BARACK OBAMA

President Barack Obama will not shirk from mentioning Afghanistan and his decision to send more troops to the war zone when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize this week, the White House said on Monday.

Tackling Global Warming; Obama's Jobs Plan; Economy Fragile but Rising

Washington took a step on Monday toward curbing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, aiding the first day of the biggest climate talks in history where 190 nations are seeking a deal to curb global warming.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally declared that greenhouse gases endanger human health Monday, allowing President Barack Obama to show his commitment to act as a major climate change summit opened in Copenhagen.

President Barack Obama will lay out policy proposals to combat double-digit unemployment in a speech on Tuesday tackling an economic problem that has become a political drain on his young administration.

Luminaries from the worlds of music and film were feted by President Barack Obama and a black-tie audience of artists and political heavyweights on Sunday at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.

Republican firebrand Sarah Palin invaded the city she loves to hate on Saturday and rubbed shoulders with the herd of journalists she usually holds in disdain.

The biggest climate talks in history opened on Monday with a stark U.N. warning of the risk of desertification and rising seas and an assurance by hosts Denmark that a deal to combat climate change was within reach.

Health Care Rally; Banks Raise Risk;Climate Change Turning Point

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an interview published on Sunday that he was optimistic the December 7-18 climate conference in the Danish capital would produce an agreement all member states would sign

Humanity faces a profound emergency and unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, a joint editorial published in newspapers in 45 countries said on Monday.

U.N. talks billed as a turning point in a bid to slow global warming open on Monday seeking to agree curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and raise billions of dollars for the poor in aid and clean technology.

The Unites States, Japan and South Korea are working on a road map for ending North Korea's nuclear arms plans that will be on the agenda of a U.S. envoy who visits Pyongyang this week, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised doubts on Sunday that his country could take over responsibility for its security by July 2011, while U.S. leaders said the date was not a drop-dead deadline for Kabul.

U.S. President Barack Obama will attend the end of the Copenhagen climate change summit, a late change of plan the White House attributed on Friday to growing momentum toward a new global accord.

President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Senate Democrats to work out their differences on healthcare reform and pass what will be the most significant social legislation in decades.

Lifting the value of China's yuan currency would hurt, not help, global economic recovery and threaten the country's own financial and trade health, a Chinese state think-tank said in an essay published on Monday.

German climate activists posing as international leaders sat inside a giant aquarium which was filled with water on Saturday in a protest held in Berlin against the world's rising sea levels.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the end of the U.N. climate summit, joining dozens of leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, in the latest sign of growing momentum toward a new global accord.

On the chorus of her latest single, I Am, Mary J. Blige sings in her riveting voice: Ain't nobody gonna touch you better... more than I am. Since breaking through with her first R&B charting single and first No. 1 in 1992, You Remind Me, few performers have touched fans' inner emotions quite like Blige.

Cuban musicians are returning to perform in the United States after a long freeze on such visits, seizing the opportunity of friendlier overtures toward Havana from U.S. President Barack Obama.