Events at a Glance

MILITARY FRONT

Taliban military forces deserted Kabul as opposition soldiers fired a barrage of artillery and rockets to fight their way into the Afghan capital after intense U.S. B-52 strikes blasted huge holes in the Taliban’s front lines. Northern Alliance forces also pushed westward to the Iranian border and encircled the northern city of Kunduz, officials said. The retreating Taliban took with them eight imprisoned foreign aid workers, witnesses said.

POLITICS

As opposition forces advanced across Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met with the foreign ministers of the country’s neighbor states and Russia to devise a strategy for the construction of a post-Taliban government.

ANTHRAX

Trace amounts of anthrax have been found in the offices of three more U.S. senators, including Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), bringing to 11 the number of senators’ suites found to be contaminated. All are in the Hart building, where an anthrax-filled letter was opened in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

SECURITY

Afraid that terrorists might have struck again, authorities mobilized quickly to close four New York area airports, shut down local bridges and dispatch military fighter jets to the skies near the Rockaway crash scene.

DIPLOMACY

Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami warned that forcing the Taliban out of Kabul or ending its rule altogether will probably not end the fighting--or the Taliban’s presence--in Afghanistan. The Taliban is likely to launch a guerrilla war from mountains and caves against opposition forces and any new government as well as any foreign presence, Khatami said.