KABUL – General Stanely McChrystal  said on Sunday that he hopes increased NATO forces in Afghanistan will destabilize the Taliban enough for the group to accept a peace deal, according to Reuters.  “As a soldier,  my personal feeling is that there has been enough fighting,” McChrystal said to the Financial Times.  Another idea regarding bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table  and their future  in running Afghanistan’s government was also raised in the interview.  ” I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, not the past.”  An international conference on Afghanistan will take place in London on Thursday.

BAGHDAD – The man known as “Chemical Ali,” Saddam Hussein’s cousin and a key player in his regime, was executed Sunday by hanging for genocide and crimes against humanity, according to the BBC. “The execution happened without any violations, shouting, or cries of  joy,” said an Iraqi government spokesperson.   Ali Hassan al-Majid was sentenced to death four times in the past  few years, and it was “important  to Iraqi Kurds to see him  convicted” of attacks on  ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.  Three car bombs rocked Baghdad the same day, but it is not known if they were connected in any way to al-Majid’s execution.

MOSCOW – President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Sunday that Russia and the U.S. are close to ending negotiations on a new pact to reduce their arsenals of nuclear weapons, according to Al Jazeera. Medvedev said he is, “optimistic for the conclusion of the deal” which will succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expired last month. The rest of the details of the deal will be ironed out at a conference in Geneva next month.