BARACK OBAMA

President Barack Obama Thursday summoned U.S. intelligence chiefs to a meeting next week to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed an Egyptian-hosted summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a possible way to resume stalled peace talks, Israeli officials said on Thursday.

Conservative U.S. radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was resting comfortably at a hospital in Hawaii on Wednesday after suffering chest pains, his website said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he hoped for improved relations with the United States in 2010, days after his attack on U.S. missile defense plans displayed the fragility of efforts to draw closer.

A suicide bomber penetrated a foreign army base in Afghanistan and killed eight CIA employees on Wednesday, one of the U.S. agency's largest death tolls, while four Canadian troops and a journalist died in a separate attack.

Last week's failed plot to bomb a U.S. passenger jet has exposed lingering fissures within the U.S. intelligence community, which had information from interviews and clandestine intercepts but did not put the pieces together, officials said.

U.S. intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair faced tough questions about his future on Wednesday as the Obama administration fended off criticism over the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25.

Israeli and Palestinian officials suggested on Wednesday progress had been made towards resuming negotiations following Egyptian-Israeli talks on a year-long deadlock in the Middle East peace process.

The United States is looking at ways to expand military and intelligence cooperation with the government of Yemen to step up a crackdown on al Qaeda militants believed to be behind a failed plot to blow up a U.S. passenger jet, American officials said on Wednesday.

A U.S. trade panel gave final approval on Wednesday to duties ranging from about 10 to 16 percent on Chinese-made steel pipe in the biggest U.S. trade case to date against China.

Affluent investors turned bearish in December as their attention moved from the economy to concerns over health reform and fears the wealthy may be asked to pay more taxes.

The path toward rolling out wider use of whole-body security scanners in U.S. airports runs through the White House.

The United States has pledged $16 billion (10 billion pounds) to spend on training and equipping Afghanistan's army and air force, but the country needs more to build a force that can guarantee stability, an Afghan army official said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday blamed a combination of human and systemic failures in security for allowing the botched Christmas Day attack aboard a U.S. airliner, in his first big test on homeland security.

The United States and its allies are weighing focused sanctions against Iran's leadership rather than broad-based penalties that they fear could harm the protest movement, officials and diplomats said.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday blamed a combination of human and systemic failures in security for allowing the botched Christmas Day attack aboard a U.S. airliner, in his first big test on homeland security.

U.S. consumer confidence rose to a three-month high in December, while prices in the hard-hit housing sector stalled in October, breaking a five-month string of gains

A representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday opposition leaders were enemies of God who should be executed under the country's sharia law.

President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law an increase in the U.S. national debt limit to $12.4 trillion, the White House said in a statement.

President Barack Obama assured Americans on Monday the United States will defeat those behind an attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner and sought to blunt criticism that his response to the incident was slow.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday U.S. plans for a missile defense system were the main obstacle to reaching a new deal on reducing Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons.