With just hours left before the US hits the “fiscal cliff”, stocks on the other side of the world wilted as investors sold off riskier assets to lock in profits just in case budget negotiations fail in Washington.

The White House and US Senate Republicans sorted through disputes over taxing the wealthy and cutting the Defence Department and other federal agencies as tonight’s midnight deadline for avoiding a “fiscal cliff” drew to within hours.

US senate leaders sought a last-minute compromise to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly prevent deep spending cuts at the dawn of the new year as President Barack Obama warned that failure could threaten the nation’s economic recovery.

US President Barack Obama, pushing for a deal to avoid the looming tax hikes and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff”, entered last-minute talks with US Senate leaders saying he still believed an agreement could be reached before the January 1 deadline.

Retired US General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.

Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in hospital in Texas for a lingering cough.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney looked for a boost at a campaign fundraiser sponsored by former Vice President Dick Cheney, a figure who divided the country but is lionised by many conservative Americans.

President Barack Obama plunged into his campaign for a new term and tore into rival Mitt Romney as a willing and eager “rubber stamp” for conservative Republicans in Congress who want to cut taxes for the rich.

Susan Sarandon claims the US government has tapped her phone.

Former US vice president Dick Cheney has been released from hospital 10 days after undergoing a heart transplant.

Polls show Newt Gingrich will probably be hammered by Mitt Romney in the crucial Republican primary election in Florida tomorrow.

Zambia has dismissed an international rights group’s call for the arrest on torture charges of former President George W. Bush, who has been touring Africa to raise cancer awareness.

President Barack Obama honoured the legacy of September 11 victims by personally tracing the trail of the terrorist attacks, proudly declaring that the decade since has proven “America does not give in to fear”.

Republican presidential rivals Rick Perry and Mitt Romney tangled over their records on creating jobs in a campaign debate that marked a contentious new turn in the race to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama next year.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama faces a long re-election campaign, having all but given up on the economy rebounding in any meaningful way before November 2012.

The political and financial crisis gripping the US appeared to have only deepened after President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner attacked each other over the failure to avert a catastrophic financial default next week.

President Barack Obama is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after challenging the Israeli leader to give up more territory than he wants to in pursuit of peace with the Palestinians.

The man whose heroism in the face of genocide was portrayed in the film 'Hotel Rwanda' was warned today he could face charges of financing terror.

The US government will appeal against a court ruling that undercut federally funded embryonic stem cell research, the Obama administration declared.

A radical Muslim group warned the creators of South Park that they could face violent retribution for depicting the prophet Mohammed in a bear suit during last week’s episode.

President Barack Obama’s Middle East summit today is being treated as a crucial bout of international diplomacy, even though noone is predicting any kind of breakthrough.

Nasa will test the powerful first stage of its new Ares moon rocket today, a milestone in a programme that already has spent $7bn (€4.9bn) for a rocket that astronauts may never use.

Patricia Zengerle reports from Washington on the President’s one-week break away from two wars, global recession and domestic politics.

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison just days after she was tried behind closed doors, her lawyer said today.

Kanye West has been charged after a clash with a photographer which broke his camera.

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.

The US presidential campaign turned even nastier with John McCain and Barack Obama blaming each other for the deepening US financial crisis and failure to agree the $700bn (€487bn) bailout plan.

Rockers Rage Against The Machine have called for US President George W. Bush to be tried over the conflict in Iraq - branding the American leader "a war criminal".

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.

Republican John McCain tried to ease concerns that he is too old to be president, opening medical records that show the three-time melanoma survivor appears cancer-free, has a strong heart, and is in general good health.

Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Jackson Browne and Sean Penn are to star in a new documentary that highlights celebrity activism.

A jittery Wall Street advanced today, reversing some of Friday’s sharp losses as investors took a dismal new home sales report as a sign the Federal Reserve will lower rates this week.

Michael Moore is amazed his movie 'Sicko' has received an Academy Award nomination, because he thought he'd never be invited back after slamming US President George W. Bush onstage in 2003.

JOSE PADILLA, a former Chicago gang member once accused by the Bush administration of plotting a radioactive bomb attack, was sentenced by a US court yesterday to 17 years and four months in prison for supporting terrorism.

Israeli troops backed by airstrikes today killed five Palestinians, including two civilians, in an operation against rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and Palestinian medics said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was named 'Time' magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Oprah Winfrey has officially thrown her support behind US presidential candidate Barack Obama, after joining the Democrat senator at a campaign rally in Iowa on Saturday.

Barbara Streisand will be going head to head with Oprah Winfrey as the campaign to find a new US Democratic presidential candidate heats up - the singer is backing the media mogul's rival.

Nicolas Sarkozy made a minor gaffe on his first US visit as France’s president by wrongly suggesting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recent immigrant roots.

Leaders of North and South Korea pledged in a reconciliation pact today to finally seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean War’s 1953 cease-fire, and expand projects to reduce tension across the world’s last Cold War frontier.

An emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council is being called to discuss the Burma crisis.

President George W. Bush and Congress are headed toward another showdown on war spending, this time sparring over nearly $190bn (€134bn) the Pentagon says is needed to keep combat in Iraq afloat for another year.

Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton will embark on a widely anticipated campaign for the White House today, a former first lady intent on becoming America's first female president.

The Islamic militant group Hamas said today it would double the size of its paramilitary force in Gaza, defying President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to outlaw the unit and raising the stakes in an increasingly bloody power struggle between the two rivals.