ARLINGTON, Va. — A July 21 trial date has been set for Col. Michael Murphy, former head of the Air Force’s Legal Operations Agency in Washington.

Murphy lost his command and his career on Nov. 30, 2006, after senior officials learned that his law license had been yanked by two different states more than 20 years previously.

During the arraignment Monday at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., the judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, tentatively set both the trial date and a June 23 motions hearing that will precede it.

The maximum sentence Murphy faces is 41 years in prison.

Afghan opposition talking with TalibanKABUL, Afghanistan — An opposition group says its leaders, including a former president, have been meeting with the Taliban and other anti-government groups in hopes of negotiating an end to rising violence in Afghanistan.

The contacts have taken place between leaders of the opposition National Front and “high level” militant leaders during the last few months, party spokesman Sayyid Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki said in an interview Sunday.