Czech politician and playwright Havel passes on

Vaclav Havel, the playwright who wove theatre into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia, has died.

Rumsfeld warns on effort to prosecute Bush abroad

Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary under George Bush, says that attempts to prosecute the ex-president are a misguided response to US public policy.

Rumsfeld defends handling of Iraq War in new book

Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld concludes in his new autobiography the war in Iraq has been worth the cost, a newspaper reports.

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld memoirs reveal internal battles

Upcoming accounts could offer new insights on issues ranging from Iraq and Guantánamo to Hurricane Katrina.

Lame-duck Bush back in the limelight

It has been a busy week for United States President George Bush. He has shuttled across the country, faced a barrage of questions from a hounding press pack and made some tough spending decisions. But the focus of the action was not a bold new policy initiative. Instead, the dramatic upsurge of media interest has been because of the wedding of his daughter.

US memo authorised extreme interrogation methods

A newly declassified 2003 Justice Department memo gave United States military interrogators broad authority to use extreme methods in questioning al-Qaeda detainees, US media said on Wednesday. The memo argued that the US president's wartime authority exempted them from laws banning cruel treatment.

Obama jumps into the lead in New Hampshire

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton battled to keep crucial New Hampshire from swinging to rising rival Barack Obama on Sunday but new polls showed him jumping into the lead. In the hotly contested Republican race, Arizona Senator John McCain leaped ahead of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney even as Romney tried to raise doubts about McCain.

Anger as library makes exhibition of Bush

A series of six black-and-white prints on display in an unassuming corner of the New York Public Library have sparked controversy on the airwaves and blogosphere quite out of keeping with the dark, marble-lined corridor in which they are hung. The prints show the mugshots of main members of the Bush administration.

How intelligence expert rewrote book on Iran

The intelligence came from an exotic variety of sources: there was the so-called Laptop of Death; there was the Iranian commander who mysteriously disappeared in Turkey. But pivotal to the United States investigation into Iran's suspect nuclear-weapons programme was the work of a little-known intelligence specialist, Thomas Fingar.

New blow to Bush as Gonzales resigns

United States President George Bush finally lost his battle to hang on to the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on Monday after months of unremitting congressional pressure over a series of scandals that included the firing of nine state prosecutors, wire tapping and torture. Bush blamed the Democrats, accusing them of dragging a decent and talented man through the mud.

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