WORLD BRIEFS

MIDDLE EAST: Mitchell rushes to keep talks going

The White House sent Mideast envoy George Mitchell to the region Tuesday in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the collapse of peace talks over Israel's decision to allow new construction in West Bank settlements. The Palestinians say there's no point in negotiating if settlements keep expanding. President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected Israeli proposals of a watered-down moratorium. His advisers said he would make a decision after Arab foreign ministers meet Monday in Cairo.

AFGHANISTAN: Emotional Karzai decries violence

A suicide bomber killed a deputy provincial governor and five others Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, police said. Later, a tearful President Hamid Karzai decried the violence, fretting that young people would choose to flee the country. The bomber rammed a motorized rickshaw loaded with explosives into a vehicle in a convoy taking Deputy Gov. Khazim Allayar to his office in Ghazni city. His son, a nephew and a bodyguard were also killed. Karzai called on Afghans to decry such violence during a speech about the country's literacy efforts.

RUSSIA: Medvedev fires mayor of Moscow

President Dmitry Medvedev fired Moscow's boisterous Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on Tuesday, ousting the man who gave the capital a modern face-lift but destroyed some of its historic landmarks amid a construction boom that turned his wife into Russia's wealthiest woman. Medvedev signed a decree relieving Luzhkov, 74, of his duties after Luzhkov openly defied the Kremlin and rejected a face-saving offer to resign after 18 years on the job.