Top rep warns UN council of Bosnia crisis

Bosnia and Herzegovina faces its most acute political crisis since the 1995 signing of the Dayton-Paris accords that ended the war in the Balkans, the international representative for the country told the U.N. Security Council on Monday.

Valentin Inzko told the 15-member council charged with international peace and security that a referendum scheduled for mid-June by Bosnia's Serbs is a "blatant attack" on the peace agreement, and the achievements made since then. The Serbs say they want to highlight their rejection of the country's federal institutions, especially its war crimes court, which they see as biased against them.

Hertz boosts buyout offer for Dollar Thrifty

Hertz is raising the stakes in its pursuit of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. in hopes of besting rival Avis' efforts to acquire the Oklahoma-based car rental agency.

The two vehicle rental heavyweights have been in a virtual tug-of-war over Dollar Thrifty for a little more than a year, with both looking to snag the Tulsa, Okla., company because its clientele is largely the leisure traveler. Hertz and Avis cater mostly to business travelers, so a Dollar Thrifty acquisition would automatically give either one a broader appeal.

Source: Bin Laden directing al-Qaida figures

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The wealth of information pulled from Osama bin Laden's compound has reinforced the belief that he played a strong role in planning and directing attacks by al-Qaida and its affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, senior U.S. officials said Friday.

And the data further demonstrates to the U.S. that top al-Qaida commanders and other key insurgents are scattered throughout Pakistan, not just in the rugged border areas, and are being supported and given sanctuary by Pakistanis, a senior defense official said.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have debated how big a role bin Laden and core al-Qaida leaders were playing in the attacks launched by affiliated terror groups, particularly al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, and al-Shabab in Somalia.

Disasters challenge GOP governors of Ala., Miss.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama's new governor thought his toughest job was going to be making double-digit spending cuts and deciding which state services to eliminate.

"Then on day 100 of our administration - exactly day 100 - we had this massive outbreak of tornadoes," Gov. Robert Bentley said.

The deadly storms that pounded the South on April 27 were a quick initiation for Bentley into the massive task of disaster recovery. They were just another chapter for his colleague next door, fellow Republican and second-term Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Barbour has overseen his state's recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and is now bracing for Mississippi River floodwaters.

Gunmen kill 6 people in southwest Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Assailants using rockets and guns attacked a group of people exercising at an open soccer field in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing six of them and wounding 13, police said.

Senior police official Hamid Shakil said the attackers fled quickly toward the nearby mountains after the attack on the outskirts Quetta, which is the capital of southwestern Pakistan's impoverished Baluchistan province.

About 50 people were exercising at the time of the attack, he said.