Nation briefs

WASHINGTON: Grim reports on war zones

New U.S. intelligence reports paint a bleak picture of the security conditions in Afghanistan and say the war cannot be won unless Pakistan roots out militants on its side of the border, according to several U.S. officials who have been briefed on the findings. The reports, one on Afghanistan, the other on Pakistan, could complicate the Obama administration's plans to claim next week that the war is turning a corner.

Officials hospitalized

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, according to a hospital official who asked not to be identified. Holbrooke, 69, felt ill while working Friday in State Department headquarters, said Philip J. Crowley, the department spokesman. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was also admitted Friday to George Washington University Hospital in northwest Washington for surgery to remove a kidney stone.

MASSACHUSETTS: Teen likely fell from plane

A North Carolina teen whose mutilated body was found in a Boston suburb likely fell from the sky after stowing away in an airplane wheel well, a Massachusetts prosecutor said Friday. Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said police searched the area Friday in Milton where the body of Delvonte Tisdale, 16, was found last month, and they found sneakers and a shirt matching clothing Tisdale's family said he'd worn.

NATIONWIDE: Recall reversal on glasses

A federal agency reversed itself Friday and said lead-laced Wizard of Oz and superhero drinking glasses are, in fact, for adults - not children's products subject to a previously announced recall. The stunning about-face came after the Consumer Product Safety Commission said last month the glasses were children's products and thus subject to strict federal lead limits. The CPSC has no limits on lead content on the outside of adult drinking glasses.