Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd she wanted Barack Obama to win the White House, saying that even though he dashed her presidential dream he is a better choice to lead America than Republican John McCain.

IRAQ’S foreign minister last night said he believes his country has averted a civil war after five years of “tears and blood” and warned an abrupt US troop withdrawal would be disastrous.

A missile from a US Predator drone struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top al-Qaida commander believed responsible for a bomb attack during a visit last year by Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a US official said yesterday.

Pakistan said today that it will not let American forces hunt al-Qaida and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said Washington was considering expanding US military and intelligence operations into Pakistan’s tribal regions.

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has praised Sean Penn for his critical stance against the war in Iraq, saying the two chatted by phone and soon plan to meet in person.

US President George Bush reclaimed the powers of his office today after handing them to Vice President Dick Cheney for more than two hours while he had colon cancer screening under sedation.

US President George Bush will have a routine colonoscopy today and temporarily hand presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House said.

US President George Bush will undergo a routine colonoscopy tomorrow and temporarily hand over US presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

A former White House aide has been given a reprieve from jail by US President George Bush, who said his two and a half year prison sentence was excessive.

At least 19 people were killed and 80 wounded when a suicide truck bomb ripped through the Iraqi Interior Ministry in the relatively peaceful Kurdish city of Irbil today.

A top Taliban commander said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a US base in Afghanistan during US Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit, according to an interview broadcast today on Al-Jazeera.

China’s recent anti-satellite weapons test and its continued military build-up are “not consistent” with its stated aim of a peaceful rise as a global power, US Vice President Dick Cheney said in Australia today.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby abandoned plans to testify in his own defence and decided against calling his former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, to help defend him in the CIA leak trial.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed US policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves from an “almost uncontained use of military force” – a stinging attack that underscored growing tensions between Washington and Moscow.

A politically-weakened George Bush implored a sceptical Congress to embrace his unpopular plan to send more US troops to Iraq, saying it was the best chance in a war the US must not lose.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is meeting US President George Bush today in an attempt to jump-start global free trade talks that collapsed in July over deep differences on farm subsidies.

Swept into the most powerful political job ever held by a US woman, Nancy Pelosi embarked on a jubilant victory lap with children and grandchildren in tow and a soundtrack by Tony Bennett: I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

The White House today defended Laura Bush’s decision not to disclose she had a skin cancer tumour removed from her right shin last month.

US President George Bush says he is happy for Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, who revealed earlier this month that she is pregnant.

U2 frontman Bono presented US President George Bush with an iPod and a contemporary translation of the Bible last year, newly-released documents reveal.

AN engineer at a nuclear power plant has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where US President George W Bush was scheduled to appear yesterday for a Republican campaign event.

The 78-year-old lawyer shot by US Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident suffered a mild heart attack after a shotgun pellet in his chest travelled to his heart, hospital officials said.

A senior member of a European Parliament probe into alleged CIA secret prisons today said the EU investigation could call top US officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify.

The Bush administration has a deliberate strategy of abusing terror suspects during interrogations, Human Rights Watch said today in its annual report on the treatment of prisoners.

US President George Bush is seizing on Iraq’s elections to claim significant progress as he faces an uproar in Congress over whether he exceeded his powers in conducting the war on terror.

US president George Bush reversed course and accepted calls for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has accused President George Bush of mismanaging the Iraq war and claimed his domestic agenda has taken the US off course.

US President George Bush today vigorously defended attempts to interrogate suspected terrorists after the public disclosure of secret CIA prisoner camps in eastern European countries. “We do not torture,” he declared.

President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should apologise for the possible involvement of their aides in the alleged illegal disclosure of a CIA undercover agent’s identity, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today.

An embattled White House braced itself today for criminal charges against Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide in an investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity.

White House officials today braced for the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide would be indicted in the CIA leak case, but held out hope presidential confidant Karl Rove might escape charges for the time being.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller today gave prosecutors details of a previously undisclosed conversation she had with Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, adding a new dimension to the criminal investigation into the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity.

A US woman was booted off a flight for wearing a T-shirt with an expletive and images of President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Suspected terrorists will continue to be held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said US Vice President Dick Cheney, amid concerns by some fellow Republicans the situation may be counterproductive.

Afghan and international forces laid a security ring around Kabul today as dignitaries travelled from around the world for the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s first popularly-elected president.

In the final push, President George Bush and his opponent Senator John Kerry are saying more about less.

DEMOCRAT John Kerry has taken a slight lead over US President George W Bush, according to an Associated Press poll that found him gaining ground with women, boosting his overall popularity and cutting into the president’s advantage on national security.

American Vice President Dick Cheney squared up to his election challenger John Edwards today in their one and only live televised debate.

US President George Bush was tonight ready to call on the American people to send him back to the White House for another term.

President George W. Bush retains an advantage with voters on such qualities as decisiveness and strength of leadership despite the Democrats’ effort to promote John Kerry as a strong leader, a poll has found.

Senator John Kerry has opened narrow leads in Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire and a handful of other battleground state polls since accepting the Democratic nomination, increasing pressure on President George Bush to regain lost ground at the Republican National Convention.

US Presidential candidate John Kerry needs to get real about the political process in Northern Ireland, he was told today.

US president George Bush has opened a slight lead over presidential challenger Senator John Kerry while regaining the confidence of some voters on the economy and other domestic issues, according to a new poll that held a silver lining for Democrats.

The Beastie Boys have devised an online video game for their fans to play - with a strong political slant.