The diaries of former US president Ronald Reagan – described as the most detailed presidential record in American history – have been unveiled.

CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly today, pushed from the helm of a spy agency still reeling from intelligence failures before America’s worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the US rationale for invading Iraq.

THE body of former US President Ronald Reagan, escorted by Nancy Reagan and his children, began its journey to the capital, Washington, yesterday for national memorial services.

President Mary McAleese is to fly to America tomorrow to attend the funeral of Ronald Reagan in Washington DC.

AS TENS of thousands of Americans were paying their respects at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, a group of dissenting voices were making themselves heard.

POWERFUL Santa Ana winds kicked up before dawn yesterday, driving a ferocious firestorm that had already burned at least 200 homes onto a path toward more neighbourhoods.

Powerful winds drove two ferocious firestorms that had already burned more than 200 homes into dozens more houses in California today.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has admitted he was surprised by the effectiveness of Saddam Hussein’s loyalists to sustain the Iraq conflict long after the end of major combat operations.

Ronald Reagan, who has been in seclusion since disclosing in 1994 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, celebrated his 92nd birthday yesterday at his California home with wife Nancy.

Ronald Reagan is able to sit up in a chair a day after undergoing surgery to repair a hip he fractured in a fall.