US President George Bush was left weakened and more isolated than at any time in his presidency by Tuesday’s Democratic ‘thumping’ of Republicans.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been the square-jawed face of war, the man behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he predicted were just the beginnings of a long, hard slog.

Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 after an upset victory in Virginia.

US midterm election results that heralded a massive power shift in the American political landscape, capped by the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, were widely greeted with jubilation around the world, with many expressing variations on the same sentiment: it’s about time.

Speaker Dennis Hastert told fellow Republicans today he does not intend to run for minority leader when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January, officials said.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defence secretary today, one day after congressional elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican party losses.

US Democrats erased the Republican Senate majority today with a cliff-hanger victory in Montana, hours after taking control of the House.

Set to become the US' first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi says Democrats are "ready to lead" in partnership with Republicans, "not in partisanship".

The Government is backing US president George Bush’s war machine by facilitating the stopover of US troops at Shannon, it was claimed in the Dáil today.

Keith Ellison, a Democratic state politician and lawyer, has become the first Muslim elected to the US Congress.

The Democrats’ successes in the US mid-term elections represent “a dramatic and wholesale rejection of those who have led the United States into a blood-soaked quagmire in Iraq”, Scottish Nationalist Party leader Alex Salmond said today.

Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed a second term as California Governor with a decisive victory over Democrat Phil Angelides.

The Democratic victory in the US elections was seen in Asia as a well-deserved rejection of the war in Iraq, but was not expected to have a major impact on American foreign policy.

Resigned to Democratic control of the House, US President George Bush struck a businesslike tone and made plans to call the woman poised to become speaker of a Democratic House majority.

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton readied a New York state-wide victory tour today after romping to re-election – a political milestone that bolstered her status as the Democratic front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Democrats won control of the US House of Representatives early today after a dozen years of Republican rule in a resounding repudiation of a war, a president and a scandal-scarred Congress.

Republicans today struggled to prevent a Democratic takeover of the US Senate after losing Republican-held seats in Ohio, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

As the first polls closed in the US elections, Republican Harold Rogers and Democrat Ben Chandler easily won re-election in Kentucky to the House of Represntatives.

Allegations of voter intimidation and problems with electronic voting machines hampered the crucial US midterm elections today as Americans went to the polls in the battle for control of Congress.

Republican control of Congress was on the line today in a US election coloured by voters’ dismay over the Iraq war and misbehaviour in Washington.

Former US President Bill Clinton hit the election campaign trail today to urge Americans to vote for Senator John Kerry.

President George W. Bush has taken a lead over Democrat John Kerry among key groups such as Catholics and those with a high school education – largely because of voter doubts about Kerry, a poll suggests.

President George W Bush, his Vietnam-era military service the subject of dispute, today said he was proud of his stint in the Air National Guard and told members strained by today’s wars that he was trying to make their lives easier.

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

The man challenging George Bush for the White House, Senator John Kerry, arrived tonight in Boston where his followers are gathered for the pre-election Democratic National Convention.

US public opinion of President George Bush’s handling of issues such as the economy and the war on terrorism is near the low point of his presidency, but rival John Kerry has been unable to capitalise on Bush’s slide, a poll found.

US President George W Bush’s re-election campaign commercials have angered several relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks.

US Senator John Edwards formally ended his pursuit of the Democratic nomination, pledging to “do everything in my power” to help John Kerry win the White House.

Howard Dean has formally announced that he is “no longer actively pursuing the presidency”.

President George Bush and his party were today sketching an agenda for a new, Republican-controlled US Congress, after their historic mid-term election victory.

US TV news opted to be safe, not sorry, in covering the election results.

George Bush's Republican Party has won control of the US senate.

Republicans appear to be headed toward extending their eight-year control of the House of Representatives.

Republicans and Democrats battled for control of Congress today in mid-term US elections clouded by terrorism, the threat of war and a shaky economy, with voters marking ballots for governor from Maine to California.