The highest-ranking American diplomat to visit Burma in 14 years offered improved relations if the country's military regime moves toward democracy.

A top US military commander has ordered a new investigation into a firefight in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to claims of negligence by their senior commanders.

American John Yettaw said he had no regrets about taking a secret swim to the home of Burma's detained democracy leader - a decision that landed them both in prison.

An American imprisoned in Burma for sneaking into the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound is on his way home on after two days of health checks in Thailand.

AN American man imprisoned in Burma for sneaking into the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi flew out of the country yesterday after a visiting US senator won his release.

A US man sentenced to seven years in jail for sneaking into the home of detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was handed over to an American consular official today to be flown out of the country.

An American whose unauthorised visit to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led to her extended detention, has been released, the office of US Senator Jim Webb said today.

TENS of millions of dollars have been wasted in Iraq reconstruction aid, some of it on an Olympic-sized swimming pool ordered by Iraqi officials for a police academy that has yet to be used, investigators say.

The US government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say.

New Orleans, still in a mess amid an achingly slow pace of recovery across the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina’s strike, did not warrant a mention by US President George Bush on the year’s biggest night for showcasing US policy priorities.

A politically-weakened George Bush implored a sceptical Congress to embrace his unpopular plan to send more US troops to Iraq, saying it was the best chance in a war the US must not lose.

THE Republican Party took a beating in the mid-term American elections this week, even though the economy was possibly never better.

In a rout once considered almost inconceivable, Democrats seemingly won a 51st seat in the Senate and regained total control of Congress after 12 years of near-domination by the Republican Party.

President George Bush was today searching for a “fresh perspective” on Iraq without right-hand man Donald Rumsfeld after admitting anger over the war had spawned the Democrat-dominated Congress he must now work with.

Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 after an upset victory in Virginia.

Allegations of voter intimidation and problems with electronic voting machines hampered the crucial US midterm elections today as Americans went to the polls in the battle for control of Congress.

With control of Congress at stake in tomorrow’s elections, US president George Bush campaigned in endangered Republican districts across conservative states while the top congressional Democrat campaigned for her party in the left-leaning North-East.