Arms

WASHINGTON - Proceeding cautiously, President Obama insisted Friday that any use of chemical weapons by Syria would change his "calculus" about U.S. military involvement in the two-year-old civil war - but said too little was known about a pair of likely sarin attacks to order aggressive action now. The president's public response to the latest intelligence reflected the lack of agreement in Washington over whether to use America's military to intervene...

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Thursday that the Syrian government had likely used chemical weapons on a small scale against its own people, but it stopped short of threatening military action against President Bashar al-Assad. In a letter to lawmakers, the White House said U.S. intelligence agencies "assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. " Despite the caveats, the disclosure puts President Obama under new pressure to respond because it is the first time that the United States has joined other countries in suggesting that the Assad government is likely to have deployed chemical weapons over the course of the two-year-old Syrian civil war. A senior administration official acknowledged that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross the "red line" declared by Obama many times in recent months in warnings to Assad.

George Bunn, 87, a leading figure in the field of arms control who helped draft and negotiate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, limiting the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide, died April 21 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He had spinal cancer, said his son Matthew Bunn. In 1945, while serving in the Navy, Mr. Bunn was on a ship bound for Japan when atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to World War II. "He was convinced that the atomic bomb saved his life," his son said Thursday.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that Israeli military leaders kept him in the dark, during three days of face-to-face meetings, about their assessment that forces loyal to the Syrian government had killed rebel fighters with chemical weapons. An Israeli general made the assertion Tuesday at a conference in Tel Aviv while Hagel was in the country meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Hagel said Wednesday that the Israelis did not mention their finding even though the two sides had discussed at length common concerns about the threat posed by Syria's chemical-weapons stockpile.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced Friday that it has reached a preliminary agreement on a complex $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, in what would represent the latest major weapons sale to U.S. allies in the Middle East. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will attempt to finalize the arms package next week when he is scheduled to visit the three countries. Ultimately, the deal will need the assent of Congress. Defense officials said they have kept lawmakers apprised of the negotiations and revealed basics of the agreement to lawmakers on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - With the Senate gun-control debate on the near horizon, a National Rifle Association-sponsored report on Tuesday proposed a program for schools to train selected staffers as armed security officers. The former Republican congressman who headed the study suggested at least one protector with firearms for every school, saying it would speed responses to attacks. The report's release served as the gun-rights group's answer to improving school safety after the gruesome December slayings of 20 first graders and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

IT'S HARD to figure out who is more clueless: the NRA, which released a report calling for armed guards in school one day after families of Newtown victims rallied in Connecticut's capital to support strict new laws to limit gun violence, or Republican members of Congress, who are threatening to filibuster new gun-control legislation little more than 100 days after the Newtown massacre. But this doesn't need to be a contest-Both can and should win the prize for being out of touch with the rest of the country.

UNITED NATIONS - Iran, North Korea, and Syria blocked adoption of a U.N. treaty that for the first time would regulate the multibillion-dollar international arms trade. An agreement required agreement by all 193 U.N. member states. But other countries refused to let the treaty die. In an unexpected twist, Mexico proposed that the conference go ahead and adopt the treaty Thursday without the support of the three countries, saying there was no definition of consensus. Several countries supported the idea, but the Russian delegation objected and called the proposal "a manipulation of consensus.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - When Adam Lanza walked out of his house for the last time, he left behind firearms and knives and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition - taking only four guns. He loaded the weapons into his car, drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, blasted his way into the building and within five minutes fired off 154 shots with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle. Having slaughtered 20 first graders and six educators, he killed himself with a Glock handgun. He still had more than 100 rifle bullets at hand.

LOS ANGELES - The day starts out light for the La Salle Explorers as coach John Giannini knows the value of rest, especially at this time of the season. The team isn't required to be anywhere until a 10 a.m. breakfast in the basement of their hotel. While a lot of food does get consumed, the session primarily consists of laughter. Tyrone Garland, owner of the now-famous Southwest Philly Floater, cracks everyone up with some witty - and secretive - one-liners. His main audience is Ramon Galloway, who stands up to laugh loudly after a Garland quip.