WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has called on America’s European allies to step-up their defense efforts in the face of security threats from outside Europe. Biden made the comments in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday, before ending his Central and Eastern European tour in the Czech Republic.
Biden spoke to political leaders and students at […]

WASHINGTON - When it comes to battling terrorism, most public attention has focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan. But officials are concerned that al-Qaida has found alternative accommodation in the troubled nation of Yemen.

Counter-terrorism officers liken battling a group like al-Qaida to the children’s game Whack-a-Mole. The object of the game is to knock out the […]

WASHINGTON - The White House has rejected former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism that President Barack Obama is indecisive on Afghanistan.
In a speech in Washington late Wednesday, Cheney said President Obama appears “afraid” to make a decision regarding the war in Afghanistan. Cheney said the White House “must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are […]

JERUSALEM - Several eyewitnesses and news reports say Israeli and Iranian representatives spoke directly during a multi-national conference on nuclear disarmament last month in Egypt.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Israeli and Iranian delegates directly engaged each other during a meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament held behind closed doors at a Cairo […]

WASHINGTON - A gauge of the U.S. economy’s prospects rose for a sixth-straight month in September, but there are still signs that the job market is weak.
Thursday’s report from the Conference Board shows the index of leading indicators rose one percent to 103.5.  Rising stock prices and corporate profits helped boost the six-month outlook.
But a […]

SEOUL - A leading North Korea researcher and adviser to South Korea’s president says the North is experiencing some friction at the very top of the ruling Kim family. The North’s leader may have temporarily halted a succession process to calm his son’s ambitions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have been having disagreements […]

STATE DEPARTMENT - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says thwarting the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea is critical to efforts to shore up the global non-proliferation regime. In an address in Washington, she said a new nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia and Senate ratification of the test-ban treaty would demonstrate U.S. leadership […]

WASHINGTON - Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says a proposal to ease Western concerns about its nuclear program is “on the right track,” but that Iran needs time to evaluate it.
Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, met Wednesday in Vienna with agency head Mohamed ElBaradei and officials from France, Russia, and […]

WASHINGTON - Federal law enforcement officials have charged a Massachusetts man with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Prosecutors allege the arrested man sought terror training overseas and discussed a plot to launch a shooting attack on a U.S. shopping mall
Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested at his home in a suburb of Boston.
Acting U.S. […]

WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Barack Obama is announcing plans to make more credit available to America’s small businesses. The president is shifting the focus of the government’s financial industry bailout from big businesses to small entrepreneurs and community banks.  
President Obama says the big banks that were in critical condition a year ago do […]

CAIRO - Kuwait’s constitutional court ruled Wednesday that Kuwaiti women have the right to travel without their husband’s permission, revoking a 1962 passport law. Women in other Gulf States, like Saudi Arabia, still need permission from a close male relative to travel.
Kuwait took another step in favor of women’s rights when the country’s constitutional court […]

CAIRO - Reports of dissension in Egypt’s opposition Muslim Brotherhood as well as the resignation of its leader were swiftly denied by the group’s top leader.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood quickly rejected reports that its leader resigned after a row with conservatives. But analysts say the controversy exposes a profound rift among the Islamists.
The Muslim Brotherhood was […]

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Miami handed down the sentence to 48-year-old Diego Montoya, two months after he pleaded guilty to murder, drug trafficking and racketeering charges. At the proceedings, Montoya apologized for his past actions, saying he hoped his sentence would bring a measure of relief to victims and their families.
Montoya was charged […]

WARSAW - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says his country is ready to take part in a reconfigured missile defense plan unveiled in Washington last month.

Mr. Tusk spoke Wednesday in Warsaw, at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. The Polish leader said his government finds the new U.S. missile shield […]

NAZARETH - The Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania is world-renowned for making some of the finest guitars ever made. However, the economic downturn in the U.S. has cast a shadow over the company, which has been making guitars for 176 years.
Nazareth is an old industrial town located in central Pennsylvania. For many years its […]

SEOUL - The new commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans says North Korea must be watched very closely and that China’s growing military capabilities are also causing concern in the region. Admiral Robert Willard spoke to reporters in Seoul Wednesday, for the first time since he took command. 
Admiral Willard […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. defense secretary is welcoming news that the Afghan presidential runoff election has been scheduled for November 7, but warns that government corruption is a larger problem that the original fraud-riddled vote.
Robert Gates said during a visit to Japan that there is a “need to be realistic” that tackling issues of corruption […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States and its allies must work with whatever Afghan government emerges from last month’s disputed election, offering a somewhat different view than the White House Chief of Staff expressed on Sunday.
Secretary Gates told reporters on the plane that U.S. and NATO decisions about strategy and […]

WASHINGTON - Weak U.S. housing data is tempering enthusiasm stoked by upbeat earnings reports from some of America’s best-known corporations.
From technology giant Apple to construction-equipment maker Caterpillar, a flurry of corporate heavyweights have topped earnings and profit expectations for the third quarter of the year, turning in strong performances in one of the toughest global […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left Washington Tuesday on a four-day trip that will take him to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.

Biden is scheduled to arrive in Warsaw late Tuesday. He is to hold talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczynski. He travels to Bucharest on Thursday, […]

WASHINGTON - Economic reports indicate U.S. housing construction is likely to slow down, while inflation eases in the future.
Tuesday’s report from the Commerce Department shows the number of permits issued for future home construction fell by more than one percent in September.   
September also saw builders make a slight increase in breaking ground to begin new […]

HONOLULU - Command of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans passed to a new commander on Monday at a ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Navy Admiral Robert Willard said the U.S. commitment to the region will continue. 
In a ceremony steeped in tradition, Admiral Timothy Keating transferred command of all U.S. forces in […]

ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan’s election commission has ordered a presidential runoff on November 7.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has conceded that he did not win an outright majority of votes in August’s presidential election.
U.N. election auditors announced Monday they are throwing out nearly one-third of Mr. Karzai’s ballots because of fraud, depriving him of a majority of […]

PARIS - The International Atomic Energy Agency is hosting a meeting in Vienna to discuss plans to enrich Iranian uranium outside Iran, and then ship it back to Tehran. If the talks are successful, they may mark a breakthrough for Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
The Vienna talks gather officials from the United States, Russia, France and […]