Around the World: United States

GOP wins governorships

Republicans inflicted a double blow on President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, winning gubernatorial races in two states that had backed him last year. The Republican victories on Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey come as Obama struggles to overhaul the US health care system, win passage of climate change legislation, and build political support for his handling of the war in Afghanistan.

Voters in the northeastern state of Maine repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed, dealing the gay rights movement a defeat in the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage.