World/Nation
• Pro-democracy protesters gather in Hong Kong
HONG KONG - Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong set a Wednesday deadline for a response from the government to meet their demands for reforms after spending another night blocking streets in an unprecedented show of civil disobedience.
A brief statement from the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement said it had set an Oct. 1 deadline for the city's unpopular Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to meet their demands for genuine democracy and for him to step down as leader of Hong Kong.
Wednesday is a holiday for China's National Day, and even larger crowds are expected to flood the streets. The government said it was canceling a fireworks display planned to celebrate the National Day.
One day after police shocked the city by firing tear gas at the crowds, the protesters passed a peaceful night Monday singing as the blocked streets in several parts of Hong Kong. They also staged a brief "mobile light" vigil, waving their glowing cell phones as the protests stretched into their fourth day. Crowds chanted calls for Leung to resign, and sang anthems calling for freedom.
• Netanyahu links Hamas and Islamic State
UNITED NATIONS - In a blistering speech to the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday that Hamas and the Islamic State group are "branches of the same poisonous tree," both bent on world domination through terror, just as the Nazis were.
Netanyahu also lashed back at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Israel last week of carrying out war crimes and waging a "war of genocide" during the fighting in Gaza. Netanyahu said Hamas committed "the real war crimes" in Gaza by using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, the Israeli leader argued that Israel's fight against Hamas and the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State are part of the same cause - the defeat of Islamic extremism.
Netanyahu railed against world leaders for simultaneously condemning the Jewish state for its war with Hamas and praising President Barack Obama for attacking Islamic State militants and other extremists in Syria and Iraq.
"They evidently don't understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree," the prime minister said, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its acronyms. He added: "When it comes to its ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas."
• Afghan president sworn in, paving way for U.S. pact
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan swore in Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as its second elected president on Monday, embarking on a new era with a national unity government poised to confront a resilient Taliban insurgency by signing an agreement with the United States that would guarantee a continuing American military presence.
As Hamid Karzai left the political stage, the new president was locked into an uneasy partnership with his defeated rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who became the country's first chief executive. With a hug for the cameras, both sides appeared determined to reach across factions and avoid a descent into an abyss similar to what has happened in Iraq, where the government's failure to mend lingering sectarian divisions following a full U.S. withdrawal helped give rise to the brutal Islamic State group.
The new Afghan government was expected Tuesday to sign a security agreement that provides a legal framework for the United States to keep about 9,800 troops in the country to train, advise and assist Afghan national security forces after the current international combat mission ends Dec. 31. That number of troops is expected to be cut in half by the end of 2015, and the U.S. would leave only about 1,000 in a security office after the end of 2016.
Karzai, the outgoing president, had refused to approve the deal, which is intended to help Afghan security forces combat the resilient Taliban insurgency.
The Afghan government also is expected to sign an agreement this week with NATO that would outline the parameters of 4,000 to 5,000 additional international troops - mostly from Britain, Germany, Italy and Turkey - to stay in Afghanistan in a noncombat role after the end of this year.
• Impartial jurors tough to find in Arias case
PHOENIX - Roughly a third of 300 potential jurors were dismissed Monday in the penalty retrial of convicted murderer Jodi Arias after telling a judge they had seen too much media coverage of her first trial to be impartial or had already made up their minds about her punishment.
Other jurors were let go due to work conflicts or language barriers, among other reasons, as jury selection began in the second attempt by prosecutors to secure a death sentence in the Arizona case that became a tabloid TV sensation.
Arias, 34, has acknowledged killing ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008 at his suburban Phoenix home but claimed it was self-defense. He suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, had his throat slit and was shot in the head.
- The Associated Press