The US Congress is holding its first public hearing about plans for military intervention in Syria as Barack Obama tries to convince the country of the need to respond to the chemical weapons attack.

Barack Obama is preparing for the possibility of unilateral American military action against Syria within days, hours after Britain opted out in a stunning Commons vote.

US sanctions against any country offering asylum to Edward Snowden have advanced in Congress as the 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker remained in a Moscow airport while Russia weighed a request for him to stay permanently.

Cuba’s admission that it was secretly sending ageing weapons systems to North Korea turned the global spotlight on a little-known link in a secretive network of rusting freighters and charter jets that moves weapons to and from North Korea, defying United Nations sanctions.

President Barack Obama defied Republican critics and named outspoken diplomat Susan Rice as his national security adviser, despite accusations that she misled the nation in the aftermath of the deadly attack on Americans in Libya.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at times emotional and fierce, insisted today that her department is moving swiftly and aggressively to strengthen security at US missions worldwide after the deadly September 11 raid on the consulate in Libya.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sustained a concussion last week after becoming extremely dehydrated and fainting while suffering from a stomach virus, the State Department said.

Actor and human rights activist George Clooney made a quiet visit to a volatile border region between Sudan and South Sudan last week ahead of giving evidence to the US Senate.

Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief said today he knew Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan four years ago, but his claims were rejected by the country’s leaders.

Britain was tonight pressing with key allies for wide-ranging powers to intervene in Libya amid warnings that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces are closing in on the key rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Global trade chiefs meeting in Switzerland spoke today of their optimism that a new deal to liberalise international commerce can be finalised, but offered little in the way of concrete progress to indicate they can reach agreement before the end of the year.

CHINESE President Hu Jintao heard concerns about China’s human rights and economic policies as he wrapped up his visit to Washington with meetings on Capitol Hill.

A GROUP of US senators yesterday demanded the Lockerbie bomber be returned to jail as they branded the process which led to his release “incredibly flawed”.

A group of American politicians is demanding the Lockerbie bomber is returned to jail and has branded the process which led to his release as "incredibly flawed".

A major nuclear arms reduction deal between the US and Russia was in danger of collapse today.

A review of US government records found no information about BP seeking to secure the release of the Lockerbie bomber, a State Department official said today.

THE outgoing chief executive of BP has refused US officials’ requests to appear at a hearing next month on the release of the Libyan man convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.

A string of high profile British witnesses who refused to testify at a US Senate hearing into the release of the Lockerbie bomber were today facing accusations of “stonewalling”.

OPERATIVES in Afghanistan and Pakistan who have worked for the US against the Taliban or al-Qaida may be at risk following the disclosure of thousands of once-secret US military documents, former and current officials said.

Speculation was mounting today over the future of BP boss Tony Hayward as its staff prepared to return to the storm-hit Gulf of Mexico.

The release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was “wrong and misguided”, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a letter to US senators today.

A senior US senator sharply criticised Haiti's president, portraying him as an ineffectual leader who was hindering recovery from January's devastating earthquake.

BP CHIEF executive Tony Hayward has been asked to testify before a US Senate committee about the oil giant’s role in Scotland’s decision to release the Lockerbie aeroplane bomber, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

IF international climate change talks falter this week, chances for the United States approving its own carbon pollution-reduction plan will seriously erode, US Senator John Kerry warned yesterday.

OSAMA bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report said.

Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report said.

AFGHANISTAN’S election commission has ordered a November 7 run-off in the disputed presidential poll after a fraud investigation dropped incumbent Hamid Karzai’s votes below 50% of the total. Karzai accepted the finding and agreed to a second-round vote.

The fraud-tainted Afghan election that cost a large slice of credibility for current president Hamid Karzai is to go to a second round, it was decided today.

UNITED Nations-backed fraud investigators have thrown out hundreds of thousands of votes for President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan’s disputed August election, according to a report released yesterday.

Former US presidential candidate John Kerry said today it would be irresponsible for America to consider sending more troops to Afghanistan amid the country’s deepening election crisis.

A US man sentenced to seven years in jail for sneaking into the home of detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was handed over to an American consular official today to be flown out of the country.

An American whose unauthorised visit to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led to her extended detention, has been released, the office of US Senator Jim Webb said today.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the US Congress there was no workable alternative to a two-state solution to the long and bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

THE Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted overwhelmingly yesterday for Hillary Clinton to become the next secretary of state, with lawmakers saying they were hopeful her leadership would mark a turn from warfare toward diplomacy.

US president-elect Barack Obama plans to name seasoned advisers and political foes alike as his picks for top administration jobs today, including one-time political nemesis Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

AS ONE great spectacle closed yesterday another moved inexorably towards its climax in November.

Barack Obama cranked up his campaign in the final days before the Democratic convention, drawing closer to naming a running mate and attacking what he said was Republican rival John McCain’s habit of questioning his “character and patriotism”.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke optimistically about prospects for treaties that would ease US arms export controls to Britain and Australia.

The White House says North Korea’s secret work on a nuclear reactor with Syria was “a dangerous and potentially destabilising development for the world”.

President Pervez Musharraf will not step down as head of state despite the sweeping election victory by his opponents, his spokesman says.

Pakistan’s opposition called on General Pervez Musharraf to lift a state of emergency, saying elections would be a sham unless citizens’ rights were fully restored.

Democrats and moderate Republicans in Congress have tough questions for a top military commander in Iraq who is warning against major changes to US president George Bush’s war strategy.

US aircraft carrier groups are in the Persian Gulf not to provoke Tehran but to reassure friendly governments in the area, the Bush administration has emphasised.

A war spending bill is to be debated by the US Senate today that could set a non-binding goal of March 31 next year for the removal of combat troops from Iraq.