A new documentary has captured Edward Snowden’s leak of National Security Agency documents as it unfolded in a Hong Kong hotel room.

Angry slogans were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in Silicon Valley. Now a widening income gap is sparking debate, frustration and even sporadic protests, writes Martha Mendoza

A government taskforce that reviewed the National Security Agency’s surveillance programme for four months is urging President Barack Obama to stop the agency’s bulk collection of telephone data and purge its massive inventory of millions of Americans’ calling records.

President Barack Obama is ordering changes to the US government’s vast collection of phone records and promising that “we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies”.

America’s National Security Agency has implanted secret surveillance software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world — but not in the US — allowing agents to spy on the machines, it is claimed.

AS 2013 closes, here is my countdown of what were the stories that left the most impression on me during the year.

US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has said he would be willing to help Brazil’s government investigate American spying on its soil – but only if he is granted political asylum.

John F Kennedy was remembered as a transcendent leader of a rising nation at a ceremony in Dallas last night, the 50th anniversary of his assassination.

JAMES Tague was stuck in traffic in downtown Dallas around noon on Nov 22, 1963 when he became an eyewitness to history.

The Kremlin gave gifts to heads of state at a G20 meeting in St Petersburg that were actually bugging devices, it has been reported.

Long before Edward Snowden leaked documents showing that the government was collecting every American’s phone records, Marcy Wheeler knew something fishy was going on.

Republicans are ready to offer the government a temporary debt limit extension, the leader of the US House of Representatives says.

The US is struggling to fully realise the vision that civil rights leader Martin Luther King described in his ‘I have a dream’ speech 50 years ago, as the goal of economic security for all remains elusive, President Barack Obama said yesterday.

President Obama has led the tributes to Martin Luther King, exactly 50 years since his legendary "I have a dream" speech.

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s father has secured documents to visit his son in Russia and plans to discuss how he could fight espionage charges, Lon Snowden and his attorney said yesterday.

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s father has secured documents to visit his son in Russia and plans to discuss how he could fight espionage charges.

President Barack Obama has announced a series of steps to ease fears about the scope of secret domestic and foreign surveillance activities.

Silicon Valley has made the US a superpower of surveillance. No other country comes close, writes Raphael Satter.

The US has asked for help from both enemies and uneasy allies in an effort to catch fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

When it came to feuds, Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods made all the headlines last week at the US Open, with the Spaniard apologising for his “fried chicken” remark made a few weeks earlier at a dinner before the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour at Wentworth.

The Taoiseach paid tribute to the “palpable strength of connections” between Ireland and America as he laid flowers at the memorial site for the victims of last month’s bombings in the city.

PUBLIC opinion on gun control is as polarised as it has ever been.

His lease renewed in trying economic times, President Barack Obama claimed a second term from an incredibly divided electorate and immediately braced for daunting challenges and progress that comes only in fits and starts.

President Barack Obama’s re-election, coupled with Republicans’ continued hold on the House, gives both parties a chance to rethink, and perhaps undo, the bitter partisanship that has gripped Washington for four years and frustrated Americans who see big problems going unsolved.

US President Barack Obama has captured a second White House term, even though he has claimed only 50% of the popular vote with returns from 94% of the country's precincts so far.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were in an extraordinarily tight battle for the White House today, but some key states were falling to the current president.

The superstorm ravaging the US East Coast laid waste to the campaign strategies of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney with just a week remaining in their intensely close race for the White House.

Superstorm Sandy laid waste to the campaign strategies of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney with just a week remaining in their intensely close race for the White House.

I have looked as hard as I can around this monster of a golf course and searched the massive structure that is the clubhouse.

Mitt Romney reached out to conservatives suspicious of him and sought to assert himself as the inevitable Republican US presidential nominee, despite failing to deliver a knockout blow to his rivals in the biggest round of nominating contests.

President Barack Obama used his annual State of the Union policy address to denounce America’s economic inequality, drawing a battle line with Republicans ahead of what is expected to be a tough fight for re-election.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Wardak province.

DESPITE a spate of discouraging economic reports, US President Barack Obama insisted yesterday he is not afraid of the country slipping into a double-dip recession. But at the same time he displayed impatience, saying the pace of the recovery has “got to accelerate”.

Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years – 60% - and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to a poll.

Al-Qaida confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden today and vowed revenge, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness” in the first statement by the terror network since its leader was killed in a US commando raid against his Pakistani hideout.

America is united in jubilation at the killing of bin Laden while an unsettled Europe ponders the ethics of the operation and future implications, writes Alastair MacDonald

DEPENDENCE on televisions, mobile phones and laptops may be costing Americans dearly — in lack of sleep.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama was on a political collision course with his opponents last night after Republicans made sweeping election gains and vowed to undo some of his major policies.

Opposition Republicans delivered a stinging blow to President Barack Obama, capturing the US House of Representatives in election results.

Not for the first time at the Ryder Cup Colin Montgomerie has expressed surprise at a decision by his opposite number Corey Pavin.

WITH the golf shots at a bare minimum and Mother Nature a dominating winner on the first day of the 38th Ryder Cup matches, there was nonetheless a desperate search for storylines to satisfy our appetite for this biennial event.

IT WAS in the gloom of a cool October Sunday five years ago when Tiger Woods stood to the back of the 18th green at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club and watched his American teammates celebrate a Presidents Cup win over the International Team.

The largest US-Russian spy swap since the Cold War happened less than a month after an idea was secretly hatched in the Oval Office, and reached fruition on a remote stretch of Vienna airport tarmac.