War message found inside Lincoln’s watch

A long-hidden message has been discovered inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch, the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History announced Tuesday. Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln’s watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said. There it remained, unseen for almost 150 years, it said

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Mini-summit aims to smooth Arab differences

The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria will meet in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a mini-summit designed to improve relations between the countries, according to a Saudi government official who did not want to be identified. The three leaders are Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Saudi King Abdullah. The source said “an open invitation” has been issued “for the leaders of any Gulf country and the leader of Jordan to attend the summit.” There has been tension between Saudi Arabia and Syria over Syria’s ties to Iran, its support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and allegations over Syrian links to the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

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Talking with the Taliban: Obama Idea Draws Skepticism

Seeking alliances with more moderate Taliban elements against al-Qaeda is not a new idea in the Afghanistan-Pakistan context, but until now it is one that has typically drawn a skeptical response — from U.S. officials who have regularly cast doubt on the wisdom of Pakistan pursuing such agreements

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Stem-Cell Researchers Cheer Obama’s Vote for Science

“All right, there we go.” With those words and a swish of his pen, President Barack Obama reversed one of the most controversial executive orders in recent history. In front of the country’s leading scientific minds, including Dr. Francis Collins, who helped map the human genome, and Dr

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Obama moves to separate politics and science

As President Obama reversed the Bush administration’s limits on embryonic stem-cell research, he said scientific decisions must be "based on facts, not ideology." The president on Monday signaled a clear shift in tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues. Obama overturned an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time

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Connecticut’s Chris Dodd Faces a Backyard Rebellion

In many respects, Senator Chris Dodd is more powerful than ever on Capitol Hill these days. After enduring eight years in the political wilderness, the Connecticut Democrat is one of his ascendant party’s senior statesmen, someone who endorsed Barack Obama early on in his presidential campaign and hails from a solidly blue state.

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