Nine crucial spending bills will take up a lot of time, but the president also wants to squeeze in a bill to allow warrantless eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, a free-trade deal with Vietnam and a bill allowing nuclear co-operation with India despite India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

ECONOMIST: Bipartisanship

For example, he once saw Bill Clinton play golf on television and suspected that the president was lying about his handicap.

ECONOMIST: Texas politics: Brooking no DeLay | The

The US Magnitsky bill adopted late last year sparked particular fury in Moscow as the law bars Russian officials suspected of human rights violations from entering America and freezes any US assets they may have.

BBC: Russia scraps US anti-drug accord after 10 years

Bill Dodwell, head of tax policy at the accountants Deloitte, told the BBC that he suspected the figure was a "sensible number taking account of the scale of the business and their history of past losses".

BBC: Starbucks agrees to pay more corporation tax

House Bill 3 would restrict authorities' ability to charge minors with offenses related to prostitution and require that minors suspected to be involved in prostitution receive social services.

WSJ: Ky., other states try to protect sex-trade victims