WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said he was confident that an orderly political transition in Egypt would produce a government that will remain a U.S. partner.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Obama also said the ideology of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which is President Hosni Mubarak’s best organized opposition group, included anti-U.S. strains.

But the Brotherhood lacked majority support, he said.

“So it’s important for us not to say that our only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood, or a suppressed Egyptian people,” he said.

“What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, that we’ll have a government in Egypt that we can work with together as a partner.”

Obama said only Mubarak, who took power in 1981, knew if he would leave office soon.

“But here’s what we know — that Egypt is not going to go back to what it was,” the U.S. leader said. “The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, they want a responsible government. So what we have said is you have to start a transition now.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said on Sunday he’s encouraged by what he described as the rapid and dramatic series of events toward a new Egypt without President Hosni Mubarak.

“Tally up what has happened in the last 12 days,” said Kerry, who has echoed calls by President Barack Obama and others for Mubarak to promptly end his 30-year-old rule.

Kerry noted that Mubarak has promised not to run in the September election, he’s “engaged in a dialogue with the protesters (and) he’s now promising to remove the emergency law, which is a major, major opening of the door to the democratic process — allowing people to organize, speak, meet at a cafe — I think that is a beginning.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” as demonstrators in Egypt clamored for rapid change, Kerry said, “The most important thing now is to guarantee the process is in place where there are free and fair elections, parties can organize, people can campaign.”

Kerry suggested that Mubarak, who last week announced in a nationally broadcast speech said he would not be a candidate for another term, again address the Egyptian people.

Mubarak should “make it clear what the timetable is, precisely what the process is,” Kerry said.

“If that happens, this could actually turn significantly to the good and to the promise of a better outcome,” Kerry said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal authorities ignored warnings that could have prevented a 2009 massacre at an Army base, two U.S. senators said in a report on Thursday that outlined intelligence failures similar to those in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan — an Army psychiatrist who had been dubbed by two colleagues as “a ticking time bomb” — was charged with murder in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas that killed 13 and wounded 32.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, and Susan Collins, the panel’s top Republican, said in the probe that authorities had information indicating that Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States to immigrant parents, was a threat before the November 5, 2009, shootings.

“Although neither DoD (the Department of Defense) nor the FBI had specific information concerning the time, place or nature of the attack, they collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan’s radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it,” they wrote.

The Army has received an assessment from experts on Hasan’s mental health and is considering whether he should face court martial and potentially the death penalty.

Intelligence agencies learned that Hasan had contacts with an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda and relayed the information to law enforcement, but no action was taken, the report noted.

The report identified the Islamist only as “Suspected Terrorist” and several portions of the report were redacted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats in the Senate blocked a Republican bid on Wednesday to repeal his healthcare overhaul, a year-old law whose ultimate fate likely rests with the U.S. Supreme Court.

On a party-line vote of 51-47, the Senate rejected a Republican measure to rescind the law that aims to provide more than 30 million uninsured Americans with medical coverage while requiring nearly all to be insured or pay a fine. Sixty votes were needed to clear a procedural hurdle against repeal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scoffed at Republican efforts, saying: “They want to replace patients’ rights with insurance companies’ power. They want to replace health with sickness. They want to replace the promise of tomorrow with the pain of yesterday.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell countered: “The case against this bill is more compelling every day. Everything we learn tells us it was a bad idea. That it should be repealed and replaced. The courts say so. The American people say so.”

The Senate voted two days after a federal judge struck down the 2010 law as unconstitutional, a ruling the Obama administration promptly announced it would appeal.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, in keeping a campaign vow, voted to repeal the healthcare law last month.

Senate rejection of the repeal effort means the law’s fate will likely be decided by court challenges and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, a process that could extend into next year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Democrats said they had enough votes to block a Republican bid on Wednesday to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, likely leaving the law’s fate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senate Democratic leaders said they would stop a Republican measure to rescind the law that aims to provide more than 30 million uninsured Americans with medical coverage while requiring nearly all to be insured or pay a fine.

“I expect the overwhelming majority of Democrats to vote against (repeal),” said Senator Charles Schumer.

All 47 Republicans in the 100-member Senate planned to vote for repeal, according to the Republican leadership, but that would fall well short of the needed 60 votes.

The Senate prepared to vote on the measure just two days after a federal judge struck down the year-old law as unconstitutional, a ruling that the Obama administration promptly announced it would appeal.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, in keeping a campaign vow, voted to repeal the healthcare law last month.

Senate rejection of repeal means the embattled law’s fate will be decided by court challenges and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, a process that could extend into next year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate leaders reached an agreement on Thursday to make their chamber more efficient and less contentious — yet preserve the right to stop legislation with procedural hurdles known as filibusters.

