WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama signaled on Tuesday he is no rush to respond quickly to Syria’s apparent use of chemical weapons, taking a cautious approach to the country’s civil war, mirroring the views of the American public, most lawmakers and some U.S. allies.

Obama, who last year declared that the use or deployment of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would cross a “red line,” told a White House news conference there was evidence those weapons were used, but there was still much that U.S. intelligence agencies did not know.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama cautioned against a rush to judgment on whether Syria used chemical weapons against its own people on Tuesday in a sign he is going to take a deliberate approach to a problem that could lead to U.S. military action.

At a White House news conference, Obama said there is evidence chemical weapons were used inside Syria but “we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them” and “we don’t have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took U.S. concerns about Syrian chemical weapons to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, reaching out to one of the Syrian government’s staunchest allies.

The United States is trying to determine the facts around alleged Syrian use of chemical weapons. Last week U.S. officials said they had “varying degrees of confidence” that Syria had likely used the nerve agent sarin on a small scale against rebel fighters.

WACO, Texas (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, standing before a line of flag-draped coffins, consoled family and friends on Thursday at a memorial service for firefighters killed in a massive explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant.

The deaths of 14 people, nearly all of them emergency responders, ripped a hole in the heart of the nearby town of West, where farming is a way of life and where many people volunteer for the fire department in their spare time.

DALLAS (Reuters) – George W. Bush basked in warm praise from President Barack Obama and three fellow former U.S. presidents on Thursday as Bush’s library was dedicated in a ceremony that emphasized his resolute response to terrorism while skirting controversies such as his decision to invade Iraq.

Obama and fellow Democrats Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, along with Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, came together on the campus of Southern Methodist University to honour one of their own. At the end of the hour-long ceremony, Bush – who has largely avoided public life since leaving Washington in January 2009 – choked back tears as he concluded his remarks.

DALLAS (Reuters) – Former President George W. Bush returns briefly to the U.S. political stage with the dedication of his presidential library on Thursday, an event that will offer Americans a fresh look at his eight storm-tossed years in the White House.

Bush will be joined by his successor, President Barack Obama and all living predecessors, including his father, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for the ceremony at the 23-acre complex on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is headed to Texas to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former President George W. Bush in what could serve as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle against terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Obama is due to attend the dedication on Thursday of Bush’s presidential library at Southern Methodist University, along with former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and hundreds of Bush administration alumni.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Their rivalries have helped to define American politics for more than a quarter-century.

And sometimes the complex relationships among the only five people alive who know what it’s like to be president of the United States have seemed to be straight out of a soap opera. They have called each other names and blamed one another for the nation’s problems.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Friday that the United States will find out whether the two ethnic Chechen brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings received help, and he pleaded for Americans not to rush to judgment.

Obama appeared in the White House briefing room after police arrested the lone surviving suspect in the Boston suburb of Watertown, ending a dramatic manhunt. The other suspect was killed in a shootout overnight with police.