BREAKING NEWS

Obama to name foreign policy aide McDonough chief of staff

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Friday will name veteran foreign policy aide Denis McDonough as his next White House chief of staff, replacing Jack Lew, as part of an overhaul of his senior staff, a White House official said.
Obama will announce the appointment of McDonough, who worked on Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is now a deputy national security adviser, at 12:10 p.m. EST (1710 GMT) at the White House, the official said. McDonough had been widely tipped to succeed Lew after his nomination as Treasury secretary.
In a series of high-level staff changes, Obama will also announce that he is moving White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer to the job of senior adviser and replacing Pfeiffer with his deputy, Jennifer Palmieri.