Will Obama be forced to back gay marriage?

New York – The president is feeling the heat to quit tiptoeing around same-sex marriage — even as he faces a tough re-election battle

Read more »

House votes against defunding Libyan war

WASHINGTON – The House has turned back a Republican-led effort to cut off money for military hostilities in the Libyan war.

Read more »

21-year-old Californian wins Miss USA crown

LAS VEGAS – A 21-year-old auburn-haired California model won the Miss USA crown Sunday night and will represent the nation in this year's Miss Universe pageant.

Read more »

Assad to address Syria as his troops block refugees

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to address the nation Monday as his forces sweep through the northwestern border region with Turkey blocking refugees fleeing a military crackdown on protests against his autocratic rule.

Read more »

AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

Read more »

Obama visits Puerto Rico with eye on 2012 election

MIAMI – President Barack Obama is making a rare presidential visit to Puerto Rico, the U.S. island territory, with a firm eye on Puerto Ricans back on the mainland who could help him win at least one key state during his re-election campaign next year.
About 4.6 million Puerto Ricans live on the mainland, boosting a fast-growing Hispanic population that is becoming increasingly important in American politics.
The first official visit to the island by a president in 50 years caps a two-day trip that took Obama to two crucial political battlegrounds — North Carolina and Florida — as he solidified his political outreach and defended his economic record against sweeping attacks from potential Republican foes.
Addressing donors at three Miami fundraisers Monday evening, Obama hit a recurrent theme: "Big changes don't happen overnight" and, "The reason we're here today is because our work is not done."
By venturing into Puerto Rico, Obama is courting a population that is concentrated in the New York region but that also has established a foothold in Florida, where about 841,000 Puerto Ricans live, according to the 2010 census. Puerto Ricans living on the island can only vote in presidential primaries.

While there, Obama will make brief remarks upon arrival in San Juan, meet with the island's Republican governor, Luis Fortuno, and attend another fundraiser.
About 20 pro-independence demonstrators kept an all-night vigil at a colonial fort in San Juan to protest Obama's visit. They want the release of three Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned in the U.S.
By setting foot on the island, Obama inevitably also steps into the decades-old debate over its status as a territory. Fortuno supports statehood. Others prefer the existing status, while a small but vocal minority in Puerto Rico favors independence. Island residents have voted consistently to maintain ties to the U.S.
While administration officials said the visit gives Obama a chance to interact with Puerto Ricans, he was only spending about five hours on the island.
Obama has stayed neutral on the status question and supports a referendum to resolve it. In an interview with The Associated Press, Fortuno said he intends for the question to be put to the island's voters before his term ends in December 2012.
That schedule follows a timetable proposed by a presidential task force. If the island's political leaders can't agree on a process, however, the president and Congress could then weigh in with legislation setting down requirements on how to resolve Puerto Rico's status.
The recession hit Puerto Rico harder than the mainland, with unemployment rising to nearly 17 percent. It had dropped to 16.2 percent in April.
Fortuno said the economy is the biggest issue among islanders. And because they are U.S. citizens, immigration is not as potent a political subject as it is with other Hispanic groups.
Still, he said, "Many issues cut across the different subgroups within the Hispanic community."
The governor said he welcomed the attention his island is getting and credited a growing regard among politicians for the Hispanic vote.
"There is a heightened level of awareness about the importance of the Latino vote that hadn't existed for a while," he said.
He noted that both Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton courted the island during their intense contest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the Republican candidates would do the same next year," he said.

Read more »

FDA wants more sunscreen protections

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators will require sunscreen manufacturers to test their products' effectiveness against sun rays that pose the greatest risk of skin cancer. Under new rules published Tuesday, they also will have to follow stricter guidelines when describing how well their products block ultraviolet B rays.

Read more »

Syrian tanks, troops extend reach in border areas

BOYNUYOGUN, Turkey – Syrian tanks pushed toward more towns and villages near the Turkish and Iraqi borders on Tuesday, expanding the crackdown against a 12-week uprising to the north and east as more Syrians flee their homes.

Read more »

Analysis: Grading the New Hampshire debate

Mitt Romney
Style: A much different presence, deliberately, than in the 2008 debates - less awkward, coldfishy, and show-offy, with a sharper viewpoint and a more natural and leaderlike sensibility.

Read more »

Syria's army seizes back restive town after mutiny

BEIRUT – Elite Syrian troops backed by helicopters and tanks regained control Sunday of a town where police and soldiers joined forces with the protesters they were ordered to shoot — a decisive assault from a government prepared for an all-out battle to keep power.

Read more »

WASHINGTON – Consumers are caught in the middle of a fight between financial institutions and merchants as the Senate approaches a showdown vote over whether to block the Federal Reserve from capping fees that stores pay banks every time a shopper swipes a debit card.

Read more »

Obama administration to appeal healthcare ruling

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Lawyers for President Barack Obama will on Wednesday seek to stave off the biggest legal challenge yet to healthcare reform, his signature domestic policy achievement.

Read more »

Exit of wounded Yemeni leader sets off celebration

SANAA, Yemen – The departure of Yemen's battle-wounded president for treatment in Saudi Arabia set off wild street celebrations Sunday in the capital where crowds danced, sang and slaughtered cows in hopes that this spelled a victorious end to a more than three-month campaign to push their leader from power.

Read more »