Security

An Energy Department investigation has alleviated fears that a significant amount of plutonium was missing from a national laboratory, but it has also heightened concerns about flaws in the system for controlling the U.S. stockpile of weapons materials. The investigation began in February, shortly after a routine inventory at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico found a plutonium shortage estimated at 2.

President Obama begins two days of talks at the White House today with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to overhaul a painstakingly developed security strategy that was unveiled only five weeks ago but already has become badly outdated. The three countries spent months developing their plan to combat an Islamic insurgency centered in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. But growing militant activity in Pakistan is forcing them to hastily switch focus.

The chief executive of a shipping company urged Congress on Tuesday to pass legislation allowing vessels to carry armed security. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Philip J. Shapiro of Liberty Maritime Corp. said that although an 1819 statute gave ships the right to defend themselves, they still were subject to laws and inconsistent port rules governing whether armed vessels could dock.

The lofty crown of the Statue of Liberty, closed to the public since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will reopen July 4, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday. Salazar made the announcement on NBC's "Today" show in an appearance standing inside the statue's crown, which he said gave him "goose bumps." Admission will be "egalitarian," the secretary said.

The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous, and the Pentagon must plan for extended U.S. combat and stability operations in two wars. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said.

They didn't hold up to the bears of Alaska, but they just might be enough to discourage the scavengers of Santa Ana. Fed up with urban foragers who root through neighborhood trash in search of plastic and aluminum, residents of one Santa Ana neighborhood are locking up their recyclables in a container designed to withstand the brute strength and cunning of brown and black bears. So it is that Paula Faccou now keeps a key -- right on the same chain with her house key -- to lock up her trash.

Sheik Maher Sirhan says his interrogators tortured him with electric rods and demanded $50,000 in cash to free him from the Iraqi jail where he is being held on terrorism charges. But the Sunni Arab paramilitary leader, who has worked closely with U.S. forces, says he is hanging tough. "I said that I'm not giving you the money," Sirhan said in a phone conversation from his latest jail cell. "There is a government and coalition forces. Justice will release me, not you."

A city accustomed to outsized public spectacles headed into uncharted territory today, uncertain how fans would respond to a carefully planned public memorial to singer Michael Jackson -- an event expected to cost nearly $4 million in city services alone. Authorities were throwing a wide cordon around Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, hoping that would keep away crowds who lacked tickets to a 10 a.m.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed concern Tuesday about suspected military ties between North Korea and Myanmar's ruling generals, saying they had the potential to destabilize the entire region. Clinton arrived in Thailand and met with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva before a regional security summit on the island of Phuket. The secretary of State is expected to sign a nonaggression pact during the meeting of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests attacked a provincial capital Saturday, triggering gun battles that killed seven militants. The assault in Khowst began when at least six Taliban fighters carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the area around the main police station and a nearby government-run bank. All were shot and killed before they could detonate their suicide vests, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.