White House News

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sat courtside at a basketball game Friday between his hometown team, the Chicago Bulls, and the Washington Wizards.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security should stop a lawsuit challenging the government's warrantless wiretapping program.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has assured Lebanon's president that he supports that country's sovereignty.

WASHINGTON - Ford Motor Co. executives met Friday with the Obama administration's auto industry task force but the company said it was not seeking emergency financial aid.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to repeal a Bush administration rule that has become a flash point in the debate over a doctor's right not to participate in abortions. The regulation, instituted in the last days of the Bush administration, strengthened job protections for doctors and nurses who refuse to provide a medical service because of moral qualms.

WASHINGTON - Suspected al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali Al-Marri is now facing criminal charges, but the Obama administration is refusing to rule out the future use of indefinite detention for terrorism suspects picked up in the United States.

TOPEKA, Kan. - National anti-abortion groups promise a vigorous fight if President Barack Obama nominates Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as U.S. health and human services secretary.

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's interior minister says there may be between 10,000 and 15,000 Taliban fighting inside his country, and the insurgent group is operating across about 17 provinces. Mohammad Hanif Atmar offered a rare estimate of the size of his government's most organized and potent opponent during a visit to Washington. A large delegation of senior Afghan officials was in the U.S. capital this week, along with a delegation from Pakistan.

WASHINGTON - Spiraling drug violence in Mexico, narcotics trafficking elsewhere in Latin America and a thriving opium trade in Afghanistan pose significant national security threats to the United States, the Obama administration said Friday.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he thinks it would be a good idea to keep a small number of U.S. forces in Iraq past a deadline agreed to by the U.S. and Iraq.

WASHINGTON - While President Barack Obama's determination to get the U.S. out of Iraq has been a constant theme, his timetable has been a moving target.

WASHINGTON - The agency responsible for transportation security has too few inspectors to make sure rail and mass transit employees are doing enough to guard against terrorists, a government report says.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is choosing a member of the Federal Trade Commission to become its chairman.

Departmental spending breakdown

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - President Barack Obama has called former President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to brief them on his plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when families of the fallen troops agree, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - President Barack Obama confirms that Christopher Hill is becoming the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

WASHINGTON - Senior U.S., Afghan and Pakistani officials ended three days of talks Thursday on the next steps in the war against Islamic extremists, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the three-way format was so fruitful it would be used regularly in the months ahead.

WASHINGTON - The administration insists it isn't so, but some private economists are wondering if the Obama administration has brought "Rosy Scenario" back to town.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit Egypt, Israel and the West Bank next week to personally take stock of prospects for navigating a "new path" in the Middle East, officials said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Former first lady Laura Bush says she didn't watch President Barack Obama's speech to Congress because "I just totally forgot about it."

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is sending her new envoy for North Korea policy to Asia early next week to work on reviving stalled international nuclear talks with an increasingly hostile Pyongyang.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's budget aims to foster generic competition for costly biotech drugs used to treat cancer and other intractable ailments.

WASHINGTON - As President Barack Obama pledged Thursday to curb waste and fraud in federal spending, a top government watchdog gave members of Congress a sense of how hard the job will be.

WASHINGTON - With ambitious plans to change health care, energy, farm payments, taxes and more, President Barack Obama's budget gives congressional Democrats goals to reach for. And highlights political targets for Republicans to aim at.

Budget totals for 2010

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expanding the membership and reach of his top national security team, in recognition of the increasing role energy, climate and economic issues now play in keeping America safe.

WASHINGTON - U.S. and Syrian diplomats met Thursday in an effort to improve strained ties, though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was too soon to say whether relations would improve.

Economic assumptions in Obama's proposed budget