VETERAN US Republican Senator Arlen Specter plans to switch parties, a move intended to boost his chances of re-election next year that also will push Democrats within one seat of a 60-vote filibuster-resistant majority.

The Senate passage of an $838bn (€649bn) stimulus bill triggered an intense round of late-night bargaining, with the White House and key congressional Democrats seeking agreement on a final compromise aimed at battling the worst economic crisis in decades.

A UNITED States Senate panel has authorised subpoenas for White House political adviser Karl Rove and other top aides involved in the sacking of federal prosecutors.

In a response to charges by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, actor Michael J Fox defended his appearance in recent political campaign ads, saying he was neither acting nor off his medication for Parkinson’s disease.

Today’s US Senate decision to fast-track new immigration measures is an important and positive step, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has said.

THE US Senate yesterday rejected a California Democrat’s plan to allow the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country to remain, work and eventually become Americans, preserving a fragile bipartisan coalition needed to pass the bill.

US President George W Bush’s nomination of Gen Michael Hayden as CIA chief ignited a confirmation fight Monday over the intelligence veteran’s ties to the controversial eavesdropping program and his ability to be independent from the military establishment.

THE White House has refused to challenge claims that President George W Bush authorised the leaks of intelligence information to counter US administration critics on Iraq.

The USA Patriot Act was renewed in a cliffhanger vote last night, extending a centrepiece of the President George Bush’s campaign against terror after months of political combat.

The chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial has submitted his resignation, a court official said today.

The disclosure of a top-secret US domestic spying programme has ignited a furious debate about presidential authority, civil liberties and whether President George Bush is acting above the law.

US president George Bush has personally approved a secretive eavesdropping programme more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official has said.

A KEY Republican committee chairman put the Bush administration on notice yesterday that his panel would hold hearings into a report that the National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on people inside the United States.

Negotiators from the two chambers of the US Congress reached an agreement today to extend the Patriot Act, the government’s premier anti-terrorism law, before its major provisions expire at the end of the month.

US President George W Bush, stung by the collapse of his previous choice, nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito yesterday in a bid to reshape the Supreme Court and mollify his conservative allies.

THE White House yesterday said President Bush is confident Harriet Miers will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, even though a Democrat on the Senate panel that will hold hearings on her nomination said she doesn’t have the votes.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court yesterday, turning to a lawyer who has never been a judge to replace Sandra Day O’Connor and help reshape the nation’s judiciary.

The US Senate opened its first Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 11 years yesterday with Republicans and Democrats jockeying for position as they told chief justice nominee John Roberts to expect tough questions on his legal record.

In defiance of a presidential veto threat, US senators who support embryonic stem cell research are pushing for a quick vote on a bill passed by the House that would lift restrictions on such studies.

Ignoring a veto threat, the US House of Representatives moved today towards approving a Bill loosening President George Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research, with supporters claiming prospects were enhanced by promises that such research would offer new treatments for a host of debilitating ailments.

The man set to become the next US Attorney General vowed to abide by international treaties on prisoner treatment today.

POLITICIANS are demanding that the FBI explain why it apparently planted bugging devices in the Philadelphia mayor’s office just weeks before the mayoral election.

FBI bosses blocked field agents from compiling "a veritable blueprint" of the September 11 plot in the weeks before the attacks, according to a United States government report.

US President George W Bush will stand by his decision to limit federal funding for embryonic stem cell research regardless of what scientific breakthroughs may occur, two administration officials say.