KABUL – U.S. and NATO commanders released details this week  of plans for the biggest offensive of the nearly 9-year-old  Afghan war, to seize control of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s  second-largest city and birthplace of the Taliban.

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama announced plans yesterday for an expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling  in an effort to win Republican support for new proposals to  fight climate change.

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BEIJING/SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo email accounts of some  journalists and activists whose work relates to China were  compromised in an attack discovered this week, days after Google  announced it would move its Chinese-language search services out  of China due to censorship concerns.

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BERLIN – Germany and France said yesterday bank levies  should be imposed internationally to ensure a level playing  field and called for national bank restructuring rules to be  embedded in a European framework.

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UNITED NATIONS – Six world powers, including China, agreed  yesterday to start drawing up new sanctions on Iran over its  nuclear program in the next few days, diplomatic sources with  knowledge of the talks said.

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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari faced more  political turmoil yesterday as a lawyer for the  anti-corruption agency said it had asked Switzerland to reopen  old graft cases against him, signalling a Supreme Court  challenge to his immunity as head of state.