BARACK OBAMA

Key senators pushed for a bipartisan agreement on a package of reforms to tighten rules for financial industry behavior as President Barack Obama on Wednesday blasted critics who call his policies socialism.

The number of affluent investors worrying about jobs and the political environment rose in February as bipartisan cooperation remains elusive in Washington and the economy struggles with high unemployment.

President Barack Obama launched a vigorous defense of his economic agenda on Wednesday, rejecting critics who say it amounts to socialism and insisting his policies would boost U.S. competitiveness.

Senate negotiations toward a bipartisan agreement on financial regulatory reform moved forward on several fronts on Wednesday and hopes were high for a pact early next week.

The only time the U.S. dollar ever took a serious shellacking in the marketplace, the wounds were almost entirely self-inflicted.

President Barack Obama will appeal to U.S. business leaders on Wednesday to back his push to create jobs as he defends his agenda against conservative critics seeking to paint him as a big spender.

U.S. banks and investment firms transferred their political contributions to Republicans in 2009 as Democrats in Washington put the focus on big bonuses, huge profits and tight lending, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The Obama administration said on Tuesday it is still committed to the Volcker rule to ban risky trading by banks, although Congress looks increasingly unlikely to adopt the rule as proposed.

Google's assertion that its computers were attacked by hackers based in China was groundless, Beijing said on Tuesday, hardening its rhetoric in a spat with Washington over Internet freedom.

Wall Street paid out $20.3 billion in bonuses in 2009, up 17 percent from a year earlier, New York State's comptroller said, as the financial industry recovered fitfully from a near meltdown.

Wall Street paid out $20.3 billion in bonuses in 2009, up 17 percent from a year earlier, New York State's comptroller said, as the financial industry recovered fitfully from a near meltdown.

A modest job-creation bill advanced in the Senate on Monday as the chamber's newest Republican bucked his party and sided with Democrats on a $15 billion package of tax cuts and highway spending.

President Barack Obama made a last-ditch bid to revive his stalled healthcare overhaul on Monday with a plan to make insurance more affordable and to bolster government authority to regulate premium hikes.

The liberal grass-roots group ACORN is reeling after scandals that have hurt its fund-raising ability and prompted its big New York and California chapters to quit and set up fresh organizations.

The Obama administration heralded new rules protecting U.S. credit card holders from certain fees and rate increases on Monday, even as Connecticut's Attorney General criticized the Federal Reserve for not using the rules to reverse earlier card rate hikes.

An Obama administration spokesman on Monday stressed the importance of independent authority for a proposed U.S. financial consumer watchdog and said where it was housed was another issue.

The number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan has reached 1,000, an independent website said on Tuesday, a grim reminder that eight years of fighting has failed to defeat Taliban insurgents.

NATO must boost security cooperation with Russia and streamline operations to face new challenges -- both military and civilian -- in coming years, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

After eight years of war in Afghanistan, an initial report about a new push by President Barack Obama to replace the Taliban with a new government within the next 18 months is reassuring, U.S. Senator Carl Levin said on Monday.

Stocks finished flat on Monday as investors held back before congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, while scattered buying lifted shares of health insurers and banks.

Stocks finished flat on Monday as investors held back before congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, while scattered buying lifted shares of health insurers and banks.