Robert Gibbs

President Barack Obama, his top domestic priority in the balance, was to make a rare in-person plea Saturday for wary lawmakers to cast an historic vote for legislation to remake US health care. Obama, who wooed skittish fellow Democrats by telephone Friday, hoped to bring the full persuasive power of the presidency to bear in an 11th-hour push to secure the 218 votes needed to prevail in the House of Representatives. "The sales pitch is simply that we're on the cusp of the type of health care ...  

President Barack Obama, seeking to reassure a nation shaken by the mass shooting on an Army post in Texas, said Saturday that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths and ended a rampage at Fort Hood. Praising what he called the heroism that ended gunfire on the nation's largest army post, the president described the exchange that left 13 dead and 30 others wounded on Thursday a tragedy. In his weekly radio and Internet address on the weekend before Veterans ...  

Iran wants more talks on how to procure nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor before giving a final reply to a UN-drafted deal that was initially expected a week ago, the state IRNA news agency says. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's atomic watchdog, said on Thursday it had received an "initial response" from Iran to the deal, but IRNA said it was not Tehran's definitive "answer" to the plan. "The Islamic republic only announced its positive view to the negotiation and has ...  

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving tax incentives to prospective home buyers and additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump. The bill-signing came a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the troubling employment picture nationally, voted 403-12 to pass the measure. The Senate had approved it unanimously on Wednesday.  

President Barack Obama said Friday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged individuals not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings. Obama met Friday morning with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other federal leaders to accept an update on what they've learned. Thirteen individuals were slayed and 30 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post on Thursday.  

The election was two days away, and pollsters were calling it a deadlock between two candidates clearly representing the nation's left and right wings. Security concerns topped the voters' priorities. Then that night, 36 hours before the dawn of election day, assailants threw several firebombs into a packed passenger bus traveling on a regular route from city to city, killing a mother and her three young children.  

US President Barack Obama has praised the heroism of soldiers and civilians in their response to the deadly attack at a US army base in Texas. In his weekly address, he says that although the shootings showed the "worst of human nature" they had also brought out "the best of America". Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, a US-born Muslim, opened fire at Fort Hood on Thursday, killing 13 people.  

US President Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Saturday, following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas. Japanese national broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported that Washington had asked Tokyo to change the schedule for the two-day visit to allow Obama to attend a memorial service for the 13 people killed in Thursday's shooting. Obama had been due to arrive for his first trip to Japan on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and to meet Emperor Akihito.  

President Barack Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump. The bill-signing came a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the troubling employment picture nationally, voted 403-12 to pass the measure. The Senate had approved it unanimously on Wednesday.