Five people were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday in what may have been another “insider” attack - bringing the total number of U.S. military depths in the country to 2,000. Two Americans and three Afghans are thought to have been killed in the firefight, though few details were available early on Sunday. The incident appears to have occurred after a disagreement of some sort broke out at an Afghan National Army checkpoint. If the altercation was an attack on NATO forces by Afghan soldiers who were militants wearing army uniforms, it would bring the total number of coalition deaths in such attacks this year to 53.

Reelection may be Barack Obama’s for the taking, according to polls that show him close to the 270 electoral votes he’ll need to keep his job. Republican candidate Mitt Romney is behind in the nine key states where he and Obama have been fighting for every last vote. “We’d rather be us than them,” Obama spokeswoman Jennife Psaki said. The Associated Press estimates that if the election were held today, Romney would secure 206 electoral votes but President Obama would net 271—one more than the total needed to win. Romney political director Rich Beeson differed, however, saying Obama would have “a hard time” securing more than 50 percent of the vote in many of the critical states.

Apparently Mitt Romney and his top aides can’t decide how aggressively to attack President Obama in the wake of the death of Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Campaign sources say they are pushing for the Republican candidate to put a spotlight on the perceived failures of the current administration surrounding that event. But Romney is heeding the advice of his chief strategist, Stuart Stevens, who wants him to stick to the economy—an issue that resonates most with voters. He does not plan to speak about the Libya attack except to use it “to kick-start a broader conversation about the failure of Obama’s foreign policy, around the region and in many parts of the world,” says a Romney aide.

Sentenced to prison for two years, three jailed members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot may benefit from the intercessory powers of the Russian Orthodox Church as they ready their appeal – but only if they repent first. The band performed a song critical of Vladimir Putin and the Russian church, and were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” A lawyer for the jailed band mates said that there’s no chance they will offer repentance “in the sense of a crime … it definitely won’t happen. Our clients won’t admit guilt. A call for that is pointless.”

Police checkpoints appear to have been targeted in a string of car-bomb attacks across Iraq on Sunday that claimed at least 32 lives. In one of the attacks not far from Baghdad, three separate vehicles packed with explosives detonated, killing 11 people. No one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the deadly attacks. A separate suicide bombing killed four policemen in the city of Kut, and a stationary car bomb in Baghdad killed two more people. Al Qaeda and Islamist groups have continued to kill in Iraq despite a decrease in violence over the last five years.

Stop shipping weapons to Syria, the United States told Iran, amidst fears that the Islamic Republic is inflaming the conflict between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters. Clinton said that neighboring countries should step in and block the flow of weapons to the embattled country after Iranian state media quoted a Revolutionary Guard commander saying that elite forces were on the ground in Syria. The United States has so far dedicated about $45 million to nonlethal aid for Syrian opposition forces. The Iran commander claimed that military forces were in Syria but not engaged in combat roles.

California has become the first state to ban gay "conversion" therapy for minors, a controversial practice that many believe leads to depression and suicide. Also known as reparative therapy, the treatment seeks to "cure" homosexuality. Gov. Jerry Brown's office announced on Sunday that he had signed a bill, which was supported by the California Psychological Association, that prohibits the practice for children under 18. The bill's sponsor pushed for the legislation as a tribute to a man who committed suicide after undergoing reparative therapy.

Better stock up now before things get really messy. The world could be up against a shortage of disposable diapers due to an explosion Saturday afternoon at a Japanese chemical plant that produces a fifth of the global supply. Nippon Shokubai, which is the world's largest source of the water-absorbing polymers in popular diapers like Huggies and Pampers, has already announced plans to set up production facilities overseas while operation at the factory is suspended.

The Who band member Pete Townshend is finally speaking out about child pornography nine years after he was cautioned by police and placed on a sex offenders' registry. The vocalist and guitarist says he never fought for his innocence in court because he was afraid of the legal repercussions and the media’s reaction. “If I’d had a gun I would have shot myself, just to escape the lynching,” Townshend said. The trouble started for the rocker after he paid to access a site labeled “child porn” in 1999. In his new autobiography, Townshend also reveals that he himself may have been mistreated as a child.

Once the face of Disney innocence, Lindsay Lohan just can’t seem to keep out of trouble. A 25-year-old man was taken into custody early this morning after Lohan pulled the fire alarm in her hotel room and told authorities he had grabbed or thrown her. According to officials, the two were arguing over photos he had of her on his phone. Christian LaBella was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge, but was released when it could not be proven. LaBella is a former staffer for Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois. Lohan’s rep called his release “distressing” and the two are filing harassment complaints against each other.

