World datelines

Afghanistan: Bombs

KABUL — International troops and Afghan police seized 250 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — enough to make up to a couple hundred roadside bombs, the Taliban's most lethal weapon in what has been the deadliest year of the war, NATO announced Tuesday.

Separately, video footage emerged of insurgents brandishing what appears to be limited stocks of U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan where eight Americans died in a battle last month.

Sunday's raids in the southern city of Kandahar appeared to net one of the largest hauls of the war. NATO officials hoped the fertilizer seizure would hurt Taliban militants, whose homemade bombs have become the biggest killer of U.S. and allied troops.

China: Dalai Lama

BEIJING — China lashed out at the Dalai Lama's visit to a disputed border region in India on Tuesday, saying his trip to the area revealed the exiled Tibetan leader's separatist agenda.

In a now familiar tit-for-tat response, the revered Buddhist figure and Nobel Peace Prize winner defended his trip, saying it had been overly politicized by others.

The Dalai Lama has been holding prayer meetings and teaching sessions with adherents in the Himalayan town of Tawang, near the frontier with Chinese-controlled Tibet.

China has repeatedly criticized his weeklong visit to the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing also claims as its territory.

Pakistan: 24 killed

ISLAMABAD — A suicide car bomber attacked a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 24 people and illustrating militants' growing willingness to target civilians in their war against the government.

Taliban insurgents apparently hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve to wage an offensive against the the group's stronghold along the Afghan border. But the indiscriminate killing could backfire by further turning the public against Islamist extremists, as happened in Iraq.

The bombing was the fourth in about a month to target a market in or around Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.

India: Landslide