Hollywood actor George Clooney and several members of Congress were arrested on Friday after refusing to comply with police requests to leave the Sudanese embassy as they protested against the violence in South Kordofan.
The US congresswoman who was shot in the head at an Arizona rally in January last year submitted her resignation on Wednesday. Gabrielle Giffords, whose remarkable recovery stirred America, received a standing ovation from her colleagues.
US President Barack Obama called for greater economic fairness in his annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The president also called on Congress to invest more in education and clean energy.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner gets a needling after caving in on the payroll tax. Plus, Europe's debt crisis could be heading Washington's way. And, miserabilitis gone mental - economic woes mean some people are scrapping Christmas altogether in a bid to tighten the belt. Bah, humbug. That's the focus for this Friday, 23rd December 2011.
Douglas Herbert meets Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute. They talk about American politics. Confronted with Healthcare Reform and with last summer's debt ceiling crisis is America's government broken ?
The United States Congress is to begin debate on a controversial new bill that proposes dramatic changes to content copyright enforcement. The Stop Online Piracy Act, known as 'SOPA', calls for internet service providers to closely monitor all of the content that is transmitted across their network and to report suspected copyright infringements. Critics contend that this amounts to a new form of censorship while supporters argue it is the best way to protect the rights of copyright-holders.
It's Thanksgiving in the United States, but millions of Americans will be hard pushed to find much to be grateful for this year - 9% of the population is out of work. Meanwhile in Washington, it's deadlock as usual. The so-called congressional "super-committee" has missed a deadline on an agreement to reduce the country's record national debt. This means across the board spending cuts will take effect.
A plan to avert a US debt default and slash government spending has been signed into law by President Obama, but no one in Washington is claiming outright victory after months of bruising negotiations.
US President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan deal on raising the debt ceiling into law on Tuesday, soon after the Senate approved the measure and just hours ahead of a midnight deadline that would have triggered an unprecedented US default.
A bipartisan deal that would raise the $14.3 trillion limit on US debt is expected to pass a final vote in the Senate on Tuesday, just hours before a midnight deadline would have triggered an unprecedented US default.
