October 7th, 2010
09:50 AM ET
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Mullen issues regrets over deadly strike in Pakistan

America's top military official Thursday sent his regrets to Pakistan's army chief of staff over the U.S. helicopter strike that killed two Pakistani soldiers, his office said.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that the September 30 incident near the Afghan border was most "regrettable" and he passed along his "sincere condolences" for the deaths.

"The death of our soldiers in combat is always tragic, but under these circumstances, it is even more difficult to accept," he said in a letter this week.

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October 7th, 2010
07:58 AM ET
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Edwards investigators casting 'very wide net' with subpoenas

There are new developments this morning the in the Federal investigation of former Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards. A new round of subpoenas have gone out and at issue is whether Edwards used campaign funds to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter.

CNN producer Raelyn Johnson was embedded with the Edward’s campaign in 2008 and told American Morning's John Roberts and Kiran Chetry that, according to her sources, “they are casting a very wide net.”

CNN Producer Raelyn Johnson: Much wider than they did a year ago. They're talking about people who were schedulers, staffers, small-time staffers, including very, very big people involved with the campaign.

Kiran Chetry: What has been admitted so far by the Edwards camp about what may or may not have happened.

Johnson: Well, I think, first of all, we don't know what is true that comes from the Edwards campaign. We already know that. The issue at hand are payments out of a committee. Every candidate has a PAC. But it was believed that it was given to Rielle but then there was an April payment in 207 for $14,000 that went to her and it was believed was hush money but reported as a furniture purchase that and would be a violation of campaign finances. That's why the allegations are out.

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Filed under: Politics • TV-American Morning • U.S.
October 7th, 2010
07:54 AM ET
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Ex-CIA head: Certainty a 'rare commodity' in travel alerts

A State Department travel alert issued October 3 advises Americans in Europe to “take every precaution” in the face of new, non-specific intelligence warnings about al-Qaeda striking somewhere in the continent.

“Intelligence professionals [are] probably fingering their worry beads at a higher rate than they were a week, a month, six months ago,” Ret. Gen. Mike Hayden said.

Hayden, a former CIA Director and National Security Agency Director, has been there. During the Bush Administration, part of his job was to help weigh intelligence reports and pass along information to the State Department that resulted in alerts, advisories and warnings for Americans abroad.

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October 7th, 2010
07:34 AM ET
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Thursday's live video events

9:00 am ET - Connecticut Senate debate - Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon debate in Norwalk, Connecticut.

10:00 am ET - Retirement security hearing - The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing on the state of retirement security in the United States.

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October 7th, 2010
07:27 AM ET
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Peruvian wins Nobel for literature

Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy said.

Vargas Llosa won the prize "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individuals resistance, revolt, and defeat," the academy said.

"I am very grateful to have received this privilege," Vargas Llosa told CNN en Espanol.

"The truth is I did not expect it," he said in the televised interview. "It was a surprise ... but a pleasant surprise."

Vargas Llosa felt "very moved and enthused" by the prize, said Andina, the official Peruvian news agency, citing Peter Englund, president of the Nobel literature prize jury.

Vargas Llosa is in the United States, teaching two courses at Princeton University.

"He had gotten up at 5 a.m. to prepare for a class when he received our call at quarter to seven, while he was working intensively," Englund told Andina.

Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's leading novelists and essayists. He rose to prominence in the 1960s. Some of his best known novels include "The Green House" and "The War of the End of the World."

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October 7th, 2010
06:04 AM ET
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World update: Hungary toxic sludge spreads

An excavator pours industrial gypsum to reduce the alkalinity into the Marcal River, Hungary.

An update from the CNN newsdesk in London on the stories we're following on Thursday:

Hungary toxic sludge - The river of red toxic sludge is inching ever closer to the Danube river. Four people have died and over a hundred have been injured after a leak from a metals plant reservoir sent caustic sludge through villages in Western Hungary. Read the full story

Luzhkov interview - Matthew Chance sits down for an exclusive interview with the ousted former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.  Luzhkov accuses President Dmitry Medvedev of overseeing "calamities, terrorist acts, and bad harvests," during his period in power.  Read the full story

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