Around the world

U.S. missile plans still under debate

MOSCOW — Russia had a short answer Tuesday for President Bush's top national security advisers who came to ask for detente in the simmering argument over a planned U.S. missile shield at Russia's doorstep. "Nyet." Or maybe, "Not yet."

The United States and Russia got no closer to settling their public differences over U.S. plans that Russia sees as a potential threat and a turf battle over influence in nations once under the Soviet thumb.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he will take a closer look at U.S. proposals meant to allay Russian fears, but added that the best way to end the disagreement would be to scrap the plan for placing missile interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

The Russians promised to look over written U.S. offers for cooperation, a sign perhaps that they are resigned to eventually accepting the U.S. plan.

BRITAIN

'English Patient' filmmaker dies at 54

LONDON — Anthony Minghella, a screenwriter, opera director and the Oscar-winning filmmaker of "The English Patient," died of a hemorrhage Tuesday at age 54.

Minghella's death came five days before the British TV premiere of his final film, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency."

Spokesman Jonathan Rutter said Minghella died early Tuesday at London's Charing Cross Hospital. Rutter said Minghella underwent surgery last week for a growth in his neck. He said the operation "seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal hemorrhage."

Minghella's films also included "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Cold Mountain" and "Breaking and Entering."

AFGHANISTAN

NATO airstrike kills 12 insurgents

KABUL — NATO said Tuesday that it killed 12 insurgents in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, denying accusations from two Afghan lawmakers that civilians were among the dead.

The lawmakers, Dad Mohammad Khan and Mir Wali Khan were in the capital, Kabul, at the time of the strike and relied on reports from local Afghans about the airstrikes on Monday in the southern Helmand province.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the only people killed were militants who had fired on alliance troops.

Meanwhile, some of the 3,200 U.S. Marines slated for a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan's volatile south continued arriving at the region's largest base following a call from Canada for more troops.

About 2,300 troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, from Camp Lejeune, N.C., began arriving in the past days at their new base in Kandahar, the Taliban's former power base.

YEMEN

Guard killed, girls hurt in shelling

SAN'A — Three mortar rounds targeting the U.S. Embassy crashed into a high school for girls next door Tuesday, killing a Yemeni security guard and wounding more than a dozen girls, officials said.

The State Department said U.S. Embassy officials in Yemen had concluded that the attack was "directed against our embassy." U.S. officials refused to comment further, saying it was still under investigation.

A statement from the Interior Ministry said the shells fired by unidentified attackers in the downtown San'a district of Sawan wounded five soldiers and 13 school girls. Three of the girls were described as in serious condition and were being flown to Jordan for treatment.