It looks like the California native and al Qaeda spokeman Adam Gadahn, who was reportedly arrested by Pakistani officials, is still at large. It emerged Sunday that his name was confused with the name of the al Qaeda operative who was actually arrested, Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, after the Associated Press and Reuters had already reported Gadahn’s capture. Not much is known about Al-Adam’s background, though he is believed to be connected to al Qaeda’s operations division and in command of fighters. He was born in Pennsylvania. Gadahn, the spokesman, has been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 2004 with a $1 million reward, and is officially accused of treason.

Following Iraq’s parliamentary election, President Obama released a statement congratulating the Iraqi people on a successful, albeit deadly, election. “I congratulate the people of Iraq for casting their ballots in this important parliamentary election,” Obama’s release said. “I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote today.” Obama also commended the Iraqi government and security forces for providing security to nearly 50,000 voting booths at more than 8,000 polling stations across the country. At least 38 people were killed and dozens wounded by bombings protesting the polls this weekend. The president also acknowledged the work is not quite done as the ballot counting will continue over the following days.

It may have been a battle of the exes, but The Hurt Locker beat out Avatar to sweep the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. The film won Best Picture, and Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Director for The Hurt Locker—the first woman ever to do so. She called her win "the moment of a lifetime," and dedicated her award to "the men and women of the military who risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan—and may they come home safe." Sandra Bullock won the award for Best Actress, and Jeff Bridges took home the award for Best Actor. "Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?" a stunned Sandra Bullock asked the audience as she accepted the Oscar. She dedicated the award to "moms who take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from." Precious made its mark when Mo'Nique, as expected, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress just after Precious writer Geoffrey Fletcher upset Up in the Air, taking home the Academy Award for Best Adapted Sreenplay. The ceremony kicked off at Los Angeles' Kodak Theater with three expected awards—Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor in Inglorious Basterds, Up for Best Animated Feature Film, and Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett for Best Song from a Feature Film for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart.

President Obama is launching a political counterattack to fend off angry congressmen who hate his proposal to outsource space missions, which they argue would make NASA obsolete. Obama is expected to make a personal appeal to try to overcome the bipartisan opposition to his approach at a conference in Florida on April 15. Officials say 9,000 jobs would be lost in Florida alone if NASA space missions were canceled and outsourced to private industry. Obama also wants to replace technology construction programs with a program to develop new technologies, which could delay manned space missions for decades. The White House says the existing programs are backward-looking.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham might finally be ready to play nice with the White House on Guantanamo Bay, two months after Obama’s self-imposed deadline to close it passed. But there’s a catch: Graham will help rally Republican support for the camp’s closure, he said Sunday, only if President Obama agrees to backtrack and send alleged Sept. 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others to military tribunals instead of civilian courts. “I don't believe Khalid Sheikh Mohammed robbed a liquor store. He's the mastermind of 9/11,” Graham told CBS’s Face the Nation. “If he's not an enemy combatant, who would be?” Democratic Senator Evan Bayh said that it was a deal worth considering for Obama. "I think the administration gets something, and yet the public gets reassured," he said.

Rahm Emanuel has become a lightning rod for criticism, with everything from the failures of comprehensive health care to the delay in closing Guantanamo Bay being blamed on Obama's chief of staff. The twist is that the criticism is coming from inside the Democratic Party. The call (for his resignation) may even be coming from inside the White House, reports The Hill. "There are people in the White House who are trying to get rid of Rahm, and they are leaking everything they can," said one Democratic strategist, who is close to Emanuel. He is viewed to be selling out the ideals of the party in favor of dubious pragmatism, making concessions that pull the Obama administration ever closer to the center. But others think that Emanuel is too easy a target. "They don't want to attack President Obama directly," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton administration senior official. "They use Rahm Emanuel as a surrogate. I think the campaign to push Rahm out will fail."

After Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. bantered about the battle between writers and actors at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, the evening took a tearful turn when the pair awarded the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay to Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker. The first-time winner dedicated his award to his father, who passed away a month earlier. "He would have really loved to see this," Boal told the audience. Brat Pack members Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick then took to the stage to pay tribute to late iconic American director John Hughes. Other stars of his films—from Anthony Michael Hall to Macaulay Culkin—then took the stage to share their fond memories of Hughes.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iran's intelligence ministry staff that the events that transpired on September 11 were a “big lie,” according to reports. Ahmadinejad told state TV reporters, “September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan.” This isn’t the first time the Iranian president has questioned the “official U.S. version of September 11,” but this is the first time he has gone so far as to call it a “big lie.” His comments, in the midst of U.S. efforts to impose sanctions because of Iran’s nuclear program, show neither the president nor his policy have any intention of “toning itself down.”

