The Obama administration should rethink its commitment to the fight in Afghanistan, according to American politicians furious with Afghan president Hamid Karzai for saying his country would back Pakistan in a war with the United States.

AS YOU read, Space Shuttle Atlantis stands on Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, its black nose pointed towards the heavens, one last mission beckoning.

TONY BLAIR, making his second appearance before the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry, arrived yesterday looking tense, drawn and even worried, as he nervously fingered an impressive-looking red dossier on the table in front of him.

Barack Obama ended the US combat mission in Iraq today, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war: “It is time to turn the page.”

British attempts to improve “dire” planning for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were repeatedly ignored by the US, the inquiry into the war heard today.

Seven former CIA directors have asked President Barack Obama to quash a criminal probe of harsh interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration.

US Vice President Joe Biden became embroiled in a row with a key aide to former President George Bush after saying he gave an earful to Mr Bush in the Oval Office.

President Barack Obama today overturned a ban on federal funding for stem cell research, reversing the policy of his predecessor.

WITH a stroke of his pen President Barack Obama has taken one of our self-serving, lazy and threadbare excuses for not doing enough to protect the environment or save energy out of play.

US President Barack Obama is expected to make a number of key appointments and policy announcements during the course of his first day in office.

THE outgoing US administration has maintained its complete lack of any sense of irony (not to mention sensitivity) right to the end of its days.

Plane crash investigators will today attempt to recover the wreckage of a passenger jet that plummeted into New York’s Hudson River, miraculously leaving no-one seriously hurt.

The pilot who miraculously landed a plane on New York’s Hudson River without any loss of life was today coming to terms with his new-found hero status.

US President George Bush today delivered a farewell address to the nation in which he paid tribute to his successor as a man whose story reflects “the enduring promise” of America.

President Bush and his successor Barack Obama today asked Congress to release the second $350bn (€262bn) in a rescue plan to prop up the troubled US financial system.

Actor Mickey Rourke sympathises with US President George W. Bush - insisting he doesn't know how any politician could have successfully navigated America after the 9/11 attacks on New York.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair will receive America’s highest civilian award – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – from George Bush next week.

THE United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever in the heart of the Green Zone yesterday, officially opening the fortress-like compound that was built as a testament to America’s commitment to Iraq.

WHAT if the shoe had been on the other foot: George W throwing his at an ungrateful Iraqi?

AN Iraqi launches a missile at an American and misses the target.

The family of a journalist jailed for throwing his shoes at US President George Bush today claimed a delay in bringing him before a court meant he had been too severely beaten to appear in public

WHILE I share the feelings of Muntadar al-Zeidi, who threw his shoes at President Bush during the latter’s visit to Iraq on Sunday, I was not impressed by your report next day (December 14).

In one of the Bush administration’s last major foreign policy initiatives, the US circulated a draft United Nations resolution seeking international authorisation to hunt down Somali pirates on land.

Barack Obama promised new leadership in a troubled world, announcing a strong-willed national security team headed by Hillary Clinton, who fought him long and bitterly for the presidency, and Robert Gates, the man who has been running two wars for George Bush.

Robin Williams returned to the UK stage for the first time in 25 years by treating a crowd of just 100 comedy fans to a surprise stand-up set.

The first semi-biographical film about a sitting US President brings to the screen the story of George W Bush.

“HERE I am, signed, sealed, delivered.” That’s what the giddy crowds at Barack Obama’s campaign rallies hear when he walks off the stage — the booming sound of Stevie Wonder singing about the promise of a sure thing.

Barack Obama and John McCain headed into the final weekend of the presidential campaign today focused tightly on the economy.

Republican John McCain is accusing Democrat Barack Obama of seeking a socialist redistribution of wealth as a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds the candidates running nearly dead-even less than two weeks before the presidential election.

Barack Obama warned his supporters not to “get carried away” by his lead over Republican rival John McCain in national polls today.

Barack Obama will increase taxes despite the fact Americans are already hurting and angry, his Republican presidential rival John McCain said today.

President Bush made a public appeal for trust that the US could cut through the “uncertainty and fear” of the the financial crisis today.

THE refusal by the US Congress initially to sanction President Bush’s $700 billion financial bailout amid the current global financial crisis provides a fittingly chaotic and ignoble curtain call for the Bush era.

The leading shares on the London Stock Exchange sank into the red today as investors took scant comfort from President Bush’s pledge to “rise to the occasion” with a banking rescue.

The FTSE 100 Index posted its first winning session of the week today as renewed optimism over the Fed's massive bail-out plan drove financial stocks higher.

The FTSE 100 Index was heading for its first positive session of the week today with financial stocks setting the pace.

PRESIDENT BUSH ends his presidency as one of the least popular American presidents of all time but we can be thankful that he ignored advice offered by Libertas founder and anti-Lisbon campaigner Declan Ganley.

The FTSE 100 Index endured a second day of losses after amid continued doubts over the US Government’s bank bail-out plans today.

FOR many professional athletes, it is the moment rather than the career that defines their legacy in the public’s perception, and Justin Leonard’s victory prance across the 17th green at Brookline nine years ago is quite definitively his moment.

David Petraeus, the American general who presided over Iraq’s pull back from the brink of all-out civil war, relinquished his command today to General Ray Odierno under a cascade of official thank-yous.

President George Bush secretly approved new US military raids in Pakistan, a former intelligence official said today.

It was an election about unity, non-partisanship and getting America back on track, until Senator John McCain reignited a war that could cost the Democrats the election.

JOHN McCAIN, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programmes and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits.

VIOLENT protests with 13 arrests and vicious rumours stole a march on the prized news agenda and filled the void during the Republican convention’s stripped down first day.