House on Collision Course With Obama Over Payroll Tax Cut, as Senate Bills Fail

House Republicans are on a collision course with the White House and potentially the Senate over an emerging proposal to extend the payroll tax cut, teeing up a protracted debate that could keep lawmakers in Washington for the holidays as they try to avert a Jan. 1 tax increase.

State Budgets Growing Despite Vows to Cut Spending

Politicians tend to define spending cuts differently than everybody else. 

For many people, a spending cut is when they look at their finances and, because there's less money coming in than last year, decide what they can do without. The result is less spending.

Clinton Says Egyptian Elections Must Not Set Back Democracy

Issuing new warnings to two U.S. partners Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Russia for a parliamentary election she said was rigged and said election gains by Islamist parties must not set back Egypt's push toward democracy after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak this year.

Afghan Police Say 54 Killed in Two Separate, Rare Bombings on Shiites

A suicide bomber struck a crowd of Shiite worshiping at a mosque in Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 54 people in the deadliest of two attacks on a Shiite holy day -- the first major sectarian assaults since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago.

Cain Could Back Gingrich For President, Or Hold His Powder

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain may make an endorsement as early as Monday, and a source told MyFoxAtlanta that it will be of former House speaker and fellow Georgian Newt Gingrich, though Cain's campaign denies an announcement is imminent.

Pentagon Official Calls for F-35 Production Slowdown

U.S. Air Force / Samuel King Jr.

July 14, 2011: Members of the 33rd Fighter Wing get a look at the Department fo Defense's newest aircraft, the U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter, on arrival to its new home at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.