The US government today apologised to Guatemala for a study 60 years ago in which American scientists deliberately infected prisoners there with syphilis.

The first round of swine flu jabs in the US could begin sooner than expected, with some vaccine available as early as the first week of October, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today.

FORMER Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said yesterday he doubts there can be meaningful healthcare reform without a direct government role.

THE US is ready to announce another $1 billion (€717,600) in orders for swine flu vaccinations.

SENATOR Barack Obama will increasingly lean on prominent Democratic women to undercut Governor Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain, dispatching Hillary Clinton to Florida on Monday and bolstering his plan to deploy female surrogates to battleground states, Obama advisers said.

Barack Obama has picked Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his US vice presidential running mate, a Democratic party official said today.

Speculation is increasing today that Barack Obama's choice for vice president would be foreign policy expert Joe Biden.

Barack Obama cranked up his campaign in the final days before the Democratic convention, drawing closer to naming a running mate and attacking what he said was Republican rival John McCain’s habit of questioning his “character and patriotism”.

Barack Obama went back on the offensive with presidential opponent John McCain over his approach to the Iraq war today.

A deadly winter storm that caked America’s centre with a thick layer of ice claimed at least 17 lives and blacked out more than 600,000 homes and businesses.

The governor of Kansas has signed a law today barring protesters from funerals in an attempt to curtail a fundamentalist church that pickets military funerals, claiming the deaths are God’s punishment for homosexuality.

The man suspected of 10 murders attributed to the "BTK" serial killer confessed to at least six of the killings, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation said today.

A manhunt for a Kansas serial killer who for 31 years taunted police with letters about his crimes ended last night when authorities said they finally caught up with the BTK killer and linked him to at least 10 murders.

CREWS laboured to restore services and remove heaps of rubble in towns smashed by tornadoes that roared through Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, while others began mourning the 37 people killed by the violent weather.

SWARMS of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes crashed through the middle of the US, killing at least 32 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Eight people were missing in this hard-hit town.

Swarms of violent thunderstorms and tornados crashed through the US Midwest, killing at least 32 people in the states of Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.