BARACK OBAMA

Gold rose above $1,120 an ounce to a fresh record high on Thursday as the U.S. dollar wavered near 15-month lows, while Asian shares lost ground as investors took profits after four days of gains.

Asia-Pacific governments were expected on Thursday to stick with economic stimulus plans and make a joint call for market-oriented exchange rates to ensure the fragile recovery under way can be sustained.

U.S. President Barack Obama convened his war council on Wednesday for talks considered critical to his deliberations on boosting troop levels in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama honored fallen troops on Veterans Day Wednesday taking part in the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and delivering remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater there.

China sent its clearest signal yet that it was ready to allow yuan appreciation after an 18-month hiatus, saying on Wednesday it would consider major currencies, not just the dollar, in guiding the exchange rate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's low-profile White House visit, widely portrayed as frosty, in fact broke the ice in his relations with President Barack Obama, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday declared Iran's readiness for international nuclear cooperation, including on a global fuel bank, but made clear again that Tehran would not halt its own atomic activities.

Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, had only months to live when he received a visit from an old friend, Rob Fraley, chief of technology for Monsanto Co.

NATO's secretary-general said on Wednesday he expected the alliance to provide more resources for training Afghan troops and police, but would not comment on exact troop numbers.

The Palestinian president on Wednesday resisted U.S. pressure for a resumption of peace talks with Israel, repeating his demand for a complete halt to West Bank settlement building before negotiations.

Former President Bill Clinton visited the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to urge Senate Democrats to quickly pass a broad healthcare overhaul, but a party leader said final action could spill into next year.

A naval skirmish between the two Koreas will not derail the Obama administration's plans to send its first envoy to Pyongyang to revive dormant nuclear talks, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.

The United States and Japan will agree this week to review their decades-old security alliance to tighten ties long term, a Japanese newspaper said Wednesday, as the two countries struggled to keep a feud over a U.S. military base from spoiling their leaders' summit.

China will refer to changes in capital flows and fluctuations in the values of major currencies when guiding the value of the yuan, the central bank said on Wednesday, in a departure from past language.

China said on Wednesday it will consider major currencies in guiding the yuan, suggesting a departure from an effective dollar peg that has been in place since the middle of last year.

Pushing for tougher changes in U.S. financial regulations, the Senate's top banking legislator on Tuesday proposed a new super-cop to police banks, a systemic risk agency and strong consumer protections.

Pushing for tougher changes in U.S. financial regulations, the Senate's top banking legislator on Tuesday proposed a new super-cop to police banks, a systemic risk agency and strong consumer protections.

Veterans Day on November 11 is the day honoring all those who were in the war and for school children in public schools they will have no school but will be home working on Veterans Days assignments.

About 20 percent of struggling U.S. homeowners eligible for loan workouts have entered into a trial modification, but it is unclear how many of them will be able to keep the lower payments permanently, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday.

Voter registration for a Palestinian election failed to get under way as scheduled on Tuesday, adding to signs that President Mahmoud Abbas might be bluffing about a make-or-break vote in January.

President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to make sure the gunman who killed 13 people in a rampage at a U.S. Army base in Texas pays for his crimes.