State
Flu confirmed in infant death over weekend
SANTA FE (AP) - State health officials confirmed Thursday that a 3-year-old Bernalillo County girl has died from influenza, marking New Mexico's first such death in a flu season experts fear could be the worst in years.
Officials said the girl's case was one of three recent unexplained pediatric deaths. The causes of the other two deaths remained under investigation Thursday.
All three children died over Thanksgiving weekend; one child died at home and two others died at Albuquerque hospitals. Other details were not disclosed.
National
Kidnapping suspect held on $5 million bail
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GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - The man charged in the kidnapping of a North Dakota college student was ordered held on $5 million bail Thursday after his lawyer said he wanted to stay behind bars for his own safety. As Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, appeared in court, law officers in two states continued the search for 22-year-old Dru Sjodin, missing since she left work at a Victoria's Secret at a Grand Forks mall on Nov. 22.
Federal prosecutor found dead in Pennsylvania
BALTIMORE (AP) - A federal prosecutor was found shot and stabbed to death in a Pennsylvania creek Thursday after failing to show up at the trial of a rapper and another man accused of dealing heroin. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan P. Luna, 38, was discovered face-down in the water behind the parking lot of a well-drilling company in Lancaster County, Pa., about 70 miles from Baltimore, Brecknock Township police said. A car was near the body, police said.
International
Rumsfeld meets with two warlords in Afghanistan
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld took a ride Thursday on Afghanistan's bumpy road to recovery, finding modest signs of progress alongside grim reminders the country remains torn by violence and crammed with weaponry.
Rumsfeld, making his fourth trip to Afghanistan since the Taliban's fall, met for the first time with northern Afghanistan's two major warlords, welcoming them warmly. Afterward, he said he was satisfied they were moving toward disarmament of their rival armies - a step considered critical to extending the central government's authority beyond Kabul, the capital.
