Nation

.SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) - A vote for autonomy in Bolivia's richest state passed overwhelmingly, but opponents claim that absenteeism undermined the mandate of the movement to loosen ties with leftist President Evo Morales' central government.

Whatever the turnout, the politically charged election appears to have boosted the bargaining power of the autonomy leaders. Morales quickly invited state governors for negotiations following the balloting.

.MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Belarus on Monday accused the United States of recruiting citizens into a spy ring aimed at undermining the ex-Soviet republic.

The U.S. State Department said the allegation was "just ridiculous" and that the department was considering whether to close its embassy in Minsk.

Tension has been building between Washington and the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, and most U.S. Embassy employees have been expelled in recent months.

;BAGHDAD (AP) - Iran called off further Iraq security talks with Washington until U.S. forces stop their crackdown on Shiite militias, but the military brought more air power into the fight Monday and escalated its accusations of Iranian backing for extremists.

The latest flare-up has put Iraq's government in a bind as it seeks to stamp out armed Shiite gangs but worries about angering Shiite heavyweight Iran, which has close ties to the core of Iraq's political leadership.

Coming from a family full of nurses, senior nursing student Brittany Rall knows the importance of this week.

Tuesday marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, an annual week honoring nurses around the country. Rall's mother is a nurse, and to celebrate, she is buying gifts for the nurses she works with, Rall said.

It's not only Rall and her mother - a grandmother, two aunts and an uncle call themselves nurses in her family.

According to the American Nurses Association, there are more than 2.4 million nurses working in the United States.

>OLPE, Germany (AP) - A 44-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of killing three of her babies after their bodies were discovered in the family freezer by her grown children looking for pizza, police said Monday.

Police confirmed the grisly find Sunday night in the town of Wenden, near Olpe, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia after the woman turned herself in, officials said.

After serving in the military, returning to school full-time wasn't hard for Justin Riechers: It was "awkward."

The aerospace engineering junior and co-president of the Veterans Transition Center was a 22-year-old first-year student who found the VTC helpful in transitioning from military life to college life.

"The VTC provides a strong beginning," Riechers said.

Operation Homefront and AT&T presented the VTC with a $40,000 grant during a ceremony on Tuesday - the largest grant the center has received.

.GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) - The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.

.LOS ANGELES (AP) - Rana Parker tells pudgy police they have the right to remain chubby, but it can and will be used against them on the streets of Los Angeles.

The dietitian lays down the law for recruits, veterans and top brass, letting them know that eating right can help them do a better job and could even save their lives.

"I joke with them that I'm not the food police, that I'm just here to give them information, education and hopefully give them motivation to help themselves," she said.

.JERUSALEM (AP) - A Jewish astronaut greets Israel from space. Revelers try to set a record for the most people singing a national anthem. To celebrate turning 60, Israel is staging fireworks, air force flyovers and a birthday bash for anyone born on the day the Jewish state was founded.

.BOGOTá, Colombia (AP) - Colombia extradited one of the country's most feared paramilitary warlords to the United States early Wednesday to face drug trafficking charges, the government said.

Carlos Mario Jiménez was flown to Washington, D.C. via Miami on a Drug Enforcement Administration plane, according to President Alvaro Uribe's office. The announcement came just hours after Colombia's top judicial panel overturned a Supreme Court decision that had temporarily blocked the extradition.