Barack Obama and his aides scrambled to defend the choice of Leon E. Panetta as C.I.A. director.

The more than 1,300 coal byproduct dumps across the U.S. are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill in Tennessee.

Israel is applying the military insight it gained from the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but diplomatic lessons do not seem to have been so well applied.

With less than two weeks to go until a historic presidential inauguration, more television networks than usual are finalizing ambitious coverage plans.

Senator Dianne Feinstein said publicly that Roland W. Burris should be seated. Al Franken did not appear in Washington, as his race appeared headed to court.

John Howard, former prime minister of Australia and a long-time ally of President Bush, will be in town to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dr. Gupta is a medical correspondent for the news network and a neurosurgeon.

Environmental groups in the U.S. and Canada are pushing for a slowdown to oil sands development.

Although his brother, President George W. Bush, has been promoting his potential candidacy, Jeb Bush, has decided not to run for the Senate in 2010.

The House Speaker began a new session of Congress with a swollen majority and a potentially daring legislative agenda.

The aluminum maker said it would cut 13,500 jobs, 13 percent of its total work force, as well as slash spending and output to cope with the global economic slowdown.

Dr. Gupta performs double duty as a medical correspondent for the cable network and a neurosurgeon.

New senators and those re-elected were sworn in today.

Neale Donald Walsch recently posted a personal Christmas essay on Beliefnet.com nearly identical to a 10-year-old article originally published by a little-known writer in a spiritual magazine.

Barack Obama delivered a stark assessment of the economy, saying that his administration would be forced to impose tighter discipline on government.

On the Senate floor, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee launched into a critique of President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Attorney General.

Adolf Merckle’s speculation in volatile Volkswagen shares pushed his sprawling empire to the edge of ruin.

Meeting with his economic team in Washington on Tuesday, Barack Obama warned that the country faced the prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”

Meeting last month, Fed officials worried that even a dramatic cut in interest rates would not be enough to cauterize the country’s economic troubles quickly.

Mark Teixeira seemed like the happiest guy in the room, grinning ear to ear as the Yankees introduced him on Tuesday as their latest big-ticket free agent.