World News at a Glance

U.S. Commander Moved to Place Nuclear Arms in South Vietnam

In one of the darkest moments of the Vietnam War, the top U.S. military commander in Saigon activated a plan in 1968 to move nuclear weapons to South Vietnam until he was overruled by President Lyndon B. Johnson, according to recently declassified documents cited in a new history of wartime presidential decisions. The documents reveal a long-secret set of preparations by the commander, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, to have nuclear weapons at hand should U.S. forces find themselves on the brink of defeat at Khe Sanh, one of the fiercest battles of the war.

Banksy Painting Self-Destructs After Fetching $1.4 Million at Sotheby’s

British street artist Banksy pulled off one of his most spectacular pranks Friday night, when one of his trademark paintings appeared to self-destruct at Sotheby’s in London after selling for $1.4 million at auction. The work, “Girl With Balloon,” a 2006 spray paint on canvas, was the last lot of Sotheby’s “Frieze Week” evening contemporary art sale. After competition between two telephone bidders, it was hammered down by auctioneer Oliver Barker for 1 million pounds, according to Sotheby’s. The painting was shredded, or at least partially shredded, by a remote-control mechanism on the back of the frame.

Bosnia’s Election Exacerbates Old Divisions, to Russia’s Satisfaction

Before Bosnia’s presidential elections Sunday, separatist Serb leader Milorad Dodik paid a visit to one of his most important backers: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dodik proudly noted that the elections fall on Putin’s birthday. He gave Putin a pin as a present, but his real gift to Putin seems to be doing whatever he can to undermine the fragile state institutions that hold ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina together. For Russia, the volatility of Bosnian politics represents another opportunity for the Kremlin to meddle in the Balkans, analysts say.

8-Year-Old Girl Pulls Pre-Viking Sword From Lake in Sweden

At the height of a sweltering summer, Saga Vanecek went paddling in a southern Swedish lake. And in the shallow waters, she came across something astonishing. She thought it was a stick, she told the news website The Local, and she was going to skim it over the water. But when she fished it out, it was a sword — about 33 inches long, black-brown with age and rust. With her family, Saga, 8, who is Swedish-American, took the sword to the local Jonkoping county museum, which confirmed that it dated to the 5th or 6th century, before the time of the Vikings.

Pope Orders New Inquiry Into Abuse Accusations Against McCarrick

Pope Francis has ordered a deeper investigation into the accusations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, the Vatican said Saturday, including a “thorough study” of archival documents to determine how he climbed the church hierarchy despite allegations he had slept with seminarians and young priests. The Vatican said the pope’s decision was motivated generally by the “publication of the accusations” against McCarrick, who once led the Archdiocese of Washington and was a major power in the Catholic Church in the United States. Vatican officials said the statement served as recognition that mistakes were made in handling the case of McCarrick, who resigned in 2006.

In Disaster’s Grip in Indonesia

At least 1,649 people have been confirmed killed by twin natural disasters on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island on Sept. 28. Many more are believed to have died, been buried under soil, swept away by waves or trapped in a tangle of crushed buildings. For three days, the national disaster agency put the number of missing at an improbable 113. Then, on Saturday, the estimate was increased to 256. But in just one of the neighborhoods visited by journalists for The New York Times, Petobo in the city of Palu, search and rescue workers estimated that thousands of people lay deep in the earth.

Before Vote, Atrocities Tilt Cameroon Toward Civil War

Cameroon is on the brink of civil war. Long-standing anger at the government has erupted into one of the nation’s biggest uprisings in decades. Separatists are waging a violent battle to break away and form their own country, called Ambazonia. In the middle of this melee, the country is trying to hold an election. One of the world’s longest-serving presidents, Paul Biya, 85, who has already been in office 36 years, is asking voters to give him seven more Sunday. Biya has been in office so long that most of the nation’s population has known no other leader.

Montserrat Caballé, Revered Spanish Prima Donna, Dies at 85

Montserrat Caballé, the Spanish soprano widely counted among the last of the old-time prima donnas for the transcendent purity of her voice, the sweeping breadth of her repertory and the delirious adulation of her fans, died Saturday in Barcelona. She was 85. Her death was confirmed by Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, where she was admitted last month, and by the city’s Gran Teatre del Liceu. Caballé was an enduring, vibrant international presence, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera, with which she sang 98 times; Covent Garden; La Scala and elsewhere, as well as at the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.