Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday he believes Democrat Barack Obama's upcoming trip to Europe is tantamount to holding political rallies abroad.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to host peace talks in Washington with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on July 30, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Thursday.

A Yemeni likely to be the first person tried before the U.S. war crimes court at Guantanamo naval base was more than just a driver for Osama bin Laden, U.S. agents said on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday revised up estimates it made in April for global growth this year and next but coupled it with stern warnings that demand was slowing sharply in major industrial economies and inflation rising everywhere.

Failed bank IndyMac is under investigation by the FBI for possible fraud involving its mortgage lending, unnamed law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

Two men often mentioned as possible running mates to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama joined him on the campaign trail in Indiana on Wednesday, further stoking speculation about the Democrat's closely guarded search for a No. 2.

Omar Khadr, the only western prisoner still held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, broke down and wept when questioned by Canadian interrogators, video footage released on Tuesday shows.

Americans are sharply divided by race ahead of the first presidential election in which a black candidate will represent a major party, a New York Times/CBS News poll showed on Tuesday.

This week's New Yorker magazine pokes fun at smears directed at Barack Obama, but the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate isn't laughing.

A U.S government plan to shore up mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped calm markets on Monday but did little to allay fears about the health of the U.S. financial system.

U.S. banking regulators swooped in to seize mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc on Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history.

Fear spread on Friday that the U.S. housing crisis would drag down the nation's major mortgage finance agencies, and the government offered no hint that it would swiftly step in to help.

The U.S. government is considering taking over the top U.S. mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and placing them into conservatorship if their problems worsen, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed about the plan.

Authorities ordered more than 10,000 residents of Paradise, California, to leave their homes on Wednesday as a stubborn wildfire threatened to jump a river and spread into town where a blaze destroyed 74 homes in June.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama rejected charges on Tuesday that he has shifted positions on Iraq and other issues as part of a move to the political centre now that he is his party's nominee.

The dollar rose on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve's willingness to keep its emergency lending facility open into 2009 for some Wall Street firms calmed fresh credit concerns and encouraged investors to snap up U.S. stocks.

Presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain clashed over how to boost the ailing U.S. economy on Monday, with Obama pushing for a new stimulus package to help homeowners and McCain pressing for low income taxes and incentives for small business.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama waded into controversy on Thursday over his plans to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq, first saying he might "refine" his views but later declaring his stance had remained unchanged for more than a year.

U.S. President George W. Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in China next month, the White House said on Thursday.