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Obama Wins Historic Second Term With 300-Plus Electoral Votes

Worldcrunch

Four more years. Barack Obama has been re-elected President of the United States, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney and defying odds for an incumbent candidate running in the face of persistent economic problems.

Winning at least 303 electoral votes, he swept the battleground states of Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia Tuesday night. Florida's 29 electoral vote were still undecided early Wednesday.

Obama was also set to triumph in the nationwide popular vote, although far short of the 8.5 million ballot margin against John McCain in 2008.

“Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back,” he told his supporters in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”

It was an emotional and dramatic evening, as Romney held off conceding defeat 90 minutes after television networks began projecting Obama as the winner at 11.30 P.M.

Posting a photo of himself hugging his wife Michelle after his victory was announced, the message was retweeted 549,091 times as of Wednesday morning, making it the most retweeted message in the history of Twitter:

Four more years. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012

In 2012, political leaders from around the globe have also taken to Twitter to congratulate the President:

Warm congratulations to my friend @barackobama. Look forward to continuing to work together.

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) November 7, 2012

PM Netanyahu Congratulates US President Barack Obama on his Election Victorybit.ly/SSG53Rtwitter.com/netanyahu/stat…

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) November 7, 2012

And in Barack Obama's small ancestral home, Kogelo in Kenya, jubilant crowds took to the streets to celebrate:

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Nuclear Weapons In Belarus — Why It May Have Been Xi Jinping's Idea

To trace Moscow's decision to transfer nuclear weapons to Belarus, we may need to look to Beijing — and the recent summit of Xi Jinping-Vladimir Putin

Image of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin standing next to each other during a ceremony at the Moscow Kremlin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a ceremony at the Moscow Kremlin.

Oleksandr Demchenko

-Analysis-

Vladimir Putin has decided to raise the nuclear stakes even further — to violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty by announcing his intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

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