A candidate for the United States' Congress has said she stands by her claims she was abducted to an alien spaceship at the age of seven, but that the incident should not detract from what she has done here on Earth since then.

In a remarkable 36 hours of his presidency, Barack Obama carried a momentous secret but gave no hint of it as he consoled tornado victims, delivered a college commencement address and cracked jokes at a black-tie dinner.