We could be starving, we could be homeless ... we could be puking? Justin Bieber kicked off his Believe tour in Arizona Saturday night, but the 18-year-old was apparently a little sick. Bieber vomited twice while on stage, but he didn't cancel the show. About halfway through the concert, Bieber turned his back to the crowd and threw up before running off the stage. A few songs later, he had to run off again. He apologized and asked the crowd, "Will you love me even though I'm throwing up on stage?" He later tweeted that he shouldn't have had milk before the show.

After short-lived rumors about his health were laid to rest, Chinese politician Xi Jinping stands poised to take the helm of his country in a rare transition of power in November. Well-connected and with a background in China’s peasant regions that still serves well in the political sphere, Xi has made a name for himself as a reformer who still knows when to stick close to his base, using his clout to strike deals that favor local farmers. “People think of him as being from the new generation of technocrats,” said political analyst Jin Zhong. “But he’s really a continuation of the red bureaucracy of his father’s generation.”

Different data, same result. Amidst a debate over whether polls in the presidential race unfairly favor Barack Obama, a new Rand Corp. polling technique shows that even mixing up common methods yields pretty much the same result. According to the Rand poll, candidates Mitt Romney and Obama were in a pitched race up through the Democratic National Convention, and then the incumbent took the lead and the Republican nominee began to fall behind—much the same as in other national polls. “If you look at where we are and where we started, it seems to be pretty consistent with what you see in every other poll,” Rand economist Arie Kapteyn said.

United States officials have said that the perpetrators of the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the life of the American ambassador there “were linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic to, al Qaeda.” The news from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is the latest in a series of revisions to information surrounding the attack, which the White House first said was the result of a spontaneous protest. “As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists,” said Shawn Turner, public affairs director for the Director of National Intelligence.

Four Buddhist temples and 15 homes were destroyed on Sunday by Bangladeshi Muslims over a perceived slight to Islam. Buddhists in the area said that the violent action may have been perpetrated by outsiders who wanted to set off a conflict between otherwise peaceful Buddhists and Muslims. The Muslim protesters took to the streets after seeing a Facebook photo that they said insulted their faith. The man responsible for the photograph was taken into police protection. “We are doing everything possible to quell tension and restore peace between the communities,” said local Muslim leader Sohel Sarwar Kajal.

Harry Potter authoress J.K. Rowling’s foray into adult fiction has left some in the village of Tutshill, England, wondering what the creator of Muggles and wizards was really thinking about them all along. The petty, snobbish, hypocritical characters carry out their story in a world that—barren of dragons and wand-wielders—looks a little too much like home for some residents of Rawling’s hometown. “The middle class is so funny,” Rowling recently said in an interview. “It’s the class I know best and it’s the class where you find the most pretension.” The magic she may be missing, however, is laughter.

The flag of Catalonia has flown a little more frequently, as people in Barcelona and elsewhere in the region wonder if they might be better off breaking away from Spain. While a referendum will be held Thursday on whether or not Catalans want their independence—a move Spain says would be unconstitutional—it seems unlikely that such a drastic split will actually take place, even as citizens grow more frustrated with Spain’s economic woes. “I think we would be better if we can manage our money,” one Catalan said. “I think we would do much better.”

The head of Reuters’s bureau in the Iranian capital of Tehran was declared guilty of “spreading lies” by a state media court on Sunday. The exchange between the Islamic Republic’s repressive regime and Thomson Reuters news agency began after the outlet mistakenly ran a headline saying that a group of women trained in lethal martial arts were “assassins.” The headline was corrected and most of the bureau decamped to Dubai, but Iranian-born bureau chief Parisa Hafezi was detained in a rare instance of the court meddling in foreign media.

Paul Ryan, the voice of reason? The Republican vice presidential candidate is balancing expectations for Wednesday night's debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, telling Fox News Sunday: "I don't think one event is going to make or break this campaign." Ryan underscored Obama's certain advantages going into the debate as an "incumbent president" and "an experienced debater" who's done this jig in front of a national audience numerous times before, whereas it's "Mitt's first time on this kind of a stage." He also outlined Romney's focus for the debate: "Stagnation versus growth, dependency versus opportunity and upward mobility."