Mar 31, 6:20 PM (ET) By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD

ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan’s Taliban chief claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a police academy, saying he wanted to retaliate for U.S. missile attacks on the militant bases on the border with Afghanistan. Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, also vowed to “amaze everyone in the world” with an attack on Washington or even the White House.

The FBI, however, said he had made similar threats previously and there was no indication of anything imminent.

Mehsud, who gave a flurry of media interviews Tuesday, has no record of actually striking targets abroad although he is suspected of being behind a 10-man cell arrested in Barcelona in January 2008 for plotting suicide attacks in Spain.

Mar 31, 1:08 PM (ET) By KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON

DETROIT (AP) – Ford Motor Co. (F) (F) and General Motors Corp. (GM) (GM) are offering payment protection plans to help reassure consumers who may be putting off buying a new car because of worries about losing their job.

The offers come as auto sales have been battered by the recession and tight credit, reaching their lowest levels in 27 years.

Ford said Tuesday it will cover payments of up to $700 each month for up to a year on any new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle if consumers lose their jobs. The program runs until June 1.

Mar 31, 12:54 PM (ET) By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Senate defense committee chairman says Pentagon budget will include large, painful cuts. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Tuesday that major program cuts will not be pushed off until the 2011 budget, but will be included when Defense Secretary Robert Gates sends his spending plan to the president later this month.

Levin’s comments confirmed what many contractors and military leaders have expected, but he offered no details on which programs may be axed. He said Pentagon officials have indicated they will not be able to submit the much-anticipated spending plan by April 21, as initially hoped.

Mar 30, 4:04 PM (ET) By HYUNG-JIN KIM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Japanese, South Korean and U.S. missile-destroying ships set sail to monitor North Korea’s imminent rocket launch, as Pyongyang stoked tensions Monday by detaining a South Korean worker for allegedly denouncing the North’s political system.

North Korea says it will send up a communications satellite into orbit sometime between April 4 and 8. The U.S., South Korea and Japan suspect the regime is using the launch to test its long-range missile technology, warning it would face U.N. sanctions under a Security Council resolution banning the country from any ballistic activity.

Mar 30, 8:48 AM (ET) By PHILIP ELLIOTT

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama is sending a blunt message to Detroit automakers: To survive – and win more government help – they must remake themselves top to bottom. Driving home the point, the White House ousted the General Motors chairman as it rejected GM and Chrysler’s restructuring plans.

Obama is set to elaborate on that message Monday when he announces what his White House told reporters over the weekend: Neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive additional federal bailout money.

GM chairman Rick Wagoner became the most conspicuous casualty of that decision, forced out Sunday as the White House indicated Detroit must make management and other changes if it hopes to survive – and that the Obama administration will have a hands-on role in those changes.

Mar 29, 6:52 AM (ET) By CHARMAINE NORONHA

TORONTO (AP) – A cyber spy network based mainly in China hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, Canadian researchers said Saturday.

The work of the Information Warfare Monitor initially focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community in exile, and eventually led to a much wider network of compromised machines, the Internet-based research group said.

“We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama,” investigator Greg Walton said.

Mar 29, 8:49 AM (ET) By SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi troops using loudspeakers ordered members of an armed Sunni neighborhood group in Baghdad to turn in their weapons Sunday after the arrest of their leader sparked fierce gunbattles with American and Iraqi troops.

The two-day standoff in Fadhil, a ramshackle Sunni enclave on the east bank of the Tigris River where al-Qaida once held sway, appeared to die down temporarily by midday as convoys of U.S. and Iraqi rolled into the neighborhood. But the confrontation threatens to undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Baghdad before American troops pull out of Iraqi cities by the end of June.

Mar 29, 7:52 AM (ET) By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) – However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect Wednesday.

Tobacco companies and public health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.

Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit.