Democrat Hillary Clinton was close to announcing a vice presidential running mate last night, with US senator Tim Kaine of Virginia leading a small group of contenders under consideration to help her do battle with Republican rival Donald Trump.

President Barack Obama threw himself back into the congressional election campaign today in a political blitz against what appears to be an inevitable Republican landslide.

Families of Virginia Tech shooting victims reacted with fury after it emerged that the gunman's missing mental health records were found at the home of a former campus clinic chief more than two years after the incident.

MORE than 12 million early voters have already made their voices heard and the majority have backed Barack Obama.

The family of Seung-Hui Cho might be able to help authorities understand the troubled 23-year-old who killed 32 people at a university last week, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine said.

The family of university campus killer Cho Seung-Hui apologised for the tragedy, saying they “never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence”.

Hampered by huge budget deficits and an unpopular war, US President George Bush today called for training 70,000 maths and science teachers to improve US competitiveness with booming Asian nations and declared that America must break its dependence on Mideast oil.

DEMOCRATS cleaned up in off-year elections from New Jersey to California, sinking the candidate who embraced US President George W Bush in the final days of the Virginia governor’s campaign.