Police chief: No evidence of rape; case not closed

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A four-month police investigation into an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia that Rolling Stone magazine described in graphic detail produced no evidence of the attack and was stymied by the accuser's unwillingness to cooperate, authorities said Monday.

The article, titled "A rape on campus," focused on a student identified only as "Jackie" who said she was raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity more than two years earlier.

It described a hidden culture of sexual violence fueled by binge drinking at the college. Police said they found no evidence of that either.

There were numerous discrepancies between the article, published in November 2014, and what investigators found, said Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo, who took care not to accuse Jackie of lying.

The case is suspended, not closed, and the fact that investigators could not find evidence years later "doesn't mean that something terrible didn't happen to Jackie," Longo said.

Netanyahu sorry for comments offending Arabs

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Israel's Arab citizens on Monday for remarks he made during last week's parliament election that offended members of the community.

The move appeared to be an attempt to heal rifts and mute criticism at home and in the United States. Netanyahu drew accusations of racism in Israel, especially from its Arab minority, and a White House rebuke when, just a few hours before polling stations were to close across the country, he warned that Arab citizens were voting "in droves."

But President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, rejected Netanyahu's attempt to distance himself from his comments, telling an Israel advocacy group Monday that the U.S. can't just overlook what Netanyahu said on the eve of his re-election.

Three workers die in scaffolding collapse

RALEIGH, N.C. - Workers were dismantling a scaffold at a high-rise construction project on Monday when a piece of it fell to the ground in downtown Raleigh, killing three men and sending another to a hospital.

All four men were involved in the construction of Charter Square, a glass and steel building in downtown Raleigh, said Jeffrey Hammerstein, community outreach chief for Wake County EMS.

A 911 caller told the operator that men were working on the scaffold when it fell about 11 a.m. The equipment, known as a mast climber scaffold, moves up and down a building's facade to take workers to different floors.

"We just had a mast climber fall off. There were men on it," the caller said, estimating the men fell 200 feet.

The operator asked if the victims were awake, to which the caller responded: "No, they're dead."

Search for family comes to grim end in Alaska

KENAI, Alaska - A nearly yearlong search for a missing Alaska family has come to a grim end with the discovery of four bodies, a dead dog and a handgun just off a trail in a rural area near the family's home.

Authorities said Monday they could not comment on the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Rebecca Adams, 23; her boyfriend, Brandon Jividen, 38; and her children, Michelle Hundley, 6, and Jaracca Hundley, 3, lived on a quiet street on the outskirts of Kenai, a fishing community of 7,100 about 65 miles southwest of Anchorage.

They were last seen in May.

At the time, relatives said it appeared the family left without packing. The couple's two vehicles were parked outside their duplex, and their rent for June had not been paid. The family's dog - an English springer spaniel named Sparks - also was gone.

U.S., Afghanistan leaders prep for postwar relations

CAMP DAVID, Md. - In a show of unity, U.S. and Afghan officials laid the groundwork for new relations between the two countries on Monday, including plans to seek American funding to maintain an Afghan security force of 352,000 and long-term counterterrorism efforts. Discussions over future U.S. troop levels continue as the war winds down.

In an all-day session at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin mountains, dozens of U.S. and Afghan officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah gathered to relaunch a relationship strained by nearly 14 years of war and often-testy relations with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

During the meeting, the U.S. agreed to seek funding through 2017 for an Afghan force of 352,000, a level the nation has yet to meet, Carter said.

- The Associated Press