A conservative wing of the California Republican Party postponed a plan to vote on whether to endorse a campaign to oust Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Six days of national mourning for former US President Gerald Ford has begun with military honours and a simple family prayer service at his parish church.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has admitted he was surprised by the effectiveness of Saddam Hussein’s loyalists to sustain the Iraq conflict long after the end of major combat operations.

A California woman who impersonated her sister in public after stuffing her dismembered body in a freezer was sentenced to life in prison without parole and barred from profiting by selling a tell-all book or movie script.