A woman threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton on Thursday as the former secretary of state was delivering a speech at a Las Vegas hotel, but Clinton dodged it and continued with her remarks, a U.S. Secret Service spokesman said. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie said the shoe-thrower was not a ticketed guest for Clinton's speech at the Mandalay Bay hotel and had been spotted by Secret Service agents and hotel security guards before the incident.

Barack Obama's Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is to resign, paying the price for the chaotic initial rollout of the US president's signature health care law, officials said Thursday. Sebelius will officially step down on Friday and Obama will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, his current budget director, to replace her, the officials said. The administration was forced into an emergency effort to fix the site and other implementation problems -- and 7.5 million people have now signed up for health insurance under the new law.

A fed-up Attorney General Eric Holder is accusing congressional critics of launching “unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive” attacks on him and the Obama administration. During a speech to the National Action Network in New York on Wednesday lauding the organization’s effort to advance racial equality,...

Washington (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund has become a "collateral" victim of US politics, preventing it from completing a sweeping funding increase and reform plan, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Thursday.

Washington (AFP) - US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned his Russian counterpart Thursday of more sanctions if Moscow "continues to escalate" the crisis in Ukraine.

The US Navy on Saturday will christen the USS Zumwalt, the first of a new class of futuristic, costly destroyers -- of which only three are to be built. The Zumwalt, named in honor of a former chief of naval operations, was planned as a multi-mission ship equipped with two long-range, high-powered guns. The US Navy currently has 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, of which 25 are equipped with an anti-ballistic missile defense system. The USS Zumwalt will be followed only by the Michael Monsoor and the Lyndon Johnson, many fewer than the 24 Zumwalt-class destroyers the US Navy originally planned on.

US officials announced Thursday that companies sharing information about cybersecurity would not face prosecution on antitrust grounds. The news came amid heightened concerns about data breaches and malware that can foil online encryption to allow hackers to steal passwords or other personal data. Officials at the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission said they issued formal guidance telling companies that there would be no antitrust issues from the sharing of technical information about cyber attacks, malware or similar threats. "And speaking on behalf of everyone here today, this guidance responds to those concerns, lets everyone know that antitrust concerns should not get in the way of sharing cybersecurity information, and signals our continued commitment to expanding the sharing of cybersecurity information."

Washington is working with Ukraine and its western neighbors to help reverse gas flows along pipelines linking Russia to Europe after Moscow threatened to cut off supplies to Kiev. "We condemn Russia's efforts to use energy as a tool of coercion against Ukraine," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to cut off Ukraine's gas unless Europe drummed up the cash to cover Kiev's debts to the Russian state gas firm Gazprom and ensure its own supplies in a flaring standoff over the splintered ex-Soviet state. The veteran strongman's most direct warning about deliveries on which EU nations' economies depend came with Ukraine facing a new secession crisis following its loss of Crimea.