BARACK OBAMA

Thursday night's Republican debate featured sparring between Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty. It was a classic case of "anything you can do, I can do better," but, actually, it was more like "whatever your record is, mine is obviously better."

As his campaign for U.S. president fails to take flight, some donors to Republican hopeful Tim Pawlenty are having second thoughts.

Former Obama administration official Elizabeth Warren will make a decision after Labor Day on whether to run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Scott Brown, a Massachusett Democrat assisting her said on Thursday.

Syrian forces killed at least 19 people in raids near the Lebanon border and in the country's Sunni tribal heartland, activists said, pursuing a military campaign to crush street protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

President Barack Obama distanced himself from a deeply divided U.S. Congress on Thursday, pledging to deliver fresh ideas to create jobs and slamming lawmakers for "bickering" that gets in the way of recovery.

Eight Republican presidential hopefuls duked it out on Thursday night in a Fox News and Washington Examiner sponsored debate in Ames, Iowa.The debate ranged from the recent Standard & Poor's downgrade of long-term U.S. to illegal immigration. Here are the night's winners and losers:

Republicans Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty clashed repeatedly over their records during a presidential debate on Thursday, two days before they vie for conservative support in a straw poll that could make or break their campaigns.

Eight Republican White House hopefuls meet in a nationally televised debate on Thursday, hoping to generate momentum two days before an Iowa straw poll that will test the strength of their campaigns.

Perry's spokesman Mark Miner told The Associated Press on Thursday that the Texas governor will be running for president and will make his intentions known on Saturday while visiting South Carolina and New Hampshire as most of his presidential rivals compete in a test vote in Iowa.

A federal panel sketched out its first vision of a regulatory roadmap for the booming shale natural gas industry on Thursday, urging more transparency on the use of chemicals and more careful treatment of waste water.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a staunch conservative with a Washington outsider's resume, will seek the 2012 Republican nomination for U.S. president, his spokesman said on Thursday, adding a top contender to the party's field of hopefuls.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a staunch conservative with a Washington outsider's resume, will seek the 2012 Republican nomination for U.S. president, his spokesman said on Thursday, adding a top contender to the party's field of hopefuls.

A leading Republican lawmaker would not rule out tax increases on Thursday if they fostered economic growth, adding that "everything is on the table" for a U.S. congressional panel charged with forging a deal to cut the deficit.

In days past, jawboning from Presidents and central banks was often enough to stem a financial markets selloff. Not anymore.

The Republican Party argues it's the party of job creation, but the statistics indicate otherwise, at least concerning U.S. presidential administrations. Democratic presidents have a higher annual job creation average, 1.647 million per year, than Republican presidents, 966,388 per year.

The number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits fell to a four-month low last week, a sliver of hope for an economy battered for days by a credit rating downgrade and falling share prices.

Sarah Palin announced that the One Nation bus tour will be back on the road and headed to the Iowa State Fair before the GOP presidential straw poll.

The attacks are openly denounced by Pakistani military and political leaders.

The roots of the debt deal showdown: Ascendant Tea Party faction Republicans pushed their case, remained remarkably cohesive and defiant, and essentially won the U.S. debt deal crisis.

With the appointment of nine of 12 members, the "super committee" charged with reducing the budget deficit by at least another $1.5 trillion is taking shape. The body could help stabilize the financial markets by announcing a ?quick-start? agreement on additional debt reduction.

A U.S. Department of Energy panel issued a report recommending more stringent safeguards on hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as 'fracking," a potentially hazardous process used to harvest natural gas from underground shale formations.