BARACK OBAMA

A few months ago economists were all but certain the U.S. economy would slow sharply at the start of this year, with many warning that recession risks were growing.

The Pentagon's fiscal 2013 budget plan calls for the spending of $178.8 billion to develop and buy new warships, fighter jets, and other major weapons, a 7.5 percent drop from the level initially projected for the coming year.

U.S. Catholic Church leaders said they will fight President Barack Obama's controversial birth-control insurance-coverage policy despite his compromise that religious employers would not have to offer free contraceptives for workers, shifting the responsibility to insurers.

Is there anyone on the planet who hasn't read of the spate of suicides, worker deaths and accidents at the Chinese plants owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries, better known as Foxconn?

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney bounced back from midweek losses in three states to narrowly win Maine's caucuses on Saturday, hours after winning a straw poll of Republican conservative activists.

Jimmy McMillan, better known as The Rent Is Too Damn High guy, gave an impromptu speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2012 on Saturday.

Maine's Republican presidential caucuses look like a two-man race between Mitt Romney, the party's current front-runner (who is trying to avoid a fourth straight state loss within a week), and libertarian-leaning Ron Paul.

A fight is brewing in the U.S. South between Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, while Mitt Romney's priority is winning Arizona and Michigan. Those are the presidential campaign strategies becoming clear as fundraising efforts and spending plans shine a light on how the GOP race is likely to play out between now and March 6.

President Obama shared an official campaign 2012 playlist on Spotify Thursday, Feb. 9, just days after singing a gilded Al Green song at the Apollo Theater.

It is a one-to-one match between Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in Maine. The state, which is holding a more-than-a-day caucusing, has 24 delegates to offer. Romney, who had won the state in 2008 Republican primaries, is hoping to repeat the same in 2012. While Texas Congressman Paul, is looking for his first victory.

Maine's Republican presidential caucuses look like a two-man race between Mitt Romney, the party's current front-runner, and Ron Paul in a small-state contest that has taken on new importance for Romney after his losses in three states last Tuesday.

From the power centers of Washington to a soybean farm in Iowa to sunny Southern California, China's president-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, will sample diverse slices of America during a major visit from Monday to Friday next week.

U.S. President Barack Obama will call for cutting the top 35 percent corporate tax rate as early as this month, according to two sources close to the administration. The president is likely to propose a rate closer to an average of those seen in peer nations, the sources said.

Many of the discussions at the CPAC 2012 conference have centered on the pros and cons of the prospective Republican presidential nominees. However, some believe the cultural war against liberalism is actually more important than whether Mitt Romney can defeat Democratic President Barack Obama on Nov. 6.

It isn't often you see the words love, romance, and Federal Reserve in the same sentence.

President Barack Obama's compromise on free birth control coverage left health insurers stuck with the bill, sparking worries over the precedent set by the new policy.

Conservative blogger and CPAC speaker Andrew Breitbart says he doesn't want to be a political pundit, but the media keeps treating him that way.

The Environmental Protection Agency has yet to respond to a Texas Railroad Commission request to reclassify its draft report linking hydraulic fracturing to ground water contamination as a scientific assessment.

Bipartisan group of senators have introduced a resolution asking the Obama administration to rev up its work with the international community to address the crisis in Syria.

The fiscal 2013 budget President Barack Obama will present to Congress on Monday will include hundreds of billions in infrastructure spending and a projected deficit of $901 billion, or about 5.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and that the onus would instead be put on insurers.