The accord seeks to reduce Republican use of filibusters, however, with a Democratic commitment not to routinely prevent Republicans from offering amendments in the Democratic-led chamber.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, announced the deal after weeks of negotiations and Democratic threats to ban filibusters.

“Just as I will exercise restraint (not to prevent Republican amendments), he (McConnell) and his Republican conference will curtail their habit of filibustering,” Reid said.

Use of filibusters have soared in recent years, regardless who is in the minority. They are used to slow down or even kill legislation, prompting complaints of partisan gridlock.

Sixty votes are needed in the 100-member chamber to end a filibuster. Democrats now control the Senate 53-47.

McConnell said he was optimistic that he and Reid “can convince our colleagues that we ought to get back to operating the Senate as we did as recently as three or four years ago when bills came up and they were open for amendment … and at some point the bill would be completed.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are justifiably skeptical of members of both political parties, particularly when it comes to spending, U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said on Tuesday.

In remarks prepared for delivery as the official Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, Ryan vowed to draft a budget that shows his party intends to “do things differently” and cut federal spending, reduce the U.S. debt and create jobs.

“Americans are skeptical of both political parties, and that skepticism is justified — especially when it comes to spending,” Ryan said in excerpts of his remarks released by congressional Republican leaders.

Obama planned to focus on fiscal matters in his speech, and so did Ryan, 40, a rising young star in the Republican Party.

Ryan said that American voters, who gave Republicans control of the House in the November election, have become fed up with what they see as excessive federal spending and a mounting federal debt.

“Last year — in an unprecedented failure — Congress chose not to pass, or even propose a budget,” Ryan said. “The spending spree continued unchecked.

“We owe you a better choice and a different vision,” Ryan said.

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao got an earful from U.S. lawmakers on North Korea and human rights on Thursday, but tried to assure the United States that China’s military and trade policies were not a threat.

Hu wrapped up the Washington leg of a four-day state visit with a call on leaders of the U.S. Congress and a speech to businessmen that stressed China-U.S. collaboration and played down disputes between the world’s top two economies.

“We do not engage in an arms race or pose a military threat to any country. China will never seek hegemony or pursue an expansionist policy,” he told a gathering hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council.

On trade, Hu highlighted figures that showed that cheap Chinese exports had saved American consumers $600 billion over the past decade and said his country has become the biggest source of profits for many U.S. firms. [ID:nN20133587]

“Even in 2008 and 2009, when the international financial crisis was most severe, over 70 percent of American companies in China remained profitable,” he said a day after the two countries signed deals they said were worth $45 billion.

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Full coverage of U.S.-China summit [nUSACHINA]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chinese President Hu Jintao got an earful of U.S. lawmakers criticism on North Korea and human rights on Thursday, but tried to assure the United States that China’s military and trade policies were not a threat.

Hu wrapped up the Washington leg of a four-day state visit with a call on U.S. lawmakers, followed by a policy speech that stressed China-U.S. collaboration and played down some of the disputes that roiled ties in 2010.

“We do not engage in an arms race or pose a military threat to any country. China will never seek hegemony or pursue an expansionist policy,” he told a gathering hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council.

On trade, Hu highlighted figures that showed that cheap Chinese exports had saved American consumers $600 billion over the past decade and said his country has become the biggest source of profits for many U.S. firms.

“Even in 2008 and 2009, when the international financial crisis was most severe, over 70 percent of American companies in China remained profitable,” he said a day after the two countries signed deals they said were worth $45 billion.

Hu did not address the currency issue that has exercised many U.S. lawmakers, who argue that China keeps its yuan weak to boost exports — costing millions of U.S. jobs and increasing a trade gap that Washington puts at $270 billion.

President Barack Obama urged Hu during their White House summit on Wednesday to let the value of the yuan rise against the dollar.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – China understands a stronger yuan is in its best interest although President Hu Jintao made no specific commitment to let the currency rise more rapidly, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Reuters on Thursday.

“It needs to be more,” Biden said during a brief visit to Capitol Hill where lawmakers met with Hu one day after his visit to the White House. “We had significant discussions about that in our bilateral meetings. And it is being worked hard.”

When asked whether Hu had made any commitments, Biden replied, “Nothing specific.”

The Obama administration has argued that China ought to let the yuan rise more rapidly to help tamp down inflation and spur domestic demand. Chinese consumer prices in December rose 4.6 percent from a year earlier, slowing from a 28-month high notched in November but still uncomfortably high.

Separately, a U.S. Treasury Department official said the Obama administration does not expect China to switch overnight to a freely floated currency but should let the revaluation process proceed more rapidly than it has done.

“China still closely manages the level of its exchange rate and restricts the ability of capital to move in and out of the country,” Treasury Assistant Secretary Charles Collyns told a meeting of the German Marshall Fund.

“These policies have the effect of keeping the Chinese currency substantially undervalued,” he said.