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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a series of direct talks on Thursday, seeking to forge the framework for a U.S.-backed peace deal within a year and end a conflict that has boiled for six decades.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama Administration is likely to stay focused on toughening regulatory oversight of the U.S. offshore oil industry and may push back lifting a ban on deepwater drilling after the latest accident in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House stressed on Thursday that no second economic stimulus package is being considered as part of new measures under review by President Barack Obama's team.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that President Barack Obama's top economic adviser will visit China from Saturday for three days of meetings.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Passing food safety reform legislation this year is a "priority" for the Senate, said a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, as Congress feels pressure from consumer groups to act following the latest recall to highlight weaknesses in the system.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will hold a press conference on Friday, September 10, the White House said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A last-minute change in the fall course schedule of Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren has fueled speculation the White House might soon nominate her to head the newly created U.S. consumer financial agency.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday sued an Arizona sheriff for refusing to cooperate with its investigation into allegations the sheriff discriminates against Hispanics in his program to crack down on illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, in the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a U.S.-sponsored summit to relaunch direct talks shadowed by Middle East violence.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday shot down speculation he might succeed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, saying he would only leave office early if he were totally incapacitated or died.

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California lawmakers may not be called into a special session on the state's budget stalemate, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans in the legislature killed rival plans to fill a $19 billion shortfall to balance the state's books.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Commerce Department said on Wednesday it will lead 15 U.S. companies, including Boeing, General Electric and Wamar International, on a trade mission in October to help rebuild Iraq.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With another win in a Senate Republican primary, this time in Alaska, the conservative Tea Party movement showed it is more than a political fad and has the staying power to be a significant force in November's elections.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A heated U.S. debate over a planned Islamic center near New York's World Trade Center site is seen by Middle East media, scholars and citizens as more of a domestic American issue rather than an attack on their faith.

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and promised recession-weary Americans "my central responsibility" now is to repair the U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Departing White House economist Christina Romer on Wednesday called for further steps to stimulate the U.S. economy, saying that high budget deficits should not be an excuse for allowing the unemployed to suffer.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Plans by the United States to strengthen its anti-dumping regime will damage the global trade order, China's commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq on Wednesday, a day after U.S. troops formally ended combat operations in the country.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's army said on Wednesday it scrapped talks with U.S. military officials after a military delegation sent to Washington had to go through "unwarranted" airport security checks.

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was poised on Wednesday to launch a new U.S. push for Middle East peace even as a flare-up of Hamas violence and a deadlock over Israeli settlements loomed as potential deal-breakers.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has dropped out of contention in the Republican Senate primary, conceding to Tea Party-endorsed insurgent Joe Miller, U.S. media reported on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and told war-weary Americans his central responsibility now is to restore the sagging U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday ahead of Thursday's direct peace negotiations as new violence flared over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's $25 billion coastal warship program may face further cost overruns given ongoing design changes and delays in the equipment needed to reconfigure each ship for various missions, a new congressional report said.

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Democrats and Republicans in California's legislature rejected rival budget plans on Tuesday on the last day of their regular session, leaving the government of the most populous U.S. state without an official spending plan in place.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House of Representatives ethics watchdog has asked a congressional committee to look into campaign fundraising by three lawmakers for possible links to their votes on financial reform, aides confirmed on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Pat Toomey has opened a 10-point lead over Democrat Joe Sestak among likely voters in a Senate race in Pennsylvania dominated by economic worries, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Temporarily extending tax cuts for the rich opens the door to permanent tax cuts and that is something the United States cannot afford, an economic advisor to President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped to pick up Republican votes for a pared-down energy bill after the midterm congressional elections.