Security bloc considers adding Iran, Pakistan

The conflict in Afghanistan and expanding its membership to include Iran and Pakistan are key issues facing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the coming year, its new head said.

"In the current global context, the top priority is finding a solution to the Afghan issue," Secretary-General Muratbek Sansyzbayevich Imanaliev said during a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

The fear is that instability within Afghanistan's borders, where Taliban fighters are challenging the U.S. and NATO-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, could well spill over into neighboring countries.

The SCO is a security grouping dominated by …

Misery loves company // Battered Bulls host lowly Grizzlies tonight

On the surface, the NBA schedule-makers appear to be smilingat the Bulls (9-23) and the Vancouver Grizzlies (6-26), two of theleague's worst teams, because they play each other tonight at theUnited Center.

Both bring two-game losing streaks into the game (7, FSC,1000-AM). But the Bulls are more miserable because they followed aseason-worst 107-75 road loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday witha team-record-worst 115-68 loss Friday at home against the OrlandoMagic.

Coach Tim Floyd changed his mind about giving his teamSaturday off and sent the players through a 90-minute practice.Friday's game was the Bulls' fifth straight against a teamwith a winning …

Report: CIA targeted bin Laden with phony program

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA ran a phony vaccination program in the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden's family was believed to be living in an effort to obtain DNA evidence indicating whether the al-Qaida leader was there, The New York Times reported.

An American official said the Pakistani doctor who ran the program in Abbottabad gained temporary access to the bin Laden compound but never saw bin Laden himself and failed to obtain DNA samples from bin Laden family members, the Times reported Monday.

A team of Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a raid in May. U.S. officials have said they were not certain bin Laden was in the compound in Abbottabad when President Barack Obama …

US congresswoman to head House Foreign Affairs

MIAMI (AP) — She hung up on the next president, Barack Obama. Twice. She thought it was a prank.

In an expert stroke of political spin, she immediately sent out a press release explaining the apparent snub as a mix-up.

Meet Florida U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Cuban-American to serve in Congress and the next in line to head the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The phone incident occurred in late 2008 as the president-elect reached out to potentially friendly Republicans and shortly after a radio host fooled Sarah Palin by impersonating the president of France on the phone. But it was vintage "Ily," as she is known in Washington: frank, almost irreverent, yet …

On the road again ; The Seat Leon test drive continues, as Matt Joy sends the trusty car off for its well-deserved first service

Tough love is the best way to describe how this Seat Leon FR TDIhas been treated in the past month. Its abilities have not waned orsuffered as the months have rolled by and it is just as appealing,if not more so, than the first day I took it home, but the sheerdiversity of weather and the hefty amount of ground it has had tocover has meant it clearly felt a bit sorry for itself. So do I. Thescariest part is that the Leon has been clocking up about 2,500miles a month - that's more than twice the average. Scary becauseit's hard to remember where all those miles have gone, but more sobecause the Leon clearly does a fine job of massaging those milesaway and avoids you …

Insurgent Leader Nabbed in Iraq Raid

BAGHDAD - The shadowy leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-inspired group that challenged the authority of Iraq's government, was captured Friday in a raid on the western outskirts of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested along with several other insurgents in a raid in the town of Abu Ghraib, said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security operation.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that Pentagon officials have received no official confirmation that al-Baghdadi was captured.

Al-Moussawi said al-Baghdadi admitted his identity, as did another "of the terrorists" who …

US to go ahead with military drills in SKorea

North Korea vowed Tuesday to punish U.S. and South Korean "warmongers" after the American military said it would go ahead with annual joint exercises that Pyongyang calls an invasion rehearsal.

Tensions in Northeast Asia have spiked amid mounting concern over the North's apparent plan to test-launch a missile believed capable of reaching the U.S. west coast.

Many analysts have said the launch threat is a bid to draw President Barack Obama's attention as his administration formulates its North Korea policy to move stalled international disarmament talks forward. Obama's new envoy to North Korea arrived in Bejing on Tuesday to the region for talks with …