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First came the drug companies, offering to give up $80 billion. Then hospital chiefs stood at the White House and promised to do their part for President Barack Obama's health overhaul by taking a $155-billion hit. It's not altruism.

Barack Obama is finding that even the reach of a globally popular president goes only so far, leaving him to snatch partial victories as he can. For all his effort, his strategy also banks heavily on the commodity that helped get him elected: hope.

Eat less, live longer? It seems to work for monkeys: A 20-year study found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death.

Federal safety officials say downdrafts probably caused the plane crash that killed entrepreneur Steve Fossett nearly two years ago.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is using $1.2 billion in stimulus money to fight homelessness in hundreds of locations across the country.

U.S. swine flu vaccinations could begin in October with children at schools among the first in line, the Obama administration said Thursday as the president and his Cabinet urged states to figure out now how they'll tackle the virus' all-but-certain resurgence.

President Barack Obama said Thursday the global recession makes it harder to strike an international agreement to battle dangerous temperature increases, but he urged the poor emerging economies that rejected specific clean-energy goals to "fight the temptation toward cynicism" and embrace them soo.

Stymied by a White House veto threat, House Democrats say they will work with the Obama administration to soften a legislative provision that would broaden access to secret intelligence briefings.

The nation's largest labor federation is about to elect its first new leader in 14 years after the labor movement split because of tensions about the longtime leadership.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution honoring Michael Jackson because debate on the symbolic measure could raise "contrary views" about the pop star's life.

President Barack Obama's push for quick action by Congress on climate change legislation suffered a setback on Thursday when the U.S. Senate committee leading the drive delayed work on the bill until September.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday launched a robust defense of its independence and warned that efforts in Congress to put monetary policy under political sway would hurt the economy.

The Obama administration is seeking "full partnership" with Moscow to bridge ballistic missile-defense differences that have strained U.S.-Russian ties for years, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is not discussing a second stimulus plan to jolt the U.S. economy out of recession, a White House budget official told Congress on Wednesday.

A proposal from a long-time congressional foe of the Federal Reserve that could give lawmakers sway over monetary policy has won the support of a majority in the House of Representatives, alarming officials at the U.S. central bank.

Critics assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for a deal with hospitals meant to cut costs, and a top Republican said the U.S. Senate may need more than a planned month to pass a bipartisan healthcare reform bill.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will meet British Finance Minister Alistair Darling next Monday at the start of a trip to Europe and the Middle East to discuss global economic issues and efforts to curb terrorist money flows, Treasury said on Thursday.

The powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday introduced legislation to create a new consumer financial protection agency that would strip some powers away from current regulators.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he will nominate genetics pioneer Dr. Francis Collins to head the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The Obama administration on Wednesday said it strongly opposed legislation in the U.S. Congress that would restrict its ability to respond to future financial crises through the International Monetary Fund.