant group Hamas in line.

Hebron, a former Hamas stronghold, is the third Palestinian city to be reinforced with Abbas' forces. The pre-dawn deployment signaled growing security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

An Israeli army statement said, however, that the Palestinian operation was a temporary measure to help combat Hamas and maintain public order and did not constitute a transfer of overall security responsibility from Israeli to Palestinian forces.

- AP

BAGHDAD - Iraq's largest Sunni party said yesterday that it has suspended official contacts with American military personnel and civilians after the killing of a man near Fallujah.

The Iraqi Islamic Party contended the raid had a "hidden political motive" in an indication of rising tensions in Anbar province ahead of provincial elections, due to be held by the end of January.

The U.S. military said U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers arrested a wanted insurgent leader suspected of training roadside bomb cells in an operation Friday that killed an armed man who opened fire on the troops.

- AP

The Dalai Lama said

yesterday that he has given up on efforts to convince Beijing to allow greater autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule.

South Korea accepted

a North Korean proposal to hold military talks, a Defense Ministry official said yesterday, amid continuing tensions on the divided peninsula.

China's premier

said yesterday that the country will take steps to improve its food safety, blaming the tainted milk products believed to have killed four babies and sickened thousands of children on a failure of regulation.