AFTER years of defending his secretary of defence, US President George W Bush last night announced Donald H Rumsfeld’s resignation within hours of the Democrats’ triumph in congressional elections.

President George Bush will use his new budget to propose cutting the size of the US Army Reserve to its lowest level in three decades and stripping up to €3.3bn next year from two fighter aircraft programmes, one involving British engine-maker Rolls-Royce.

A US House committee has voted to prohibit women in the military from serving in direct ground combat roles as part of a bill setting Defence Department policy and spending plans for the coming budget year.

US raiders were not certain at first they had Saddam when they pulled a bearded man from a hole in a Iraq cellar, but soon were able to determine it was Saddam Hussein.