LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "The U.S. officials who talk about Iranian missiles and their danger while saying Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb, they know these words are wrong." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, after the U.S. scrapped a missile intercept system aimed at his nation Article 1AU.K. party leader snubs alliance offer
Nick Clegg, leader of the U.K.'s Liberal Democrats, the second-biggest party in opposition to Gordon Brown's Labour government, has rejected an offer from the main opposition Conservatives for the parties to form an alliance.
Conservative leader David Cameron, writing in Sunday's Observer newspaper, said there's "barely a cigarette paper" between the parties on many areas of policy and that they should work together to topple Brown's government in the next general election, which Brown must hold by June.
Clegg, whose party's conference opened in Bournemouth, in south England, Saturday, said there were fundamental ideological differences between the parties on a range of issues including taxation, climate change, Europe and constitutional change that make an alliance impossible.
"If you're going to ask people to vote for change, that's got to be real change, not the synthetic change being offered by Cameron," he said on the BBC's Andrew Marr show.
3 U.S. troops die in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan - Military officials said three American servicemen have died in Afghanistan, including one killed in combat in the country's east.
A statement from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said two of the Americans died Sunday in a noncombat-related case in the south.
The statement provided no other details, and a spokesman said he had no additional information. A leading cause of noncombat deaths is traffic accidents, but the term also encompasses other accidents, suicides and homicides.
The third American died in fighting on Saturday.
For American forces, this year has been the war's deadliest. August saw the deaths of 51 U.S. servicemen, making it the deadliest month of the eight-year war. More than 60,000 U.S. troops are now in the country.
Philippine soldiers, Abu Sayyaf clash
MANILA, Philippines - Clashes broke out Sunday in the south Philippines when al-Qaida-linked militants resisted attempts by government forces to carry out arrest warrants on three of their commanders.
Maj. Ramon David Hontiveros, a regional military spokesman, said militants fired at troops after they cordoned off part of a village on Jolo island where the three commanders and 220 other militants were staying.
One Abu Sayyaf militant was killed and an undetermined number were wounded, while five soldiers were injured, he said.
Troops were trying to serve arrest warrants on commanders Albader Parad, Isnilon Hapilon and Umbra Jumdail, also known as Dr. Abu.
The group is believed to be sheltering members of the Indonesian-based militant network Jemaah Islamiyah, including two suspected of helping mastermind the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
Abu Sayyaf has about 400 fighters and is thought to have received funds from al-Qaida. The U.S. lists the group as a terrorist organization and has offered rewards for the capture of its leaders, including Parad, Hapilon and Jumdail.
2 die in Berlin therapy-group poisoning
BERLIN - A doctor leading a group therapy session gave participants drugs and other substances that killed two and left 10 hospitalized, Berlin police said Sunday. One person was comatose and in critical condition.
The doctor who led the session has acknowledged giving participants various substances and drugs, Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor's office, said Sunday.
A police statement said autopsies had been carried out on the two dead people but "the chemical-toxicological investigation will take a while."
Police said the session took place in a house and medical practice in the leafy Hermsdorf neighborhood in north Berlin. The 50-year-old doctor who worked there was detained and a homicide division was investigating the case, police said.
"During the session, which lasted several hours, he supposedly gave the patients various kinds of substances and drugs that initially led to reactions like nausea...," the statement said.
When police and ambulance cars arrived at the practice, they found twelve people who appeared to have been severely poisoned, it said.
A 59-year-old man died at the scene and a 28-year-old man died that night in the hospital, police said.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 09/21/2009