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Debt ceiling: Key Republican bolts debt ceiling talksJeanne Sahadi, On Thursday June 23, 2011, 12:22 pm The bipartisan debt ceiling negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden were thrown into question Thursday when a key Republican lawmaker pulled out of the talks. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a statement the group had made progress in identifying "trillions" in spending cuts, but that Democrats "continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases." Taxes have been a central roadblock from the beginning: Democrats say they are a necessary part of any debt-reduction plan, and Republicans say they will...

The Obama administration is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the Taliban despite the fact that Barack Obama - during a Presidential debate in October of 2008 - excoriated the Pakistani government for conducting peace talks with the Taliban. "We have to change our policies with Pakistan," said Obama in '08. "We can't coddle a dictator, give him billions of dollars, and then he's making peace treaties with the Taliban..."VIDEO

The objections subcommittee of Jerusalem’s regional planning and building commission confirmed on Thursday the commission’s earlier approval of a development plan for the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. The approval was given followed a hearing, in which the neighborhood administration and residents expressed their opposition to some aspects of the development plan. They claimed that going through with the construction would add to traffic congestion, among other considerations.

Transcript from Obama speech at Stivers today: If Iran decided to shut down the petroleum-rich Strait of Hormuz tomorrow, they believe oil would skyrocket to $300-a-barrel in minutes, a price that one speculator predicted would result in $12-a-gallon gas. $12 a gallon.

The Obama Administration has entered into direct, secret talks with senior Afghan Taliban leaders, several people briefed about the talks told me last week. The discussions are continuing; they are of an exploratory nature and do not yet amount to a peace negotiation. That may take some time: the first secret talks between the United States and representatives of North Vietnam took place in 1968; the Paris Peace Accords, intended to end direct U.S. military involvement in the war, were not agreed on until 1973. When asked for comment on the talks, a White House spokesman said that the remarks...

After meeting Mubarak in Cairo, US envoy says Washington still aiming for "eventual framework agreement." US Mideast envoy George Mitchell said Wednesday that he intends to pursue "substantive" negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, AFP reported. "In the days ahead our discussions with both sides will be substantive, two way conversations with an eye towards making real progress in the next few months on the key questions of an eventual framework agreement," Mitchell was quoted as saying. The US envoy was speaking in Cairo following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He said that US aims to "pursue a framework...

The possibility of extending, or ending Israel's moratorium on West Bank settlement construction will be discussed within the context of upcoming direct Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, a senior U.S. official said Monday. The comment by U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley came after Palestinian officials had said in recent days that the resumption of settlement construction beyond the September 26 moratorium expiration date would cause the Palestinian Authority to withdraw from the recently accounted direct peace talks.

Renewed Israeli construction in settlements after the end of the construction freeze in late September would bring the newly-launched direct negotiations to a grinding halt, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has warned in letters sent to U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the High Representative of the European Union on Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton. "It's impossible to conduct negotiations alongside settlement construction," wrote Abbas. The future of the construction freeze in West Bank settlements is expected to become the first significant obstacle facing the Israeli and American governments in the direct talks.

The United States has said it hopes to hold talks with Iran soon and would be prepared to follow up on a plan to provide fuel for Iran's research reactor in exchange for low-enriched uranium. The plan was mooted in Geneva last October at a meeting between Iranian officials and senior diplomats from the five permanent UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - along with Germany. "We obviously are fully prepared to follow up with Iran on specifics regarding our initial proposal involving the Tehran research reactor ... as well as, you know,...

This makes it clear just how petrified by the prospect of direct negotiations the Palestinians are: The Palestinian Authority has added new conditions for resuming direct talks with Israel, presenting new demands that in effect preclude negotiations. The stipulations stated to the BBC by PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reflect a previously stated strategy of waiting “a year or two” for the United Nations to recognize it as a new Arab country instead of trying to reach a compromise agreement with Israel. … Erekat told the BBC that in order for direct talks to resume, Israel also must accept former...

(Reuters) - The United States and Cuba will meet in Washington on June 18 for a new round of talks on migration, despite ongoing tensions between the longtime ideological foes, a U.S. spokeswoman in Havana said on Saturday. This will be the third time they have met to talk over migration since President Barack Obama became president last year, and represent one of his avenues for trying to improve relations with the communist-led island. The discussions primarily cover agreements from the mid-1990s aimed at preventing an exodus of Cuban refugees to the United States such as the 1980 Mariel boatlift...

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are doomed to hit a brick wall because no Palestinian leader will accept anything less than what Yasser Arafat rejected at Camp David 10 years ago, and no Jewish prime minister will offer anything more, Vice Premier and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom said Thursday in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. “No matter what we do, I do not see a Palestinian leader who is willing to accept what Arafat rejected, and I don’t see a Jewish prime minister who can give more than what [Ehud] Barak offered. Therefore, I see it as a dead end,” he...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top aides to President Barack Obama have met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show.

Gregory Smith was jobless and desperate to help his family, so he decided to rob an Indianapolis check-cashing store. "It was just the last resort. And I mean it was something that I would never think to do," Smith said...

De facto government says no final deal on Zelaya return (Adds quotes from Zelaya camp, U.S. official, lawmaker) -- U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood called on both sides to keep talking. "What we're trying to do right now, from the U.S. side, is to encourage them to continue, because, as I said, we're close, and we want to see this deal happen." Dick Lugar, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, boosted Micheletti's drive to have the elections recognized by supporting a call for the Organization of American States to send observers for the vote. "I...

Despite speaking of a policy change in Washington, The United States says it will enter dialogue with Iran on the presumption that Tehran is after "ballistic nuclear weapons". "I can assure that it's a topic that we'll bring up," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Saturday. His comments come while Tehran has repeatedly said that its nuclear program is peaceful in nature and the UN nuclear watchdog in its latest report confirmed that the agency has been able to continue "to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran." "The Iranians have responsibilities to the international...

US President Barack Obama is expected to moderate a September meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, President Shimon Peres said in an interview with Fox News Monday. Peres told the TV network that the two leaders would be meeting at the United Nations.

Minnesota Senator Al Franken made a stop at the Mayo Clinic today as the U.S. Senate works on its own health care reform bill. One of the more heavily debated issues when it comes to reform is that so-called public option or government run health care. So today, we found out where Minnesota’s Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar stand on that very topic. Minnesota Senator Al Franken walked into the Kahler Grand Hotel this afternoon after touring Mayo Clinic. Health care reform is one of the biggest domestic issues facing the federal government right now and Franken was quick...

The United States is urging Iran to agree to a meeting with the six key nations trying to ensure that its nuclear program is peaceful in which the US will be a full participant. US deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said Monday that Iran had not responded to the request from the five permanent council members - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - and Germany for new talks. The talks would be the first international discussion on Iran's nuclear program since US President Barack Obama took office in January. DiCarlo told the UN Security Council that the United States...

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2009 – Providing better lives for future generations was a theme that ran through all the discussions yesterday as the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan met with President Barack Obama at the White House yesterday, a senior administration official said. “The idea of doing things for the young people came up time and time again -- and with some emotion, I might add, on [the part of] some of the participants,” National Security Advisor James L. Jones Jr. said. “This is about the future of two new, young democracies, and within those democracies we are talking, really,...