Last week, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was the focus of Washington soothsayers, as critics questioned whether he has failed to deliver on the president’s agenda. Now, however, a profile in The New York Times suggests that this week’s finger-pointing may be aimed at Obama’s political adviser David Axelrod, as people wonder whether he has blundered in honing his boss’s message. “The Obama White House has lost the narrative in the way that the Obama campaign never did,” says one political scientist. For his part, Axelrod says there have been “communication failures.” The criticism has apparently reached the Axelrod clan. “Every time I hear that the White House is getting the message wrong, it breaks my heart,” Axelrod's sister tells The Times.

The close call seemed almost scripted. After an 18-hour blackout, WABC and Cablevision reached a breakthrough in negotiations, just in time for 3.3 million New York-area subscribers to watch the Academy Awards broadcast. The two sides had been locked in a dispute over the retransmission consent fees ABC is asking from Cablevision for the right to carry its flagship New York station. But WABC was apparently restored to Cablevision around 15 minutes into the Oscars at 8:45 p.m. The issue of retransmission consent is becoming increasingly sensitive as networks seek to make up for falling advertising revenue—Fox recently went through a similar battle with Time Warner Cable.

You might want to rethink your Oscar party plans. Just after midnight in the middle of a repeat episode of Lost, ABC went dark for Cablevision customers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut after the Walt Disney Company and cable provider failed to reach a deal over a new contract. A white screen appeared with the message, “Cablevision has betrayed you again. First HGTV and Food Network, now you lost ABC-7. Enough is enough! Go to saveABC7.com to switch your service now.” ABC-7 and Cablevision have been in negotiations for two years to no avail. Cablevision says Disney wants to raise its retransmission fees by an additional $40 million a year above the $200 million a year, while Disney says Cablevision charges $18 per month for its basic package but doesn’t share any of its profits with the program provider. ABC-7 currently remains black, leaving film fans scrambling to find a place to watch tonight’s awards show.

President Barack Obama is sending his vice president to meet several Middle East leaders on a public diplomacy mission as Palestinian leaders agreed today to engage in indirect peace talks with Israel. Biden’s visit will begin on Monday and he plans to make stops with Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Jordanian leaders. The trip should reassure Israelis over Obama’s commitment to their security after the U.S.-Israeli relationship was strained by Obama’s push for a “complete Jewish settlement freeze” and his recent outreach to the Muslim world with high-profile visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “If Israel is supposed to make sacrifices for a peace deal, the Israel public has to be convinced it is receiving sufficient support from the United States,” an Israeli official said.

So this is how one rises to power. When former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s top aides were deciding on a potential running mate during the winter of 2005, they were told current New York Governor David Paterson was a “hard partier,” reports the New York Post. Apparently this partying referred to “extramarital dalliances, past drug use, and a penchant for late-night clubbing,” but Spitzer never got the message because the aides passed it off as unimportant. This oversight was just one incident in a sequence of events leading to Paterson’s rise to governor and current state of disarray in the face of several scandals. According to a top Spitzer aide, Paterson wasn’t even on the list of potential lieutenant governors. After a month of unsuccessful attempts, Spitzer was getting desperate and Paterson, during a casual meeting, asked “Why not me?” Paterson, with 21 years of legislative experience, was thought to be a "known commodity" by Spitzer and his aides, who barely vetted him. Now things are different. A former Spitzer senior adviser writes in his upcoming memoir, “Eliot had been the starting pitcher who left the bases loaded with an inept reliever coming in.”

Gordon Brown stirred up a storm of trouble at home by making a surprise visit to British troops stationed in Afghanistan Saturday. Former Prime Minister John Major called the stopover a “cynically-timed political stunt,” saying that Brown was aiming to distract people from a governmental inquiry into the Iraq war. Aides countered, saying Brown has made regular trips to Afghanistan and questioned whether Conservatives would “prefer if the prime minister didn’t thank our armed forces for their efforts…?” Politics will grow increasingly bitter in the U.K. as the country heads towards a national election this spring.

A New York mom embroiled in a vicious divorce battle with her husband tried to have him killed, but didn’t think she could afford the hit. Fortunately for her, she got an offer of $20,000 and was thrilled, according to the New York Post. The only bad news for Susan Williams was that offer came from an undercover agent. "She didn't think she could afford [a murder]. She didn't realize it was so cheap,” the district attorney said. Now Williams is behind bars with bail set at $1 million. Said husband Peter Williams: "I am thankful that the person that my wife sought to help in hiring a hit man had the decency to contact the appropriate authorities—otherwise I would probably be dead."

