World/Nation Briefs
Afghan 'insider attack' kills U.S. general
KABUL, Afghanistan - An American major general was shot to death Tuesday in one of the bloodiest insider attacks of the long Afghanistan war when a gunman dressed as an Afghan soldier turned on allied troops, wounding about 15 including a German general and two Afghan generals.
The Army identified the American officer as Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, a 34-year veteran. An engineer by training, Greene was on his first deployment to a war zone and was involved in preparing Afghan forces for the time when U.S.-coalition troops leave at the end of this year. He was the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.
Greene was the highest-ranked American officer killed in combat in the nation's post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the highest-ranked officer killed in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War.
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After truce, Israel and Hamas to negotiate deal
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The outlines of a solution for battered, blockaded Gaza are emerging after Tuesday's tentative Israel-Hamas cease-fire: Norway is organizing a donor conference and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas aims to oversee rebuilding and reassert his authority in the territory, lost to Hamas in 2007.
Forces loyal to Abbas would be deployed at Gaza's crossings to encourage Israel and Egypt to lift the closure they imposed after the Hamas takeover.
Indirect Israel-Hamas talks in Cairo are to tackle the details. The hope is that promises of a better life for Gazans will coax compromise and avert what had been looking like a fight to the finish.
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Kansas Sen. Roberts holds slim primary lead
WASHINGTON - Three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts maintained a slim lead over tea party favorite Milton Wolf in Kansas' primary Tuesday night in the latest contest pitting mainstream conservatives against the upstart movement. A first-term Michigan GOP congressman lost his bid for re-election.
With 62 percent of the precincts reporting, Roberts held a 48 percent to 41 percent edge over Wolf, a radiologist and distant cousin of President Barack Obama. Two other primary candidates combined for 11 percent of the vote.
The GOP establishment blames the tea party for costing it Senate control in 2010 and 2012 as outside candidates stumbled in the general election. Republicans need to net six seats to regain the Senate, and the party has taken no chances this election cycle, putting its full force behind incumbents and mainstream candidates.
Tuesday also offered competitive primaries in Michigan, Missouri and Washington state. Businessman Dave Trott easily defeated Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, 66 to 34 percent, in Michigan's 11th Congressional District, a reversal of the recent political order of tea partyers aiming to knock out an establishment favorite.
Bentivolio was often described as the "accidental" congressman, as he was elected in 2012 when former Rep. Thaddeus McCotter turned in fraudulent voter signatures for a ballot spot. Bentivolio is the third House incumbent to lose in the primary, joining Republican Reps. Eric Cantor of Virginia and Ralph Hall of Texas on the House casualty list.
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DNA test reveals grandson of Argentina rights group founder
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The founder of Argentina's leading human rights group said Monday that she had located the grandson taken from her daughter while a prisoner of the military dictatorship in the 1970s, one of the long-unsolved mysteries from the "dirty war" era that still haunts the country.
Surrounded by her large extended family, an emotional Estela Barnes de Carlotto, founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, announced that her long hunt for her grandchild had ended, while acknowledging other families are still searching for hundreds of children taken under similar circumstances.
"Thanks to God, thanks to life, because I didn't want to die without embracing him and soon I will be able to," the 83-year-old grandmother said at a news conference covered live on national TV. She has not yet met him.
The now 36-year-old man came forward on his own to have a DNA test taken and have the sample compared in a national database because he had doubts about his own identity, said Guido Carlotto, a son of de Carlotto who is human rights secretary for Buenos Aires Province.
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Russian hackers steal 1.2 billion user names, passwords
NEW YORK - Russian hackers have stolen 1.2 billion user names and passwords in a series of Internet heists affecting 420,000 websites, according to a report published Tuesday.
The thievery was described in a New York Times story based on the findings of Hold Security, a Milwaukee firm that has a history of uncovering online security breaches.
Hold Security didn't immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.
The identities of the websites that were broken into weren't identified by the Times, which cited nondisclosure agreements that required Hold Security to keep some information confidential.
The reported break-ins are the latest incidents to raise doubts about the security measures that both big and small companies use to protect people's information online.
- The Associated Press