BARACK OBAMA

A downgrade of United States' top-tier credit rating has Wall Street scrambling to figure out the knock-on effects for the financial system, from mortgages to banks to markets that rely on U.S. Treasuries for collateral.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will remain in the position at President Barack Obama's request. Geithner considered stepping down after the government borrowing limit was raised.

NATO tried to determine on Sunday if Taliban insurgents had shot down a troop-carrying helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38 in the largest loss of life suffered by foreign forces in a single incident in 10 years of war.

It wasn't long after Standard & Poor's lowered the United States' credit rating from AAA to AA+, for the blame game to begin.

The massive importation of African slaves to the New World, and subsequent social interactions over five centuries has raised questions about who is really ?black.?

The Tea Party arrived in Washington after mid-term elections with talk of change in Washington. So far, Tea Party leaders have only been a distraction. To create change in Washington, they need to bring forth a plan and build consensus.

The U.S. Navy SEALs and other troops whose helicopter was shot down by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan Saturday had rushed to the mountainous area to help a U.S. Army Ranger unit that was under fire from insurgents, two U.S. officials said Sunday.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has not yet officially announced his candidacy for president. But on Saturday in Houston, at a prayer event he organized, Perry made it clear he's already in the race to become America's next president.

They bonded over golf, bickered over debt, and now President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner face even more tests of an uneasy relationship critical to a functioning government.

On Hiroshima Bombing anniversary, televangelist Joel Osteen's concert in Houston on Saturday brought together as usual millions of people around the world to watch his music concert which went off live with Texas Governor Rick Perry scripture from the Book of Joel and Book of Isaiah

A top White House economic adviser slammed Standard & Poor's on Saturday for having stuck with its decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating despite having made a $2 trillion mistake in its fiscal projections.

China bluntly criticised the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower's credit rating was downgraded, saying the "good old days" of borrowing were over.

More than 20 SEAL Team 6 members perished in a helicopter crash when Taliban insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook troop transport, possibly with a rocket-propelled grenade over eastern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to the United States and Afghan troops killed when Taliban insurgents shot down their helicopter in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Months of political rancor and a tsunami of special interest spending come to a head on Tuesday with historic recall votes for Wisconsin state lawmakers that some see as a pointer for the 2012 election.

Activists said the death toll in protests across Syria a day earlier, when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, had risen to 26.

The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, drawing a blast of criticism on Saturday from its biggest creditor China and deepening investors' alarm over the euro zone's debt crisis.

The SEAL Team Six is the special operations unit responsible for the Pakistan raid that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden. Saturday's death is being considered the deadliest day for American forces serving the decade-long war.

A helicopter was shot down by insurgents Friday night, killing 31 special force U.S. troops which included 22 SEALs. Seven Afghans were also killed during the firefight.

?We have total confidence in the solidity of the American economy,? Baroin told French radio.

While S&P?s downgrade of the U.S. Government?s credit rating is controversial, most agree that the U.S. fiscal condition is serious. And while both Democrats and Republicans increased the budget deficit, three major policy errors by President George W. Bush last decade substantially worsened the U.S.?s fiscal condition, and the nation has been trying to recover ever since.