WHITE HOUSE

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.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that if House and Senate leaders could not reach a deal on the 2011 fiscal budget, he wants to meet with them again Wednesday until the matter is settled.

House Speaker John Boehner did not reach a deal at a meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, his office said on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama has invited House and Senate lawmakers to the White House for Tuesday talks on the federal budget as a Friday deadline to agree to fund the federal government for the next six months, averting shutdown of some services.

Congress is looking ahead to negotiating the 2012 federal budget as a deal nears on the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year budget, with House Republican leadership outlining its goals and a top Democrat saying the Tea Party has had some effect on previous budget talks, but said lawmakers misread their own constituents in seeking larger cuts than were possible in the 2011 fiscal year.

U.S. forces will significantly dilute their role in Libya though they played crucial role in the first phase of Operation Odyssey Dawn, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the House Armed Services Committee.

The star-studded Christie's Green Auction: Bid to Save the Earth which took place at Rockefeller Center in New York on March 29, raised a staggering $1.4 million.

A top NATO official on Thursday said there is no purely military solution to the crisis in Libya, as the coalition of North American and European nations took control of protecting civilians while rebels fighting Gaddafi-backed forces suffered setbacks after gains earlier in the week and talk of arming them grew.

Amidst reports that Libyan rebels are retreating in the face of the superior firepower of Moammar Gaddafi’s armies, the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has ruled out the possibility of providing weapons to the beleaguered rebel groups.

President Barack Obama on Monday accepted an award celebrating transparency in government in a meeting closed to the press.

President Barack Obama told U.S. students on Wednesday that with rapid growth in China and India, global demand for energy will continue to increase and a solution for reducing U.S. dependence on imported oil would require long term solutions, setting out goals for reducing oil imports and boosting the use of alternative electricity sources decades from now.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday is expected present a vision of decline for the U.S. oil industry in next two decades, highlighting its lack of development at existing land leases as the country shifts to other 'Clean Energy' industries linked to nuclear power, 'clean coal,' natural gas, biofuels, wind and solar power.

The new program drastically reduces the cost of licensing any of the roughly 15,000 patents held by the federal government's National Laboratories.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke by phone on Thursday morning, discussing developments in the Middle East at length, with a particular focus on Libya, the White House said.

Americans who are opposed to the U.S. participating in air strikes against Libya have held small (and thus far peaceful) demonstrations across the country, although there doesn’t appear to be a large national movement against the action yet.

An air strike by western coalition forces upon the Libyan capitol Tripoli has reportedly destroyed a three-story building which was a command center used by Moammar Gaddafi.

The following is a White House transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama on Friday on the situation in Libya delivered from the East Room on March 18, 2011.

The following is a White House transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama on the situation in Japan delivered from the Rose Garden at the White House on Thursday March 17, 2011.

Nuclear power will continue to be a part of U.S. plans for power generation even as a nuclear crisis unfolds in Japan in which authorities are trying their best to prevent a meltdown at a plant on the nation's eastern coastline, a top official said on Tuesday.

The King of Bahrain has declared emergency powers for three months in the wake of continued unrest in the tiny Persian Gulf nation, according to state television.

The House of Representatives may vote on Tuesday on the latest stopgap bill to avert a federal government shutdown, with a three-week budget deal brokered by Republicans and Democrats on the table.