NEW MEXICO

Five, including 3 kids, found slain in homeA 15-year-old boy was held on murder charges as detectives tried to piece together what led to the shooting of five people, including three young children, who were found dead in a New Mexico home. The shootings happened Saturday night in a rural area southwest of Albuquerque. Deputies found several weapons inside the home, and "multiple" guns appeared to have been used, including an assault rifle, investigators said.

SYRIA

Rebels are asked to give up weaponsAs Syrian opposition leaders met in Turkey to try to iron out their differences, Syria's foreign minister invited rebels to join a national dialogue, promising that all those who lay down their arms and forswear foreign intervention will be part of a transitional government. The offer by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem broadcast on Syrian state TV went a significant step beyond what President Bashar Assad proposed in a speech on Jan. 6, when he called for a national dialogue but intimated that those who had taken up arms would be excluded.

EUROPE

Snow and ice close European airportsEuropean airports from London's Heathrow to Frankfurt curtailed flights as snow and freezing rain swept across the continent. Heathrow, busiest hub in Europe, plans to cancel at least 10 percent of flights Monday after grounding 260 flights, or about 20 percent of the total, Sunday. In Frankfurt, 294 flights were grounded, while France's civilian aviation authority asked airlines to suspend 40 percent of traffic through Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris on Monday.

CHINA

Bejing harshly criticizes Clinton island remarksIn a harsh statement, China accused Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of presenting a distorted picture about its dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea. The Foreign Ministry said Clinton "ignores the facts and confuses right and wrong" in remarks at a news conference in Washington on Friday. The unusual objection appears to have been prompted by a new phrase that Clinton used in what was an otherwise standard reference to the escalating feud between China and Japan. With Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan standing beside her, Clinton said that the Obama administration opposed "any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration" of the islands.

NEWS SERVICES