Obama planning ambitious road ahead

Fresh off victory on President Obama’s signature $787 billion economic recovery plan, several top White House aides say they’re planning an ambitious agenda for the rest of February. The Senate had waited for the return of Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was returning from his mother’s wake in his home state of Ohio, to close the voting late Friday. For the rest of the month, the White House agenda will focus on addressing the housing crisis, cleaning up the banking mess and laying the groundwork for reform of the health care system and entitlement programs like Medicare.

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Lebanon: Thousands mark Hariri’s assassination

Thousands gathered in downtown Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination, a traumatic event in the nation’s post-civil war history. Hariri died on Feb. 14, 2005 in a powerful explosion that left a 10-foot crater in a street in downtown Beirut, unleashing massive anti-Syria protests in what became known as the Cedar Revolution

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Talking to Iran: What Are Washington’s Options?

President Obama says he’ll talk to Iran if Tehran “unclenches its fist”; President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran is open to negotiations but only on a basis of “fairness and mutual respect.” Both men’s coded conditionals are a reminder that after three decades of mutual hostility, talking won’t be easy. TIME tapped a number of Iran experts for perspective on some of the key questions facing U.S.-Iran diplomacy

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Who’s hurt the most? Obama or Gregg?

President Obama is vowing the loss of a Republican in his Cabinet will not stop his efforts to bridge the partisan divide. Sen. Judd Gregg said Thursday he was withdrawing his nomination as commerce secretary, citing “irresolvable conflicts” over the administration’s stimulus bill and the upcoming 2010 census

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Obama makes 11th hour push for stimulus package

Taking no chances, President Obama is exerting last-minute pressure on Congress to approve his stimulus plan by highlighting stories of people affected by the economic downturn. The Democratic National Committee and Obama’s Organizing for America are using Obama’s vast e-mail list Friday to contact the president’s political supporters and point them to a new Web page, where several of these stories can be viewed

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9/11 widow apparently on Buffalo flight

Friends, relatives and acquaintances were shocked to hear news reports that Beverly Eckert, the widow of a September 11 victim, was aboard the Continental flight to Buffalo, New York, that crashed Thursday night. “I am horribly saddened by this news,” said Valerie Lucznikowska, a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Lucznikowska said she, Eckert and another woman traveled to Washington last Friday for a meeting between 9/11 family members and President Barack Obama

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