WASHINGTON - U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says he will release his tax returns for the past two years this week, saying it was a mistake for his campaign not to do so earlier. 
The former Massachusetts governor said in an interview Sunday with Fox News that not releasing the returns has been a distraction […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has announced she will resign from Congress, a year after she was seriously wounded in a shooting spree in her home state of Arizona.
In a video statement posted on the Internet Sunday, Giffords said she is getting better, but that work remains for her recovery. She said she is […]

WASHINGTON - Former U.S. congressman Newt Gingrich is projected to have won the Republican presidential primary in the southeastern state of South Carolina, shaking up the party’s campaign to find a candidate for this year’s presidential election.
With more than 75 percent of the precincts reporting, vote tallies showed Gingrich with about 40 percent of the […]

WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich, during Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, faced tough opening questions about his former marital status,  denying he asked his ex-wife to allow him to have an “open marriage” while he had an affair with a staff member in 1999.
Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, told […]

WASHINGTON - The five remaining candidates seeking the U.S. Republican party’s nomination for president met Monday evening in the eastern coastal state of South Carolina, just days before voters there participate in the next primary election.
Although the debate touched on a wide range of issues from the U.S. economy, unemployment and foreign policy, several of […]

CONCORD - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney took a major step Tuesday toward winning the Republican Party’s presidential nomination with a convincing victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary. 
Romney easily defeated five Republican rivals one week after a narrow win in the Iowa caucuses and appears to be a strong favorite to be the Republican […]

WASHINGTON - Voters in the U.S. state of New Hampshire are casting ballots Tuesday in the first primary election of the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign.
 
Residents in the small town of Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, cast their votes in the Republican Party primary shortly after midnight local time . Officials there say former Massachusetts […]

DES MOINES - In U.S. presidential politics, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the Iowa Republican party caucus by the narrowest of margins over former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.  It was a big night for both candidates who were in a virtual tie for hours.
 
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas placed third […]

AUSTIN - Texas Governor Rick Perry has held the top leadership position in one of the largest U.S. states, since George W. Bush left the post in 2000 to assume the U.S. presidency. Perry is now the state’s longest-serving governor.
 
Perry, 61, is campaigning on a pledge to reduce the size of the federal government. Political […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers have approved a $662 billion defense bill that contains a provision that President Barack Obama has opposed regarding the handling and detainment of terrorist suspects.
The Senate Thursday voted 86-13 in favor of the bill, which now will go to President Obama to be signed into law.
 
The House of Representatives passed the […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a $662-billion defense bill that contains a provision regarding the handling of certain terror suspects.
 
By a margin of 283 to 136, lawmakers Wednesday approved the measure after the White House dropped a veto threat over the provision. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to extend a payroll tax cut that expires at the end of the year, but the extension is tied to a provision that restarts work on a much-disputed U.S.-Canada oil pipeline project.
 
Despite the threat of a presidential veto of the pipeline provision, lawmakers in the […]

WASHINGTON - Support for former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich continues to surge in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
 
A new poll released Thursday shows Gingrich with double-digit leads in three key states — Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
 
The Quinnipiac University survey shows Republican voters pick Gingrich over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney […]

WASHINGTON - In U.S. politics, most of the Republican presidential hopefuls were in Washington Wednesday where they took turns bashing President Barack Obama’s policies toward Israel and Iran. 
The Republican White House contenders took turns discussing foreign policy in general and specifically relations with Israel as they spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The six candidates who […]

WASHINGTON - In the 2012 race for the White House, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich is the latest Republican contender to surge in public-opinion polls. 
Newt Gingrich is trying to capitalize on his newfound political momentum by running his first television ad in the Midwest state of Iowa, which kicks off the Republican nomination battle […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has suspended his campaign following allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity.
 
Cain announced the suspension of his presidential bid at an event Saturday in his home state of Georgia.
Saturday’s event was originally scheduled to mark the opening of the former pizza executive’s new campaign headquarters.
Cain shot to the […]

WASHINGTON - In U.S. presidential politics, the focus is on Republican White House contender Herman Cain.  Cain says he is reassessing his campaign in the wake of allegations of an extramarital affair, which Cain denies.  Meanwhile, the Republican field is looking more like a showdown between former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has told aides he is reassessing the viability of his campaign after a woman from Georgia alleged she had a 13-year affair with him.
 
The accusation of infidelity follows a series of sexual harassment allegations that have already complicated Cain’s pursuit of his party’s nomination.
 
In a Tuesday morning […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls debated how to deal with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran’s nuclear program in Washington Tuesday in their latest televised debate.
Questioned about U.S. aid to Pakistan, Texas Governor Rick Perry said he would cut the aid unless Pakistan proves it has America’s best interests in mind. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann responded […]

WASHINGTON - A special congressional “supercommittee” announced late Monday that it was unable to reach an agreement on cutting the U.S. federal deficit by $1.2 trillion during the next decade.  Our correspondent reports from Capitol Hill on the failure of Democratic and Republican lawmakers to bridge their differences.
After months of deliberations and much anticipation, there […]

WASHINGTON - Now that the bipartisan congressional “supercommittee” has failed to agree on a plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the U.S. government’s deficit, across-the-board budget cuts — $600 billion from domestic agencies, $600 billion from the Department of Defense — will be triggered in 2013
The automatic cuts, called sequestration, were part of the August […]

WASHINGTON - The special U.S. congressional committee tasked with finding ways to trim the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade has failed to reach an agreement.
 
The so-called “supercommittee” made the announcement in a statement issued Monday. The 12-member, bipartisan committee had a Monday night deadline to produce the deal. The debt reduction […]

WASHINGTON - Wednesday night’s Republican debate, at Oakland University in Michigan, focused on the economy.  Candidates largely agreed that the United States needed to cut spending and focus on domestic actions that they say could spur job growth and improve the economy.
The federal deficit and high unemployment are major issues of concern among U.S. voters, […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has again denied allegations of sexual harassment and says they will not force him to drop his bid for his party’s nomination.
 
During a news conference Tuesday in Scottsdale, Arizona, the presidential contender told reporters that chances of giving up his presidential bid “ain’t gonna happen” and that […]