A US state legislative committee approved a plan to eliminate the death penalty and use the money to focus on dormant cases after victims’ relatives asked for help finding closure.

Republicans and Democrats alike are claiming victory as Congress moves this week toward passing a final Iraq spending bill that does not order US troops home.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives failed to override President George Bush’s veto of an Iraqi war spending Bill with timetables for US troop withdrawals.

Ignoring a presidential veto threat, Democrats in the US House of Representatives predict they have enough votes today to pass legislation requiring American troops to begin leaving Iraq by October 1.

WITH the White House bracing for guerrilla warfare on the home front politically if Republicans lose control of Congress, President George W Bush is seeking to shift the debate away from Iraq and scandal and boost his reputation for economic competence.

Republicans in the US hope that an accord reached between the Bush administration and rebellious Republican senators on the treatment of terror-war detainees means the party can go on a campaign-season offensive on the issue of protecting the country.

The White House today quarrelled with Democrats over whether US President George Bush was trying to win political points by using a September 11 anniversary speech to defend the war in Iraq and his war on terror.

President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should apologise for the possible involvement of their aides in the alleged illegal disclosure of a CIA undercover agent’s identity, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today.

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 yesterday toward approving a bill loosening President George W Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research.

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.

While Terri Schiavo lay dying in her hospice bed early today, the US Congress gave a boost to the hopes of the brain-damaged woman’s parents that her feeding tube would be reinserted.

THE US Congress yesterday put off action on a bill aimed at prolonging the life of a brain-damaged woman who had her feeding tube removed by court order.

LATE as always, but still greeted by cheers and screams of “Bill, we love you,” former US President Clinton opened the year’s hottest book tour with a marathon signing at a midtown Manhattan Barnes & Noble.

Baghdad’s forces would crumble if the US invaded, a prominent Iraqi opposition leader told US officials in Washington yesterday.