HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mitt Romney narrowly leads rival Ron Paul in Iowa three days before the state kicks off the Republican Party's presidential nominating race, according to a Des Moines Register poll released on Saturday.

Republican White House hopefuls scoured Iowa for undecided voters on Saturday and front-runner Mitt Romney argued that he is the best to take on President Barack Obama as time ran short before the first votes of the 2012 election season.

U.S. White House hopeful Mitt Romney brought in help from New Jersey on Friday to bolster his prospects for a win in Iowa next week that would put him in the lead in the Republican presidential race.

State and Federal lawmakers constantly proposed measures to restrict women's reproductive rights in 2011.

Newt Gingrich said Wednesday his failure to meet the requirements for the Virginia primary ballot resulted from fraud by a worker hired by his campaign.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and the Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of the country's 70 million Muslims, met two days after Boko Haram's Christmas day attacks.

U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign set a goal of raising $60 million in the fourth quarter of the year to benefit the Democratic incumbent's re-election and the Democratic National Committee, a campaign official said on Saturday.

The year began with a shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that left six people dead and 14, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, injured, and it ended with the last troops coming home from Iraq. It began with Congress deadlocked over spending and taxes and ended with Congress, well, deadlocked over spending and taxes.

Congress approved a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, after a prolonged partisan battle on Capitol Hill. The stop-gap measure buys Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a longer-term extension.

The temporary payroll tax fix gives President Barack Obama and the Democrats a political win over Republicans

Supporting SOPA might prove dearer to the website registrar GoDaddy. GoDaddy had written to House of Representatives expressing their support for the much criticized bill. The Company also figures in the list of 142 companies that support SOPA released by House Judiciary Committee. GoDaddy is the only website registrar in the list.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday caved in to a growing chorus of criticism from both within and outside his Republican party and agreed to a short-term deal to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans.

Following the House of Representatives' rejection of legislation to extend the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, on Tuesday the White House took to social media asking people to comment on what the rejection meant to them. For an average taxpayer earning $50,000 a year, terminating the tax cuts could mean an extra $1000 in Social Security tax from Jan. 1, 2012. When broken down that is about $40 for a pay period of two weeks.

With House of Representatives Republicans under attack from friends and foes, Democrats held out for victory in a fight over extending a payroll tax cut for millions of workers that is set to expire at year's end.

Since September, members of the U.S. House and Senate have introduced five different amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn key parts of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee.

The International Business Times has compiled comprehensive profiles of the top seven Republican presidential candidates, with complete rundowns of their political positions, from Rick Santorum on abortion to Newt Gingrich on taxes. These profiles will be updated as the primary campaign continues.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut passed by the Senate on Saturday, calling for a conference committee to find a middle ground between the two houses of Congress.

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul spoke out against the NDAA Bill, claiming it would effectively legalize martial law by letting the military arrest and detain anyone it wants to without any repercussions.

Stock index futures rose on Monday after Wall Street's steep decline last week, but the death of North Korea's leader over the weekend and a warning from Fitch about possible credit downgrades kept investors jittery.

A bipartisan bill extending the payroll tax cut two months faces grim prospects in the House of Representatives on Monday, as House Republicans are vocally balking at the legislation, leading House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to demand further talks.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.43 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.26 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.38 percent at 0945 GMT.