News

President Barack Obama says he has no plans to ask the Justice Department to end its criminal investigation into the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration.

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Honoring fallen soldiers in Italy Italian President Giorgio Napolitano touches one of the coffins of the six soldiers who died in an attack on an Italian military convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday upon their arrival at Ciampino military airport near Rome on Sunday. The victims were all paratroopers of the Italian 186th Folgore regiment.

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Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to do just that. In a letter to Obama on Friday, they warned that the probe could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to fight terrorism.

Obama tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he appreciates that the former CIA chiefs are wanting “to look after an institution that they helped to build.”

JERUSALEM

Obama ready for Mideast

President Barack Obama will try to get Mideast peacemaking back on track this week in a meeting with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, hoping the weight of the U.S. presidency can resolve a showdown over Israeli settlement construction and get the sides talking again after months of deadlock.

For Obama, it’s high-stakes diplomacy that relies on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as key to cracking other world problems. He’ll be bringing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together in New York on Tuesday for their first encounter since Netanyahu took office in March.

BAGHDAD

Black Hawk crashes in Iraq

A Black Hawk helicopter crashed at a major American air base in Iraq, killing one U.S. service member and injuring 12 others, the military said Sunday.

The UH-60 Black Hawk went down Saturday night at the Balad Air Base, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

The military said the cause of the crash was under investigation and gave no other details.

The helicopter went down on a night of high winds that tore through the area, whipping up a fierce sandstorm that was followed by thunder, lightning and rain.

NORTHFIELD, Vt.

ROTC ranks filling up

Burgeoning ranks of Army ROTC students are filling college classrooms around the nation this fall as the Army seeks to beef up its officer corps with its generous scholarship program that pays the college tuition of students who are commissioned as 2nd lieutenants when they graduate.

At the hillside campus of Norwich University, the nation’s oldest private military college, more than three times as many Army ROTC students are enrolled this year over last. Most of the nation’s 273 colleges and universities with ROTC programs report similar increases as the Army grows its officer corps.

U.S. Army Cadet Command, which provides most of the Army’s second lieutenants through ROTC, is being asked to produce more 2nd lieutenants, said spokesman Paul Kotakis.