KABUL, Afghanistan – The son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani network was been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said Sunday, providing the first public confirmation of rumors that have been swirling for days about the key member of a militant group the U.S. considers one of the most dangerous in the region.

The Taliban rejected reports of Badruddin Haqqani’s death, however, saying that he was alive and well in Afghanistan.

Haqqani’s death would be a serious blow to the organization founded by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani. The group, which has ties to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks and kidnappings in Afghanistan, particularly in and around the capital city of Kabul, and poses perhaps the biggest threat to stability in the country.

Bombing linked to Israeli children

Three Israeli adolescents from a West Bank settlement were arrested Sunday in connection with a recent firebombing of a Palestinian taxi, Israeli police said.

The suspects, all age 12 or 13, were to appear in a Jerusalem court Sunday evening, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. The attack, which injured six Palestinians, took place hours before several Palestinian youths were beaten by a mob in central Jerusalem. Police arrested seven Israeli teenagers, the youngest 13, in connection with that attack.

Takeovers menace Zimbabwe animals

A consortium of wildlife ranchers says tens of thousands of animals face annihilation in a wave of land takeovers in southeastern Zimbabwe by politicians of President Robert Mugabe’s party.

The Save Valley Conservancy said Sunday that thousands of people’s livelihoods also are threatened in the 1,000-square-mile nature preserve and nearby districts after hunting permits and land were granted to 25 leaders of the ZANU-PF party.

Typhoon strikes southern Japan

A powerful typhoon lashed the southern Japanese island of Okinawa and surrounding areas Sunday, injuring four people and cutting off power to about 57,000 households.

Weather officials had warned that Typhoon Bolaven would be the strongest to hit the region in several years, but its gusts weren’t as powerful as feared.

Women urged to withhold sex

The female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of the country’s president.

Women are being asked to start withholding sex from their husbands or partners as of today, said Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the women’s wing of the group Let’s Save Togo. She said the strike will put pressure on Togo’s men to take action against Faure Gnassingbe, president of the West African nation since 2005.

Let’s Save Togo is protesting electoral changes its says will make it easier for Gnassingbe’s party to win re-election in parliamentary polls in October.