US senator Al Franken is facing a storm of criticism and a likely ethics investigation after a radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing and groping her during a visit to entertain US troops in Afghanistan.

Within five months of each other, two of the men who helped make 60 Minutes the most distinctive news show on US television have died.

Walter Cronkite was remembered as a great journalist, sailor, friend and father during services that, despite the grandeur of the setting, felt remarkably comfortable – like the man.

BACK in the first week in January four prominent American political figures raised the need for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The issue was followed up this week in an article by Mikhail Gorbachev calling for urgent action.

Veteran TV curmudgeon Andy Rooney stirred American viewers’ passions when he received 30,000 responses to a commentary in which he called The Passion Of The Christ film-maker Mel Gibson a “wacko”.