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Massive explosions at apartment buildings across Baghdad killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 100 on Tuesday, Iraqi police and health officials said. The blasts are the latest sign that Iraq's fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of the country's unresolved election. It was the fourth attack with multiple casualties across Iraq in five days, a spate of violence that has claimed more than 100 lives. Violence has spiked as political leaders scramble to secure enough support to form a government after the March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner.

It's official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war." President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank....

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who drew criticism for not mentioning the word "terror" during her first appearance before Congress in February, used the term or its variants 23 times during a 30-minute speech before the Council of Foreign Relations on Wednesday.

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.

Corrected online: 26 February 2009 Updated online: 26 February 2009 Orbiting Carbon Observatory crash sets back post-Kyoto emissions monitoring. Some hoped the Orbiting Carbon Observatory would smooth the way for future emissions agreements after Kyoto.NASA The climate community is counting the costs of losing NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which plummeted into the ocean during launch on 24 February.The satellite would have measured carbon dioxide concentrations in unprecedented detail, allowing scientists to track emission sources and identify 'carbon sinks' around the globe. Many also hoped that OCO would pioneer an approach for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions under a future Kyoto-style...

Nasa's first dedicated mission to measure carbon dioxide from space has failed following a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - did not separate properly. Data indicates the spacecraft crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was intended to help pinpoint the key locations on our planet's surface where CO2 is being emitted and absorbed. Nasa officials confirmed the loss of the satellite at a press conference held at 1300 GMT. John Brunschwyler, from Orbital Sciences Corporation, the rocket's manufacturer, told...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A NASA mission to monitor global warming from space ended Tuesday when a satellite plunged into the ocean near Antarctica minutes after launch. An equipment malfunction was apparently to blame, officials said. The loss of the $280 million mission came a month after Japan launched the world's first spacecraft to track global warming emissions. The failure dealt a blow to NASA, which had hoped to send up its own satellite to measure carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas behind human-caused global warming.

A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch early today, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space. The Taurus XL rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off just before 3 a.m. (Mountain time) from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. But a preliminary investigation found that minutes later, a cover protecting the satellite during launch failed to separate from the rocket. Colorado State University scientists were supposed to lead a project using data from the satellite to determine how carbon dioxide is absorbed by Earth, and what the effect would be...

A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said. ... NASA launches a rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday. "We could not make orbit," NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. "Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean." "Certainly for the science community, it's a huge disappointment." The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - A rocket carrying a NASA global warming satellite has landed in the ocean near Antarctica after a failed launch. The Taurus XL rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off early Tuesday morning from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. But launch managers say that several minutes later, the payload fairing, which shelters the satellite, apparently failed to separate from the launch vehicle. Taurus program manager John Brunschwyler says the rocket splashed into the ocean. He's with the rocket's maker, Orbital Sciences Corp. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further...

Per radio report, the latest NASA global warming research satellite failed to make orbit, crashed near Antarctica after a launch from CA Vandenberg AFB.

$280-million mission to study global warming fails as spacecraft falls short of orbit. A rocket carrying a NASA satellite designed to study global warming crashed near Antarctica, failing to reach orbit after it was launched this morning, according to officials. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite never reached orbit after it took off about 2 a.m. Pacific Standard Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, NASA said in a posting on its website.

NASA readied the launch early Tuesday of a satellite that will produce the first complete map of the Earth's human and natural sources of carbon dioxide, CO2, the gas most closely linked to climate change. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, was scheduled to be launched at 0951 GMT (1:51 am) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on board the Taurus XL rocket built by Orbital Science Corp., NASA said in a statement posted Monday on its website. It would be the first time NASA has used a Taurus rocket. NASA said the observatory would map the geographic distribution...

SAN FRANCISCO – As NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) moves closer to its planned launch next week, the team responsible for the spacecraft faces enormous challenges to fly the first-ever probe to map carbon dioxide levels across. "OCO will be making one of the most challenging measurements of any atmospheric trace gas that has ever been made," said Charles Miller, OCO deputy principle investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena Calif. OCO is poised to launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Taurus XL rocket on Feb. 24 to begin its carbon dioxide-hunting mission. The...