SAN DIEGO - The Navy's new class of Littoral Combat Ships hasn't reached San Diego, and already the fleet is shrinking. Last year, Navy officials announced plans to berth the first four of these small, speedy, shallow-water vessels at San Diego Naval Base at 32nd Street starting this summer. The service intended to acquire 55 of the ships in all. Galloping cost overruns, though, prompted Navy Secretary Donald Winter to cancel the construction contract for ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - When Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his sweeping campaign against narcotrafficking late last year, he sent navy ships and thousands of troops to the port of Lazaro Cardenas to clamp down on the reputed hub for smuggling drugs to the United States. Drugs aren't the only contraband that is troublesome at foreign ports such as Lazaro Cardenas. The ports - growing transit points for boxcar-sized containers bound for the American heartland - ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - Amnesty International is set to introduce a report in Washington about the disproportionate rate of Native American and Alaskan women who are raped. Native American and Alaska Native women in the United States suffer disproportionately high levels of rape and sexual violence, the release said. And yet the government has created barriers that make justice very hard to achieve for these crimes, the group said. That is a key reason for the 113-page ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber succeeded in killing nine U.S. soldiers and wounding 20 more Monday while they were on patrol in Iraq's Diyala province. The U.S. military said in a statement that one Iraqi civilian also was wounded in the attack, CNN reported. A 10th U.S. soldier died in a separate incident involving a roadside bomb in Muqtadya. Those blasts were among a series of deadly suicide attacks Monday. One bomber detonated a ... [full story]

ATHENS, Greece - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought an end to European Union economic sanctions against his nation during a recent series of meetings in Greece. Meeting separately with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in Athens, Abbas asked that the European Union lift its embargo on his Hamas-led government as his nation meets the international group's expectations, Kathimerini reported Monday. "We call on the European Union to lift the embargo ... [full story]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - An independent jurist group reportedly has criticized a Sri Lankan police inquiry into last year's killings of 17 aid workers as not being impartial. The International Commission of Jurists described the investigation into the deaths of the local workers with Action Against Hunger as showing "a disturbing lack of impartiality and transparency," the BBC reported Monday. The bodies of the aid workers were found last August in Muttur, a town on ... [full story]

BRUSSELS - The European Union would build a force of quick-response border guard teams to react to immigration emergencies under a deal reached in Brussels. "It is the best ever example of European solidarity," EU Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said after a deal was reached on the border guard teams, the EU Observer reported. The border teams would be available to any member state with borders under "urgent and exceptional" strain by illegal immigration, ... [full story]

TOKYO - The Japanese air force is seeking to add a stealth fighter to its arsenal and has asked its government to garner the technology from the United States. Japanese air force officials asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to convince U.S. President George W. Bush to part with the advanced technology of the F-22 Raptor stealth jet, the Financial Times said Monday. Abe is to visit the United States this week. The political move, ... [full story]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's political parties appear deadlocked on how to move forward from the 2005 slaying of former Prime Minister Raffia Hariri. The deeply divisive issue has taken center stage in the upcoming Lebanese presidential election set for September, the country's Daily Star newspaper reported Monday. It would be the first presidential election since Hariri was assassinated by a bomb in 2005 and Syrian troops left Lebanon. Pro-government candidates want the United Nations to ... [full story]

MOSCOW - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Moscow Monday trying to ease Russian concerns about U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe. Gates was to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials about plans to install a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russian officials remain suspicious about U.S. assertion's that the shield is intended to defend against missile threats from Iran, the Financial Times ... [full story]