Obama tapped Rajiv Shah, 36, to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, taking a step toward filling a post that has lacked a permanent administrator for 10 months. The vacancy has drawn the ire of the aid community.

The top job at the U.S. Agency for International Development is still vacant seven months after President Obama took office. Paul Farmer, the physician and globe-trotting Harvard professor celebrated for his work on public health in Haiti, was a top contender to lead the agency, which is responsible for most nonmilitary foreign assistance. But he dropped out of the running, reportedly discouraged by Byzantine vetting and security clearance processes.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced $110 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan, in a push "to ease the plight of about 2 million Pakistanis who have fled fighting in the country's Swat Valley and are living in squalid tent cites."

President Obama pushed for and won $1.1 trillion for the International Monetary Fund, including $100 billion for multilateral development banks that lend to poorer countries.

Obama authorized forwarding $20.3 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. The decision came in response to a U.N. appeal for more than $600 million to help rebuild the area after a three-week military clash with Israel.