Washington: President Barack Obama emphasized his deep concern about the Syrian government's use of violence against civilians in a phone call on Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said. The two leaders also agreed that bloodshed and violence against the Syrian people must immediately end, the White House said. Separately, presidential spokesman Jay Carney stopped just short of calling for President Bashar al Assad's ouster, saying...
02:32 AM, Aug 12, 2011
Washington: Aside from the warm fuzzy feeling of having helped prevent a recession, what does a White House staffer get for working long hours to raise the US debt ceiling? Answer: a burger and fries. President Barack Obama took his top lieutenants out for lunch on Wednesday to thank them for weeks of work that resulted in a deal in Congress this week to lift the debt ceiling and prevent...
11:14 AM, Aug 04, 2011
Washington: US lawmakers were close to a last-minute $3 trillion deal on Sunday to raise the US borrowing limit and assure financial markets that the United States will avoid a potentially catastrophic default. "We're very close," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican who is playing a key role in the debt ceiling negotiations. Prospects improved for a significant package to cut the US deficit after Republican...
08:07 PM, Jul 31, 2011
Washington: Top congressional Republicans held fresh talks on Saturday with President Barack Obama to try to break a deadlock on raising the debt limit and expressed confidence that a default by the world's largest economy could be avoided. While engagement with the White House after a week of poisonous political stalemate was a step forward, a deal still seemed elusive. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the two...
07:17 AM, Jul 31, 2011
Washington: The fight over the debt ceiling has turned into a dramatic leadership test for President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, opponents in a divided government who've gone from negotiating in secret to facing off in public at a watershed moment for the country and their own political careers. As the standoff enters its uncertain endgame, it's unclear which of them will come out ahead - or if...
05:23 PM, Jul 30, 2011
Washington: With four days left before the United States hits its debt limit, Republicans pressed ahead with a deficit plan that cannot pass Congress and President Barack Obama told lawmakers to stop wasting time and find a way "out of this mess." Republicans in the House of Representatives said they expected to vote on Friday on a retooled deficit-reduction measure that would raise the debt ceiling. The bill is opposed...
07:49 AM, Jul 30, 2011
Washington: An intense endgame at hand, House Republican leaders put off a vote on Thursday night on legislation to avert a threatened government default and slice federal spending by nearly $1 trillion. GOP leaders announced their decision after abruptly halting debate on the legislation and plunging into an intensive round of meetings with rebellious conservatives. The decision created fresh turmoil as a divided government struggled to head off a default...
08:17 AM, Jul 29, 2011
Washington: Crisis concerns rising, House Republican leaders shrugged off a White House veto threat and an outbreak of tensions within their own party on Wednesday as they built support for legislation to stave off the government default threatened for next week. Worried Wall Street sent stocks plunging on fears that political gridlock would prevail. "I can't do this job unless you're behind me," House Speaker John Boehner bluntly told his...
07:46 AM, Jul 28, 2011
Los Angeles: Betty Ford said things that first ladies just don't say, even today. And 1970s America loved her for it. According to Mrs Ford, her young adult children probably had smoked marijuana - and if she were their age, she'd try it, too. She told "60 Minutes" she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her youngest, 18-year-old Susan, was in a sexual relationship (an embarrassed Susan issued a denial)....
07:26 PM, Jul 09, 2011
Washington: US President Barack Obama took to Twitter on Wednesday to press his economic agenda, using the popular social media site to tweak Republicans and advocate for a deal to reduce the deficit. In a 'town hall' style meeting that lasted about an hour, the president fielded questions posted by users of the Twitter site and sent his first live tweet from a laptop in the White House East Room...
08:26 AM, Jul 07, 2011
Washington: China is close to clinching a top-level post at the International Monetary Fund, sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday after the IMF's new chief pledged to give more power to emerging economies. IMF sources said Min Zhu, a Chinese national who was a special advisor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was expected to fill a new deputy managing director post to be created by Lagarde. "Min Zhu is expected...
02:19 AM, Jul 07, 2011
Washington: President Barack Obama's choice for his next counterterrorism chief is a lawyer and former prosecutor with extensive experience in intelligence matters for the US government, the White House announced on Friday. Matthew Olsen, if confirmed by the Senate, would direct the National Counterterrorism Center, an agency born in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. That agency is charged with analysing and integrating information gathered...
12:59 AM, Jul 02, 2011
Washington: The White House will host a Twitter session with President Barack Obama on July 6. The president will answer questions submitted via Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters. The session will focus on jobs and the economy, and a video feed of Obama's answers will be streamed online. While Obama has taken questions submitted on social networking sites in previous public meetings, including one hosted by Facebook, the...
02:47 AM, Jul 01, 2011
Washington: Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) poses serious threat to both India and the United States and a global effort is required to eliminate its menace, a White House report has said. "In South Asia Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) the organisation responsible for the rampage in Mumbai in 2008 that killed over 100 people, including six Americans constitutes a formidable terrorist threat to Indian, US, and other Western interests in South Asia...
01:58 AM, Jul 01, 2011
Washington: President Barack Obama has compared himself to Barcelona striker Lionel Messi at a White House awards ceremony. The Colorado Rapids, champions of US Major League Soccer, presented Obama a No. 10 jersey, on Monday. "That is me and Messi. We're right up there. Absolutely," Obama said to laughter. Obama described himself to the Colorado players and officials as "a soccer dad, myself. I have watched my share of games...
12:25 PM, Jun 30, 2011
Washington: The House of Representatives of the US Congress voted down on Friday a resolution authorising a military campaign in Libya. Lawmakers rejected the resolution by a vote of 295 to 123, challenging the efforts of President Barack Obama to go ahead with operations in Libya. US lawmakers have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with Obama's violation of the War Powers Resolution, a Vietnam-era law that restricts the presidential power of...
03:39 AM, Jun 25, 2011
New York: President Barack Obama has delivered important political victories for gays but is unlikely to push his support for gay rights much further before the 2012 election in case he alienates independent voters. Gay leaders will likely give Obama high marks at a fundraiser in New York on Thursday for pushing through issues like winning gays the right to serve openly in the military. Yet calls for the White...
03:38 AM, Jun 23, 2011
Washington: All car and pedestrian traffic has been stopped by US Secret Service for several blocks in a perimeter around the White House since morning on Wednesday following a security alert triggered by a dump truck. A canine team "alerted" while inspecting a dump truck that was scheduled to come into the construction complex on the White House north lawn, the Secret Service told ABC News. The north lawn has...
09:59 PM, Jun 22, 2011
Washington: President Barack Obama and Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner teamed up in a golf match on Saturday to try to build a friendlier climate for troubled talks on the US debt and deficits. In a game won on the 18th hole, Obama, a Democrat, and Boehner beat Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich on a course at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, just...
10:08 AM, Jun 19, 2011
Washington: US President Barack Obama's Indian-American infotech czar Vivek Kundra is headed to Harvard University this year for a fellowship programme and is expected to leave his post at the White House as Chief Information Officer in August. Kundra, who has been CIO in the Obama administration for the past two and a half years, will serve a joint fellowship later this year at Harvard. He will split his time...
12:39 PM, Jun 17, 2011
