Serbia-Montenegro: Helicopter crash kills two U.S. soldiers

A helicopter crash killed two U.S. soldiers Sunday in Kosovo, a statement from the main U.S. camp in the province said.

The two were serving as peacekeepers in Kosovo. Their names and hometowns were withheld pending notification of their families.

No foul play was suspected in the crash of the AH-64 Apache helicopter the two were traveling in, and officials were investigating the crash, the statement from Camp Bondsteel said.

The United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers have been in charge of Kosovo since June 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign that forced an end to a crackdown on ethnic Albanian militants led by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Kazakhstan: Supply ship en route to space station

A Russian cargo ship laden with food, oxygen and other supplies for the international space station blasted off Sunday from the Kazakh steppe, Mission Control said.

The Progress M1-10 lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 2:34 p.m. Moscow time (5:34 a.m. CDT), a Mission Control spokesman said.

Russian launches have become the only links to the station since the U.S. shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia disintegrated during its return to Earth in February, killing all seven astronauts.

The Progress M1-10 — carrying more than 2 tons of fuel, food, water, oxygen and other supplies — is scheduled to dock with the space station Wednesday.

Thailand: Prime minister to leave for talks in United States

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra travels today to the United States to hold talks on terrorism and trade issues with President Bush, a Thai government spokesman said.

Bush is expected to ask Thaksin about the situation in southern Thailand, a Muslim-dominated area where the killings of policemen and teachers have been on the rise, spokesman Sitha Divari said Sunday.

Defense Minister Gen. Thammarak Isarangkura na Ayudhaya will accompany Thaksin and meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The threat of regional terrorism by Islamic militants will top the agenda, the Bangkok Post daily reported.

Southern Thailand has long been plagued by violence from armed gangs, some claiming to be Muslim separatists while others engage purely in criminal extortion. At least 20 police officers were killed in attacks there last year.

Georgia: Captors demand ransom for U.N. observers

The captors of a group of U.N. military observers abducted in Georgia have demanded $1.5 million in ransom, a Georgian television station reported Sunday.

The independent Rustavi 2 station said that one of the four hostages called and conveyed the demand overnight to the U.N. mission in Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia province.

U.N. officials declined to comment on the report.

Danish air force Capt. Henrik Soerensen, two German soldiers and a Georgian translator were kidnapped Thursday in the Kodori Gorge, an area contested by Georgian forces and Abkhazian separatists.

Pakistan: Attack by gunmen kills at least 11 police officers

Two gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a group of police officers with machine-gun fire Sunday in Quetta, a Pakistani town near the Afghan border, killing at least 11 officers and wounding 9, police said.

The officers were riding in a pickup truck on their way to a training school when the gunmen opened fire.

Police would not speculate on the motives for the attack.