NORTH DAKOTA -- A THREAT TO U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY?

North Dakota -- a threatto U.S. national security?
WASHINGTON -- Put down your accordions and man your battle stations.
For at least a split second Sunday, the home state of Lawrence Welk was declared part of the "axis of evil."
Senate hopeful Pete Coors had a slip of the tongue for the ages on NBC News' Meet the Press.
Moderator Tim Russert asked Coors, a Republican, about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
"Clearly, we should be more worried today, actually, about Iran and North Dakota than we are -- North Korea -- than we are about Iraq, based on weapons of mass destruction," Coors said.
Coors, a first-time candidate, later shrugged off the slip.
"I'm not a high school debater champion or anything like that," he said. "I'm a businessman."
Few could resist a response.
"North Dakota is going to invade us with an army of wood chippers," said rival Ken Salazar's campaign manager, Jim Carpenter, referring to a memorable scene in the movie "Fargo."
Coors' campaign manager, Sean Tonner, laughed at the gaffe.
"I'll tell you what, if Pete Coors were running in South Dakota, he would have that election locked," Tonner said, referring to the friendly rivalry between the Dakotas.
Coloradan Dick Wadhams, who is in South Dakota running the Republican U.S. Senate campaign, learned of the threat North Dakota poses while watching the debate on television.
"I was about to inform our staff to be ready to head south on I-29," he said.
Israeli army: Al-Qaidacarried out bombings
JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army believes that Al-Qaida carried out three car bombings in Egypt last week that killed at least 34 people, Israel's military chief said today.
Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the army's intelligence latest assessment is "the international jihad" carried out the attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, participants in the meeting said. The participants said Yaalon was referring to Al-Qaida.
The attacks occurred at sites popular with Israeli tourists, and at least 13 Israelis were among the dead.
Egypt has not said who it believes was behind the attack. Its investigators have been questioning dozens of Bedouin tribesmen detained after the attacks.
Church abuse cases
Hundreds of sexual abuse claims targeting the Roman Catholic Church in California have converged into one of the most complex civil litigation cases the state's judicial system has ever faced.
More than 850 alleged victims are suing dioceses throughout the state, with millions of dollars in potential settlements at stake in a legal battle that involves more than 300 attorneys and dozens of church insurers. The scope is so vast that the lawsuits have been lumped geographically into three consolidated cases, known simply as Clergy I, Clergy II and Clergy III.
After nearly two years, the pace of the complicated legal drama is finally starting to accelerate. Some trial dates have been set, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is expected to be deposed by year's end in cases related to his tenure in the Stockton and Fresno dioceses and a hearing on public access to internal church documents is scheduled for Wednesday.
Legal analysts and attorneys agree that the developments, all of which involve Northern California cases, will affect settlement negotiations that have dragged on for months in Southern California -- though exactly how is less certain.
Trials in a handful of Northern California cases, scheduled for March, May and June, could prompt settlements beforehand. Others say that, if there are a few multimillion-dollar jury verdicts, they could chill the ongoing talks in Southern California by giving plaintiffs inflated expectations and exhausting church resources.
Russian town marks endto mourning of massacre
BESLAN, Russia -- Residents of this grief-stricken southern city today marked the end of the 40-day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of a school massacre, lighting thin prayer candles and propping up photographs in the gymnasium at the center of the tragedy.
"My friends' children died. My relatives' children died. We are all dying from this," said David Alexeyev, who was visiting from the nearby North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz. "Time will pass, but that won't heal our wounds. One hundred years, 500 years -- it won't help."
The corridors of the school rang with women's wails and sobs, while in the surrounding streets, families set up long tables and bonfires for mourning meals. Grieving families could be identified by their men, wearing long beards that they planned to shave at the end of the 40 days.
Combined dispatches