Reuters | Feb 12, 2012, 04.52AM IST PORTLAND, MAINE: Republican front-runner Mitt Romney got a boost in his increasingly tough fight for the presidential nomination, winning a straw poll of conservative activists on Saturday hours before results come in from party caucuses in Maine. Romney won 38 percent support among the 3,408 who voted at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Chidanand RajghattaChidanand Rajghatta, TNN | Feb 12, 2012, 06.13AM IST | | | | | | | | | | | | | Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read," Groucho Marx, the literal genius, infamously quipped.

View Photo Gallery - February 2012: Going into February with four contests behind them, the four remaining presidential contenders continue on the campaign trail. By Karen Tumulty, What in the world is the matter with the Republican Party? This is an election year when pretty much everything should be going the GOP's way. Gallery  President Obama's reelection campaign is raising money and reaching out to voters and volunteers. Gallery

By John Detrixhe and Cordell Eddings, Procter & Gamble's failure to raise the price of Cascade dishwashing soap shows why investors are buying Treasuries at the lowest yields in history, giving the Federal Reserve more scope to boost the economy. The world's largest consumer-products company rolled back prices after an 8 percent increase lost the firm seven percentage points of market share.

By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press February 11, 2012 First lady Michelle Obama cheers with students from Nancy Moseley Elementary School during a Let's Move event with members of Bravo's series "Top Chef" Friday, Feb.

AP President Barack Obama pauses while announcing the revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control, Friday, Feb.

0 MUNICH -- Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is "yes." In "The Better Angels of Our Nature," Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is pressuring Congress to extend a payroll tax cut for the rest of the year as another deadline nears for Congress to act or see taxes go up for millions of working people. Lawmakers agreed in December, after much bickering, on a two-month extension, but that runs out at the end of this month.

Talks begin this week on a global covenant to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands Emily Dugan, Brian Brady Sunday 12 February 2012 The global arms trade, which produces two bullets for every person on the planet every year and the weapons that kill 1,500 people each day, is facing the first worldwide effort to control it.

Out of America: The Republican frontrunner can't seem to win over the party faithful Rupert Cornwell Rupert Cornwell Known for his commentary on international relations and US politics, Rupert Cornwell also contributes obituaries and occasionally even a column for the sports pages.