Two top US senators have offered a bill to impose sweeping new penalties on Iran and thwart its alleged nuclear ambitions.

Defiant Democrats insisted today that they would be able to push through the most sweeping new controls on financial institutions since the Great Depression, following a Senate setback.

Hardline Republican opponents of a US motor trade bail-out have branded the industry a “dinosaur” whose “day of reckoning” was near.

The banking system in the United States is in good shape to deal with rising interest rates, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has told Congress.