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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's Taliban are threatening to use all possible force to disrupt the country's presidential elections next month. The threat poses a crucial test for Afghanistan's security forces, which are trying to show they can provide stability as the West prepares to end its combat mission. Hopes for a peaceful outcome from the elections were dealt another blow over the weekend, with the death of an influential vice president who could have served as a peacemaker among factions after a new leader is named.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Aviation experts say the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared over the weekend will be found -- eventually. It took two years to find the main wreckage of an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. And in 2007, closer to the area where the Malaysian jet disappeared, it took a week for wreckage from an Indonesian jet to be spotted. One expert says the plane must have been intact for some time after disappearing from radar. John Cox, a former US Airways pilot who heads Safety Operating Systems, says if it had exploded along its flight path, the debris would have been found by now.
EILAT, Israel (AP) — Israel's prime minister has toured a display of dozens of rockets that were intercepted by navy commandos in the Red Sea last week. Israel says the rockets were on their way from Iran to the Gaza Strip. And it accuses the international community of ignoring Iranian support for militant groups. Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to get world powers to toughen their position in nuclear talks with Iran.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A military judge has decided not to dismiss sexual assault charges against an Army general. Instead, he's offering to let a different commanding general and prosecutors consider a plea deal that was previously rejected. The defense has until tomorrow morning to accept that option or allow the trial to proceed. Before the trial, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair had offered to plead guilty to some of the lesser charges in exchange for the Army dropping the sexual assault charges. The plea deal was ultimately rejected. Today, the judge said he'd found evidence that the decision to reject the plea deal was influenced by political considerations.
NEW YORK (AP) — Peter Lanza says he wishes that his son had never been born. The father of Connecticut school gunman Adam Lanza, in interviews with The New Yorker magazine, tells of his struggle to comprehend what his son did. He says the killing of 20 first graders and six educations at an elementary school was an act that "couldn't get more evil."
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