BARACK OBAMA

President Hamid Karzai defended Afghanistan's disputed presidential election on Thursday after early results showed him the winner, while a suicide bomb attack on Italian troops tested the resolve of a major NATO ally.

Indonesia's most wanted Islamist militant was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said on Thursday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama will pledge U.S. action on financial regulatory reform at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh and underscore the need for global coordination on the issue, a senior aide said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama on Thursday abandoned plans for a large missile defense shield in eastern Europe, promising instead a stronger, swifter defense system to protect U.S. allies against any threat from Iran.

Senator Max Baucus unveiled a long-awaited healthcare overhaul on Wednesday that would dramatically revamp insurance rules but does not include a government-run option backed by liberal Democrats.

Rift opens at Fed; Carmakers lose upperhand to suppliers; Missile Shield Plan Scrapped

President Barack Obama has told east European states he was backing away from plans for an anti-missile shield there, in a move that may ease Russian-U.S. ties but fuel fears of resurgent Kremlin influence.

Twitter is closing a round of funding that will value the company known for its 140-character, stream-of-consciousness blogs at $1 billion, technology news site TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would not make a swift decision on sending more U.S. forces to Afghanistan and set out broad goals for Kabul and neighboring Pakistan to rein in militants and corruption that critics dismissed as vague.

Banks, pension funds and other investment groups representing more than $13 trillion in assets called for a strong global agreement on climate policy on Wednesday, saying it would lead to a flood of investment into the low-carbon economy.

U.S. industrial production rose for a second straight month in August, reinforcing views the nation's recession had ended, while a spike in gasoline costs pushed consumer prices higher.

President Barack Obama called Kanye West a jackass after the incident with Taylor Swift at the VMA's Sunday.

U.S. Senator Max Baucus unveiled his plan for a 10-year, $856 billion healthcare overhaul on Wednesday that would revamp insurance rules but does not include a government-run option backed by liberal Democrats.

Automakers would be required to gradually increase fuel efficiency under a landmark U.S. government proposal that raises the fleet-wide average to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 and regulates tailpipe emissions for the first time.

Rap star Kanye West personally apologized on Tuesday to country teen star Taylor Swift after a two-day furor over his hijacking of an awards speech that even drew an off-the-cuff comment from PresidentBarack Obama.

U.S. workers getting health insurance for their families through employers have seen their premiums more than double in the last decade and the trend toward higher health costs is expected to continue, according to two reports released on Tuesday.

Jay Leno's closely watched new prime-time TV show drew a bumper audience of nearly 18 million viewers, cheering executives at struggling NBC on Tuesday but leaving TV critics underwhelmed.

Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus unveils a long-awaited healthcare overhaul on Wednesday that would dramatically revamp insurance rules but does not include a government-run option backed by liberal Democrats.

The United States and Israel ended another round of talks on Wednesday with no sign yet of a deal on a West Bank settlement freeze, but a U.S. envoy planned to meet again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

As many as a third of votes cast for Afghan incumbent Hamid Karzai in last month's presidential election are suspect and must be checked for fraud, the head of a European Union election observer mission said on Wednesday.

New Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama took office Wednesday, launching an untested government pledged to radically change how the nation is run and make domestic demand, not exports, the engine of growth.