Four robbers dressed as employees and carrying guns crashed a poker tournament at a Berlin luxury hotel and walked away with part of the jackpot of $1.36 million. (The Wall Street Journal reports they took $136,200.) One account said the thieves carried machetes and hand grenades in addition to automatic weapons. Around 400 people were competing in the five-day affair organized by the European Poker Tour.

Tonight’s Oscars are full of films with great storylines, however, the show may lack the one thing that draws in even more viewers: movie stars. Only three out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture have A-list leads. Except for Sigourney Weaver in Avatar, neither the sci-fi blockbuster nor The Hurt Locker have major names. George Clooney, nominated for Up in the Air, Brad Pitt for Inglourious Basterds, and Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side are the only household names in the bunch. The 2010 Oscars support a major trend in Hollywood away from “the old model of tying a movie’s commercial fortunes to an actor” and banking on that big name to carry the film. Recession-conscious producers have become increasingly wary of dropping the film’s first $15m-$20m on a single star.

At least 38 people were killed and dozens wounded by bombings this weekend in Iraq as millions of citizens headed to the polls Sunday. This weekend was the nationwide election of the 325-member parliament. Mortar rounds even reached into the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy operates. Rockets crashed into the Baghdad neighborhood of Ur, killing 12 people. On Saturday, a car bomb targeted a religious holy place for Shiite pilgrims, killing three people. Three attacks occurred Thursday, claiming the lives of 12 others. Sunday’s vote is a key moment in the country’s democratic development as it seeks to foster independence.

Within the next few weeks, the country’s capital will be handing out 500,000 female condoms at no cost. Following a study that showed large numbers of African American heterosexuals engaging in “risky sexual behavior,” the District will start passing out the condoms at beauty salons, convenience stores, and high schools in the five wards that showed increased risk of HIV infection. Male condoms have long been distributed widely and freely, and the move targets women, to allow them to prevent and protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and from partners who refuse to use protection. The female condom has been on the U.S. market since 1993, but women have complained about its original price point, which has since been reduced to be more on par with male condoms.

Despite publicly discouraging companies from investing in Iran, the U.S. government has awarded more than $107 billion to companies doing business in the country since 2000, The New York Times reports. In fact, nearly $15 billion has been given to businesses who made large investments in Iran’s oil sector, in defiance of U.S. laws that prohibit doing business with the energy industry. That industry makes major cash for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which oversees Iran’s nuclear program. The auto industry, which the Times found companies investing in, is also tied to the Guard. One provided container ship motors to a state-owned company the U.S. has blacklisted since it was caught smuggling military supplies. Over the past few months, many companies have pulled out of Iran as the U.S. pushes for more sanctions with the U.N. But 49 of the 74 companies who did business with both the U.S. and Iran, the Times reports, continue to do so and don’t plan on leaving.

In a major victory in the U.S.-led battle against al Qaeda, two officers claim Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn. The arrest was made in the southern city of Karachi and is a sign of confidence that Pakistan is committed to aiding Washington in its effort against terror. According to the FBI, Gadahn moved to Pakistan in 1998, where he attended an al Qaeda training camp six years later. With a $1 million reward to his name, Gadahn continued to post messages calling for the destruction of the West, the most recent of which praised the Fort Hood shooter and urged other Muslims to follow suit. According to the Associated Press, “A U.S. court charged Gadahn with treason in 2006, making him the first American to face such a charge in more than 50 years. He could face the death penalty if convicted.”

General Electric Chief Jeff Immelt decided to forego a bonus in 2009—the second year in a row he’s skipped out on the extra pay. Other execs at the conglomerate, however, are taking in a total of $11 million in bonuses. The payday comes as GE seeks to move away from investment into financial services and return to its core products. “GE must be an industrial company first,” Immelt wrote in a letter to shareholders Friday.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland broke records this weekend with an estimated $116.3 million domestic haul. Disney’s 3-D adaptation of the classic Lewis Carroll tale easily beat out the $83.8 million bar set in 2004 by The Passion of the Christ to nab the title of biggest-ever opening in the first quarter. Worldwide, Alice grabbed an astounding $210.3 million, making it the biggest foreign opening in the winter or spring, according to Disney. Alice debuted to mixed reviews, but word of mouth for the film is still positive. Brooklyn’s Finest, the only other film to debut on Friday, came in second with $13.5 million, edging out previous box-office topper Shutter Island with $13.3 million. The majority of the top 10 remained in line, with Oscar-nominated Crazy Heart the only film to show positive gains, with a 36 percent uptick in sales.