The Bush administration broadened its response to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in South Asia and Africa with plans for Secretary of State Colin Powell to visit the region and assess what more the United States needs to do.

REPUBLICANS expanded their hold on US Congress in Tuesday's elections and Democrat Tom Daschle became the first senate leader in half a century to be voted out of office.

Republicans tightened their grip on the US Senate today, capturing a string of Democratic seats while extending their decade-long hold on Congress.

Vice-presidential hopeful John Edwards has sparked a row by claiming that under a John Kerry administration “people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again”.

The Bush administration has asked Congress for a €23.6bn downpayment for next year’s US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the White House’s earlier plans not to seek the money until after the November elections.

Ricin was sent to the White House in November, it was disclosed today – two days after the deadly poison was found in a Senate post room.

Preliminary tests of a white powder discovered in a US Senate office building in Washington were positive for the potentially deadly poison ricin, police said.

THE US has announced a $15 billion plan to tackle the global crisis of AIDS and has called on the rest of the world to follow its lead.

Bowing to pressure from his fellow senators and the White House, Republican Trent Lott resigned his position as US Senate majority leader today.