WORLD IN BRIEF

Afghan Warlord to Run In Presidential Election

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A powerful Afghan warlord will challenge President Hamid Karzai in the country's historic October election, his spokesman said Thursday.

Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum decided to run after securing support across the war-riven country's deep ethnic divides, said his spokesman, Faizullah Zaki. Dostum was feted by thousands of supporters at a rally Thursday in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Dostum lacks the national appeal to pose a direct threat to Karzai at the ballot box. A former communist and commander of a feared militia during the country's civil wars, he is widely mistrusted.

But he could win support among his fellow Uzbeks, who live mainly in the north of the country, and help force a runoff if Karzai fails to secure more than 50 percent of the vote in the election scheduled for Oct. 9.

Asia

• KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military in Afghanistan acknowledged it had held but later released an alleged Taliban official handed over by an American vigilante group operating in the country.

The vigilantes, led by Jonathan Idema, a former U.S. soldier, are now under arrest, charged by Afghan authorities with illegally detaining Afghans and torturing them at their private jail in Kabul. Idema claims to have been working for the U.S. government. The U.S. military and NATO peacekeepers had previously said he had no connection with them.

A U.S. military statement did not clarify this point but said U.S. forces had received a detainee from Idema's group at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, in May. It said the detainee was freed this month after it was established that he was not a wanted former Taliban official.

• SEOUL -- Up to 400 North Koreans will travel to South Korea next week in what would be the single largest group allowed to defect to the capitalist South, news reports said Friday.

Seoul's daily Kyunghyang Shinmun, quoting unnamed government sources, reported that South Korea has struck a deal with an unidentified Asian country to allow 300 to 400 North Koreans living in hiding in that country to travel to the South next week.

Europe

• ROME -- Italy deported on Thursday 25 of the African migrants who arrived on a ship operated by a German relief agency, putting them on a plane to Ghana and drawing protests from humanitarian agencies and opposition politicians.

A handful of others who were taken off the plane for causing a disturbance will also be expelled, officials said.

The deportees were part of a group of 37 Africans permitted to dock in Sicily on July 12 after a diplomatic stalemate. Five of the Africans on board were flown out Tuesday night.