Embattled Congressman Tom DeLay decided today to give up his post as House majority leader – the leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives - clearing the way for new leadership elections among House Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal, two officials said.

A Paris appeals court today overturned the convictions of six people convicted of paedophilia after a contrite public prosecutor said the case was riddled with errors and called for the defendants to be acquitted.

A Paris court today began hearing appeals from five men and a woman convicted of paedophilia in a case that raised questions about the French judicial system, after seven other defendants were acquitted.

Lawyers for Republican Congressman Tom DeLay are pushing for a change of venue after successfully arguing to have a judge removed from the case against him.

The 2,000th US military death in Iraq could not have come at a worse time for President George Bush.

A TEXAS grand jury looking into campaign contributions indicted former US House majority leader Tom DeLay for the second time in less than a week yesterday.

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.

A PAEDOPHILIA trial that stunned France with lurid accounts of parents who loaned their children out for sex ended yesterday with 10 of 17 defendants convicted.

Ten of 17 defendants were convicted today of raping and abusing a group of children in a high-profile paedophilia case that has riveted France for weeks.