World/Nation

• Carbon pact not enough to avoid dangerous global warming

WASHINGTON - Don't expect the landmark U.S.-China climate change agreement to nudge the world's rising thermostat downward much on its own, scientists said.

While they hail it as a start, experts who study heat-trapping carbon dioxide don't see the deal, announced Wednesday in Beijing, making significant progress without other countries joining.

The math shows that even with the agreement, the globe is still rushing toward another 2-degree temperature rise - a level which world leaders have pledged to avoid as too dangerous.

China, the world's No. 1 polluter, will still increase its emissions until 2030 or so, under the agreement. The U.S., which ranks second, promised to cut pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas to levels which haven't been seen since 1969. But whatever cuts the U.S. makes will be swamped by the Chinese growth in pollution over the next 15 years.

"It doesn't change things much," said Glen Peters, a Norwegian scientist who was part of the Global Carbon Project international team of researchers that tracks and calculates global emissions every year.

• US faces uphill battle in Iraq's embattled Anbar province

BAGHDAD - The defeat was the most humiliating for the Iraqi military in months.

Disguised in Iraqi army uniforms and driving stolen Humvees, Islamic State group militants stormed Camp Saqlawiyah in Iraq's western Anbar province, sending some 700 soldiers fleeing. At least 40 soldiers were killed and another 68 taken prisoner, later to be paraded through the streets of the city of Fallujah.

The debacle, which took place Sept. 21, shows the extent of the task as the Obama administration moves for the first time to deploy military advisers directly on the ground in Anbar and other battle zones with the extremists. It is part of a planned expansion in training and advising of the Iraqi military - a risky step for the U.S, which until now has been wary about front-line involvement and fearful of history repeating itself.

"No mission that we undertake anywhere in the world is risk-free," Pentagon Spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday. "These trainers will be operating at fixed sites that we are surveying right now."

President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $5.6 billion for the expansion. He said Friday he has authorized the deployment of as many as 1,500 more American troops to bolster Iraqi forces, which could more than double the total number of U.S. forces to 3,100. He said this represents a new phase in the campaign against IS as the U.S. plays a bigger role in enabling the Iraqis to go on the offensive.

• Study finds gene mutations which lower heart risks

Scientists have discovered gene mutations which give people naturally lower cholesterol levels and cut their risk of heart disease in half.

That discovery may have a big implication: A blockbuster drug which mimics these mutations has long been sold without evidence that it cuts the chance of heart disease. Results of a large study which looked for that evidence will be revealed on Monday.

The drug is Merck & Co.'s Zetia, also sold in combination with another medicine as Vytorin.

When Zetia was designed, scientists knew how it worked to lower LDL, or bad cholesterol, and it won federal approval based on its ability to do that. But the existence of gene mutations which could do the same thing was not known, nor was it known if lowering cholesterol this way would translate to a lower risk of heart problems.

The new research gives a biological basis to suggest the drug could help.

• Myanmar's stalled reforms jeopardize foreign policy progress

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - For President Barack Obama, Myanmar's stalled progress on promised political and economic reforms is jeopardizing what was to be a crowning achievement for his foreign policy legacy.

Obama arrived in Myanmar's capital of Naypyitaw on Wednesday amid persistent questions about whether the government would follow through on its pledges - and whether the U.S. had made too many overtures to the long-isolated country too soon. Myanmar won wide sanctions relief from Obama after its sudden and unexpected shift from a half-century of military rule, but there's little certainty about the country's future.

"Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began," Obama said in an interview with Myanmar's The Irrawaddy magazine. "In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward."

White House officials say Obama has always been realistic about the challenges ahead for Myanmar, a country which in many cases lacks the infrastructure and capacity to enact the reforms its leaders have outlined. But critics of the administration's policy say the U.S. gave up its leverage too quickly by rewarding the government for promises rather than results.

"With so many avenues for pressure lost, it can indeed seem like the U.S. doesn't have a lot of cards left to play," said John Sifton, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

• Maryland school district strips religious names from calendar

Presented with the opportunity to recognize a Muslim holiday on the school calendar for the first time, leaders of Maryland's largest school district went a different direction: They removed all mention of religious holidays from the calendar.

Many school districts nationwide don't spell out religious holidays on the calendar, having replaced "Christmas Break" with the secular "Winter Break." But school officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, a wealthy and diverse Washington suburb, are being criticized for the impetus behind their decision: a push by Muslims to close schools on the Eid holy days.

Muslim activists had asked the board to note on next year's calendar that Yom Kippur, a day when schools are already closed, is also Eid al-Adha. The two holidays do not always fall on the same date. But the board rejected that proposal, instead voting 7-1 to close schools on the same days as usual without mentioning their religious associations.

As a result, Christians and Jews are upset at the removal of their holidays from the calendar, and Muslims are upset that theirs weren't included. Conservative bloggers seized on the decision as part of a perceived "war on Christmas" by secular forces. And Muslims accused the board of hiding behind secularism to protect more established communities.

- The Associated Press