Pakistan protests NATO airstrikes

Pakistan protests NATO airstrikes

KABUL

Pakistan vehemently protested NATO helicopter strikes that killed more than 70 militants, saying Monday that U.N. rules do not allow the choppers to cross into its air space even in hot pursuit of insurgents.

NATO said it launched the strikes in self-defense after militants attacked a small security post in Afghanistan near the border.

Although unmanned CIA drones frequently attack insurgents hiding on the Pakistani side where coalition forces are banned from fighting, strikes by manned NATO helicopters are uncommon there.

Panel: US lost trust over spill confusion

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration’s repeated low estimates of the huge BP oil spill undermined public confidence in the government’s entire cleanup effort, leaders of a White House-appointed commission declared at an investigatory hearing Monday. One likened the mistakes to Custer’s disastrous decisions at Little Big Horn.

Federal officials botched the government’s response, a local official and government and university scientists contended as the commission focused on the questions of who was in charge and how much oil spewed out of the well into the Gulf of Mexico.

N. Korea promotes Kim son to general

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il promoted his youngest son to the rank of general in the Korean People’s Army, the state news agency reported early today, the clearest signal yet that the 20-something is on track to succeed his father in ruling the impoverished country.

Kim issued an order handing six people — including son Kim Jong Un — the rank of general, the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch. Also promoted was Kim Kyong Hui, the elder Kim’s sister.

GOP overwhelms Dems with ads

WASHINGTON

In one way at least, the fight for control of Congress is grossly one-sided.

Just five weeks from midterm elections, groups allied with the Republican Party and financed in part by corporations and millionaires have amassed a crushing 6-1 advantage in television spending and are dominating the airwaves in closely contested districts and states across the country.

The extra firepower on the conservative side comes as some key Democratic- leaning organizations are experiencing unexpected trouble raising money or motivating supporters.

Money-transfer rules to be widened

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is proposing that banks report all electronic money transfers in and out of the country, expanding its anti-terrorism requirements for financial institutions.

Officials at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said Monday that the new requirement would boost their ability to track the source of funding for terrorists.

Obama presses for longer school year

WASHINGTON

Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that’s got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession’s focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

Associated Press