Washington, September 13: A team of researchers have determined that the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades.

The research has been carried out by climatologist Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

According to them, less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions.

Washington, Sept. 13: Employees at the Pentagon have reportedly reacted with anger to move to auction 9/11 memorabilia for hundreds, even thousands of dollars on eBay.

One angry Pentagon employee told FOX News that the sellers were "making money off the backs of the dead," and that the unveiling of the long-awaited memorial to the September 11, 2001 attacks was supposed to be a "sacred event."

It’s unclear whether the items are coming from different sellers, or from the same seller using different accounts.

Washington  - Relations between the United States and Venezuela reached their lowest point in years on Friday after a flurry of diplomatic tit-for-tats, featuring expulsions of ambassadors and some of the harshest words yet between the two sides.

The crisis began earlier in the week then Bolivian President Evo Morales, a leftist ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, accused the US ambassador of fomenting opposition to his leadership and ordered the American envoy out of the country.

Washington  - US President George W Bush will meet with a host of foreign leaders in Washington this month surrounding the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Bush's first meeting will be with Kuwait's Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah on September 19, the White House said Friday.

Bush then plans to host Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Suleiman at the White House on September 25 and the following day will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the troubling security situation in his country.

Washington  - The United States has admitted more than 12,000 Iraqi refugees in the last eleven months, surpassing a goal set following criticism it responded too slowly to resettle Iraqis who fled the violence.

The US State Department said Friday that 12,118 Iraqis have been admitted to the United States since October, and hundreds more have received special immigrant visas.

Iraqis began fleeing by the thousands in 2006 and 2007 as sectarian and terrorist violence in the country peaked. Most of them headed to Syria.

Washington  - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign on Friday kicked off a new phase in its battle for the White House, declaring it would be more aggressive in combatting "lies" from opponents and strengthening the message that Obama is the candidate who can bring about "real change" in Washington.