Latest Elections News and Headlines

More

• UPDATE 2-Berlusconi offers big tax cuts in "last great battle"

  ROME, Feb 3- Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his "last great electoral and political battle" on Sunday with a sweeping promise to cut taxes and the cost of government if his center-right wins elections this month.

• New York's 'Hizzoner' Ed Koch Dead at 88

  

  Edward I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as mayor of New York with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of golden dreams, died Friday morning at age 88.

• Japan's PM Wows Voters with 'Abenomics'

  

  Shinzo Abe, Japan's political Lazarus, has burst from his grave at an almighty sprint. In the month since the nationalist prime minister reclaimed the office he lost in 2007 amid scandals, an election defeat and a debilitating bowel ailment, Mr Abe has been unstoppable. The Financial Times reports.

• COLUMN-The key to the meaning of Keystone XL-Chrystia Freeland

  NEW YORK, Jan 31- Is oil like red meat or is it like tobacco? This morality play is being acted out with the greatest intensity in the fight over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would stretch from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.

• US lawmakers seek mortgage settlement documents from regulators

  WASHINGTON, Jan 31- U.S. lawmakers on Thursday asked bank regulators to turn over documents related to the $8.5 billion settlement that ended a government-mandated review of crisis-era foreclosures, saying transparency was needed to boost confidence in the settlement.

• ANALYSIS-Medicare premium support idea rising from ashes?

  *Democrats seen backing away from Medicare enrollment age hike. WASHINGTON, Jan 31- Just months after President Barack Obama's re-election ended Republican hopes of controlling U.S. healthcare policy, one of the most controversial Republican proposals for Medicare is showing signs of rising from the political ashes.

• Norway ruling party to back Arctic islands drilling

  OSLO, Jan 31- Norway's ruling Labour Party is set to support oil exploration off a pristine northern archipelago, bringing to a head controversy over drilling in the Arctic in the run up to elections this year.

• House members negotiate a proposal on immigration

  WASHINGTON-- A group of a half-dozen House members, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, is nearing completion of wide-ranging immigration legislation similar to proposals by Senate negotiators and President Barack Obama, including a pathway to legal immigration status for 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

• UPDATE 2-India faces less risk of credit rating downgrade - S&P analyst

  *India has averted rating downgrade threat: Reuters Poll. NEW DELHI, Jan 31- The possibility of India losing its investment-grade credit rating has receded somewhat as a result of economic reforms undertaken by the government since last September, an analyst with rating agency Standard& Poor's told Reuters on Thursday.

• Australian opposition leader warns of second election

  CANBERRA, Jan 31- Australia faces a possible fourth straight year of political instability after opposition leader Tony Abbott, on track to win power in a September election, threatened a second poll if a hostile upper house rejects his plan to scrap a tax on carbon.

• UPDATE 2-Monte Paschi ex-managers probed over bribery, fraud

  SIENA, Italy, Jan 30- Prosecutors are investigating the former management of Italy's troubled Monte dei Paschi bank for bribery and fraud, judicial sources said on Wednesday, as pressure grew on the Bank of Italy and bourse watchdog Consob.

• UPDATE 1-Monte Paschi ex-managers under investigation over bribery, fraud

  SIENA, Italy, Jan 30- Prosecutors are investigating the former management of Italy's troubled Monte dei Paschi bank for bribery and fraud, judicial sources said on Wednesday, as pressure grew on the Bank of Italy and bourse watchdog Consob.

• UPDATE 1-Fitch downgrades Egypt sovereign rating, could cut further

  NEW YORK, Jan 30- Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut Egypt's sovereign credit rating one notch to B from B-plus, citing a wider budget deficit and instability caused by the country's political transition.

• INSIGHT-Egypt is once again risking its future

  CAIRO, Jan 30- With violence sweeping Egypt's cities and the economy lurching deeper into crisis, each passing day is adding new bricks to a wall of mistrust between the Islamist-led government of President Mohamed Mursi and a fractured secular opposition.

• Mexico election investigation goes against leftist

  Now, six months later, the electoral body says it has indeed found evidence of violations: by Lopez Obrador, not Pena Nieto.

• Italy market watchdog defends role in Monte Paschi scandal

  SIENA, Italy, Jan 30- Italy's market regulator Consob joined the government and the Bank of Italy on Wednesday in defending its oversight of Monte Paschi as magistrates investigated allegations of bribery and accounting malpractice at the historic bank.

• ANALYSIS-Putin's central bank choice: Sound money or boom-bust?

  *Central bank chairman Sergei Ignatyev to step down in June. MOSCOW, Jan 30- An impending change in the leadership of Russia's central bank will test President Vladimir Putin's commitment to sound money.

• UPDATE 2-Australian PM surprises with Sept election call

  CANBERRA, Jan 30- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard set national elections for Sept. 14, stunning voters on Wednesday with eight months notice of the vote in a bold move designed to end political uncertainty surrounding her struggling minority government.

• Australia Surprises With September Election Call

  

  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stunned voters on Wednesday by calling an election for September 14, eight months away, in her first major political speech for 2013.

• UPDATE 5-Army warns unrest pushing Egypt to the brink

  *Army had ruled Egypt in transition after Mubarak fell. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a U.S.-trained general appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the armed forces, added in a statement on Tuesday that one of the primary goals of deploying troops in cities on the Suez Canal was to protect the waterway that is vital for Egypt's economy and world trade.