WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama takes a first step toward national health care on Thursday when he presents his first budget, a document that also includes an additional US$250 billion (S$385 billion) - if needed - to rescue America's troubled banks.

The $3 trillion-plus spending blueprint will be closely studied for clues on how the new president plans divvy up taxpayer money in the midst of the most severe US economic slide in decades.

JAKARTA - A SINGAPOREAN Islamist told an Indonesian court on Thursday he had met Osama bin Laden and had tried to recruit Indonesians to follow the Al-Qaeda leader's call to jihad or 'holy war'.

Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin told the South Jakarta district court he had established a terror cell and passed on bomb-making techniques with a view to carrying out attacks against Christians and Westerners in Indonesia.

KUALA LUMPUR - POLITICAL tensions in Malaysia erupted into a scuffle at parliament on Thursday, witnesses said, as angry ruling party members confronted an opposition veteran.

Karpal Singh, a 69-year-old wheelchair-user and opposition politician, enraged the youth wing of the ruling Umno party with a feisty performance in parliament this week where he accused them of sending him bullets in the mail.

BEIJING - CHINA told the United States on Thursday to stop acting as a human rights guardian, after Washington accused Beijing of a worsening rights record.

'We urge the US side to reflect on its own human rights problems, to stop acting as human rights guardian,' foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters.