President Barack Obama tapped 4 big Democratic Party donors for plum ambassadorships in Europe and Latin America while naming 6 career diplomats to posts in Africa, the Mideast and the Pacific.

Washington lawyer Howard Gutman, who raised more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign and personally contributed the maximum $4,600 to it, was nominated to be the next U.S. envoy to Belgium, the White House said in a statement.