GEORGE W. BUSH

President Barack Obama's vow to get tougher on countries such as China that undervalue their currencies has heightened attention on whether the Treasury Department will formally label China as a currency manipulator in a semi-annual report due in April.

The U.S. space agency on Tuesday awarded $50 million in grants to five private firms in a first step to implement President Barack Obama's vision of turning over space transportation to the commercial sector.

President Barack Obama still plans to meet the Dalai Lama, the White House said on Tuesday, despite China's warning that such a meeting would hurt ties already strained by U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appealed to Republicans on Tuesday to join a bipartisan bid to wrestle down soaring deficits that he blamed largely on the former Bush administration.

President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to halve a record 2010 budget deficit by the end of his first term in office, but made tackling double-digit unemployment his immediate priority with a spending plan that risked public ire and a rough battle in Congress.

President Barack Obama has called NASA to cancel the $100 billion program that was to return humans to the Moon by 2020, and focus instead on new space technologies.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair made a defiant defence of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq Friday, saying the September 11 attacks in the United States meant Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed or removed.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday moved to clear the way to confirm Ben Bernanke to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, setting a procedural vote for Thursday in a sign that the needed votes were now secured.

Ben Bernanke's prospects for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman brightened on Tuesday as a number of previously undecided senators voiced their support with a deadline looming.

President Barack Obama, under pressure from deficit hawks, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, administration officials said on Monday.

A man threw his shoe at Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in a public conference in the capital on Monday, a particularly insulting action in Arab culture, eye witnesses said.

Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second term as U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, once seen a sure thing, appeared increasingly under threat on Friday after two Senate Democrats said they would vote against it.

Two U.S. Senate Democrats on Friday said they would vote against Ben Bernanke for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, adding an element of uncertainty for Wall Street.

Most Americans want the jobs and clean energy that Democratic-backed climate-change legislation could help bring but its backers are presenting the wrong messages, according to a prominent U.S. pollster.

World leaders pledged aid to rebuild a devastated Haiti, but on the streets of its wrecked capital earthquake survivors were still waiting on Sunday for the basics: food, water and medicine.

President Barack Obama on Saturday slammed Wall Street's audacity for fighting a bailout fee he wants to slap on financial firms and said his Republican opponents had sided with big banks.

President Barack Obama pledged $100 million for Haiti relief aid on Thursday and enlisted the help of two former U.S. presidents, promising Haitians: You will not be forsaken.

President Barack Obama made Haiti relief efforts a top priority for the U.S. government on Thursday.

President Barack Obama on Thursday will propose major U.S. financial firms pay a fee to protect taxpayers from up to $117 billion in losses on a bank bailout that has spurred fury at Wall Street excess.

President Barack Obama will announce plans on Thursday to raise up to $120 billion from major U.S. financial firms to cover expected losses from a taxpayer-funded bank bailout, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

North Korea will not return to nuclear disarmament negotiations unless the United States agrees to peace treaty talks and lifts sanctions, a senior North Korean diplomat said on Tuesday, leaving little room for compromise.