Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are calling on the new Democratic Congress to make a drilling ban permanent.

Summing up a year of setbacks, US President George W Bush conceded today that insurgents in Iraq had thwarted his efforts at “establishing security and stability throughout the country”.

A leader of the incoming Democratic Congress, business travellers and privacy advocates have expressed outrage over computerised “terror score” assessments.

George Bush and the House of Representatives’ Speaker-in waiting Nancy Pelosi pledged over lunch to stop squabbling and cooperate.

US midterm election results that heralded a massive power shift in the American political landscape were greeted with jubilation around the world.

US President George Bush was left weakened and more isolated than at any time in his presidency by Tuesday’s Democratic ‘thumping’ of Republicans.

THE confidential US Justice Department memos criticised by Democrats as laying the legal foundation for Iraqi prisoner abuses were aimed mainly at showing that international treaties banning torture do not apply to al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, Bush administration officials say.