Kerry accepts challenge to war-fraud claims

Senator John Kerry, whose 2004 US presidential campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record, has accepted a Texas oilman’s offer to pay $1m (€683,000) to anyone who can disprove even a single claim of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

In a letter to Boone Pickens, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: “While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay $1m for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt.”