Nation in brief: Defense boss scolds U.S. military brass

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that U.S. military services are not doing enough to support soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, singling out the Air Force for adapting too slowly to the new enemies on those battlefields.

In unusually harsh public criticism, Gates said his attempts to get the Pentagon to help commanders more quickly on the ground have been “like pulling teeth,” and he blamed military leaders who are “stuck in old ways of doing business.”

He said he was particularly upset with the military’s failure to get more unmanned spy planes into the air over the two war zones – primarily an Air Force responsibility. While the number of drones has doubled in recent months, Gates has set up a task force to push for even more.

San Angelo, Texas

DNA tests begin for mothers, kids

Using cotton swabs and cameras, lab technicians began taking DNA samples Monday from hundreds of children and mothers in hopes of sorting out the tangled family relationships within the West Texas polygamist sect.

A judge ordered last week that the genetic material be taken to help determine which children belong to which parents.

The testing went on behind closed doors at the crowded coliseum where the children seized in the raid earlier this month on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound are staying.

The collecting of DNA is likely to take 10 technicians most of the week, and it will be a month or more before the results are available.