US President Donald Trump has denounced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his campaign's ties with Russia, calling it an unprecedented "witch hunt" that "hurts our country terribly".

US president Donald Trump has said the appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations that his campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election is "the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history".

New research shows that visiting the White House during the Obama years yielded a payoff in the stock price of the visitor’s company. Will the same be true of the Trump years?

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates has spoken publicly for the first time about concerns she brought to the Trump White House on Russia.

Word that Mr Obama directly warned Mr Trump suggests that concern over Mr Flynn's possible appointment spread to the highest level of government months before the official's departure.

The Trump administration has issued a presidential permit to pipeline builder TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

Transgender students have lost the US government protection that allowed them to use school toilets and locker rooms matching their gender identities as Donald Trump's administration stepped into a long-simmering national debate.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a Trump administration official said.

An exodus of US multinationals from Ireland and a loss of Irish access in Washington are among the main risks identified from Donald Trump’s election as US president.

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange has vowed to defend the organisation against attack after his intervention in the US presidential election, writes Dan Buckley

The top US military officer has told a Senate committee he believes Russia bombed the humanitarian aid convoy in Syria on Monday, calling it an "unacceptable atrocity".

Oliver Stone’s film ‘Snowden’ may change US public opinion and garner support to pardon the whistleblower, who performed a public service in the public interest, says James Bamford.

The US president has been condemned for not intervening early and removing the Assad regime, but such military action was disastrous in Iraq and Libya, says Christopher R Hill     

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has warned countries like France that he says are compromised by terrorism may be subjected to the "extreme vetting" he proposes to deter attacks in the US.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

The Obama administration will likely soon release at least part of a 28-page secret chapter from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 that may shed light on possible Saudi connections to the attackers.

Painstaking organisation and in-person campaigning paid off again for Ted Cruz. He won all 14 delegates at the Republican Party convention in Wyoming.

US believes Russia buying time to crush Syrian rebels

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said his plan for combating IS militants involves targeting not just the group’s fighters but also their families.

Hillary Clinton came face-to-face with the special investigation of the 2012 attacks on a US diplomatic mission in Libya.

One of the more unusual traits shared by George Bush and Bertie Ahern was their tendency for malapropisms.

Hackers stole social security identification numbers and other highly sensitive data from more than 21 million people in the US.

Al Qaeda’s Yemen offshoot could bring down a transatlantic passenger plane at any time, a new book by a former CIA leader has warned.

Hackers claiming to be working on behalf of Islamic State militants briefly seized control of the Twitter and YouTube sites of the military’s US Central Command yesterday.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed nearly 300 people in the last month despite a ceasefire and has violated people’s rights so much it could amount to war crimes, UN rights investigators said.

France and the US today stepped up demands for Iran to prove that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Chiquita shareholders got yellow and chose green.

Alarmed governors of New Jersey and New York have ordered a mandatory, 21-day quarantine of all medical workers and other arriving airline passengers who have had contact with victims of the deadly Ebola disease in west Africa.

Turkey will let US and coalition forces use its bases for attacks against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq, American defence sources have said.

The Obama administration is preparing to send 3,000 US troops to West Africa to combat the Ebola crisis that has overwhelmed local health care systems.

As the US begins to move against Islamic State forces, intelligence gathering on the ground, from the air, and through the airwaves is of paramount importance, write David Axe and Robert Beckhusen.

US Attorney General Eric Holder sought to reassure the people of Ferguson about the inquiry into the shooting death of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

Iraq’s new prime minister-designate yesterday won swift endorsements from uneasy mutual allies the US and Iran as he called on political leaders to end crippling feuds that have let jihadists seize a third of the country.

Argentina yesterday called on Washington to intervene in a court case over the country’s defaulted debt after a US district judge threatened the South American country with contempt for making what he called false statements.

A US Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US has concluded that the agency initially kept the secretary of state and some ambassadors uninformed about harsh techniques and secret prisons.

Two more military aircraft carrying remains of victims from the Malaysian plane disaster have arrived in the Netherlands, while Australian and Dutch diplomats promoted a plan for a UN team to secure the crash site which has been controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

The US and its allies are growing increasingly concerned as Afghanistan shows signs of unravelling in its first democratic transfer of power from President Hamid Karzai.

The Nigerian schoolgirls who remain captives of Boko Haram militants “definitely” face the danger of being raped, a senior United Nations official has said.