BARACK OBAMA

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.38 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.37 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.48 percent at 1018 GMT (5:18 a.m. EST).

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.38 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.37 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.48 percent at 1018 GMT (5:18 a.m. EST).

The election of a Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts on Tuesday to replace the late Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, puts U.S. President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda at increased risk.

In a stunning blow to President Barack Obama, Republican Scott Brown won a bitter Senate race in Massachusetts on Tuesday and promised to be the deciding vote against his sweeping healthcare overhaul.

President Barack Obama would have a far tougher time advancing his agenda if the Republican candidate wins the special election in Massachusetts on Tuesday to replace the late Edward Kennedy, a Democratic icon, in the Senate.

Massachusetts on Tuesday could elect the state's first Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate in decades, a stunning upset that would undermine Democrats' dominance in Washington.

Events in health insurance, basic materials and utilities sparked a rally in the stock market on Tuesday as investors looked past earnings.

Stocks rose broadly on Tuesday, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 to fresh 15-month closing highs as investors bet a potential Republican victory in Massachusetts' Senate race could stall Obama's reform agenda.

Stocks rose broadly on Tuesday, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 to fresh 15-month closing highs as investors bet a potential Republican victory in Massachusetts' Senate race could stall Obama's reform agenda.

Stocks rose broadly on Tuesday as investors scooped up healthcare shares on bets that a potential Republican victory in Massachusetts' Senate race could stall U.S. President Barack Obama's reforms and remove a threat to profits in the sector.

Credit Suisse is spreading the pain of a UK tax on bonuses across bankers globally and Goldman Sachs has delayed announcing payouts to staff as a row over remuneration heated up on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday and healthcare shares gained as a Massachusetts election for the U.S. Senate put President Barack Obama's healthcare reform in jeopardy.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday and healthcare shares gained as a Massachusetts election for the U.S. Senate put President Barack Obama's healthcare reform in jeopardy.

The pace of food and medical aid deliveries picked up in earthquake-shattered Haiti, providing some hope to desperate survivors, but doctors worried disease would be the next big challenge for the tens of thousands left injured and homeless a week ago.

Massachusetts voters head to the polls on Tuesday in a cliff-hanger election for a new U.S. senator that could derail Democrats' dominance in Washington and scuttle their top priority of sweeping healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama plans to deliver his annual State of the Union address on January 27 and will present his budget plan on February 1, senior administration officials said on Monday.

Barack Obama, marking his first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as president of the United States, urged Americans on Monday to remember that the civil rights era is not ancient history.

President Barack Obama's promise to build a new Haiti out of the ruins of the earthquake could prove politically risky if the United States finds itself in a losing battle to rebuild the impoverished nation.

Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on the centre of Kabul on Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations and militants battling security forces from inside a shopping centre engulfed in flames.

President Barack Obama went on a rescue mission on Sunday to try to save an endangered Massachusetts Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate whose defeat by a Republican could imperil Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul.

World leaders pledged aid to rebuild a devastated Haiti, but on the streets of its wrecked capital earthquake survivors were still waiting on Sunday for the basics: food, water and medicine.