Military Officers

In Mexico's drug war, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito racked up crime-fighting credentials worthy of the Dark Knight, making record seizures of drugs and weapons and forcing out top Baja California law enforcement officials he accused of corruption and of having links to organized crime.

At least six Air Force and two Army generals face potentially career-ending punishment in the mishandling of U.S. nuclear warhead components, Defense Department officials said. Military officials are expected to announce the disciplinary action today. At least two of the officers are three-star generals. "It is extensive and it is severe," a senior Defense Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the punishment had not yet been announced.

The Air Force and Army have disciplined 17 senior officers, including the three-star general in charge of logistics, for poor oversight in connection with the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of fuses for nuclear warheads. Saying he could not ignore the "breaches of trust that occurred on their watch," acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley laid out Thursday what in some cases were career-ending punishments for six Air Force generals, ranging in rank from one to three stars, and nine colonels.

Gen. David H. Petraeus' visit to Washington this week, his first high-profile tour of the capital since handing over command in Iraq, has had the feel of a victory lap in the midst of an ongoing race. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented him the State Department's highest honor. He was hailed at the conservative Heritage Foundation as "the right man in the right place and at the right time." And a former Army chief compared him to Alexander the Great, slicing the Gordian Knot of Iraq.

A South Korean court convicted a North Korean defector charged with extracting state secrets from military officers in return for sexual favors and sentenced her to five years in prison, media said. Won Jeong-hwa, 34, was arrested in August on suspicion of posing as a defector and sleeping with South Korean military officers so she could get classified information.

A Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals is the subject of two investigations into his conduct, including one wide-ranging ethics examination into whether he abused his power and improperly influenced the prosecutions of enemy combatants. An internal Air Force investigation into the activities of Brig. Gen. Thomas W.

The Colombian Defense Ministry fired 20 army officers Wednesday, including three generals, in connection with the deaths of a dozen youths who allegedly were killed and falsely identified as guerrillas slain in combat. The firings revolve around the disappearance over the last year of youths from Bogota's Soacha suburb, a sprawling working-class neighborhood rife with crime and unemployment.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev served for five years in Afghanistan during the Soviet Union's nearly decade-long battle with mujahedin there. He was wounded and named a Hero of the Soviet Union. Aushev, 54, who later served as president of the Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, is now chief of the Committee of Afghan Veterans. He sat down Thursday in his Moscow office to talk about the lessons learned from the 1980s war in Afghanistan, and what they suggest as the U.S.

Poland exhumed the remains of wartime prime minister-in-exile and military leader Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski for tests in an attempt to settle the mystery surrounding his death in 1943. Sikorski died in a plane crash in Gibraltar after visiting Polish forces fighting with the British against Nazi Germany in the Middle East. Many Poles believe he was assassinated. Test results are not due for several weeks.

The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic slaughter that eventually killed an estimated 800,000 people. Theoneste Bagosora, 67, is the highest-ranking military officer convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The former colonel's prosecution is viewed as a significant step in efforts to punish war crimes.