WASHINGTON: The following are highlights of Tuesday’s election in the United States.

— President Barack Obama easily elected to a second and final four-year term despite a sluggish economy and a tight race that went down to the wire, beating Republican Mitt Romney.

— World leaders welcome Obama’s re-election, pledge deeper cooperation to fight global economic slump and maintain security across the globe.

— US Congress remains unchanged and divided: Democrats retained control of the Senate, and Republicans still in charge in the House of Representatives.

— Three states — Maine, Maryland and Washington — become the first to approve same-sex marriage in a referendum. They join six others and Washington, DC, the US capital, in giving full legal status to such unions.

— Marijuana use for recreational purposes — not just medical ones — is legalised for the first time in the United States, in the states of Colorado and Washington, but voted down in Oregon.

— Democrats win back icon Ted Kennedy’s old seat as Massachusetts voters elect their first female senator, Elizabeth Warren, in the marquee congressional race. She defeated Republican incumbent Scott Brown.

— Two conservative Republican Senate candidates widely condemned for pre-election remarks about rape and abortion lose their bids.

— Congress once again boasts a member of the Kennedy political dynasty. He is Joseph Kennedy III, 32, also from Massachusetts. He is a grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy.

— The Taliban note Obama’s re-election saying he should pull all US troops out of Afghanistan now, ahead of schedule, and admit defeat in the war.—AFP