Monday morning roundup

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, says his country may ship at least part of its uranium stockpile to Russia for further enrichment.

That would mean the Iranian government is willing to at least partially accept the draft IAEA deal announced last week. But Mottaki said Iran will also continue to enrich its own uranium. The IAEA deal is designed to buy time for further negotiations by temporarily taking away Iran's capacity to enrich uranium.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said as much today during an interview with the Daily Telegraph. Kouchner said Israel "will not accept" an Iranian bomb, and said the IAEA deal is designed to head off a potential Israeli attack.

Afghanistan: Runoff campaign begins

Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah have launched their campaigns for Afghanistan's runoff election, with both men insisting they won't accept a power-sharing agreement with the other.

Abdullah told CNN this weekend that he has "absolutely no interest" in a power-sharing deal. And a U.N. diplomat told the Washington Post that Karzai "detests" a scenario that puts "two drivers in the same car."

Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission plans to reduce the number of polling stations in the runoff -- from 6,300 to 5,800 -- to make the vote easier to monitor. The election is scheduled for Nov. 7.

Afghanistan: Helicopter crashes kill 14 Americans

Fourteen Americans were killed in Afghanistan in two separate helicopter crashes today.

One, in western Afghanistan, involved a large Chinook helicopter; a spokeswoman for the U.S. military said the chopper almost certainly did not come under hostile fire. That crash killed ten people, including seven soldiers, and wounded dozens of others. The team on the helicopter had been conducting an anti-narcotics operation.

In southern Afghanistan, two helicopters collided in midair, killing four soldiers. A NATO spokesman said hostile fire was not involved.

Other headlines

Israel's state comptroller will launch an investigation into defense minister Ehud Barak. The probe will focus on Barak's business dealings from before he took office.

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