THE controversial healthcare bill at the heart of US president Barack Obama’s domestic agenda looked set to go through late last night.

SENATE Democratic leader Harry Reid has apologised for saying the race of Barack Obama – whom he described as a “light skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” – would help rather than hurt his eventual presidential bid.

Democratic Senator Edward M Kennedy underwent surgery today after doctors discovered a partially blocked artery in his neck during an examination of his back, which was injured in a 1964 plane crash.