WASHINGTON - China announced suspension of military exchanges, security talks with US, also threatened sanctions on US firms that sell arms to Taiwan.
The United States on Saturday defended its plan to sell military equipment to Taiwan, following China’s threats to retaliate.
Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, told reporters in Washington that such […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military says it has stopped flying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States for medical care following concerns by some state governments over who will pay for their treatment.
Military officials say the evacuations were suspended Wednesday, after Florida Governor Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help pay for the care.
The […]

WASHINGTON - A top Republican in the U.S. Senate is questioning the Obama administration’s treatment of the man arrested in connection with the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner last month.
In Saturday’s weekly Republican address, Senator Susan Collins expressed her shock and disbelief that federal investigators spent only 50 minutes questioning bombing suspect Umar Farouk […]

WASHINGTON - China has reacted angrily to an Obama administration announcement that Washington intends to sell more than $6 billion worth of military equipment to Taiwan.
The U.S. Department of Defense said Friday it notified Congress of the possible sale, which includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot missiles, radar sets and communications equipment.  However, the package […]

WASHINGTON - People in the Middle East were watching closely as U.S. President Barack Obama gave his annual State of the Union address, setting out his domestic and foreign policy agenda. 
For Israelis and Palestinians, it is not what President Obama said in his State of the Union address, but what he did not say. 
Mr. Obama […]

JERUSALEM - In the coming days, Israel’s cabinet will consider an initiative to reinforce the Jewish State’s 240-kilometer border with Egypt.  The aim is to stem the flow of thousands of illegal migrants who Israeli officials say are crossing the porous border and entering the Jewish State.
The migrants are mainly from the African nations of […]

WASHINGTON - Iran is accusing U.S. President Barack Obama of double standards for supporting the building of nuclear power plants in the United States while threatening Tehran for pursuing a similar goal.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency made the comment in response to Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.
In […]

WASHINGTON - Minority Republicans in Congress say they’re prepared to negotiate with President Obama on major issues, such as health care reform and energy legislation.  The president will meet with House of Representatives Republicans at their issues conference in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, while the Democratic Speaker of the House reiterated her determination to approve […]

NEW YORK - Residents living in Lower Manhattan have urged the U.S. Justice Department to change its plans to bring the five accused plotters of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to New York for trial in a civilian court.  The group believes holding the trial in their neighborhood will bring unwanted security concerns and […]

WASHINGTON - In the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said the federal government is trying to do too much and is racking up America’s debt in the process.
The newly inaugurated governor said the federal government should not pile on more taxation and litigation that hurts the […]

WASHINGTON - North Korea says it has arrested another U.S. citizen.  If confirmed, the man would be the second American taken into custody in the North in two months. North Korea also is continuing with maritime artillery drills.
North Korea’s official news agency issued a short report Thursday saying “an American was detained for trespassing” on […]

WASHINGTON - As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his first State of the Union Address, he faces some bleak economic predictions from congressional budget analysts.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday projected slow improvements in employment and warned of an unsustainable longer-term fiscal situation against a background of rising debt.
The CBO projections came […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama says he remains determined to tackle the nation’s toughest problems, even if his actions are politically unpopular.  In an interview with ABC television, the president acknowledged he has paid a political price in his first year in office.
 
President Obama sat down with ABC two days before his scheduled State […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama appears to be at a political turning point as he prepares to deliver the annual State of the Union Address on Wednesday before a Joint Session of Congress and a national television audience.  The recent Republican victory in the special Senate election in the heavily Democratic northeastern U.S. state […]

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s government says it has executed Saddam Hussein’s notorious henchman and cousin, widely known as “Chemical Ali,” for crimes against humanity.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh says Hassan al-Majid was executed Monday.  He had been sentenced to death by hanging four times by Iraqi courts, most recently in a verdict earlier this month.
Al-Majid was […]

WASHINGTON - The Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives says this week’s victory by a Republican in a Massachusetts Senate race should serve as a warning to President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress.
In the weekly Republican address Saturday, House Minority Leader John Boehner says a political rebellion has been brewing in the […]

WASHINGTON - The al-Jazeera Arab television network has aired what it says is a new audio message from al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, in which he claims responsibility for the failed Christmas day airliner bombing attempt in the United States.
In the message broadcast Sunday, bin Laden said al-Qaida would launch further attacks against the […]

JERUSALEM - A year after U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the Middle East peace process has faltered and there is broad disappointment in the Obama administration among both Israelis and Palestinians.
When President Barack Obama took office a year ago, he vowed to make the Middle East peace process a top priority. He appointed Mideast […]

LONDON - The British government is raising its terror threat level to severe, saying a new terrorist attack in Britain is likely.  The United States recently raised security measures following a failed bombing attempt on a U.S. bound plane in late December. 
British Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced the British terror threat level was going up […]

WASHINGTON - Asian stock prices have dropped in line with markets in the United States after President Obama announced plans for new limits on how banks invest.
Benchmark indexes in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Seoul fell up to two and a half percent Friday. Some markets sank nearly three percent in early trading, but the […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has failed to lure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to peace talks with Israel.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says Mitchell appealed to Mr. Abbas to resume negotiations during their meeting Friday in the occupied West Bank.
But Erekat says Mr. Abbas told Mitchell he must first get Israel’s […]

WASHINGTON - Haitian government officials say an estimated 400,000 residents displaced by last week’s earthquake will be moved to new villages to be set up outside the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
Officials said Thursday they will provide transportation for the residents and hope to begin moving them as soon as possible. The 7.0 magnitude quake left an […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for tighter regulation of America’s largest banks and lending institutions. The president’s plan would let regulators limit the size of big banks and rein in their risk-taking activities. 
President Obama says he wants to avoid a repeat of last year’s failure of several banks and other financial firms, […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision on campaign finance laws Thursday that opens the way for corporations and labor unions to have an even greater impact on the U.S. elections process. 
A sharply divided Supreme Court, by a vote of five to four, struck down campaign finance laws going back decades that […]