Recruitment

BRUSSELS - After years of effort the European Union named its first full-time president and powerful foreign policy chief on Thursday - but handed the jobs to two little-known compromise figures instead of global heavy hitters.

WASHINGTON - Did the Obama administration really pump billions of dollars into phantom congressional districts? Republicans, bloggers and conservative think tanks have been circulating reports suggesting that money intended to create jobs and shore up the economy was unaccounted for, misused or lost in some sort of bookkeeping black hole.