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he Afghanistan war and airline security will likely dominate talks at the AUSMIN conference on January 17 in Canberra, where Ms Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will meet Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Minister John Faulkner. The US State Department said the leaders would discuss "key global and regional security challenges". Ms Clinton is also scheduled to visit Melbourne before she flies home on January 19. Her Australian trip is part of an eight-day tour of Pacific nations and comes as the Obama administration battles terrorism on its newest front, Yemen.

At a time of tension between their organizations, White House senior adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes two weeks ago, sources tell POLITICO. The two met privately in Manhattan during the president’s visit to the United Nations. The two discussed news coverage and the relationship between the organizations. Ailes is the founder of Fox News. A key part of Axelrod’s portfolio is the president’s image and broad message. POLITICO has asked Fox for comment, and will update with reaction. White House officials have expressed pique with what they consider heavy coverage of...

Reporting from Washington - Chicago has been eliminated from the contest to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, a surprise development in the decision-making process by international Olympic officials. The city was a heavy favorite at least to make it through the first round of voting, and to be a serious contender in the final round of voting for the coveted Games. The decision dashes the hopes of U.S. boosters -- President Obama chief among them -- who had put their reputations on the line to help win the games for Chicago. The announcement came as the president and first lady...

A meeting of the Palestinian and Israeli leaders, hosted by President Barack Obama, ended in a frosty handshake in New York on Tuesday after the two sides had failed in advance to reach a compromise over the issue of Israeli settlements. The meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, almost failed to take place after the failure of last week’s mission to the region by George Mitchell, US peace envoy. Little was expected from the New York session. Mr Abbas reluctantly agreed to the trilateral meeting, having said he would not go in the...

Never has an administration who had more firepower at their disposal, been set to so totally fail in the next six to eight weeks. It is nearly a foregone conclusion. It is nearly unavoidable. And it defies all logic given the sizable majority the administration has in both houses of Congress. Since I was the first pundit to predict Obama's presidency (Dec 2006) it behooves me to tell you the course I believe the next few weeks will take and effectively halt the radical transformation that the left appeared unstoppable with only months ago. 1. Health Care's long and painful...

President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan is having little effect on job creation within the general-construction industry, the trade association for the sector said Thursday.

The Pentagon's top lawyer says the Obama administration hasn't given up the possibility of transferring some prisoners from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to a detention facility in the United States, despite congressional opposition. Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson told the House Armed Services Committee Friday that it's possible some terror suspects may be transferred to the U.S. for prosecution and others may be held within the U.S. He said no prisoners would be released from custody inside the country. Congress has prohibited the government from spending federal funds to transfer Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. Johnson also said...

"The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 30% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –8. The President’s Approval Index rating has fallen six points since release of a disappointing jobs report last week."

Quinnipiac's poll in Ohio out this morning has some eyebrow-raising numbers: "President Barack Obama gets a lackluster 49 – 44 percent approval rating in Ohio, considered by many to be the most important swing state in a presidential election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This is President Obama’s lowest approval rating in any national or statewide Quinnipiac University poll since he was inaugurated and is down from 62 – 31 percent in a May 6 survey."

President Obama has staked his reputation on being a human rights guru to people around the world. But his remarks at Tuesday’s news conference and behavior since taking office have instead exposed a different persona–that of human rights charlatan. On June 15, three days after the phony Iranian elections and the same day that seven Iranian demonstrators were murdered, Obama’s UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, made a speech in Vienna promoting the Saint Obama vision: “The responsibility to protect is a duty that I feel deeply. … We must prepare for the likelihood that we will again face the worst impulses...

Chuck Todd: "Then why won't you spell out the consequences that the Iranian people..." President Obama: "Because I think that we don't know yet how this thing is going to play out. I know everybody here is on a 24-hour news cycle. I'm not. OK?"

WASHINGTON – The White House says President Barack Obama has been "moved" by the television images of people in Iran taking to the street in protest.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for Obama (see trends).

A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings. A distinct gulf exists between Mr. Obama’s overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed, with fewer than half of Americans saying they approve of how he has handled health care and the effort to save General Motors...

Diplomacy:Should the U.S. scrap its special relationship with the U.K. to fulfill an ill-considered campaign vow? That's the trade-off the Obama administration made by secretly foisting terrorists onto Bermuda. It's wrong.The British Foreign Office had a right to be angry at the U.S. transfer of four Uighur terrorists from Guantanamo detention to the U.K. colony of Bermuda without its knowledge. After all, Britain is a sovereign state and, like any nation, has a right to know who's on its territory. Instead, it got treated like some banana republic. It didn't learn of the move until after the four Gitmo detainees...

WASHINGTON – When President Barack Obama increased unemployment benefits as part of his economic stimulus, he also made some Americans ineligible for hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that nuclear and missile tests conducted by North Korea were a "grave concern to all nations" and a legal violation that warranted action by the international community. "North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security," Obama said in a statement after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test and reportedly fired a short-range missile. The nuclear test was a major diplomatic challenge to Obama at a time when he is facing a global economic crisis and working to curb...

President Barack Obama Friday warned America risked its security when it compromised its values, seeking support for his bid to sketch a new legal framework for anti-terror policies. Obama used the backdrop of the US Naval Academy graduation ceremony to argue that founding US ideals must guide the future battle against terrorism, a day after trying to quell raging debate over Guantanamo Bay in a major speech. "We uphold our fundamental principles and values not just because we choose to, but because we swear to -- not because they feel good, but because they help keep us safe," Obama told...

Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul's remarks regarding the United States and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from abroad as a goodwill gesture to the U.S. Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations. The speculation began when the Cuban president said leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss "everything," including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and...