GUANTANAMO BAY

9/11 trials put off at least until JanuaryThe trial of five prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who are accused in the Sept. 11 attacks cannot begin until next year at the earliest under a timetable set out by the legal authority in charge of the war court. Retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald notified lawyers on both sides that he will accept recommendations until Jan. 15 on whether the case should go forward as a death penalty prosecution. He set the same deadline for Pentagon-appointed lawyers to offer their opinions on whether all five men should be tried simultaneously. The ruling applies to confessed 9/11 plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators.

PAKISTAN

Gunmen attack Shiite Muslims, kill 12Suspected Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslims traveling through southwestern Pakistan, killing 12 people and wounding six in the latest apparent sectarian attack to plague the country. Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to Al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years, but the past couple weeks have been particularly bloody. The gunmen who attacked stopped a bus carrying mostly Shiite Muslims who were headed to work at a vegetable market.

CHINA

4th monk sets himself afire in Tibet protestA young Tibetan monk set himself on fire in a remote western town to protest Chinese policies, the fourth monk from Kirti Monastery to do so his year, according to the advocacy group Free Tibet, based in London. The monk, Kalsang, set himself ablaze in a vegetable market in the town of Aba. He was holding a picture of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled religious leader. The monk's condition was unclear.

AFGHANISTAN

Karzai says Pakistan aiding terroristsPresident Hamid Karzai charged in a speech that Pakistan is not a sincere partner for peace and is essentially using the Taliban to fight a proxy war in his country. "Pakistan has pursued a double game toward Afghanistan, and using terrorism as a means continues," Karzai said in an address from the presidential palace.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Supreme Court hears Medicaid cuts caseThe Supreme Court opened its term by hearing a case testing whether judges can stop California and other cash-strapped states from cutting payments to doctors and hospitals who serve low-income patients. California and the Obama administration argued that only the U.S. Health and Human Service Department gets to determine whether the rates a state uses to pay doctors and other providers complies with the federal Medicaid law, not the courts. There was no consensus apparent among the justices during their questioning Monday.

NEWS SERVICES