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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says Iraq’s government must make a sincere effort to address sectarian differences, or else U.S. military help won’t succeed in curbing the insurgency there. He says, quote, “We can’t do it for them.” Obama says the U.S. won’t send troops back into Iraq. But he says he’s asked his national security team to prepare a range of other options. He says he’ll review those options in the coming days. Obama says the risk posed by terrorists in Iraq could eventually pose a threat to U.S. interests, too. A fast-moving insurgency in Iraq has taken over

Pres. Barack Obama asks reporters for help solving the countries problems during his news conference on the Sequester (March 1, 2013).

Fmr. chief economic advisor on Recovery Act, unemployment rate

The FBI is seeking the public's help in breaking the encrypted code found in two notes discovered on the body of a murdered man in 1999.

(IsraelNN.com) The Tel Aviv Police Department “invented” a new machine that seemed likely to change the face of criminal interrogations – but it will apparently not be used more than once. The contraption was called a “memory machine,” and was used to persuade a murder suspect that, contrary to his impassioned and repeated claims, he in fact did remember what happened the night of the murder. Maariv/NRG reports that the story began two weeks ago

Cosmic rays may solve global warming problem By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 04/10/2006) Cosmic events could help soften the impact of global warming by triggering cloud formations, suggests research published yesterday. A team of Danish scientists concluded in the Proceedings of the Royal Society that making clouds is plausible, using the Sun's magnetic field. The Sun has been at its strongest for more than 60 years and a period of high solar activity could be approaching its end. "This would produce a cooling effect that could counter part of the global warming predicted for the next century," said Dr...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering using emergency powers to ease crowding in the nation's largest state prison system, after lawmakers rejected his $6 billion prison building plan this week. That could mean contracting with other states to take as many as 10,000 inmates and opening some buildings that are unused, such as a women's prison in Stockton and a youth detention center in Whittier. Schwarzenegger also could take money from other areas in the state budget to add prison beds at existing prisons. "The administration has not ruled out any solution for the overcrowding problem," his communications director, Adam Mendelsohn,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger stood with environmentalists Monday to decry what he described as congressional effort to open federal waters off the nation's shores to oil and gas drilling. "We do not want to make any changes," he said during a telephone press conference organized by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups. "For anyone to think that this would bring gas prices down is ... a big mistake. Because this is not the answer." The House already haspassed a measure giving states the right — and a large slice of the resulting revenue — to open federal waters 100 miles...

/6/2006 - KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Airmen deployed all over the world overcome obstacles every day in order to get the mission done. In southwestern Afghanistan, two of those Airmen collaborated to build radio-communication antennas. When the Washington Air National Guard's 215th Engineering Installation Squadron arrived here in May, its task was to install new UHF and VHF radio antennas. After taking inventory of the parts that were delivered and what they needed to do, the engineers found they had no way to mount the antennas to the poles. That's when Master Sgt. Curtis Conner, the 215th EIS...

SACRAMENTO — In their last year in the Assembly, the bipartisan duo of Democratic Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla of Pittsburg and Republican Keith Richman of Northridge say they have finally hit on how to make politics work again for an ailing state and disgusted voters. The concept, imported from Canada, comes after a series of failed state government-revamp proposals. It seems simple but challenges the status quo embraced by many of the politically powerful — form a Citizens Assembly of regular people to suggest to voters reform of everything from redistricting and term limits to campaign finance and open primaries. "Should...

SACRAMENTO - It's like a credit card bill that California lawmakers can't seem to get under control - the state budget deficit born of a perpetual imbalance between what the state spends and what it takes in. The gap stood at $17 billion last year, had been projected to be almost $9 billion this year and is likely to be about $5 billion in the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Despite a balanced-budget agreement struck this week, economists and fiscal analysts warn that future shortfalls are likely to continue until a long-term fix is found. "We haven't come to grips with the...

The state budget is a mess. Traffic is a nightmare. There aren't enough good jobs or affordable homes. The schools are overcrowded, most are failing. The health care system is on the verge of collapse. And yet in 20 years, these may be remembered as the good ol' days. So say researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California, who have amassed mountains of data to suggest that as bad as the current state of affairs in California is, things are going to get a lot worse, approaching crisis levels by 2025, unless dramatic steps are taken soon. Fed in...

Cosmic Rays to Solve Ancient Mexican Mystery By John von Radowitz, PA Science Correspondent Sub-atomic particles created by cosmic rays from space are to be used to probe a giant Mexican pyramid and solve one of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries. Investigators are to install detectors beneath the Pyramid of the Sun that look for muons – charged particles generated when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere which continuously shower the Earth. They hope the rate at which muons pass through the pyramid will reveal any hidden burial chambers inside. The step pyramid, about 30 miles north-east of Mexico city, is...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union (news - web sites) urged re-elected President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday to make a fresh start in transatlantic cooperation, but internal EU differences over ties with Washington refused to die down. "The EU and its member states look forward to working very closely with President Bush and his new administration to combine efforts, including in multilateral institutions, to promote the rule of law and create a just, democratic and secure world," the 25 EU leaders said in a joint statement. But the future of relations with the United States prompted a...

Democrats Tuesday unveiled an immigration reform bill that would give illegal entrants working in the United States a chance for legal residency, establishing the parameters for a national debate on the issue. Tuesday's legislation, supported by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, differs significantly from what some Republicans, including President Bush, would like to see: immigrants working in the United States for a specific period, then returning home. Experts say Tuesday's plan is a thinly veiled amnesty program meant to get around a national sense that it's wrong for the government to grant sweeping citizenship offers to people who broke the law to...

America's Lost Colony: Can New Dig Solve Mystery? Willie Drye for National Geographic News March 2, 2004 More than four centuries ago, English colonists hoped to carve out a new life—and substantial profits—in the wild and strange land of North America. One group of colonists gave up and returned to England. A second colony, in what is now North Carolina, vanished in the 1580s and became immortalized in history as the "Lost Colony." Today the prosperous little town of Manteo, North Carolina, surrounds the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, a national park protecting the place where the English tried to...

DNA used in attempt to solve Christian mystery Tim Radford, science editor Monday July 21, 2003 The Guardian (UK) A full-page miniature in the Canterbury Gospels manuscript. Photograph: Corpus Christi Genetic fingerprinting might soon clear up an ancient Christian mystery - the origins of medieval parchments and even the Canterbury Gospels, thought to have arrived in Britain in 579AD. Cambridge scientists plan to study DNA in parchments prepared from animal skins to trace where they came from. With a £52,000 grant from the arts and humanities research board, Christopher Howe, a Cambridge biochemist, and Christopher de Hamel of Corpus Christi...

<p>Gov. Gray Davis will propose solving California’s budget crisis through a combination of new taxes, program cuts and borrowing, sources said Tuesday.</p> <p>The governor’s revised May budget, set for release Wednesday, calls for a much-anticipated increase in the car tax as well as a half-cent increase in the state sales tax.</p>

What lies at the bottom of the Money Pit? Imagine yourself walking through the trees of a wooded island rumored to hide buried pirate treasure. Suddenly you come across a depression in the ground. It's roughly circular and there's a tree standing above it with a branch that has been cut and appears to have been used as a pulley. Your imagination is fired and hope soars. You run off to get your friends and digging equipment. You and two friends return the next day, shovels in hand, ready to claim your prize. The digging is easy. The dirt...