Terror group says it was behind Mosul killings
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's most feared terror group claimed responsibility Sunday for slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where dozens of bodies have been found. The claim raises fears the terror group has expanded to the north after the loss of its purported base in Fallujah. Meanwhile, insurgents attacked U.S. and Iraqi targets in Baghdad and in Sunni Arab areas.
Iraq's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said sticking to the Jan. 30 election timetable would be a challenge, but delaying it would bolster the insurgents' cause.
25 killed, 141 trapped in China mine blast
BEIJING (AP) - An explosion tore through a coal mine in central China on Sunday, killing at least 25 miners and trapping 141 others in tunnels and shafts below without communications, the government said.
Some 127 workers managed to escape the state-owned mine, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing the State Bureau of Production Safety. Some 45 were hospitalized, five with serious injuries, Xinhua said.
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Iranian group canvasses for suicide bombers
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
Since the inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, with no sign Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.
On Nov. 12, the movement signed up at least 4,000 new volunteers.
Sharon: Israel willing to coordinate Gaza pullout
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel is prepared to coordinate its pullout from Gaza with a new Palestinian government, officials said Sunday, a shift from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's concept of "unilateral disengagement" and a sign that cooperation may be restored in the post-Arafat era.
Security forces are already quietly cooperating with each other, Israeli officials said. One went so far as to say, "It's back to business."
However, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said beyond routine contacts at field commander level, which have been maintained despite the violence, no coordination is underway.
No sign of a compromise on intelligence reform
WASHINGTON (AP) - The fate of an overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies rests with President Bush, who must exert more pressure on holdout Republicans if he wants compromise legislation to pass this year, a lead Senate negotiator said Sunday.
"If the president of the United States wants this bill, as commander in chief in the middle of a war, I cannot believe Republicans in the House are going to stop him from getting it," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., on ABC's "This Week."
NBC sports exec injured in Colorado jet crash
MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) - NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol survived a charter plane crash that killed at least two people Sunday, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV. Montrose County sheriff's officials said three survivors, including Ebersol, were seriously injured when the jet crashed through a fence and burst into flames at Montrose Regional Airport, which serves the Telluride Ski Area.
Geology publication tells true story of NM 'glacier'
CLAYTON, N.M. (AP) - It looks like a typo at first. Certainly, the November issue of New Mexico Geology doesn't really include an article about a glacier in Union County.
A glacier? In Union County, New Mexico?
It's no mistake, though.
Turns out some freakish weather back in August - on Friday the 13th, no less - created a mass of ice at least 15 feet high that geologists and meteorologists dubbed the Union County Glacier.
What began as millions of little hailstones turned into a massive ice sheet that captured a town's curiosity and took nearly a month to melt away completely.
