President Barack Obama on Thursday called on corporate America to help tackle the nation's highest unemployment in 26 years and dismissed skeptics who have doubt his efforts to boost employment.

"We cannot hang back and hope for the best when we've see the kinds of job wounded that we've seen over the last year," Obama told business and labor leaders invited to the White House to suggest how to lift employment creation.

"Despite the progress we've made, many businesses are still playful about hiring," he said, acknowledging that although the economy is growing again, the labor market is lagging behind.
Obama is hosting a jobs forum after US unemployment hit a 26-year high of 10.2% in October, sap his popularity and potentially shaping his political future.

Critics dismiss the effort as mainly a public relations exercise. Obama already has said he wants measures that will not add to the country's record budget deficit, efficiently ruling out significantly more public spending on top of a USD 787 billion stimulus package that he signed in February.

US President Barack Obama gave PM Manmohan Singh a sample of his Afghan strategy before he announces it on Wednesday morning. While the phone call was one of several that Obama made - he spoke to Hamid Karzai, Nicholas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Dmitry Medvedev, Kevin Rudd and Hu Jintao - officials said India's satisfaction was derived from the high level of Obama's commitment to stay the course in Afghanistan despite growing clamor in the US for an early pullout.

The US president is set to announce an raise of around 35,000 troops in Afghanistan, putting an end to a tortuous exercise of a review of his Afghan strategy that has taken the better part of the past four months.

The Obama-Singh conversation had one more important component for India: India's own presence and activity in Afghanistan. The Indian takeaway here is that the Pakistan "line" which, in a few ways was reflected in the report prepared by the top US commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, that Indian activities in Afghanistan could be counter-productive, was comprehensively discarded. Obama reportedly told the PM that Indian activities are not only appreciated but they should continue. India has committed almost $1.2 billion in civilian and infrastructure project in Afghanistan, in the teeth of repeated Pakistani complaints.

Barack Obama enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving at the White House, telephoning U.S. servicemen and women stationed around the world and spending time in the company of his family and friends.

Obama placed calls from the Oval Office to 10 U.S. servicemen and women - two each in the Army, Air Force, Navy, the Marines and the Coast Guard - stationed in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the Persian Gulf.

The commander in chief, who spent the past several weeks conduct an intensive review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, called to wish them Happy Thanksgiving and to let them know that he and first lady Michelle Obama are "truly thankful for their service and sacrifice on behalf of the nation," according to a statement Thursday from the White House.

The White House announced that President Obama will travel to Copenhagen on Dec. 9 to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in order to work with the international community to drive progress towards a comprehensive and operational Copenhagen accord. The White House also announced that President Obama is ready to put on the table a U.S. emissions reduction target in the range of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.

President Obama’s commitment to American leadership on fresh energy and combating climate change, the White House also announced that a host of Cabinet secretaries and other top officials from across the Administration will travel to Copenhagen for the conference. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson are all planned to attend, along with Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner.

Looking glamorous in a stylish strapless gown by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan, Michelle Obama welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Mrs. Gursharan Kaur to the White House Tuesday night and ushered in the Obama administration's first official state dinner.

With Mr Obama and India's Manmohan Singh touting advances in support on trade, investment and technology reached during meetings earlier in the day, the Indian businessman Ratan Tata of Tata Motors led numerous captains on Indian industry at the occasion.

During an effusive welcome at the White House for Mr Singh, the president said the state visit was verification of India's "rightful place as a global leader".

"Our generation has an opportunity given to few remakes the new global equilibrium after the irreversible changes" of the crisis, Mr Singh said.

"The India-US partnership can contribute to an arranged transition to the new order and be a main factor for global peace and stability."

Saying Asia was the focal point for major change, Mr Singh said: "India and the United States can work together with other countries in the region to make an open and inclusive regional architecture."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has welcomed US President Barack Obama's efforts to engage with Iran without preconditions, hopeful this will end the stand-off between Tehran and western countries over the issue of nuclear enrichment.

Singh stated that Iran as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty had the right to make use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but could not develop a weapon.

"As far as Iran's nuclear weapon ambitions are concerned I have stated unambiguously on many occasions that we do not support the nuclear weapon ambitions of Iran," he said during an interaction at the Council on Foreign Relations, a prominent think tank, on the next day of his four-day visit here.

He also indicated that India would abide by any UNSC resolution on the issue when asked if New Delhi could support sanctions against Iran.

Point out that Obama had "open a new pathway of engagement without preconditions" with Iran, he expressed hope that it will "yield results." Unlike his predecessor George W Bush's violent stand,

President Obama has decided to engage diplomatically with Tehran but the exchange has not yielded actual results.

Recently, Western powers revealed the existence of a secret underground plant but Tehran maintains that its nuclear enrichment program is for quiet purposes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to US as Barack Obama's first state guest is expected to showcase the significance the US President attaches to Indo-US relationship, with universal issues including climate and Afghanistan to feature prominently along with bilateral ties.

Obama will welcome Singh at the White House on Tuesday morning as the first State Guest of his presidency, in what senior administration officials have said is no co-incidence but a aware decision to send a strong signal on how critical the relationship is to the United States.
Obama has recognized India as a natural ally of the US and wants to take the Indo-US relationship to a new level.

The US now sees India as an "emerging power" and needs to work with it on the global front. They are expected to discuss a range of regional and global issues including Af-Pak, climate, and are also possible to discuss Obama's recent trip to Asia, particularly China, besides identifying ways to deepen strategic relationship. Given where the US position with regard to Af-Pak strategic review, it is expected that Obama and Singh would discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan and talk about constancy and security in the region.