Obama holds a slim 47 percent to 43 percent edge in a Pew survey taken after the attacks in Libya.

The White House on Thursday took a step forward in formally recognizing the contributions of Filipino-Americans to the American war effort in the Pacific during World War II, which could pay huge dividends politically and internationally. 

U.S. trade officials announced Thursday that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has rejected China's appeal in a case over duties imposed on high-tech steel exports. 

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the WTO's Appellate Body ruled that Beijing had acted inconsistently with its trade obligations by illegally imposing duties on anti-dumping and countervailing duties on grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel (GOES).

"The Obama administration will not stand by and allow China to break international trade rules," Kirk said.  

A group of bipartisan female senators expressed their outrage to Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday over the recent Taliban attack of a 14-year-old girl. 

“As the women of the United States Senate, we are writing to express our outrage over the barbaric attack on fourteen-year old Malala Yousafzai and two other girls in a senseless act of violence,” the senators, led by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), wrote in a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday.

Ahmed Abu Khattala, head of the Islamic Libyan militia Ansar al-Sharia, admitted on Thursday to being present during the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that international collaboration will be vital as melting sea ice opens up new shipping and oil-and-gas drilling opportunities in the Arctic.

“Some of our energy diplomacy is focused on remote areas like the Arctic, a frontier of unexplored oil-and-gas deposits and a potential environmental catastrophe,” Clinton said during a wide-ranging speech on energy diplomacy at Georgetown University.

“The melting ice caps are opening new drilling opportunities as well as new maritime routes, so it is critical that we now act to set rules of the road to avoid conflict over those resources and protect the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem,” she said.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday announced a $12 million bounty for information on the precise location of two Iran-based al Qaeda money-men.

The rewards, part of the department's Rewards for Justice program, include $7 million for information on alleged al Qaeda senior facilitator and financier Muhsin al-Fadhli and $5 million for information on his deputy, Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi. Both men are wanted by Saudi authorities on terrorism charges and are believed to be supporting al Qaeda members who are fighting against Bashar Assad's regime in Syria.

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A top Senate Republican is calling on the Obama administration to outline its position on China's currency before the next round of talks on an Asia-Pacific trade agreement later this year. 

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday to provide the Obama administration’s position on Chinese currency manipulation before the next round of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations begin in December. 

"Unfortunately, rather than comply with the statutory mandate, you announced on Friday, Oct. 12, that the issuance of the report will once again be delayed,” Hatch wrote in the letter to Geithner. 

The State Department on Thursday began live-streaming its daily press briefings on the Internet, giving people around the world a chance to see where the U.S. government stands on global issues in real time.

"We are finally in the 21st century here," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland announced Thursday. "Starting today, the State Department will stream the daily press briefing live on www.state.gov, which maybe will encourage some of you to watch it in your offices and I’ll have less people in the room – no."

The press briefings are usually held around noon. Interested viewers can find out the time for the weekday briefings by subscribing to the daily schedule here. Transcripts and a video recording of the briefing, which is available several hours after the briefing ends, here.