WHITE HOUSE

President Barack Obama will announce later this week deficit reduction targets and a timeline to reach them, White House adviser David Plouffe said on Sunday.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell made historical allusions to the 1995 budget shutdowns on Friday as the current Congress avoided a shutdown of its own by reaching a deal to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year.

A debt ceiling vote and the 2012 budget will be the next major fiscal battles facing the U.S. throughout the rest of 2011, as Washington looks ahead after lawmakers in the House and Senate averted a shutdown in a last hour deal to fund the government for the next six months.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a last-minute budget deal on Friday, averting a government shutdown.

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke for several minutes without reaching a resolution early Friday evening, a Republican aide said extending a day of delay on averting a federal shutdown by midnight.

Hitting $1472.50 for US investors today, the Gold Price also rose sharply against the British Pound - hitting its best level since New Year at £900 per ounce - but was in flat against most other major currencies. Silver Prices, in contrast, rose to new multi-decade highs across the board.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Friday that negotiators from the House and Senate attempting to avert a government shutdown had agreed to $38 billion in spending cuts for the current fiscal year, but it was unclear what would be done about Republican requests to defund Planned Parenthood and place new restrictions on the Environmental protection agency.

President Barack Obama said late Thursday that the federal government is starting to prepare for a shutdown and is seeking an early morning answer from Congressional negotiators on a possible budget deal.

The Department of Homeland Security will use Facebook, Twitter to send terror alerts to the public.

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid expressed disappointment on Thursday after a third round of talks on the federal budget failed to avert a shutdown of the government that would put hundreds of thousands of workers on leave.

Here are some potential ”candidates” for the role of first US woman president:

Robert Richard Titcomb, 49, a close friend of President Barack Obama has been arrested by the Honolulu Police Department on a prostitution charge.

President Barack Obama and allied Senate Democrats are sparring with House Republicans on non-budget related items attached to a budget measure that would keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year and avoid a shutdown of non-essential government services.

Moammar Gaddafi has sent U.S. President Barack Obama a three-page letter in which he asked the western coalition to stop bombing Libya.

Us Weekly is reporting that Bristol Palin made $262,000 as an abstinence ambassador. Palin made the money as the Candie's Foundation's spokeswoman.

'Nonstop' negotiations on passing a federal budget for the remainder of the fiscal year were continuing ahead of a Friday deadline to avert a shutdown of a big portion of the government, as House Republicans and Senate Democrats allied with President Obama sought to break an impasse that could put hundreds of thousands of workers on leave without funding in place.

If a shutdown does begin after a Friday deadline passes, hundreds of thousands of federal employees would be furloughed, tax refunds from paper-based filers would not be processed and federal loans for small businesses and new federal home loans would not be processed, Senior Obama Administration officials said on Wednesday.

As the Friday deadline approaches for Congress to decide on funding the federal government, past experience shows that a shutdown in the government would necessitate furloughing many employees not directly related to saving lives or protecting property, with the exception of programs which have multi-year funding such as Social Security.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY on Wednesday said some progress was made in afternoon talks Tuesday meant to break an impasse on the 2011 fiscal year federal budget between House Republicans and Senate Democrats ahead of another possible meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House.

President Barack Obama and the Republican Congressional leaders, who met at the White House a for a marathon discussion on the proposed budget cuts, failed on Tuesday to resolve the crisis which now threatens a government shutdown in a week's time.

The White House, locked in a battle on the 2011 budget, weighed in on the 2012 Republican proposal unveiled on Tuesday, saying it did not do enough to spread the sacrifice needed to reduce the federal budget deficit in the coming years.