Rick Santorum overwhelmingly won the Kansas presidential caucuses, hoping to blunt front-runner Mitt Romney's momentum in the grinding campaign for the nomination to oppose President Barack Obama in the November election.

Victory in Maine caucus is overshadowed by a clumsy attempt to woo the Republican right

Out of America: The Republican frontrunner can't seem to win over the party faithful

A teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a nine-year-old neighbour because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced to life in prison yesterday.

A stunning mutiny by evangelical and conservative Republicans punctured the tyres of the supposed frontrunner Mitt Romney in last night’s trio of nomination contests and instead gave a sudden and barely expected jolt of adrenalin to the staunch social conservative in the race, Rick Santorum.

He looked less like a contender for the US Presidency, and more like a combination of Comical Ali, the Iraqi PR minister famed for declarations of impending victory in the jaws of catastrophic defeat, and the finger-jabbing Kevin Keegan who once said: “we’re still fighting, and I tell you, I’ll love it if we beat them... love it!”

The backlash against two bills aimed at stopping online copyright infringement gathered pace last night, as eight US lawmakers announced they had decided to withdraw support for the measures.

Support for new web laws recedes after backlash on the internet

Maybe that devout Catholic, Richard M Daley, had a point, apropos of the corruption for which his home town and state are legendary. "Look at our Lord's disciples," Chicago's former mayor, who attended Mass daily, once declared. "One denied Him, one doubted Him and one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government?"

The jailing of Rod Blagojevich marks a new low point in Chicago's murky political history

Biggest TV audience in 10 years for the final match of the World Series caps a fabulous season which proves the grand old game of America has emerged from its darkest days

Supporters of a man convicted of murder in large part based on the dreams of a witness at trial are nursing fragile hopes that a hearing in a US court today will be a step towards his eventual exoneration.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $4.9 million to charity in 2009.

Fiona Talkington, Radio 3 presenter and champion of Norwegian music, on the sounds she fell in love with.