World/Nation

Netanyahu rules out Palestinian state if re-elected

JERUSALEM - In a frenzied last day of campaigning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state and vowed to keep building east Jerusalem settlements as he appealed to hard-line voters on the eve of Israel's closely contested general election.

The moderate opposition, meanwhile, announced a dramatic last-minute machination of its own, removing one of its two joint candidates for prime minister.

Netanyahu, who has governed for the past six years and has long been the most dominant personality in Israeli politics, has watched his standing plummet in recent weeks.

Recent opinion polls show his Likud Party lagging behind Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union. Herzog, who has vowed to revive peace efforts with the Palestinians, repair ties with the U.S. and reduce the growing gaps between rich and poor, confidently predicted an "upheaval" was imminent.

Attorney: Suspect didn't target two officers at protest

CLAYTON, Mo. - A man accused of shooting two officers last week in Ferguson was not targeting police or aiming at demonstrators at a late-night protest, his attorney said Monday as he countered an earlier police description of the crime.

Defense attorney Jerryl Christmas also suggested that St. Louis County police may have used excessive force when arresting the suspect, Jeffrey Williams, saying his client had bruises on his back, shoulders and face and a knot on his head.

Police spokesman Brian Schellman called the lawyer's allegations "completely false," adding that Williams was seen by a nurse when booked into the county jail, standard procedure for all incoming inmates.

"The nurse released Williams as fit for confinement," he said.

Williams is accused of shooting the two officers Thursday outside Ferguson's police station, which has been the scene of protests since last summer's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

At least 24 dead, 3,300 displaced by Cyclone Pam

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Relief workers were trying desperately on Tuesday to reach Vanuatu's remote outer islands that were smashed by a monstrous cyclone, as the United Nations reported that 24 people were confirmed dead and 3,300 displaced by the storm that tore through the South Pacific archipelago.

Radio and telephone communications with outer islands have not yet been established three days after what the country's president called a "monster" storm, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The agency said 3,300 people are sheltering in 37 evacuation centers on the main island of Efate and in the provinces of Torba and Penama. "Basic emergency rations are being provided to evacuees, including water, rice, tinned fish or meat, coffee, tea, sugar, Milo, biscuits and other items," the report said.

Military aircraft from New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand have been conducting aerial assessments of the damage, and aid groups were on Tuesday trying to reach Vanuatu's hard-hit outer islands, which officials in the capital, Port Vila, have been unable to contact due to a breakdown in the nation's communications infrastructure.

GOP may boost war funds to skirt Pentagon limits

WASHINGTON - House Republicans are considering adding tens of billions of dollars to President Barack Obama's request for overseas military operations in an effort to get around tight limits on Pentagon spending. The move comes as Republicans are set to unveil their latest budget plan.

Obama requested $51 billion for Pentagon operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, but GOP aides said Monday party leaders are weighing figures above $90 billion - enough to surpass Obama's proposal to spend $38 billion above the limits for the budget year beginning in October.

GOP defense hawks have promised not to support any budget that doesn't at least match Obama's $561 billion request for defense, but a 2011 budget "sequestration" law imposes a $523 billion limit on the defense budget - an automatic cut of $54 billion below previously agreed levels.

War spending, however, is outside the limits and offers an easy way around the automatic cuts imposed after the failure of lawmakers to replace sequestration with alternative deficit-cutting moves.

Oregon first to automatically register voters

SALEM, Ore. - Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote.

Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters.

Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn't registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days before the next statewide election. The measure is expected to add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls.

Some other states have considered such legislation but none have gone as far as Oregon.

- The Associated Press