Police and military officials were searching Monday for three soldiers from... (Associated Press) 
 
 Massachusetts state police were notified that the three were being questioned by federal authorities at Rainbow Bridge, which connects Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, said spokesman David Procopio, who did not have further details. The Afghan soldiers, last seen at the Cape Cod Mall two days earlier, were taken into custody without incident some 500 miles away while attempting to cross into Canada at the famed Rainbow Bridge checkpoint, according to the Massachusetts National Guard and Massachusetts State Police. Advertisement 
 
 Governor Deval Patrick, speaking before the three men were found, said there was speculation within the military that the officers had planned to seek asylum. Last weekend, two Afghan policemen in the Washington, D.C., for a DEA training program at Quantico, Virginia, also went missing while on a sightseeing trip to Georgetown, ABC News reported. There was no indication they had committed any crimes, and officials insisted the men had been cleared by the US military to attend the training conference and were not considered security threats. Advertisement 
 
 Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Captain Noorullah Aminyar of the Afghan army had flown to the United States Sept. 11 for the weeklong training exercise at Camp Edwards, a part of Joint Base Cape Cod. The program, which ends Wednesday, brings together 200 military personnel and other participants from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Pakistan. Fox News Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Noorullah Aminyar, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada. More 
 
 Watch Report 
 
 The Afghan soldiers had been participating in a U.S. Central Command Regional Cooperation training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod, U.S. military officials said. The three were among 12 members of the Afghanistan National Army participating in a military exercise that focused on tactical strategies, said Lt. Col. James Sahady of the Massachusetts National Guard. Blackington, of the US Central Command, said the men’s backgrounds were carefully vetted before they were cleared to attend the program.
– The three Afghan soldiers who vanished from a training exercise in Massachusetts on Saturday were found today near Niagara Falls, apparently trying to gain asylum in Canada, the Cape Cod Times reports. A source tells WCVB that the soldiers told Customs Agents at the Rainbow Bridge crossing that they were refugees. According to several officials, the three missing men—Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Captain Noorullah Aminyar—were just looking for a way to avoid returning to Afghanistan, NBC News reports. They may have been hoping to benefit from Canada's looser asylum policies. All three were detained, but it's not clear who has them or whether they'll be returned to Joint Base Cape Cod or somewhere else. Neither US Customs in Buffalo nor federal authorities are holding the men, according to a customs rep, so the Canadian Border Services Agency may have them, the Boston Globe reports. The soldiers sparked a manhunt when they disappeared during a two-week training exercise that included 200 soldiers and civilians from different countries. (It's been held since 2004 to boost cooperation between forces from around the world, the AP notes.) And such vanishings are nothing new: Just last week, two Afghan policemen disappeared from a Washington-area DEA training program and were later found in New York.