An indictment is expected as early as today, charging ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich with presiding over a state government awash in political corruption.

Raising fresh questions about his appointment to Congress, Senator Roland Burris admitted in a document that former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s brother asked him for campaign fundraising help before the governor named Burris as Illinois’ junior senator.

US governor Rod Blagojevich was thrown out of office without a single politician coming to his defence, brought down by a government-for-sale scandal that stretched from Chicago to Capitol Hill and turned the foul-mouthed politician into a national punchline.

AFGHANISTAN will postpone its presidential election until August 20, some four months later than the Constitution specifies, to give incoming US forces more time to stabilise the country’s most violent regions, the national election commission said yesterday.

TAKING his defence to the airwaves rather than his impeachment trial, Governor Rod Blagojevich lashed out at his accusers yesterday and revealed he had considered naming chatshow host Oprah Winfrey to the senate.

The state impeachment trial of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will take place today – without the politician.

Embattled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich launched a full-on media blitz days before the start of a state impeachment trial that could lead to his removal.

CONGRESS laid the foundation for US president-elect Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan yesterday with remarkable speed, clearing the way for a new infusion of bailout cash for the financial industry while majority Democrats proposed spending increases and tax cuts totalling a whopping $825 billion (€630bn).

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached by furious colleagues who said he had turned state government into a “freak show”.

ROLAND Burris announced yesterday he was rejected for Barack Obama’s senate seat, in a bizarre scene on the capitol grounds as lawmakers awaited the gavelling of the 111th Congress into session.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH created a new distraction for his state by making an appointment to the US Senate even while he faces federal corruption charges for, in part, allegedly trying to sell the very seat he now is trying to fill.

A defiant Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich named a political trailblazer to Barack Obama’s Senate seat, a surprise move that put the governor’s opponents in the uncomfortable position of trying to block his choice from becoming the Senate’s only black member.

Defiant Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, said today that if what he had done as Illinois governor was an impeachable offence, he was living on the “wrong planet” and in the “wrong place”.

Barack Obama and his aides did not try to make any deals with Illinois’ embattled governor who is accused of trying to sell the president-elect’s vacant Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job, an internal review said.

ILLINOIS Governor Rod Blagojevich met with a renowned Chicago criminal lawyer over the weekend as he weighed his legal options on how to fight a scandal that has left his career in tatters and disrupted president-elect Barack Obama’s White House transition.

PRESIDENT-elect Barack Obama called for Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to resign yesterday, hours after the embattled governor reported for work amid charges he plotted to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

US politicians were today rushing to prevent the state governor charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat in a “political corruption crime spree” appointing someone to the post.

The governor of Illinois was arrested in the middle of the night after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for cash or a job for himself in the new administration.

The governor of Illinois “put a for-sale sign on the naming of a United States senator” to fill the vacant seat left by president-elect Barack Obama, US authorities said today.

President-elect Barack Obama said he hoped to fulfil “the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans” as he announced his resignation from the US Senate today.

President-elect Barack Obama said he hoped to fulfil “the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans” as he announced his resignation from the US Senate today.

A PROPOSAL by a United States governor to source prescription drugs in Ireland has been branded unworkable, illegal in its present form and damaging to sick Irish people.

THE Illinois Supreme Court ruled yesterday that former Governor George Ryan had the power to commute the sentences of every Illinois death row inmate before he left office last year.