WORLD

Mitt Romney was the winner of both this year's CPAC straw poll and Maine's caucuses, with 38 percent and 39 percent of the votes, respectively.

The 2012 Maine Republican caucuses, from its length to its delegates to its voting requirements, are the odd birds of the GOP primary system. It's why candidates like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are staying away ... and why Ron Paul has a good chance of beating Mitt Romney there for the win.

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.

State-owned news agency SANA is reporting that Brig. Gen. Issa al-Khouli was killed Saturday morning as he left his home in Damascus

An appearance by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin created a massive scene at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel during CPAC 2012. Palin is still a rock star to the conservative base.

In the Year of the Dragon, China expects a 5 percent increase in births despite the country's strict one-child policy. This brings into question whether the one-child policy is still an effective population control tool. Or is the policy actually damaging Chinese society and economy?

U.S. overspending on the military has diverted resources from civilian / social investments, including public goods, weakening the U.S. economy, and, by extension, weakening the nation.

Saturday also marked the 22nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from Robben Island prison.

From what I have seen, North Asian media has given the sensational rumors scant coverage.

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.

Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras said on Saturday that all his New Democracy party's lawmakers must vote for a European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout law or face being dropped as parliamentary candidates. This is obviously an issue of party discipline, he said.

Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite Moammar Gadhafi's son Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a coming uprising threatened bilateral ties. In response, Niger pledged to tighten house surveillance of Saadi, but reiterated he could not be handed over to a state where he could face execution.

Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods in Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought United Nations backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in the Middle Eastern country.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce very important achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported.

The Maine Republican Party will announce the results of its presidential straw poll after 7 pm Saturday. The caucusing in Maine is being held on different dates from Jan 29 to March 3, although the GOP had encouraged the counties to hold the caucuses from Feb 4 to Feb 11.

The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, on Friday demanded new elections and vowed mass street protests if the new government did not relent, raising the prospect of a protracted crisis on the Indian Ocean islands famed as a beach paradise.

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.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce very important achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported. He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

Violence flared across Syria, including bomb attacks that killed at least 28 people in Aleppo, while at the United Nations diplomats said a new effort was afoot to gain backing for an Arab peace plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in the country.

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.

The rumor about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Beijing went viral on Weibo, Chinese version of Twitter, Friday. However, U.S. officials said that the reports were not true.

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.

The UK economy is under significant pressure in the shadow of uncertainty cast by the eurozone debt crisis which is resulting in its losing the momentum of recovery.

Greek lawmakers will vote this weekend on a controversial austerity bill that Athens needs to avoid a messy default but which is fuelling a domestic political and social crisis that has brought thousands of Greeks out on the streets in protest.

In December, the trade deficit increased to $48.8 billion from $47.1 billion in November.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney struggled at the CPAC 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday to connect with Republican voters who either cannot relate to him or worry that he is not conservative enough.

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.

More than 500 Occupy movement demonstrators took to the Marriott Wardman Park to protest the CPAC 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Sheet Metal Workers Local 100 members and hundreds of other unaffiliated people protested the multiday conservative conference.