US senator John McCain had a blunt message for demonstrators chanting for the arrest of Henry Kissinger at a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing: “Get out of here, you low-life scum.”

The mother of a woman shot dead by police after a car chase that began when she tried to breach a barrier at the White House said her daughter suffered from post-natal depression.

A woman with a one-year-old child led the US Secret Service and police on a harrowing car chase through Washington DC, attempting to penetrate the security barriers at the White House and the Capitol before she was shot to death, police said. The child survived.

A man was arrested yesterday, accused of sending letters that tested positive for deadly ricin to US President Barack Obama and a Senator.

US Senate majority leader Harry Reid was taken to hospital after what appeared to be a rear-end crash on a highway through Las Vegas tonight.

An assassination attempt has left a Democratic congresswoman in a critical condition, killed Arizona’s chief federal judge and five other people and forced Americans to question the toxic legacy of their divisive politics.

An aircraft today violated the restricted airspace around central Washington, prompting US security officials to temporarily raise the terror threat level from yellow to orange.

US government offices received letters containing a photo of New York City’s Times Square military recruiting office before it was bombed. The words “We Did It," were written on the card.

Senate Democrats refused to flinch today as the chamber moved towards a rare, all-night session of debate on legislation to bring US troops home later this year.

US police sealed off the Capitol today after receiving reports of gunfire in a House office building across the street.

US CONGRESSMAN Patrick Kennedy was cited for three traffic violations after he crashed his car near the Capitol, blaming sleep medication and an anti-nausea drug.

Rosa Parks’ body has been returned to the city she called home, with thousands waiting in a line more to pay their final respects to the US civil rights leader.

MORE than 30,000 Americans streamed through the US Capitol Rotunda to pay tribute yesterday to Rosa Parks, filing by her casket in hushed awe of the woman whose defiant act on a city bus inspired the modern civil rights movement.

New York police searched trucks, blocked streets and posted machine-gun carrying officers outside financial landmarks a day after the government’s warning that terrorists might target the buildings with bombs.

A suspicious letter was found today in the Washington office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, but police said an initial test on a powdery substance contained inside was negative.

As lawmakers take a Thanksgiving holiday week break, two of the three Senate office buildings in Washington are set to reopen after being swept for anthrax contamination. The third will remain closed.

Investigators say they have found anthrax in a second location in the Senate office building where the infected letter to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle was received and opened last week.

Anthrax probably killed two US postal workers from a centre that delivers mail to Washington, officials have said.