AN Australian man sentenced to life in jail for the frenzied 1993 murder of his parents has had his convictions quashed, having always maintained his brother did it.

Scott McClellan, President George Bush’s former press secretary who angered old colleagues with a tell-all book earlier this year, said he is backing Democrat Barack Obama for president.

Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President George W. Bush’s press secretary, died early today of colon cancer. He was 53.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan defended his bombshell book about the Bush administration today, saying he did not speak up against the overselling of war in Iraq because he gave the president the benefit of the doubt.

The White House press secretary most known for defending President George Bush on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and a host of other controversies has produced a shock memoir damning his old boss on nearly every level.

FORMER White House press secretary Scott McClellan charges in an explosive new book due out next week that US President George W Bush and top aides shaded the truth to make the case for the Iraq war.

Barack Obama’s march toward the Democratic presidential nomination picked up support from four more superdelegates, pushing him ever closer to victory over Hillary Clinton – even as their primary marathon staggered on.

Jordan and Peter Andre’s reality TV show has been snapped up by US executives who hope they will rival David and Victoria Beckham in the celebrity couple stakes.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed a letter that Iran’s president sent to President George Bush yesterday, saying the first direct communication from an Iranian leader in 27 years did not help resolve the stand-off over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

President George Bush today named conservative commentator Tony Snow as White House press secretary, putting a new face on a troubled administration.

Iraq’s Shiite alliance nominated tough-talking politician Jawad al-Maliki as prime minister, in a move that broke the long impasse over forming a new government to pull the country out of its sectarian strife.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said today he is resigning, continuing a shake-up in US President George Bush’s administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff and could lead to a change in the Cabinet.

Denouncing Iran’s successful enrichment of uranium as unacceptable to the international community, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today the UN Security Council must consider “strong steps” to induce Tehran to change course.

The White House today declined to challenge assertions that President George Bush authorised the leaks of intelligence information to counter US administration critics on Iraq.

Tom DeLay, once one of the most powerful and feared conservatives in the US Congress, said today he is resigning from the House of Representatives in the wake of two criminal investigations that dimmed his prospects for re-election.

Hundreds of demonstrators shivered and cheered through a frigid night and morning snowfall on a Minsk square, trying to keep up momentum in an arduous and unlikely drive to overturn election results.

Hundreds of demonstrators shivered and cheered through the freezing pre-dawn today in the capital of Belarus, trying to keep up momentum in a drive to overturn a landslide election that gave a new term to authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, declared the overwhelming winner of weekend elections, said today that his opponents had failed to topple him in a foreign-backed “revolution".

A United Arab Emirates company has volunteered to postpone its takeover of significant operations at six major US seaports.

Top US officials strongly condemned the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine today, calling it a desperate and despicable act designed to foment sectarian strife.

The White House today rejected a recommendation in a UN report to shut the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

America’s former disaster chief Michael Brown, who became the personification of the government’s listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said he told top officials of massive flooding in New Orleans on the day the storm howled ashore.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney was yesterday directly linked to a federal investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.

In town for a concert, U2 rock star Bono was invited to lunch today with the president of the USA.

President George Bush is stepping up his defence of his Iraq policy as he faces declining public support for the war and a crucial test in Iraq with the October 15 constitutional referendum.

MICHAEL BROWN, director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been removed from his role managing relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and is returning to Washington.

Michael Brown, director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, is being removed from his role managing relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and is returning to Washington.

As US congress hurried toward approval of a €41.8bn emergency hurricane aid package, US President Bush George today mapped a plan to get a wide range of government benefits – from medical care to job training – to storm victims who have scattered around the US.

US President George Bush is asking Congress for as much as $50bn (€40.2bn) in immediate aid for the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, and the White House indicated today more money would be needed eventually.

US President George Bush is expected to visit storm-ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast later this week, but first he is returning to Washington to oversee the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

US President George Bush called newly appointed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia today to express condolences over the death of King Fahd and to congratulate Abdullah on his succession to the throne.

President George W Bush phoned Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams today to urge him to follow through with action after the Irish Republican Army disarmament decision.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush collided with a police officer during a bike ride on the grounds of Gleneagles while attending the G8 summit.

US President George Bush collided with a police officer during a bike ride on the grounds of the Gleneagles golf resort while attending the G8 summit, the White House said tonight.

US President George Bush is using the first anniversary of Iraq’s sovereignty to try to ease Americans’ doubts about the mission and outline a winning strategy for a violent conflict that has cost the lives of more than 1,740 US troops and has no end in sight.

The US will provide 50,000 metric tons of food to North Korea in a humanitarian decision that the Bush administration said is unrelated to stalemated efforts to get Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme.

The White House has urged all sides to show restraint in Ethiopia, where deadly riots have followed last month’s legislative elections.

US President George Bush is pressuring Congress to renew the Patriot Act by highlighting the actions of Ohio police who helped catch a man accused of plotting attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and a Midwest shopping centre.

President George Bush is meeting with the leaders of several African nations later this month to celebrate elections held last year in each and hold them up as models of democratic progress on the troubled continent.

A NATIONWIDE referendum to open the way for Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential elections passed overwhelmingly, officials announced yesterday, a day after the balloting, which was marred by police beatings of protesters.

Newsweek magazine has apologised to readers for errors in a story alleging US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran. The accusations, which the magazine vowed to re-examine, spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.

TEARFUL and prayerful, Americans struggled to articulate their emotions yesterday as Pope John Paul II - who visited their country more than any other pontiff - clung to life at the Vatican.

President George Bush and his wife, Laura, were praying for Pope John Paul and that world’s concern over his failing health was “a testimony to his greatness,” the White House said today.

Another US postal facility was closed today as concern spread over the detection of anthrax in two military mailrooms.