White House News

President Bush's statement Saturday on the financial crisis, as released by the White House. He spoke in the Rose Garden after meeting with financial ministers from the G-7 nations:

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Winning the Little League Softball World Series was great. But meeting the president isn't exactly Bush league.

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday offered reassuring words to stop the hemorrhaging on Wall Street, but once again the stock market fell.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - President Bush worked to allay fears about the financial crisis on Friday then left the White House and headed south to raise nearly $2 million for the Republican Party in South Carolina and the battleground state of Florida.

WASHINGTON - After North Korea relented on nuclear inspection demands, the U.S. on Saturday erased from a terrorism blacklist the communist country President Bush once branded part of an "axis of evil."

WASHINGTON - US official says North Korea has agreed to all nuclear inspection demands

WASHINGTON - In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Georgia, Latvia is talking with the United States about expanding joint military exercises and cooperation.

WASHINGTON - The United States and India signed an accord Friday that allows American businesses to sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India, reversing a three-decade ban on atomic trade with the fast-growing nuclear-armed Asian power.

WASHINGTON - The tough economy could make it easier to sign up soldiers.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked NATO allies Friday to consider increasing troop levels in Afghanistan next year during the elections, a move made for past votes in Iraq.

Text of President Bush's remarks on the economy Friday, as provided by the White House:

WASHINGTON - Army criminal investigators are examining whether Combat Support Associates, a defense contractor that has earned more than $2 billion so far supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, overcharged the government. The company said it is cooperating in the case.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is ready to make a statement to the nation about the crisis in the credit markets that has caused substantial sell-offs on Wall Street.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is nearing a decision to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist and may do so as early as Friday in a bid to salvage faltering nuclear disarmament talks, The Associated Press has learned.

WASHINGTON - A piece of paper that President Bush signed Thursday helps ease his way out of the White House when his term ends and clears the way for his successor.

WASHINGTON - The Senate Select Intelligence Committee is looking into allegations from two U.S. military linguists that the government routinely listened in on phone calls of American military and humanitarian aid workers serving overseas.

WASHINGTON - The Energy Department moved ahead Thursday on further restricting the nation's most dangerous nuclear material, part of a plan to scale back and modernize management of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

WASHINGTON - The White House said on Wednesday it was "despicable" that American International Group Inc. executives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a posh California retreat just days after getting a federal bailout.

WASHINGTON - The situation in Afghanistan now is the worst since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 and the country is in danger of a "downward spiral" into violence and chaos, according to an intelligence report draft.

WASHINGTON - The State Department says two American journalists who were detained by Syrian authorities have been released and are safe at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus.

WASHINGTON - Libya has started making payments into a nearly $2 billion fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s, another step in the full normalization of long-strained ties between Washington and Tripoli, the State Department said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Federal officials are pushing ahead with an experiment to reduce rampant flight delays around the nation by auctioning off takeoff and landing times at New York City-area airports, where most delays begin.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is considering taking part ownership in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis.

WASHINGTON - A group of Chinese Muslims set to be freed into the U.S. this week from Guantanamo Bay found their freedom stymied yet again after a simple government plea: What's a couple more weeks or so in jail after nearly seven years?

WASHINGTON - Three men who say they have adequate health coverage and enough money to pay for their health care needs want to opt out of hospital coverage under Medicare. Federal rules say they cannot collect Social Security benefits if they do that.

WASHINGTON - The military said Wednesday that U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan on Aug. 22 killed 33 civilians, far more than previously acknowledged. While expressing regret, it blamed the Taliban, the targets, for taking up fighting positions near civilians.

WASHINGTON - The replacement for the Homeland Security Department's computerized network for nationwide information sharing could be headed down the same path as its cumbersome original, said a government report released Wednesday.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - NATO allies must send either more forces or more money for the fight in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates will argue this week as he meets with NATO defense ministers.

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence has detected no sign of North Korean military activity that might suggest the communist nation's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, has been disabled or otherwise lost his grip on power, the commander of American military forces in South Korea said Wednesday.