BARACK OBAMA

Afghanistan laid out plans for the November 7 run-off presidential vote on Thursday in an announcement criticized as insufficient to prevent fraud, a day after a Taliban attack on U.N. staff reinforced concerns about security.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when she travels to the Middle East this weekend, a U.S. official said.

Democrats in the House of Representatives finished work on Wednesday on a healthcare bill that includes a government-run insurance plan, requires individuals to buy health coverage and imposes a surtax on the wealthy to help pay for it.

President Barack Obama saw first hand the human cost of the Afghanistan war as he welcomed home on Thursday 18 soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed in Afghanistan this week.

First came the jibes about the U.S. government rushing out an untested swine flu vaccine. Now, critics say it is not fast enough.

China has told the United States that it plans to formally launch an investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, a U.S. industry official said on Wednesday.

Some of the nation's largest companies pushed back against U.S. Democrats' plans to deliver a government-run insurance option in a healthcare overhaul, decrying it as a step backward that would drive up costs for employers and their workers.

Some of the nation's largest companies pushed back against U.S. Democrats' plans to deliver a government-run insurance option in a healthcare overhaul, decrying it as a step backward that would drive up costs for employers and their workers.

With President Barack Obama due to visit China next month, speculation is swirling Walt Disney Co may finally be about to announce a long-awaited deal to build a theme park in Shanghai.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for lasting dialogue with China's military after years of on-again, off-again talks as he welcomed a top Chinese general to the Pentagon on Tuesday.

Foreign aid may provide the best value for money spent by the U.S. government, Bill and Melinda Gates said Tuesday, but few seem to know it.

The U.S. government may end up throwing away unused doses of swine flu vaccine if people cannot get it soon enough, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

The United States does not expect to reach an agreement on climate change with China during President Barack Obama's visit to Beijing next month, the country's senior climate change envoy said on Wednesday.

Taliban militants killed six U.N. foreign staff in an assault on an international guest-house in Kabul on Wednesday, deepening concerns about security for a presidential election run-off due in 10 days.

A healthcare reform bill with a government-run insurance option faced an uncertain future in the Senate on Tuesday, with many centrist Democrats uncommitted and Senator Joe Lieberman strongly opposed.

President Barack Obama will say on Wednesday there is still too much waste in U.S. defense spending, despite a number of costly projects being terminated in the 2010 defense authorization bill.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, pledging a fresh start in relations with an increasingly embattled and skeptical partner in the struggle against Islamic militancy.

The Obama administration made gains on Tuesday in its push for U.S. financial reform, unveiling a landmark bill to tackle systemic risk in the economy and winning congressional committee approval for a measure to expose hedge funds to more government scrutiny.

The U.S. government would gain far-reaching new powers to regulate, and even shut down, large financial firms that threaten economic stability under a draft bill released in Congress on Tuesday.

The U.S. government would gain far-reaching new powers to regulate, and even shut down, large financial firms that threaten economic stability under a draft bill released in Congress on Tuesday.

The United States and European Union pledged on Tuesday to work to reduce regulatory barriers that impede trade across the Atlantic, but said a free-trade pact was not in the cards right now.