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Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is on a short swing through the Middle East, was in Iraq on Tuesday. On his agenda: a visit to a command post in southern Iraq where U.S. troops serve in an advisory capacity; a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a visit to Kurdistan.

In Austin, Texas, a small private plane crashed into a federal office building that housed Internal Revenue Service workers. Initial reports indicate the pilot hated the IRS and may have crashed the plane intentionally.

President Obama said Tuesday Democrats and Republicans should be able to come together and pass a jobs bill. The comments came at a meeting with congressional leaders from both parties.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Thursday it has received more than 100 complaints from owners of the 2010 Toyota Prius and has opened an investigation into possible brake problems with the model. That's more bad news for Toyota, which has recalled more than 5 million vehicles of various models to repair problems with sudden acceleration.

Automaker Toyota says it's recalling about 437,000 Priuses and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems. Toyota has now recalled more than 8.5 million cars worldwide because of various manufacturing defects.

The government's latest response to the financial crisis involves taking ownership stakes in financial institutions in order to get credit flowing through the economy again. Treasury Secretary Paulson said he didn't like government ownership of banks, but the alternatives, he said, were "totally unacceptable."

President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have announced stricter rules on executive compensation at banks receiving "exceptional" levels of aid from the federal government. Some executives will have their annual salary capped at $500,000.

The economy shrank at a pace of 3.8 percent in the final three months of last year, the worst performance in more than two decades. At the White House, President Barack Obama took note as he was launching a task force to focus on helping the middle class.

President Obama will soon have the chance to appoint a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the court's term.

President-elect Barack Obama is said to have chosen Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan to serve as education secretary. Duncan has run the country's third-biggest school district for the past seven years. He has focused on improving struggling schools, closing those that fail and getting better teachers.