Briefly

Tennesse: License examiner’s death before trial raises suspicions

A mysterious car crash outside Memphis is fueling questions about possible terrorist links involving five Middle Easterners charged with buying fake driver’s licenses in Tennessee.

Katherine Smith, a Tennessee driver’s license examiner charged with furnishing the fake licenses, had been due to appear in court Monday in a detention hearing.

But early Sunday morning, Smith was found dead outside Memphis after her car apparently ran off the highway, struck a traffic light pole and burst into flames.

“The timing is odd,” George Bolds, an FBI spokesman in Memphis, said.

Authorities said Monday they believed there may be “connections” between the five remaining defendants and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Miami: Flight passenger reportedly had ‘mental breakdown’

A passenger accused of trying to storm the cockpit of a United Airlines flight was ordered held without bail Tuesday, and his lawyer said he suffered a “complete mental breakdown” aboard the plane.

Pablo Moreira Mosca, 29, was subdued with the blunt end of an ax Thursday on the Miami-to-Argentina flight after ramming and kicking open part of the cockpit door and trying to wriggle through, officials said.

Investigators said they have no evidence that the Uruguayan banker had ties to any terrorist groups.

The flight-interference charge carries up to 20 years in prison.

Kabul: Authorities negotiating surrender of Taliban leaders

Afghan authorities are negotiating the surrender of some 15 Taliban leaders, who may include former Cabinet ministers, an Afghan official said Tuesday a development that could boost efforts to find Osama bin Laden.

The Taliban figures are negotiating indirectly with representatives of Gul Agha, governor of southern Kandahar province, which was the Islamic movement’s stronghold before the U.S.-led war, said the governor’s spokesman, Khalid Pashtun. He said the surrender “might take a week or two or three or four.”

Pashtun refused to identify the Taliban leaders but said “it is possible” some were Cabinet ministers.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar is not among those negotiating, Pashtun said.

Gaza Strip: Palestinian areas seized

Israeli troops seized three Palestinian towns and a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing three police, Palestinian officials said. Israel’s military called the incursions a response to rocket attacks against Jewish settlements.

The three Palestinian police died in Dir al-Balah in central Gaza, across from a bloc of Israeli settlements, according to a statement from Palestinian security, which said they were “assassinated in cold blood.”

The incursions followed Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks by the militant Islamic Hamas group from Gaza and an Israeli warning of wider military operations in response. The Israeli military said soldiers “seized territory … where rockets and mortars are fired.”