JOE BIDEN

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.

President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and that the onus would instead be put on insurers.

The top Republican in the Congress on Wednesday denounced President Barack Obama's new rule on contraceptives as an assault on religious freedom and vowed to overturn it, as the White House sought to prevent the issue from becoming an election-year liability.

The announcement caps more than a year of chaotic negotiations among state and federal officials, and the banks, who have been accused of using robosigners and unlawful documentation to deal with a flood of foreclosures.

California and New York, two big holdout states in a $25 billion mortgage settlement, are expected to join the deal, smoothing the way for an announcement on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

California and New York, two big holdout states in a $25 billion mortgage settlement, are expected to join the deal, smoothing the way for an announcement on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A broad settlement with major banks over mortgage servicing abuses that would bring relief to distressed U.S. homeowners could be announced as early Thursday, two people familiar with the matter said.

Delaware stands to leave up to $40 million in homeowner relief on the table, if it does not join a multi-state mortgage settlement, according to a letter from the state's banking commissioner seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund and Vice President Joe Biden have both raised doubts about China's economic growth, although for different reasons.

Vice President Joe Biden warned on Monday that there is no way that China will be able to sustain its current level of economic growth because of what he called its God-awful one-child policy.

U.S. Navy seals assassinated the al-Qaeda chieftain last May in a spectacular raid in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, near the capital of Islamabad.

Last week, U.S. Special Operations Forces went in to rescue the two hostages from their Somali kidnappers on orders from President Barack Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden admitted over the weekend that, when President Barack Obama had to decide whether to authorize the May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Biden advised him not to do so.

Hillary Clinton again dismisses a swap with Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket.

Clinton told employees at the State Department that she was done with the high wire of American politics for the time being (watch here), a statement confirmed by officials and that has shocked those certain that she would replace Joe Biden as President Obama's running mate for the 2012 election. It would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am, she told the audience.

She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes.”

Are Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney the same? Vice President Joe Biden thinks so, and a side-by-side comparison of their positions shows more similarities than differences.

The White House released the State of the Union 2012 official special guest list Tuesday afternoon, and the people who have been invited represent different visions of the American Dream.

Xi is largely an unknown entity to U.S. officials.

The massive online protest last Wednesday, in which Wikipedia and thousands of other Web sites closed down or otherwise protested and helped to kill controversial online piracy legislation, was widely heralded as an unprecedented case of a grassroots uprising overcoming backroom lobbying.

A fast-moving, wind-driven brush fire south of Reno burned several homes on Thursday, and led to the evacuation of 10,000 people. Wind gusts of up to 82 mph continue to push the fire out of control, threatening dozens more homes.