World/Nation

Obama: Wants to avoid 'militarized' police culture

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Monday he wants to ensure the U.S. isn't building a "militarized culture" within police departments, while maintaining federal programs that provide the type of military-style equipment that were used to dispel racially charged protests in Ferguson, Mo.

Instead, the president is asking Congress for funding to buy 50,000 body cameras to record events like the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown and look for ways to build trust and confidence between police and minority communities nationwide. He announced the creation of a task force to study success stories and recommend ways the government can support accountability, transparency and trust in police.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Monday new Justice Department plans aimed at ending racial profiling and ensuring fair and effective policing.

With protests ongoing in Ferguson and across the country, Obama spoke to reporters at the end of a White House meeting with police, civil rights activists and local leaders and acknowledged the participants told him that there have been task forces in the past and "nothing happens."

Cosby resigns from board of alma mater

PHILADELPHIA - Bill Cosby stepped down as a trustee of his beloved Temple University following renewed accusations that he had drugged and sexually assaulted a string of women over many years.

The 77-year-old entertainer has been a high-profile booster for his alma mater in Philadelphia and a board member since 1982.

"I have always been proud of my association with Temple University. I have always wanted to do what would be in the best interests of the university and its students. As a result, I have tendered my resignation," Cosby said in a statement released by the university.

Board chairman Patrick O'Connor told The Associated Press that the comedian does not want to be a distraction.

A shrinking pool of contenders to lead Pentagon

WASHINGTON - Wanted: Thick-skinned candidate to oversee a sprawling bureaucracy bitten by budget cuts and join a national security team besieged by criticism. Must be tolerant of White House interference.

The job conditions for President Barack Obama's next defense secretary have already spurred some top contenders to bow out, leaving the White House with a slim list of candidates to fill the post for the administration's final two years. On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson became the latest to tell the White House he wasn't interested in the job, according to people familiar with the process.

Johnson's decision to stay put at DHS is likely to deepen the impression that the Pentagon post - typically a highly sought-after Cabinet spot -is drawing little interest. The president's short list of contenders now includes longtime public servants who have deep Pentagon experience, but may be less likely to give Obama's national security agenda the jolt that critics - and increasingly some supporters - say is needed.

Contenders include Ashton Carter, the former deputy defense secretary who left the administration in late 2013, and Robert Work, who now holds the Pentagon's No. 2 job.

That's a far shorter list than some in the White House had hoped when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned last week under pressure from Obama.

Climate talks among 190 world leaders resume

LIMA, Peru - With this year on track to become the warmest on record, more than 190 nations began talks Monday on new limits for the greenhouse gases that are already changing global climate patterns and making life more difficult around the world.

New targets for fossil fuel use were announced ahead of the climate conference by the U.S., the European Union and China, the first Asian nation to make such a pledge. This has injected optimism into negotiations that are supposed to climax in Paris next year with the adoption of a long-awaited climate pact.

But India, Russia, Japan and Australia have yet to commit to new limits; and scientists say much sharper emissions cuts are needed in coming decades to keep global warming within 3.6 degrees of pre-industrial times, the overall goal of the U.N. talks. Global temperatures have already risen about 1.3 degrees, and more heat-trapping gases are emitted every year.

Every degree of warming can cause long-lasting impacts, from melting ice caps and rising sea levels to the loss of species.

"Human influence on the climate system is clear," said Rajendra Pachauri, who leads the U.N.'s panel of climate-change experts.

- The Associated Press