Most governments around the world reacted to the news of George Bush’s re-election on Sunday with a diplomatic straight bat. France, Germany and other European countries pledged to work with the new administration, while there were typically divided views in the Middle East.

Lawyers from both presidential campaigns arrived in Ohio on Wednesday morning to find that weeks of preparations for a legal battle over provisional ballots were redundant after the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, conceded the race. The state remained Kerry’s last chance to clinch the presidency on election night.

There are no great expectations in Washington that a second-term Bush administration will have a radically different complexion from the first term. George Bush values loyalty and prefers to stick to a tried and tested team. However, after four years in office, much of it at war, some of his Cabinet are anxious to move on.

Crucial evidence for the forthcoming trials of Saddam Hussein and other senior Iraqi officials is likely to have been lost or tainted because United States-led forces have failed to safeguard official documents and the remains of victims in mass graves, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch says in a report out on Thursday.

President George Bush on Wednesday promised to reunite the United States as he declared victory in a bitterly fought presidential election and laid claim to the popular mandate that eluded him four years ago. ”America has spoken,” the president said.