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While NBC presents its clarification as re-reporting the story, The Times reports that NBC knew about these possible discrepancies both during and after Engel's captivity and still chose to put him on the air and blame the Shiite forces. Several sources who spoke to The Times said the team's escape from its captors "was staged after consultation with rebel leaders when it became clear that holding them might imperil the rebel efforts to court Western support," according to the newspaper. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nbc-correspondent-richard-engel-changes-his-syria-kidnapping-story-2015-4#ixzz3XUUaHNv3

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski this morning announced that he will leave his post, just two days after Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell announced that he also will resign in the coming weeks. Genachowski made the announcement during a meeting with all FCC staff members that was webcast. Like McDowell, Genachowski said that he will “step down in the coming weeks” and will continuing working at the FCC until that time. {snip} When Genachowski and McDowell make their departures, the FCC will have three commissioners: Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as Republican Ajit Pai. {snip} No potential replacements for...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is enjoying some nice, warm weather on the Red Planet — and spring hasn't even come to its landing site yet. Curiosity's onboard weather station, which is called the Remote Environment Monitoring Station (REMS), has measured air temperatures as high as 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) in the afternoon. And temperatures have climbed above freezing during more than half of the Martian days, or sols, since REMS was turned on, scientists said. These measurements are a bit unexpected, since it's still late winter at Gale Crater, the spot 4.5 degrees south of the Martian equator...

There's now a way to get a buzz on in just a few seconds -- and without the harmful effects (or delicious taste) of alcohol. It's a mouth spray called "WAHH Quantum Sensations," that's emitted from a small lipstick-sized aerosol device made by American scientist David Edwards and French designer Philippe Starck, who unveiled the product in Paris on Wednesday.

An attempt by Iran to launch a rocket carrying a live monkey into space in September has met with failure, stalling the country's program to pursue a human spaceflight capability, according to press reports. The Iranian Space Agency reportedly attempted to launch a Rhesus monkey into space atop a Kavoshgar-5 rocket (Kavoshgar means "Explorer" in Farsi) during the Iranian month of Shahrivar, a period that ran between Aug. 23 and Sept. 22, according to an Agence-France Press report. -SNIP- Iranian space officials did not release details of the apparent launch failure on the agency's official website. The setback was apparently...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope's new vision. Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula. With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. A new spectrograph slices across...

Astronomers have launched a commercial venture aimed at putting low-cost telescopes in the hands of a million people around the world. The Galileoscope Web site, one of the cornerstone projects for the International Year of Astronomy, began taking orders for the simple yet powerful scopes Thursday night. The Galileoscope has been designed as a tribute to Galileo Galilei, who lofted his telescope toward the heavens 400 years ago and started a revolution in the way we see the universe. This telescope would have knocked Galileo's stockings off: It is made to more exacting 21st-century standards, is easier to put together...

Allan Craig is scared for the country and for himself. So less than 48 hours after Democrat Barack Obama was elected president, Craig went out to buy an M-4 rifle. "It’s for protection," the 57-year-old funeral director from Weatherford said. "I’m fearful for our country. I think there will be violence. People want to go in and take over this country . . . trying to destroy America. "I will protect myself and my family." Craig is part of a wave of people nationwide who, even before the election, began stocking up on guns and ammunition amid fear that Obama might put...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

Federal agents arrested 274 suspected criminal aliens, fugitive aliens and illegal immigrants in and around the Metroplex this week, authorities announced Friday. In a five-day roundup that ended Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took the suspects -- 99 had criminal convictions -- into custody, with the help of police and constables from Fort Worth, Arlington, Blue Mound, Carrollton, Dallas, Farmers Branch and Irving. This was not a job-site sweep, in which the targets tend to be undocumented workers or employers, authorities said. Instead, specific individuals were selected from among the more than 600,000 fugitive aliens in the U.S....