GOP leaders consider raising retirement age

WASHINGTON -- Key Senate Republicans privately reviewed suggestions Thursday for raising the Social Security retirement age while limiting future benefits for upper-wage earners, officials said, as they sought momentum for legislation atop President Bush's second-term domestic agenda. At the same time, the prospects for swift Senate action on the controversial measure appeared to dim during the day, the result of internal GOP disagreement as well as implacable Democratic opposition to Bush's call for personal accounts under Social Security.

Mexican police chief killed on his first day of work

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- Alejandro Dominguez was the only person brave enough to be police chief. Hours after he took office, assailants riddled his body with dozens of bullets in this city wracked by a turf battle between Mexico's two main drug gangs. The streets were virtually empty Thursday, a day after the killing, with only a handful of federal police armed with rifles and automatic weapons making routine patrols in pickup trucks and army vehicles. "We are defenseless," attorney Zorina Medrano said at city hall. "It's obvious that the criminals are better organized. They sent the national army and even they weren't respected. Who else can we ask for help?" Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, is the busiest crossing for cargo trucks heading to the United States from Mexico.

Italian aid worker freed after three-week ordeal

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Italian aid worker kidnapped at gunpoint in the Afghan capital three weeks ago has been released and has telephoned her mother to say she is safe and healthy, the government said Thursday. Clementina Cantoni, 32, was abducted by armed men on May 16. She was working for CARE International on a project helping Afghan widows and their families.

White House changes view on U.N. agency chief

WASHINGTON -- Reversing course, the Bush administration said Thursday it was prepared to support a third term for the head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency. Last December, the administration called on Mohamed ElBaradei to step down after his term ended this summer. Differences over Iran and also Iraq, where ElBaradei supported extended weapons inspections, were behind U.S. dissatisfaction. But the State Department said Thursday that if other nations on the IAEA's board voted this summer for a third term for ElBaradei, the United States was prepared to join the consensus.

Aruba: Finding teen 'No. 1 goal' of island

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba's prime minister said Thursday that finding a missing Alabama teenager was the country's "No. 1 goal," and police arrested three young men who acknowledged giving her a ride the night she disappeared. Prime Minister Nelson Oduber said his government was working closely with U.S. authorities to solve the case of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, who dropped from sight more than a week ago. Oduber said Holloway's disappearance had left the island nation "in a state of shock and disbelief."

-- From wire reports