The visit of Barack Obama's number two to New Zealand will be a family affair.

Kurt Sonnenfeld is on the run. He says the US government wants to keep him quiet about what he saw on 9/11.

Lydia DePillis asks if all the secrecy around the Trans-Pacific Partnership is really worth the price.

Hillary Clinton has fallen silent on the TPP, an interesting departure from her statements as the nation's top diplomat.

Atriumphant Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be on a new collision course with Barack Obama after the US President bluntly restated his belief in a Palestinian state and criticised the Israeli leader's election campaign tactics.

Hillary Clinton has attempted to defuse a growing crisis over her controversial use of a private email account while Secretary of State, explaining that she had opted not to use a government email address as a "matter of convenience".

Mark Carney has blasted Donald Trump in his first speech as Canada's Prime Minister. Video / Liberal Party of Canada

Saudi officials deny they blurred out US First Lady Michelle Obama, but her decision not to wear a headscarf, and don blue, not black at the late King's funeral, is controversial.

A military couple who planned to get married on a Hawaii golf course had to move their ceremony at 24 hours' notice when United States President Barack Obama decided he wanted to play a round, it has emerged.

Assumptions that President Barack Obama was a lame duck, counting down his last quarter after Republicans seized Congress, were confounded by several White House coups.

Whoa, this can't be right. Guys, guys, guys - this isn't the end. It feels like the lights have just come on in the theatre just when I was settling down to my popcorn...

CIA director John Brennan is acknowledging that agency officers did "abhorrent" things to captive terror suspects, and he says he can't prove the harsh treatment made the prisoners cooperate.

The police shooting of an unarmed black man has sparked another potential flashpoint in the United States.

A billion-dollar class-action lawsuit over Apple's iPods heads to trial after nearly a decade in legal wrangling.

The Waldorf Astoria sale to a Chinese buyer is likely to spark a national security review to assess potential spying risks.

A stoic President Barack Obama attempted a steady and conciliatory tone yesterday after a rout in Wednesday's midterm elections that saw Republicans crush his party's hopes.

The coalition of young and minority voters that handed President Barack Obama both of his election victories failed to show up for the Democrats in the US midterms as Republicans celebrated their first black female member of Congress.

A New York newspaper has apologised after it referred to US President Barack Obama as a “n*****” in one of its headlines.

New forensic imaging techniques are being used to solve the mystery of the final resting place of Amelia Earhart, whose plane vanished over the Pacific in 1937.

Tim Draper has been identified as the winning bidder for a cache of 29,656 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road website and auctioned off by the US govt.

The CIA and other spy agencies are scrambling to close intelligence gaps as they seek to support possible military or covert action against ISIS.

Computer users have been warned to take urgent action to protect themselves from a cyber virus pandemic, with up to a million computers in 12 countries infected since 2011.

President Barack Obama poked fun at the press, his political rivals and his own healthcare policy, as he spoke at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

As a former leader of the free world George W Bush had significantly greater access to world leaders than other budding artists. Which is why his art is so, er, surprising.

The web may be thought of as being worldwide, but from its inception the internet was created, controlled and overseen largely by a single country: the United States.