PRESIDENTIAL candidate Mitt Romney stood alone yesterday at the top of the field of Republican candidates in this week’s primary balloting in South Carolina, where three of his more conservative challengers are splitting the powerful block of evangelical and social conservative voters.

THE second time around, the shock has worn off.

Mitt Romney convincingly won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary last night, a major step toward cementing his position as the party's choice to run against President Barack Obama in November.

Voters in the tiny New Hampshire village famed for casting the first ballots in the nation's first presidential primary have found themselves in a tie between Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman.

REPUBLICAN favourite Mitt Romney emerged from back-to-back debates in New Hampshire a bit dinged but not seriously dented yesterday, as rivals stepped up attacks to slow his march toward the presidential nomination.

Thousands of Iowa Republicans cast the first ballots of the 2012 presidential contest today, with front-runner Mitt Romney locked in a tight race with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

NEWT GINGRICH has charged into the fray over illegal immigration, risking conservative fury just as his Republican presidential campaign — once declared all but dead — has vaulted into front-runner status.

Republican presidential hopefuls Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann have both said they would reinstate waterboarding during interrogations of suspected terrorists, while rivals Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman both say they see the procedure as torture.

Republican presidential contenders turned the heat on the two frontrunners in a debate, attacking businessman Herman Cain’s economic plan as a tax increase and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney over his health care law.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has confirmed she will not run for the US presidency.

PORNOGRAPHIC magazine publisher Larry Flynt has offered $1 million to anyone with proof of “an illicit sexual liaison” involving leading Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The US Supreme Court has halted the execution of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his trial.

The campaign chief and deputy campaign manager for Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann are leaving in a campaign shake-up.

THE dramatic advance of Libyan rebels over the forces of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi offers vindication, at least for now, for President Barack Obama’s decision to refrain from using US troops on Libyan soil and to let Nato take the lead in degrading Gaddafi’s military power.

With three big hitters in the field, the emergence of a Republican wildcard for the presidential race seems unlikely, writes Patricia Zengerle

A death-row inmate scheduled to die today for a triple murder is waiting to see if he will be handed an 11th-hour stay of execution.

The family of a Texas man who died while imprisoned for a rape he did not commit gathered at his graveside with a framed copy of the state’s first posthumous pardon – a document that finally proves his innocence.

The Texas pardons and parole board recommended clemency in the case of a man who died in prison after he was wrongly convicted of rape.

Mexican health authorities this morning said they have confirmed 300 swine flu cases due to the virus among a total of 679 people tested so far.

Rescue crews in the US navigated debris-strewn streets to reach people still stuck in some of the thousands of homes flooded by Hurricane Ike, while authorities in the fourth-largest US city, imposed a curfew and warned residents that it would be weeks before Houston is fully back up and running.

Rescue crews in the US searched neighbourhoods inundated by Hurricane Ike’s storm surge early this morning, racing against time to save those who spent a second harrowing night trapped amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power lines.

Howling ashore with 110 mph winds, Hurricane Ike ravaged the Texas coast today, flooding thousands of homes and businesses, shattering windows in Houston’s skyscrapers and knocking out power to millions of people.

Hurricane Ike ravaged south-east Texas early today, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

As Hurricane Ike charged into the Gulf of Mexico and toward the Texas coast, officials prepared today to evacuate the first of a million residents who could be in the way of the storm’s path.

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate John McCain has a big decision ahead of him — picking a vice presidential running mate whose presence on the ticket would reassure Americans concerned about McCain’s age.

Hurricane Dean roared through small Caribbean islands today, tearing away roofs, flooding streets and killing three people.

A hurricane watch was issued for a portion of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean as Tropical Storm Dean slowly moved across the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.

Forecasters predicted more violent thunderstorms in the US over the weekend after two days of storms and flooding that left five people dead and one missing in central Texas.

Wildfires that have scorched nearly 1 million acres of the bone-dry Texas Panhandle spread even more, fanned by strong wind gusts that reached as high as 52 mph.

RESCUERS pushed their way into once-inaccessible neighbourhoods as Hurricane Rita’s floodwaters receded along the Texas-Louisiana coast yesterday.

Texans are returning home today after 120mph Hurricane Rita failed to cause the feared Katrina-sized destruction.

The damage inflicted by Hurricane Rita paled in comparison to Katrina, Texas Governor Rick Perry said today – but urged evacuees to stay where they are until local officials say it’s all right to return.

Three million Americans evacuated before Hurricane Rita pummelled east Texas and the Louisiana coast, were urged not to hurry home today.

A BUS carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions early yesterday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, Texas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said.

CARS clogged Texas highways as 1.5 million people fleed Hurricane Rita yesterday.

Traffic came to a standstill and petrol shortages were reported today as hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston metropolitan area rushed to get out of the path of Hurricane Rita, a monster storm with 170mph winds.

Hurricane Rita strengthened into a Category 4 storm packing 135-mph winds as it churned into the Gulf of Mexico early today.

Hurricane Rita strengthened into a Category 4 storm packing 135-mph winds as it churned into the Gulf of Mexico early today.

WITH the last weary refugees rescued from the Superdome and Convention Centre, New Orleans turned its attention yesterday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses.

A day after announcing plans to marry his long-time partner, Elton John performed just a short distance from the Texas Capitol, where legislators are working to put a gay marriage ban in the state constitution.

Hundreds of airline crash experts, engineers and forensic scientists have converged on Texas and Louisiana to help retrieve pieces of the space shuttle Columbia.

Nearly a half-million people in the US were today urged to flee their homes as a a fearsome hurricane barrelled toward the Gulf Coast with 140 mph winds.

Mike Tyson's application to box in Texas has been rejected.

Flooding caused by torrential rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison has forced thousands of people out of their homes in Houston.