IRAQ

President Barack Obama called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims Thursday, in a speech delivered at Cairo University.

President Barack Obama called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims Thursday, and called on both societies to start a new relationship bringing an end to the cycle of suspicion and discord.”

U.S. President Barack Obama will urge Arabs and Israelis to say publicly what they acknowledge in private about Middle East peace moves and Iran when he speaks to the Muslim world on Thursday.

President Barack Obama headed for the Middle East on Tuesday hoping to start mending U.S. ties to the Islamic world in a speech that aides say will reach out to Muslims but deal with tough issues like the peace process and violent extremism.

President Barack Obama met Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Wednesday ahead of a much-heralded speech in Cairo the U.S. leader hopes will help refurbish America's tarnished image in the Islamic world.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Republican congressman John McHugh as secretary of the Army, the latest move to tap an opposition party member for the Democratic administration's top ranks.

Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the country's southeast.

A bomb killed four people and wounded 13 in a Baghdad vegetable market Monday, police and witnesses said, in the second attack there in just over two weeks.

President Barack Obama will try to repair America's tarnished image in the Muslim world on Thursday, as he looks to mobilize support for restarting Middle East peacemaking and thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Britain's Prince Harry made his first official visit to New York on Friday to pay somber respects to September 11 victims and wounded veterans and was met by crowds who greeted him as a fun-loving heartthrob more than as a royal diplomat.

An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile south-eastern Iran, two weeks before the Islamic Republic's presidential election.

The U.S. Congress has started work on a broad overhaul of the healthcare system in a rare spirit of optimism, but brewing battles over its cost, scope and structure could still scuttle hopes for a solution.

U.S. consumer confidence soared in May to its highest level in eight months, suggesting underlying improvement in the economy after a grim first quarter that witnessed a record plunge in home prices.

Suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in Iraq on Thursday in separate attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, security officials said, underscoring the fragility of Iraq's security gains.

The U.S. Army paid tens of millions of dollars in bonuses to KBR Inc, its biggest contractor in Iraq, even after it concluded the firm's electrical work had put U.S. soldiers at risk, according to a source close to a U.S. congressional investigation.

Iran's leading authority accused the United States on Tuesday of promoting terrorism in border areas and using arms and money against the Islamic state, in his latest verbal attack on Tehran's arch enemy.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has no plan to install former U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as chief executive of his country, a spokesman said on Tuesday, denying a report in the New York Times.

Aerospace and defense company shares on Monday fell as Goldman Sachs analyst upgraded aerospace sector and downgraded defense cautiously as spending expected to peak next year.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $96.7 billion measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30 as well as rush critical economic and security aid to Pakistan.

In a reversal, President Barack Obama objected on Wednesday to the release of dozens of photographs showing the abuse of terrorism suspects, fearing the pictures could trigger a backlash against U.S. troops.

A U.S. soldier suspected of shooting dead five fellow servicemen at a military clinic in Baghdad was charged with five counts of murder on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.