WHITE HOUSE

Statistics released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday showed the Chinese forex kitty is bursting at seams with an 18.6 percent growth in 2010 which made it zoom to a record $2.85 trillion.

Arnold Fields, who was in-charge of investigating corruption from the United States, has resigned.

The presidents of the United States and the United States’ oldest ally, France, met today in Washington, and offered condolences to each other for recent violent tragedies suffered by each nation.

One of Jared Loughner’s favorite books, according to the 22-year-old Arizona assassin’s YouTube profile, is Gulliver’s Travels. So, my theory is that Irish satirists put him up to it.

Data showed on Monday the Chinese trade surplus narrowed in December, easing the conflict between Beijing and Washington over rising U.S. trade deficit even as Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to meet President Obama in the White House on January 19.

The Democratic White House and the Republicans who control the House of Representatives each found the December jobs figures released today mildly encouraging. While the administration, however, took credit for the steady albeit slow improvement, the new Republican chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee said the plodding economy points up the need to change failed administration policies.

President Barack Obama today appointed William Daley as the new White House chief of staff.

While Microsoft slugs-it-out in the CES arena, Google won temporary relief in its cloud-war against Microsoft as it restricted the U.S. Interior department from handing a $59 million contract to Microsoft.

Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s press secretary is leaving the White House. He will depart some time after the President’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25, the administration said today.

The two houses of the 112th Congress commence business today at noon and both veteran lawmakers and newcomers are going to find many important national issues on their collective plates – jobs and the economy, healthcare, last fiscal year’s unattended budget, this fiscal year’s developing budget, immigration, Afghanistan, Pakistan and energy, to name some of the bigger ones.

Professor returns to teach at the Kennedy School of Government after spending two years as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC).

John Boehner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, gets sworn in tomorrow as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful positions in the world. He will have to show, almost at once, if he has the stuff for the job.

Top U.S. officials raised broad and specific concerns about Russia's legal environment after the conviction on Monday of one-time oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev.

As the first two years of President Barack Obama's tenure wind down, the President has made a big push to accomplish some of his goals. While he has kept many of his promises, he has not kept others. Some of those are stalled, others in the works.

Lawyers for 20 U.S. states and Obama administration sparred in a Florida court over the constitutional challenges of the new healthcare law that requires all Americans to have medical insurance before 2014 or face a fine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Jonathan Bristol, a former law firm partner, with aiding and abetting Kenneth Ira Starr's Ponzi scheme by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits for transferring the funds stolen from Starr's clients to Starr and his two companies for personal use.

The US Senate is due to vote on the new strategic arms reduction treaty between the country and its former cold-war rival Russia on Wednesday. The House on Tuesday voted to close out the debate 67 votes to 28, after the Democrats were joined by 11 Republicans.

The U.S. Senate on Saturday voted to repeal of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law, in a move that would pave the way for gays to serve openly in the military.

The new export control policies proposed by the Obama administration may address some previously identified weaknesses but leave many more open, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on Thursday

The Obama administration is setting conditions' to initiate the 'responsible reduction of US troops in Afghanistan, the White House review of Afghan war stated. The troop withdrawal is likely to commence in July as the review maintained that US strategy in the conflict zone has been showing progress.. It also stated that the Al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan is at its weakest since 2001.

The war in Afghanistan is unlikely to be won, US Intelligence reports suggest. Even as President Barack Obama is all set to announce policy review on the war in Afghanistan, two classified reports state that it could be improbable to end Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency in the Tribal regions of the country. The reports however, have fueled a bitter row between the intelligence agencies and the military over who has a better perspective and proximity in the war zone.