Encouraged by someone whose name I won't reveal, I placed a few quid on Tiger Woods to win the Accenture World Match Play at Tucson, Arizona, which reaches its climax today.

A number of hard questions will be asked at Twickenham this evening, not least at the front of the scrum, but let's start at the beginning.

A jury has sentenced the leader of an anti-immigrant group to death for the murder of a young girl and her father, in what prosecutors said was an attempt to steal drug money to fund the group's activities.

A motorist aged 84 spent five days stranded in the Arizona desert after getting lost while driving home.

A former beautician turned self-appointed border vigilante has been found guilty of murdering a nine-year-old girl and her father after bursting into their home in search of drug money to finance her group's operations.

His predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, drew the mockery of many by referring to himself as "America's Mayor". And now Michael Bloomberg, New York's incumbent leader, has made his own controversial move on to the national stage – by sending undercover operatives to investigate illegal gun sales on the other side of the country.

The state of Arizona is returning to the front line of the simmering debate over immigration after local politicians unveiled a plan to scrap the law requiring all children born on American soil to be classified as US citizens.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been taken from intensive care to a rehabilitation hospital in Houston, an encouraging step that came after doctors upgraded her condition from serious to good.

Barack Obama's State of the Union address, with its plea for bipartisanship and sober analysis of the problems facing the country, staked out the terrain for his 2012 bid for re-election bid, which – right now at least – he looks odds-on to secure.

The suspect in the shooting of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords pleaded not guilty in court, the 22-year-old's first response to the charges.

Jared Loughner, the man accused of killing six people during an assassination attempt against US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is due in court for a second appearance, but officials say it could take years for the case to progress through the courts.