WASHINGTON — The statistics tell a sorry tale about the public schools in America’s capital.

President Bush announced for the first time Wednesday that he erred by not ordering a military buildup in Iraq last year and said he was increasing U.S. troops by 21,500 to quell the country’s near-anarchy.

LOS ANGELES — Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses’ wife in “The Ten Commandments” but achieved her greatest popularity on TV’s “The Munsters,” has died. She was 84.

ROME  — Carlo Ponti’s greatest production may have been his half-century romance with Sophia Loren.

NEW YORK — When a mysterious odor wafted through the city this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg quickly appeared on television to reassure unnerved New Yorkers that the smell — whatever it was — was harmless.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a tight-fisted spending plan on Wednesday that he said would eliminate the state’s operating deficit for the first time in nearly a decade. It also would clear the way for California to afford another round of massive borrowing for public works projects.

WASHINGTON — Can the coins jingling in your pocket trace your movements?

CAIRO, Egypt — Saddam Hussein’s unruly execution, gunbattles in Iraq and U.S. airstrikes on Somalia are increasing hostility toward America in the Arab world and deepening the Shiite-Sunni divide.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Invoking Christ and Castro as his socialist models, President Hugo Chavez began his third term Wednesday by declaring that socialism, not capitalism, is the only way forward for Venezuela and the world.

FORT STEWART, Ga. — Twice before, Sgt. Michael Konvicka has picked up a rifle to go to war. Doing it a third time won’t be any easier.