Obama presses Congress for deal to end U.S. spending cuts

WASHINGTON: Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took effect, President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Saturday to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis he said was starting to "inflict pain" on communities across the United States.

Obama and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders failed on Friday to avoid the deep spending reductions known as the "sequester," which automatically kicked in overnight in the latest sign of dysfunction in a divided Washington.