Obama and Boehner meeting at White House over spending cuts

US President Barack Obama has called the top Republican in Congress to the White House to talk about a deal aimed at keep away from a government shutdown.

Talks have stalled over legislation that would join spending cuts with the funds necessary to run US federal agencies to the end of September.

Democrats have charge Republicans of linking social policies to the bill.
House Speaker John Boehner, who will meet Mr Obama, has said the White House is urgent gimmicky budget cuts.

Separately, Republicans in the House revealed longer-term plans to cut the budget shortfall by more than $5tn (£3tn) over the next 10 years – combining spending cuts with a restructuring of taxpayer-financed health think about for the elderly and the poor.

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Obama condemns Quran burning bigotry

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Saturday condemned a US pastor’s burning of the Koran, after aggressive protests at what he called an act of “extreme intolerance and bigotry” left 17 dead in Afghanistan.

Obama also repeated his condemnation of the “outrageous” attacks by strikers as “an affront to human decency and dignity.”
“No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act,” he added.

Ten people died amid fresh protests that began in the middle of the main southern city of Kandahar and increase as police clashed with crowds on Saturday, a day after seven UN staff was killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the worst attack on the world body in the country since the 2001 attack.

“The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” Obama said in a report honoring those killed in the attacks.
Kandahar is the religious heartland of the Taliban, who have fought a revolution against President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies since they were ousted by the US-led invasion.

“Death to America” and “Death to Karzai” repeated the demonstrators. “They have insulted our Quran,” shouted one.

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