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In an embarrassing setback for President Barack Obama, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday that he violated the Constitution in making certain recess appointments and moved to curtail a chief executive's ability in the future to circumvent the Senate in such scenarios.

President Barack Obama has chosen longtime trusted adviser and national security expert Denis McDonough as his fifth chief of staff.

He signed 654 bills into law, made 25 foreign trips and had 113 golf outings. As President Obama's first term comes to an end, Mark Knoller of CBS News has gathered some statistics about the first four years.

On the cusp of his second term, President Barack Obama solemnly honored the nation's fallen soldiers Sunday before taking the oath of office in an intimate White House ceremony, a swearing-in ritual he will repeat 24 hours later before a massive crowd at the Capitol.

Monday is President Barack Obama's big day, but memories of Martin Luther King Jr. will loom large over the festivities.

Second presidential terms are never easy - even for George Washington. More often, they're fraught with peril, frequently marred by scandal, failure, hubris, and burnout, and souring relations with Congress. President Barack Obama acknowledges the dangers of overreach but vows to steer cautiously. The odds are against him.

Venezuela's cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez is recovering in Cuba and is not in a coma as some have rumored a month after surgery, his brother, Adan Chavez, said after a visit to Havana.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is being treated for "respiratory deficiency" after complications from a severe lung infection, his government said Thursday.

Former President George H.W. Bush's condition has improved enough for him to be moved out of the intensive care unit and into a regular patient room at the Houston hospital where he has been receiving treatment.

President Mohamed Morsi apparently secured a victory at the polls Saturday for a new Egyptian constitution, locking the country into a bitter contest between his ascendant Islamist camp and his secular opponents.