United States

Democratic presidential candidates clashed late Jan. 17 in their final debate before first votes are cast in Iowa, with Hillary Clinton presenting herself as best qualified as she parried attacks from pugnacious rival Bernie Sanders.

Jeb Bush's U.S. presidential bid is boiling down to early voting New Hampshire, some associates say, while others envision his protracted battle for the Republican nomination stretching deep into the spring.

Donald Trump dredged up a photo of Monica Lewinsky in a 15-second video montage Jan. 7, as the Republican presidential frontrunner stepped up his personal attack on his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Wiping back tears as he remembered children killed in a mass shooting, President Barack Obama on Jan. 5 ordered stricter gun rules that he can impose without Congress and urged American voters to reject pro-gun candidates.

A county sheriff and judge on Jan. 4 demanded that self-styled militiamen occupying a remote U.S. wildlife center in Oregon peacefully end their 3-day-old anti-government siege, telling the protesters: "It's time for you to leave our community."

President Barack Obama will introduce a raft of executive actions to try to reduce US gun violence on Jan. 4, bypassing Congress and launching a bitter 2016 election year fight.

A group of self-styled militiamen occupied the headquarters of a U.S. wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon to protest the imminent jailing of two ranchers, officials said on Jan. 3, in the latest skirmish over federal land management in the West.

U.S. Republican Ben Carson's 2016 presidential bid was thrown into chaos on the last day of 2015 when his campaign manager and some 20 other staff members quit amid infighting, dropping poll numbers and negative media coverage. 

American billionaire Donald Trump, the dominant  Republican no one can stop talking about heading into the 2016 presidential election, is leaving his rivals far behind in the polls.
 

Miss Colombia was wrongly named Miss Universe in a dramatic mix-up in front of a global television audience of millions on Dec. 20, before the rightful winner Miss Philippines was finally handed the glittering crown.
The pageant's host, US comedian Steve Harvey, misread his cue card and initially announced Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, had triumphed.