President Obama plans to outline Tuesday a major push to tackle one of the biggest threats to the economy and to his administration: the soaring unemployment rate.

With the second wave of H1N1 infections having crested in the United States, leading epidemiologists are predicting that the pandemic could end up ranking as the mildest since modern medicine began documenting influenza outbreaks.

The boiler room of the ship of state is a sterile chamber on the ninth floor of an unremarkable office building in downtown Washington. Half a dozen staffers sit at computer monitors, staring at incoming data. A voice with a Brooklyn accent squawks over an intercom: "Five minutes to go!"

LAGHMAN, AFGHANISTAN -- Like nearly all provinces in Afghanistan, this one has two governors.

The Obama administration moved closer Monday to issuing regulations on greenhouse gases, a step that would enable it to limit emissions across the economy even if Congress does not pass climate legislation.