Preliminary results of a post-mortem examination confirm that US country music star Mindy McCready’s death was suicide, authorities in Arkansas said today.

POLICE were struggling yesterday to explain why a man described as a loner drove more than 50km to Arkansas’ Democratic Party headquarters and fatally shot its chairman — a close friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton — hours after getting fired from his job.

US death row inmate Eric Nance was executed by injection early today following a 90 minute delay so US Supreme Court judges could consider separate claims that he was mentally retarded and that additional DNA testing might clear his name.

A killer who refused to appeal because it would bring more torment to the families of his five victims has been executed in Arkansas.