Gabrielle Giffords gives her first television interview since being shot in the head

Paid leave and open primaries put forward to encourage better mix of parliamentary candidates

The failure of the New York futures brokerMF Global has impacted on an already struggling constituent of the no pain, no gain portfolio. A few weeks before the US group went belly-up, Patsystems warned shareholders they would have to be content with only a "modest profit" this year as sales of its derivativesoftware had suffered withdealers and others delaying – or reducing – their need for cutting edge technology.

Steven Seagal killed my puppy. So says Jesus Sanchez Llovera, an Arizona man whose home was raided by armed detectives filming a reality TV programme in which the veteran actor works as a volunteer police officer.

More than 2,000 weapons were allowed to 'walk' from Texas and Arizona gun shops during the operation

America's firearms watchdog allowed weapons to flow in, failed to catch ringleaders, then tried a cover-up

Welcome to Arizona; please shoot carefully. And if you really want to blend in with God-fearing locals, you may also want to be in possession of a cowboy hat, a sunburned neck, and at least one revolver, tucked into the waistband of your denim trousers.

Three months since she was shot in Tucson, the senator is ready to appear in public to wave off her astronaut husband

It was fun while it lasted, but the state of Arizona's stint on the front line of right-wing Republicanism appeared to be over yesterday, after its Governor vetoed new laws dealing with two of the great obsessions of the Tea Party movement: the right to bear arms, and the question of whether Barack Obama was actually born in the US.

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.