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Afghan rebel chief captured

QALAT, Afghanistan - Afghan forces in the southern province of Zabul captured five fugitive Taliban militants, including an insurgent leader, after a battle that killed scores of rebels, a regional Afghan commander said Saturday.

The U.S. military said it could confirm that at least 84 enemy fighters were killed in action.

The main Afghan commander in Zabul province, Haji Saifullah Khan, said his troops patrolling the district of Mizan, 25 miles northwest of the provincial capital, Qalat, captured the Taliban fighters late Friday. The captives included a junior rebel commander identified as Mullah Salam.

"Mullah Salam was injured and he was taken away in a U.S. helicopter," Khan said without elaborating.

The fleeing Taliban were retreating from Dai Chupan, the Zabul district that was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the ruling hard-line Islamic militia in late 2001.

Khan said hundreds of Afghan National Army troops are expected to be deployed in Zabul province this week to maintain security.

CERNOBBIO, Italy - A top American official urged European leaders Saturday to cooperate with U.S. demands to share information on airline passengers such as names, places of birth and dates of birth, saying European resistance was hampering antiterrorism efforts.

Tom Ridge, secretary for homeland security, said the European Union's demand to protect passengers' privacy must be balanced by the right of those passengers to travel safely. He noted that the United States wasn't requesting information on health or religion.

Ridge pressed his point at a conference here of European political and financial leaders, raising an issue that EU officials have warned could lead to a new trans-Atlantic confrontation.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring airlines to submit passenger data within 15 minutes after a plane departs for the United States. Before it lands, the information is checked against a combined federal law enforcement database.

The EU reached an interim agreement with the United States to implement the law in March, but there are fears that the legislation violates basic EU privacy standards.

EU law currently bans airlines from sharing the type of information sought except on a case-by-case basis, and the European Parliament has indicated it wants to scrap the interim deal altogether.

Ridge said the United States had already made concessions to the EU to limit the type of information sought and ensure that it was used only for antiterrorism controls, but said the Europeans had to loosen up on their demands too.

"Americans believe in the right of privacy as well," he said. "But let's find a balance between the right to privacy and the right to be secure in your travels, the right to live."

The European Commission is set to meet with Asa Hutchison, U.S. undersecretary for border and transportation security, in Brussels on Sept. 22 to try to resolve the differences.

If there is no deal, EU officials have said the EU would have to instruct national data agencies to stop sharing data with Washington and fine carriers that do so, leaving airlines caught in the middle.

Ridge said there was still "some time to go to reconcile our differences."