Obama: 'It is time to do something'
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- President Obama took his argument for stricter gun laws to Minneapolis Monday, saying all Americans have "a role to play."
"We don't have to agree on everything to agree it is time to do something," Obama said in remarks at the Minneapolis Police Department's Special Operations Center. "Each of us has a role to play."
Any action taken may not prevent every massacre or shooting, "but if there's one thing we can do, one life we can save, we've got an obligation to try."
He reiterated his push for "common sense steps to prevent gun violence," such as universal background checks, and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Obama said any discussion about preventing gun violence requires law enforcement and other community leaders to "have a seat at the table.
"They're the ones on the front lines of this fight -- they see the awful consequences," Obama said. "They know what works, what doesn't work and how to get things done without regard for politics."
Before his remarks, Obama met with local, state, private law enforcement, civic and non-governmental organization leaders, as well as survivors of shootings, in Minneapolis, which was known as "Murder-apolis" in the 1990s.
U.S. outlines cyberattack rules
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has wide powers to order both pre-emptive and retaliatory cyberattacks against enemies, a secret legal review found.
The review was conducted as part of the administration's efforts to define rules of engagement for cyberattacks, much the same as it has done in creating rules governing drone strikes, officials told The New York Times Monday.
Nearly all of the cyberattack capabilities would need to be ordered directly by the president, though some could be carried out by the military -- such as using a cyberattack to disarm a nation's anti-aircraft weapons prior to an American air strike.
The legal review comes as several prominent U.S. newspapers and private companies have been the target of cyberattacks and hacking, including the Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, all of which were the target of attacks emanating from China.
The United States is only known to have initiated a pre-emptive cyberattack once, when it inserted destructive computer code into machines operating nuclear reactors in Iran.
Skeleton ID'd as Britain's Richard III
LEICESTER, England, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- DNA testing has confirmed a skeleton found beneath a parking lot in Leicester in Britain is that of the English King Richard III, British researchers say.
"Beyond reasonable doubt it's Richard," University of Lester archaeologist Richard Buckley told a news conference, saying the remains had been subjected to "rigorous academic study."
Richard was a royal prince, the brother King Edward IV. Appointed as protector of his nephew Edward V on the king's death in 1483, Richard instead seized power.
Killed in the Battle of Bosworth after only two years on the throne, he was given a rushed burial beneath the church of Greyfriars in the center of Leicester, site of the archaeological dig that uncovered the remains.
The church was demolished during the Reformation in the 16th Century and its exact location forgotten, but historians identified the likely area and an archaeology dig was begun on the site in August 2012.
DNA from a modern ancestor of Richard's line was compared to that from the remains and found to match.
Soccer probe alleges flagrant match-fixing
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- More than 400 people, including players, are suspected of conspiring to fix hundreds of soccer matches around the world, Europol said Monday in the Netherlands.
Officials said qualifying games for the World Cup and European Cup and two Champions League matches were among those fixed.
Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, which has headquarters at The Hague, said about 680 matches have been identified as possibly fixed, including 300 outside of Europe
They said at least 425 people from more than 15 countries took part in the match-fixing, The New York Times reported.
Club and match officials as well as current and former players are among those suspected of involvement.
Asian criminal syndicates made millions of dollars by betting on the mixed games, officials said.
It wasn't clear how many of the suspect matches were new discoveries and how many were already known to have been fixed.
New York says goodbye to former Mayor Koch
NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Edward Koch, the three-term New York mayor who died at 88 Friday, was remembered Monday as a man who transformed the city, saving it from the brink.
"The New York that Ed inherited is almost unimaginable today," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during the service at Temple Emanu-El, noting the city was plagued by graffiti, crime, bad government and whole neighborhoods that "looked like they had been bombed out in an air raid."
"He restored the arc of our city's history," Bloomberg said. "He reminded us why we loved New York, and he inspired us to fight for it."
Koch's spokesman, George Arzt, said the former mayor, who also served in Congress from 1969 to 1977, died of congestive heart failure at New York-Presbyterian Columbia Hospital, where was being treated. Koch had coronary and other medical problems since he left office in 1989, but had always been in relatively good health in his on-the-go life as a television judge, radio talk-show host, author, lawyer, newspaper columnist and professor, among other pursuits.
Former President Bill Clinton returned early from a trip to Japan to speak at Koch's funeral, The New York Times reported.
