Washington  - Barack Obama's campaign promise to recognize that the slaughter of more than 1 million Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire was genocide has left him in a difficult spot as president.

Since he took office, the influential Armenian-American community has been clamoring for Obama to follow through on the declaration and expressed disappointment that he did not do so during his trip in early April to Turkey.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama and key administration officials launched a full media blitz Wednesday to push for limits to climate-damaging pollution in the United States, coinciding with Earth Day.

Obama touted the importance of wind power during a trip to the US state of Iowa and called for a "new era of energy exploration," sounding a theme repeated by a series of cabinet members who testified before Congress on the same day.

Los Angeles  - The Chicago Bulls made Derrick Rose the first pick in the NBA Draft last June, and came up smelling like roses as the talented point guard bloomed as tops in his class.

Rose was named the NBA's Rookie of the Year, after leading the Bulls into the playoffs, the league announced on Wednesday.

"When I first came into the season my biggest thing was to get this award," Rose said. "I was telling you all that I wasn't caring about it, but when you're coming in, you really do want this award. It shows how much work you have put into it."

Ramallah  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that he has seen positive signs from United States officials regarding the two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Speaking at a press conference with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Abbas said that "we have heard positive signals from US President (Barack) Obama, Secretary of State (Hillary) Clinton and from (special US envoy George) Mitchell on this vision."

He said that "the vision of two states is the base for a solution and which should be applied as soon as possible."

Los Angeles  - Disney released a new nature documentary on Wednesday in a move designed to mark Earth Day and recall the company's pioneering efforts to bring wildlife movies to the masses from the 1940s on with its True-Life Adventure films.

The new movie, entitled Earth, follows the fortunes of three animal families - a mother polar bear and her cubs in the Arctic, a family of elephants on the edges of the Kalahari Desert and the adventures of a humpback whale and her calf as they undertake a 6,500-kilometre migration.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that Pakistan's policy of ceding territory to Islamic extremists poses a serious threat that cannot be overlooked.

During testimony before the foreign policy committee in the House of Representatives, Clinton called on Pakistanis "to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents, to the Taliban, to al-Qaeda, to the allies that are in this terrorist syndicate."