JUDY WOODRUFF:

Mr. Obama also pledged again to do all he can to get the Trans-Pacific trade pact through Congress before he leaves office.

In Afghanistan, Taliban fighters pushed deep into a provincial capital before being repulsed. Hundreds of militants overran government checkpoints around the city of Tirin Kot in Uruzgan Province. Local officials fled as Taliban fighters got within a few hundred yards of the governor's compound. Finally, reinforcements and allied airstrikes pushed them back.

Russia announced today that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed in principle to meet in Moscow, to relaunch peace talks. But no date was set. Meanwhile, two Israeli researchers reported finding documents that show Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was a Soviet spy in the 1980s. Abbas' office denied it, all of this as Israel began work on an underground barrier along the Gaza border. It's meant to stop militants from digging tunnels to carry out attacks.

Lawmakers in Britain declared their own Parliament Building an impending crisis today. A special committee recommended that the complex be vacated in order to allow sweeping repairs estimated to cost the equivalent of $4.7 billion.

Paul Brand of Independent Television News reports.

CHRIS BRYANT, Palace of Westminster Committee: Outside the tourist marvel at the mother of all parliaments, but hidden from sight, it houses the mother of all problems, its walls crumbling with damp, roofs leaking, and asbestos lurking somewhere down here.

And then, if you look here, you see that there's a gas there — gas main — and it sits immediately next to the danger high voltage.