Edwards places poverty at center of political life

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, getting the 2008 campaign cycle off to an early start, said Saturday that poverty "is one of the great moral issues of our time" and he pledged to help fight it. The setting of Edwards' speech was as notable as its content. A visit to New Hampshire, traditionally the site of the leadoff presidential primary, is the first public sign that a politician is considering a White House bid. Edwards, who left the Senate last month, said in an interview that he has not decided whether to seek the presidency. His focus is helping his wife, Elizabeth, recover from breast cancer, he said.

U.S. health-care workers victims in Afghan crash

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Three of the victims of a plane crash in the mountains of Afghanistan were American women who had been working to help improve the struggling nation's public-health system. Cristin "Cristi" Gadue, 26, a native of Burlington, Vt., Amy Lynn Niebling, 29, of Somerville, and Carmen Urdaneta, 32, of Brookline, worked for Cambridge-based Management Sciences for Health. Six Americans were believed to have been on board, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said, double the number previously reported. The Kam Air Boeing 737 disappeared Thursday after it was unable to land at Kabul because of poor weather. The plane's wreckage was spotted Saturday in the mountains east of Kabul, and officials said there appeared to be no survivors.

Judge: Couple may sue over discarded embryo

CHICAGO -- A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic has the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate over embryonic stem cell research. In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb." He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.

Infamous Idaho killer to be released from prison

OWYHEE COUNTY, Idaho -- Idaho's most infamous outlaw, Claude Dallas, killed two state officers in a remote desert 24 years ago in a crime that brought him notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. Now a bespectacled 54-year-old, Dallas is to be released from prison today after serving nearly 22 years for the execution-style slayings of officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.