The President's main priority is to ensure that taxes don't go up on 98 per cent of Americans and 97 per cent of small businesses in just a few short days, White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said.
"We have eyes onto the Iranian nuclear programme and we would be aware of any so-called breakout move by the Iranians towards building a nuclear weapon. That has not occurred, but that window of opportunity will close at some point," the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, told media persons at his daily news conference.
Asserting that the latest Iranian announcements were an effort to distract attention from international sanctions' pressure, the White House said it was keeping a close watch on Tehran and consulting with allies.
The United States on Friday said it had eyes and visibility inside Iran's nuclear programme and would know if and when Iran made a breakout move towards acquiring a weapon.
Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney said that the US president has no immediate plans to speak to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding the horrific massacre of Sikh Americans Sunday at a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
United States President Barack Obama held a videoconference with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss with him Syria, Iran, and stability in the oil markets.
United States President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and discussed the raging violence in Syria, even as the White House went public urging Moscow not to support Bashar al-Assad as by doing so it would be considered on the wrong side of history.
President Barack Obama believes women should be allowed to join the all-male Augusta National Golf Club, the White House said on Thursday, adding pressure on the exclusive 80-year-old organization to drop its restrictive policy.
Welcoming the North Korean decision to suspend its nuclear activities as a "positive step" forward, the White House has said it took a cautious note based on its past experience, adding this now needs to be followed by actions.
The United States has an important relationship with Pakistan which it endeavours to work on every day, the White House has said, a day after Islamabad summoned its top diplomat to protest against the drone strike that apparently killed the second top ranking Al Qaeda leader.
The White House has said that Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Invetigation Agency trace Osama bin Laden, was not working against Pakistan but the Al Qaeda and should not have been held.
The United States has no information yet on which organisation or people were involved in the bombing on an Israeli diplomat's vehicle in New Delhi and attempted attack on Israeli diplomatic personnel in Georgia, the White House has said. "We have no information yet on who is responsible for these attacks, so we are still evaluating what happened," said Jay Carney, White House press secretary.
Pakistan will soon reopen the ground lines of communication to Afghanistan, which were shut down last November following the death of 24 soldiers in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's strike, the White House has said. "We continue to work with Pakistan on this issue. We did not anticipate that the supply line issue was going to be resolved prior to the summit. And our teams continue to meet and we are making diligent progress," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
Robert Gibbs, who served as White House press secretary for the first two years of the Obama administration, has formally joined his re-election campaign as a roving surrogate and strategic consultant.
"We need to move quickly to look at what Syria can and should be in a post-Assad world, work with our partners, work with the opposition to help create that transition, because Assad's days are surely numbered," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
The Obama Administration is keen to ensure that India, China or Europe do not take lead in clean energy industries that are vital to the 21st century, a top White House official has said.
Led by United States President Barack Obama, top American officials have reached out to key global leaders, including Japan, China, Russia and South Korea for stability of Korean Peninsula following the death of North Korea leader, Kim Jong-il. Obama himself called the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, on Monday night during which he reaffirmed the US' commitment to the stability of the Korean Peninsula.
European countries have the necessary resources and capabilities to deal with the current economic crisis that has engulfed them, the White House said.
Al Qaeda's second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi has died in a US drone strike, the White House has confirmed, with a top Obama aide terming it as a major blow to the terrorist outfit.
Economic boom in countries like India and China and unrest in other parts of the globe are some of the important factors.
The White House has urged India and its other allies and friends to help isolate Iran and put pressure on the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The White House has outrightly refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda for the release of its citizen, who was kidnapped by the terrorist outfit in Pakistan last year.
As of now there has been no impact on the US government policy.
United States is safer today because of the cooperation it has received from Pakistan, a top White House official said, maintaining that Washington's relationship with Islamabad is important but complicated.
Rejecting Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's criticism of the unilateral action that killed Osama bin Laden, the United States on Monday asserted that it would not apologise to the Pakistan government for the incident.
The White House has once again asked Pakistan to attend the upcoming crucial international meet on Afghanistan in Bonn.
The United States on Thursday said it plans to shift to "support role" in Afghanistan by 2013 so as to complete the security transition to Afghan forces by 2014 even as it sought to play down President Hamid Karzai's order to pull out American troops from villages and confine them to bases.
The United States has not received any request for help from India on its investigations into the Mumbai serial blasts, a State Department official said. "My understanding is that we did offer assistance, but it has not been formally requested. If that changes, we'll let you know," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had offered US assistance in the investigations of the July 13 Mumbai blasts that left 18 people dead.
In all, 37 central banks around the world have eased monetary policy so far this year to boost growth, fight deflation or both
Going ahead with unilateral sanctions against the Muammar Gaddafi regime, the US suspended its military ties with Libya and temporarily closed down its embassy in Tripoli.
America's relationship with Pakistan is very complicated, but a very important one as it helps in maintaining Washington's national security interest, the White House said on Wednesday.
Sweden benefited from poor defending and the video assistant referee to beat England 2-1 in the women's World Cup third place playoff match on Saturday.
Brushing aside Pakistan's protests, United States President Barack Obama has made it clear that they will again carry out special operations in that country like the one against Osama bin Laden if necessary to target high- profile terrorists.
Ruling out an apology to Pakistan for its unilateral military action against its "enemy number one" Osama bin Laden deep inside that country, the United States has said the critical mission could have been compromised if it had informed Islamabad about it.
The Obama administration hopes to get a treasure trove of information from the materials, including a computer hard drive and disks, recovered from the hideout of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a United States military operation in Pakistan.
On Tuesday, Pakistan termed the US commando operation in Abbottabad that killed Laden an "unauthorised, unilateral action" without its knowledge. Besides, the White House said America has never been at war with Islam.
Emphasising that focused efforts are needed to ensure economic growth and creation of jobs in US, the White House has said that necessary measures should be taken in this regard.
Insisting that Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to rule, the United States has hoped that the military action against him by the international coalition would result in the 'brutal' Libyan leader ending his regime. "We believe that the Libyan people no longer want Gaddafi to remain in power as the leader of Libya," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. "We support a democratic transition, free and fair elections," he said.
The White House has welcomed the release of American Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis, arrested by Pakistani authorities after he shot and killed two men in Lahore in January. His release ended one of the most serious diplomatic stand-offs between Islamabad and Washington in nine years of partnering in the fight against terrorism.
The United States is looking into various options whether to make public the "gruesome" photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse as these pictures might inflame enemies' passions if released to prove the Al Qaeda chief's death. "It's fair to say that it's a gruesome photograph," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when asked why the Obama administration was reluctant to release the pictures of the last moments of bin Laden.
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