Taliban takes, frees hostages
KABUL, Afghanistan — A day after President Ashraf Ghani announced another unilateral cease-fire, the Taliban ambushed a convoy of buses in northern Afghanistan on Monday and held more than 100 people hostage for several hours.
By day’s end, all but 12 had been released following negotiations between the insurgents and local community elders, according to an Afghan military official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The brazen attack defied Mr. Ghani’s announcement on Sunday that the government would observe a temporary cease-fire against the Taliban to mark the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday.
Greece feels little relief
ATHENS, Greece — There’ll be no dancing in the moonlit streets of Athens.
For all the official pronouncements that Greece’s eight-year crisis will be over as its last bailout program ends Monday, few Greeks see cause for celebration.
The economy is once again growing modestly, state finances are improving, exports are up and unemployment is down from a ghastly 28 percent high.
But one in five Greeks are still unemployed, with few receiving state benefits, underpaid drudgery is the norm in new hirings, the average income has dropped by more than a third and taxes have rocketed.
More Lombok quakes
HONGKONG — The Indonesian island of Lombok was reeling Monday from two earthquakes that killed at least 12 people a day earlier.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, said in a statement that 10 people died on Lombok and neighboring Sumbawa Island when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Lombok on Sunday night. He said two others died Sunday when another quake hit.
The region is recovering from a quake that struck Aug. 5, killing nearly 500. U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of that quake at 6.9.
Deaths aside, the Aug. 5 quake injured 7,733 people, displaced more than 417,000 others and damaged more than 71,000 buildings, the disaster management agency reported last week.