SAN FRANCISCO — The challenge of protecting the government's computer networks is too big for any one agency to handle alone, a top adviser to President Obama said yesterday. That suggests the administration doesn't intend to consolidate control of U.S. cybersecurity under a single department like the National Security Agency, as some have feared.

The comments by Melissa Hathaway, in her first public appearance since completing a still-secret 60-day study on the nation's computer security, were light on details but offered some hints on how the administration plans to address the turf wars and confusion surrounding the country's patchwork cybersecurity policies.

Hathaway didn't offer any specifics about her findings or proposals in her talk at the RSA security conference in San Francisco. She said those will be released in the "coming days" after the administration reviews her report.

FAA TO OPEN DATA ON PLANE-BIRD COLLISIONS

WASHINGTON — The federal government is reversing itself and plans to release data on the thousands of incidents in which aircraft hit birds, the Department of Transportation said yesterday.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the decision was reached Tuesday in a meeting with Federal Aviation Administration officials. It came after a 30-day public comment period yielded opposition to a proposal to keep the incidents out of the public eye.

The risk that growing populations of large birds create for commercial aviation has been in the spotlight since a US Airways flight Jan. 15 struck a flock of Canada geese, which crippled the jet's engines. The pilot made a dramatic splashdown in the Hudson River, but no one was killed.

ALARMS FOR AIR AMBULANCES PROPOSED

WASHINGTON — A proposal aimed at stemming crashes of air ambulances would require that the helicopters carry alarms that would warn pilots if they are close to hitting the ground, the Federal Aviation Administration announced yesterday.

The alarm is part of a computerized device that can track every hill and radio tower in the world, warning pilots when they get too close to danger. The Terrain Awareness Warning System, which is credited with preventing dozens of accidents on jets, would cost about $100,000 per helicopter. Between December 2007 and October 2008, 13 air ambulance accidents killed 35 people.

TURKEY, ARMENIA CLOSER TO ACCORD

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a roadmap for normalizing relations and reaching reconciliation, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday, but it wasn't immediately clear how they would tackle their bitter dispute over Ottoman-era killings of Armenians.

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were slain by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I in what Armenians and several other nations recognize as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey vehemently rejects the allegation, saying that the death toll was inflated and that Armenians died in civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

SUSPECT CHARGED WITH MURDERING LEVY

WASHINGTON — Nearly eight years after federal intern Chandra Levy's disappearance, the man suspected of killing her was charged yesterday with first-degree murder.

Ingmar Guandique, 27, was expected to appear today in the District of Columbia Superior Court. A D.C. police arrest warrant issued last month accuses him of sexually assaulting and killing Levy in Rock Creek Park in May 2001. The Modesto, Calif., native's remains were found in the Washington park a year later.

DAD SOUGHT IN TATTOOING OF 7-YEAR-OLD SON

FRESNO, Calif. — Police in California are looking for a man accused of holding down his 7-year-old son while another man tattooed the child's belly with a street gang sign.

The boy's mother reported it to Fresno authorities Tuesday. Police say the father, 26-year-old Enrique Gonzalez, faces six charges including mayhem, child abuse, false imprisonment, battery, participating in a criminal street gang and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.

Police have arrested a man they say was the tattoo artist. He faces similar charges. The dog paw insignia represents the Bulldogs, Fresno's largest criminal street gang.