Looking to spur private-sector donations to Chile earthquake relief, the US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill enhancing tax benefits for charitable giving to help the battered country. Lawmakers unanimously approved the measure, which would count charitable gifts made before April 15, 2010 against 2009 taxes. The measure must still clear the US Senate before going to President ...

The House of Representatives on Wednesday roundly defeated a resolution demanding President Barack Obama withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, in a key election-year test for his war strategy. Lawmakers routed the resolution in a 356-65 vote that saw 60 of Obama's Democratic allies and five of his Republican critics cast ballots to call home all US forces from ...

Many Americans have lost faith in their government, US President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday, tackling a pervasive sentiment hobbling his hopes for enacting sweeping reform. American suspicion of government was deepening, he said in a speech from the heartland state of Missouri, where he pushed his endangered health reform drive that has been branded by Republicans as a government takeover ...