America’s largest carmaker General Motors has been forced to recall 25.7m vehicles so far this year and is being sued after faults were linked to at least 13 deaths. Now it has emerged, the company may have been ignoring warnings for years. Tim Higgins and Nick Summers investigate.

The future of iconic rock act Pixies is in doubt today after it was revealed that bassist Kim Deal is to leave the band.

The White House has confirmed it will go ahead with the nomination of General John Allen to become commander of Nato forces in Europe.

The top US commander in Afghanistan has been cleared of sending inappropriate emails to a woman linked to the sex scandal that forced David Petraeus to quit as CIA director.

The mistress of former CIA head David Petraeus has escaped charges over emails she sent to a supposed rival.

US president Barack Obama has said he has no evidence the scandal that ended David Petraeus’s career has had a negative impact on US national security.

The judge, who sentenced a woman to stand in public holding a sign declaring she is an idiot after she drove up a pavement to get round a stationary school bus, is to personally supervise her punishment.

The sex scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus widened to ensnare the top US commander in Afghanistan, an improbable drama unfolding at a critical time in the Afghan war effort and just as President Barack Obama was hoping for a smooth transition in his national security team.

The sex scandal that led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus has widened, with the top US commander in Afghanistan under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from General Petraeus’ former lover.

President Barack Obama has delayed General John Allen's nomination as NATO's supreme commander pending an investigation into his email correspondence with a woman at the center of a sex scandal.

CIA director David Petraeus was shocked to learn last summer that his mistress was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him, former staff members and friends have told the Associated Press.

FBI agents are at the home of the woman whose affair with retired General David Petraeus led to his resignation as CIA director.

Former CIA boss David Petraeus is “devastated” after being forced to resign over his affair with a younger woman, one of his former aides has said.

Members of the US Congress are demanding more details about the FBI investigation that unmasked an extramarital affair between ex-CIA director David Petraeus and his biographer.

Rodney King had been drinking and was on drugs when he plunged into a swimming pool and accidentally drowned in June, a coroner’s report released today concluded.

A fast-moving wildfire in the US has destroyed a number of homes in the mountains west of Denver and burned across more than 4.5 square miles amid dry, windy weather.

The daughter of a Florida pastor who was accidentally shot in the head in a church has died in hospital.

Pierce Brosnan's wife is suing a Los Angeles restaurant claiming the establishment's food gave her "serious" injuries.

The young women of country ruled the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas last night, with Taylor Swift winning the prestigious entertainer of the year award and the night’s top nominee, Miranda Lambert, taking home four trophies.

TIPPERARY woman Anne McGrath was named the national Carer of the Year in a ceremony that blew away the gloom of recession, at least for a while.

ACTRESS Juliette Lewis was injured in a hit-and-run crash in California, police said.

Actress Juliette Lewis has been injured in a hit-and-run crash in California, police said.

'Grey’s Anatomy' star Katherine Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley are adopting a baby.

A wildfire tore through Los Angeles’ northern foothills early today sending thousands of residents fleeing in the dark, forcing a hospital to evacuate and destroying an untold number of homes.

Katherine Heigl has no plans to start a family with husband Josh Kelley just yet - because the pair is "too busy" to consider parenthood.

The sister of an Irishman shot dead by a US police officer insisted her brother had not posed a threat, despite a grand jury ruling backing the officer.

Iraqi officials say they have approved plans to build a five-star hotel in the International Zone in Baghdad.

Katherine Heigl is planning to quit acting in 2009 so she can start a huge family with new husband Josh Kelley.

'Grey’s Anatomy' star Katherine Heigl has married musician Josh Kelley at a US resort.

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Senate Republicans today scuttled a Democratic proposal ordering US troop withdrawals from Iraq in a showdown that capped an all-night debate on the war.

FOR two-year-old Anna Pribyla, it can be difficult to understand what it means for her dad to be in Iraq.

Columbine High School, site of the US’ deadliest school massacre eight years ago, was evacuated today after officials received at least one call about a bomb threat, authorities said.

US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey will see her life detailed on paper when celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley pens her memoirs.

A woman whose bizarre behaviour aboard a London-to-Washington flight provoked a massive security scare will be held indefinitely at a residential mental health facility in New Hampshire, a federal judge ruled today.

Hollywood star Don Johnson and his wife Kelley had double reason for celebration on Saturday, after their third child was born on the same day as their seventh wedding anniversary.

Don Johnson, star of Miami Vice and Nash Bridges, and his wife Kelley celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary with the birth of their third child, a spokesman announced today.

SCOTT CAMERON never imagined his modest memorial to US troops in Iraq would transform a quiet street into the latest front of the nation’s tense debate about the war in Iraq.

THE last time Don Glossop saw his customers they were ritually burning green candles, hoping voodoo would pierce the federal bureaucracy and hasten the arrival of desperately-needed relief cheques.

Cork Coffee Roasters is a new, gourmet coffee micro-roaster owned and operated by Master Coffee Roaster, John Gowan.

THE American arm of international accounting firm KPMG may avoid criminal charges over its sale of tax shelters that could send it out of business, after the Bush administration instructed federal prosecutors to seek a settlement, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.

A British citizen, a Texas businessman and a Bulgarian have been indicted for an alleged scheme to pay millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq as part of the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme, US prosecutors said today.

Michelle Pfeiffer refuses to work with her husband after making a rule not to mix their professional and personal lives.