The Independent - Americas RSS Feed

Schwarzenegger warns California is almost broke

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:20:00 GMT

Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency yesterday and called the state's politicians into a special session to address California's $11bn (£7.4bn) deficit.

A new dawn of American leadership has arrived, says Obama

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Barack Obama called for a "a new dawn of American leadership" yesterday as he formally introduced his once bitter rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, as his choice for Secretary of State.

Leonard Doyle: Team provides an iron fist for future President's velvet glove

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

With his foreign policy led by Hillary Clinton, who once declared she would "obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel, Barack Obama wants to restore America's credibility in the world, without being accused of being a global community organiser.

Trouble in Trump town as tycoon's fortune dwindles

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

After years as perhaps the most recognisable face of capitalist success and excess, Donald Trump is suddenly bogged down in a string of legal and financial battles across his property and entertainment empire.

Four Christmases defies critics at the box office

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:53:14 GMT

When Reese Witherspoon's new comedy Four Christmases lined up against Nicole Kidman's eagerly-awaited epic Australia at the Thanksgiving holiday weekend box office, virtually every critic in America predicted a bloodbath.

Call for nations to unite to defeat terrorism

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:07:15 GMT

Britain and the United States appealed to Indian and Pakistan today to work together in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Obama names Clinton as Secretary of State

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:58:26 GMT

US President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state.

Betancourt back in Bogota

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The rescued Farc hostage, Ingrid Betancourt, made an unexpected re-appearance in Bogota at the weekend for the first time since her dramatic escape from the ultra-leftist Colombian guerrillas in July. Ms Betancourt, 47 – who denied as recently as Friday that she planned a return to Colombia – appealed for renewed political and diplomatic efforts to free the hundreds of hostages still held by the guerrillas in jungle camps.

Bill takes vow of silence for sake of Hillary's job

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Barack Obama will hold a veto over Bill Clinton's $400,000-a-pop speaking engagements under a detailed legal deal that allows the former president's wife, Hillary Clinton, to become Secretary of State.

Washington plans mass slaughter of America's mustangs

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Wild mustangs, those quintessential symbols of the American West for hundreds of years, are facing their most deadly predator yet: the pen-pushing civil servants of the US Bureau of Land Management.

Hollywood and the Holocaust

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

When Tom Cruise dons his eye patch and steps into the world's multiplexes on Boxing Day as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in the much-anticipated biopic Valkyrie, he will be leading an attack. It's the first of a host of films starring A-list actors that revisit the Nazi era in Germany and show how it has affected subsequent decades.

Can Britney do it again?

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

At last, a "revelation" about Britney Spears that does not involve dodging paparazzi, shaving her head, or having her private life picked over in court: after a nightmare year, American's most volatile young pop star may very well have rediscovered her marbles.

UN forum backs harsh penalties for sex tourists

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:28:49 GMT

Tourists who go abroad to abuse children should face the prospect of prosecution in their home countries if they are caught having sex with kids in nations with lax penalties, participants at a UN-backed conference concluded yesterday.

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:07:33 GMT

A Wal-Mart discount store worker was killed yesterday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5am sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

Castro hopes for meeting with Obama

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Raul Castro, the Cuban leader, has told the actor Sean Penn that he would be willing to meet Barack Obama, the President-elect, after he assumes power in the United States, although he added the encounter should take place in a "neutral location", for instance Guantanamo Bay.

Holy smoke, Batman! Are you dead?

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

For almost 70 years, he's seen off every "baddie" fate has thrown at him, from The Joker and Mr Freeze, to Catwoman and The Riddler. But now Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne, seems to have finally met his match: a middle-aged comic book writer from Glasgow.

Branson backs bid to save Virgin Island mangroves from tourists

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Sir Richard Branson is backing a landmark legal challenge by environmental campaigners against a multimillion-pound luxury leisure complex which threatens to destroy some of the most eco-sensitive mangrove swamps in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the paradise home of the British business tycoon.

US reaction: First international crisis for the President-elect

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The carnage in India served yesterday as an urgent and disturbing reminder to Barack Obama, the US President-elect, that the spectre of foreign terrorism is just as likely to challenge him in his first days in office as are the continuing stumbles of the domestic economy.

Woman found guilty in 'cyber-bully' case

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

A housewife who posed as a teenage boy to send hostile emails to a neighbour's daughter was found guilty yesterday of several minor charges related to the "cyber-bullying" that prompted the girl's suicide.

'Hollywood witch-hunt' claims film boss

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

In the latest episode of Hollywood's biggest witch-hunt since the era of McCarthyism, the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival has resigned over revelations that he helped to fund the campaign to outlaw gay marriage in California.

Woman faces jail after guilty verdicts in 'cyber-bully' case

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Former CIA man pulls out of running for Obama job

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

A CIA veteran of the "war on terror" who was being lined up to run the US spy agency, has abruptly withdrawn his name from consideration for the Obama administration.

World Focus: Guantanamo and Obama's human rights conundrum

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Spare a thought for Osama bin Laden's driver, the Guantanamo Bay inmate who has been set free after years of imprisonment and is to be returned to his native Yemen to serve out the remaining month of a five-and-a-half-year sentence.

British wins at the Emmys bode well for bigger gongs

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

In what the moustache-twirling David Suchet declared was "an unbelievable night for the Brits", the BBC gained a much-needed shot in the arm as it helped home-grown broadcasters sweep a virtually unprecedented seven of the 10 prizes at this year's International Emmy Awards.

Obama plans massive economic rescue package

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:40:03 GMT

President-elect Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are laying the groundwork for quick enactment in January of a giant, two-year economic rescue package that will total about a half-trillion dollars.