WASHINGTON– Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, President Obama said. The U.S. has his body in its possession, U.S. officials said late Sunday.

Mr. bin Laden was killed in a joint raid in Pakistan’s northwestern district of Abbottabad, some 40 miles from Islamabad, in a joint raid overnight Sunday, according to a senior Pakistani official.

The town also is home to a Pakistani military academy. Two American helicopters took part in the operation, the official said. One Pakistani helicopter involved in the raid crashed after it was hit by firing from militants.

President Barack Obama made the announcement late Sunday at the White House.

The development capped a manhunt of more than a decade for the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that left 3,000 people dead and dramatically altered U.S. foreign policy and the nation’s sense of security.

Although Mr. bin Laden was not thought to be a critical operational leader of Al Qaeda, he had been the worldwide symbol of the terrorist network.

Because he has been so difficult to find for more than a decade, the killing of Mr. bin Laden is a major victory for Mr. Obama, who demanded an aggressive expansion of Predator drone strikes in Pakistan.

In a recent book on Mr. bin Laden, Michael Scheuer, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s bin Laden unit, wrote that the al Qaeda leader’s goal was to attack the West, and then to move on to Arab states and Israel, but that “he has given no indication that he expects to live long enough to finish the job.”

Instead, Mr. Scheuer wrote, Mr. bin Laden “has anticipated a war of attrition, one that might last decades,” so he began passing the torch to younger al Qaeda activists.

President Barack Obama will make the announcement late Sunday at the White House.

The development capped a manhunt of more than a decade for the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that left 3,000 people dead and dramatically altered U.S. foreign policy and the nation’s sense of security.

President Barack Obama must be disappointed with the results as he had attended several of the campaigns for the Democratic candidate of New Jersey. He was present in two Sunday rallies for Mr. Corzine. It has come to the news that David Plouffe, the former campaign manager of the President, had forewarned him not to have too much expectations from this election.

Local issues had been said to be the main highlights of the New Jersey elections. Analysts consider that Democrats, by winning the elections of major states could secure some mental strength before mid-term polls of 2010.

According to sources, the Democrats also lost the Virginia election. These two are counted as the major elections of the country and earlier had been a strong base for the Democrats. The results of the other elections are awaited.

Three race outcomes are highly anticipated in November’s election.  They include the New Jersey Governorship, Virginia Governorship, and a race for a spot in the US House of Representatives in New York.

New York’s House race is very peculiar.  The Republican candidate dropped out when a Conservative candidate came on board.  The Conservative candidate received a number of endorsements, including one from Sarah Palin. The Republican candidate then backed the DEMOCRAT, in a jaw-dropping turn of events.

If more Republicans win races across the country in the November 2009 elections, you can be sure that it will shake things up a bit.  Democrats will be afraid to upset their constituents, lest they be next to hit unemployment in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Official November 2009 election results will be available on CNN.com.  You can click THIS LINK to go straight to November 2009 election results from CNN as they come in.