Some Bodies Found In Air France Wreckage; Ivory Coast 'Showdown' Nears

Good morning.

The day's top stories so far, as we've reported, include:

-- The official announcement from President Obama that he is, as expected, going to seek a second term.

-- A New York Times report that two of Moammar Gadhafi's sons are looking to push their father aside "to make way for a transition to a constitutional democracy under the direction of his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi."

-- The search at Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant for the source of radioactivity that is getting into the ocean.

Other stories making headlines this morning include:

-- Air France Flight Wreckage Found: "Bodies of victims of the crash of Air France flight 447 have been found in the wreckage of the plane, a French government minister said in a radio interview Monday, nearly two years after the crash that killed 228 people. ... Air France Flight 447 disappeared after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on its way to Paris." Some debris had been discovered in the past. The new discovery gives investigators hope of determining what caused the disaster. ( CNN.com)

-- "Cracks Found In Three More Southwest Airline 737s":"Inspectors have found small subsurface cracks in three Southwest Airlines planes, after another jet developed a hole in its fuselage while in flight Friday and made a safe emergency landing. Over the weekend, the airline grounded 79 jets and canceled hundreds of flights to check for further problems." ( Morning Edition)

-- "Ivory Coast Prepares For Showdown":"The U.N. has evacuated civilian staff from its base in Ivory Coast as thousands of rebel troops gather outside Abidjan for what looks set to be a bloody final offensive. France took control of the city's airport and increased its military presence, fueling president Laurent Gbagbo's hostile rhetoric against foreign 'occupation.' The heightened tensions came as Alassane Ouattara, winner of last November's presidential election, denied an accusation by the UN that his forces were responsible for a massacre of hundreds of civilians in a western village." ( The Guardian)

-- "AP Source: Couric Leaving News Anchor Post":"Katie Couric is leaving her anchor post at CBS Evening News less than five years after becoming the first woman to solely helm a network TV evening newscast. A network executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Couric has not officially announced her plans, reported the move to The Associated Press on Sunday night."

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