WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday to review Middle East peace efforts that the U.S. leader had once hoped would produce an agreement before he left office.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's top choice to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is refusing to make public the security pact it has signed with Iraq, even though it has already been published in full in an Iraqi newspaper, a congressional hearing was told on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co , Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp tumbled to multiyear lows on Wednesday on expectations that deteriorating credit conditions and a contracting economy will weigh heavily on the three largest U.S. banks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials slashed economic growth forecasts through 2009 and some believed even deeper interest rate cuts may be needed if growth slows further, minutes of their October policy meeting show.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Iranian banks are operating in the Gulf financial hub of Dubai despite U.N. sanctions and authorities should keep a close eye on them, a U.S. official involved in tracking suspicious financial activity said on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Twice in the span of a month, wildfires have ravaged the same northeast corner of greater Los Angeles, destroying hundreds of homes and the good life offered by California's scenic beauty at the city's edge.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, convicted last month on corruption charges, appeared to have lost his re-election bid, trailing his Democratic challenger on Tuesday by more votes than Democrats said remained to be counted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. auto executives went to Capitol Hill for a second day on Wednesday to argue their case for $25 billion in aid as legislators proposed changes to help a bailout pass Congressional and White House muster.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama moved closer to filling a key spot in his cabinet on Tuesday as his transition team plotted a careful course to shaping the next U.S. administration.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is struggling to boost its appeal in Pakistan following President Pervez Musharraf's resignation, a U.S. terrorism expert concludes based on comments by the militant network.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Momentum to name Timothy Geithner as the next U.S. Treasury Secretary seems to be building, both among the country's top business executives and bettors with actual skin in the game.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and members of Congress clashed on Tuesday over the best use for the $700-billion financial bailout fund, with lawmakers demanding money to stem a national wave of mortgage foreclosures.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip Tuesday citing continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel supplies in the coastal territory.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Yahoo Inc soared 10 percent on Tuesday on hopes that the departure of Jerry Yang, its embattled chief executive, would clear the way for a deal with Microsoft Corp.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of once-hot gift cards are expected to fall nearly 6 percent this holiday season as shoppers try to stretch their dollars by buying discounted merchandise, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury defended its handling of the financial bailout on Tuesday as American banking and auto woes reverberated around the globe and the International Monetary Fund said it would need extra funding to help countries through the downturn.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales at retailers suffered a record decline in October, government data on Friday showed, as shoppers reined in spending with home prices falling, although plunging gasoline prices also reduced outlays by consumers.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, architect of a policy a decade ago to bring the two Koreas together, has warned relations may be heading toward catastrophe as the prickly North draws deeper into its shell.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. pressure on al Qaeda near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has put the group "off balance," but the region remains the biggest terrorism threat to the United States, the CIA's chief said on Thursday.

WINONA, Minnesota (Reuters) - Two top Federal Reserve policy-makers painted a gloomy picture on the U.S. economy on Thursday, on a day when initial claims for unemployment assistance topped half a million people.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senators asked the nation's biggest banks on Thursday to explain how they are using the billions of taxpayer dollars provided to them under a massive government bailout program. The answers were mixed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers drawing jobless benefits hit a 25-year high this month and imports suffered a record fall in September, according to reports on Thursday that underscored a rapid drop-off in the U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Wednesday largely abandoned its plan to buy up toxic mortgage assets and said it will focus its $700 billion financial bailout fund on making direct investments in financial institutions and shoring up consumer credit markets.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Suddenly, Sarah Palin is everywhere.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers plan to question chief executives of stricken U.S. automakers on their pleas for an industry bailout, while the Bush administration responded coolly on Wednesday to an aid plan being shaped by Democrats.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday a weekend meeting of Group of 20 leaders should be able to identify some specific measures for calming anxious financial markets and said it was timely for them to meet now.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Former Guantanamo prisoners released after years of detention without charge went home to find themselves stigmatized and shunned, viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies, according to a report released on Wednesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named a bipartisan duo of Washington veterans to meet foreign delegations at this weekend's global financial summit, opening communication between the next U.S. administration and its global counterparts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought legislation on Tuesday to bail out failing automakers, saying she was confident an emergency measure would be approved next week.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In the three years since Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston ended their Hollywood marriage, Aniston has barely said a word about the break-up and the woman who stole Pitt's heart, Angelina Jolie.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 5 percent to $59 a barrel on Tuesday as the deepening global economic crisis dragged down markets and raised expectations of further slowdowns in energy demand.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's stated readiness for dialogue with Iran without preconditions could make Tehran more forthcoming with his agency, the IAEA.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asked lawmakers on Tuesday to approve a draft law extending the presidential term of office, a change some observers say is part of a plan to bring Vladimir Putin back to the Kremlin.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama urged the Bush administration to back a second economic stimulus package and aid the ailing auto industry on Thursday, after fresh reports of economic weakness in China, Japan and Britain reinforced fears of a prolonged recession.

GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - Congolese rebel chief Laurent Nkunda said Monday he would fight African peacekeeping troops if they attacked him, as concerns grew that east Congo's conflict could suck in neighboring armies.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two car bombs exploded in central Baghdad Monday and a suicide bomber blew himself up among police and civilians who rushed to help the wounded, a triple strike that killed 28 people and wounded 68.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry dismissed on Monday comments by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama about Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions and said it did not expect any major change in the policies of its old foe.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since 2004, the Pentagon has used broad, secret authority to carry out about 12 attacks against al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Sunday.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators sought on Sunday to keep alive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks although political uncertainty in Israel has scotched hopes for a deal this year.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's cabinet has approved a massive stimulus package worth 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) through 2010 to boost domestic demand, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Several thousand people gathered in Los Angeles on Saturday evening to protest a voter-approved ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage in California.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces supported by U.S. firepower killed a senior al Qaeda leader who made car bombs and ran Islamist militant cells throughout northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fired back on Friday against post-election claims by aides to Republican presidential candidate John McCain that she thought Africa was a country, not a continent, calling the anonymous sources "jerks."

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co reported far deeper-than-expected quarterly losses on Friday and said their rate of cash burn had accelerated, as an extended slump in car sales raised questions about the future of the U.S. auto industry.

KIBATI, Congo (Reuters) - Fighting between rebels and the army caused a fresh refugee exodus in east Congo on Friday, and African leaders called for an immediate ceasefire to end a conflict the U.N. said could engulf the Great Lakes region.

GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) - Hurricane Paloma pounded the wealthy British Caribbean territory of the Cayman Islands on Friday after strengthening into a dangerously powerful storm, and also posed a serious threat to storm-battered Cuba.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. diplomats held substantive talks with a North Korean official about moving forward with the process of North Korea abandoning its nuclear programs, the State Department said on Friday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior Iraqi official on Thursday explicitly backed U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's plans to withdraw combat troops from the country by mid-2010, Baghdad's clearest endorsement yet of Obama's exit strategy.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama choose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff on Thursday, spurring Republicans to question why his first key appointment was a Washington insider and fiercely partisan Democrat.