World/Nation

• Obama's focus shifts away from airstrikes

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say President Barack Obama is not expected to approve imminent airstrikes against Iraq in part because there are few clear targets that could blunt a fast-moving Islamic insurgency.

Officials say Obama had made no final decisions and did not rule out the possibility that airstrikes could ultimately be used, particularly if the administration is able to identify a strong target. But they emphasized that the strikes were not the current focus of the administration's ongoing discussion about how to respond to the crumbling security situation in Iraq.

The president planned to brief top congressional leaders on the matter at the White House Wednesday afternoon.

The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing deliberations by name.

• U.S. nabs Libyan militant, aiming for U.S. trial

WASHINGTON - U.S. special forces seized a "key leader" of the deadly Benghazi, Libya, attack and he is on his way to face trial in the U.S. for the fiery assault that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, the Obama administration announced Tuesday. It was the first breakthrough in the sudden overseas violence in 2012 that has become a festering political sore at home.

President Barack Obama said the capture on Sunday of Ahmed Abu Khattala sends a clear message to the world that "when Americans are attacked, no matter how long it takes, we will find those responsible and we will bring them to justice."

"We will find you," Obama declared.

As recently as last August, though, Abu Khattala told The Associated Press that he was not in hiding nor had he been questioned by Libyan authorities about the attack at the diplomatic compound. He denied involvement and said that he had abandoned the militia. Administration officials said Tuesday that despite his media interviews, he "evaded capture" until the weekend when military special forces, including members of the Army's elite Delta Force, nabbed him.

• Nabbed Libyan militant suspect lived openly

CAIRO - The Libyan militant suspected in the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 attack on Americans in Benghazi was not a difficult man to find.

Ahmed Abu Khattala lived openly and freely in the restive eastern Libyan city - seen at cafes and in public places - even after the U.S. administration named him and another militant as suspects in the attack two years ago that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

"I am in my city, having a normal life and have no troubles," he told The Associated Press late last year after he was first accused. He denied the allegations and said he didn't fear being abducted from Libya.

That changed Sunday when he was detained by U.S. forces, marking the first U.S. apprehension of an alleged perpetrator in the assault that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Abu Khattala is being held in an undisclosed location outside of Libya and will be tried in U.S. court, according to the Pentagon press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby.

• Signs emerge of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Nearly four dozen Sunni detainees were gunned down at a jail north of Baghdad, a car bomb struck a Shiite neighborhood of the capital and four young Sunnis were found slain, as ominous signs emerged Tuesday that open warfare between the two main Muslim sects has returned to Iraq.

The killings, following the capture by Sunni insurgents of a large swath of the country stretching to Syria, were the first hints of the beginnings of a return to sectarian bloodletting that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007.

During the United States' eight-year presence in Iraq, American forces acted as a buffer between the two Islamic sects, albeit with limited success. The U.S. military is now being pulled back in - with a far more limited mission and far fewer troops, as President Barack Obama nears a decision on an array of options for combating the Islamic militants.

• Doctors, patients clamor for hepatitis drug

WASHINGTON - Your money or your life?

Sovaldi, a new pill for hepatitis C, cures the liver-wasting disease in 9 of 10 patients, but treatment can cost more than $90,000.

Leading medical societies recommend the drug as a first-line treatment, and patients are clamoring for it. But insurance companies and state Medicaid programs are gagging on the price. In Oregon, officials propose to limit how many low-income patients can get Sovaldi.

Yet if Sovaldi didn't exist, insurers would still be paying in the mid-to-high five figures to treat the most common kind of hepatitis C, a new pricing survey indicates. Some of the older alternatives involve more side effects, and are less likely to provide cures.