China has condemned America’s “short-sighted” political wrangling over the country’s debt after the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US government’s AAA rating in the wake of this week’s budget deal. S&P’s move last night is the clearest indication yet that the deal agreed between President Obama and Congress to cut the US deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over ten years was considered insufficient by Wall Street to address America’s economic woes and Washington’s apparent inability to deal with them. S&P, which has had a negative outlook on the US since April 18 and which repeated its negative warning on July 14, had said that it wanted a deficit reduction of at least $4 trillion. China, which holds more than $1 trillion of US debt, today issued a stinging warning in a commentary released through the state Xinhua n

A US special forces squad including 22 Navy Seals from the elite unit which assassinated Osama bin Laden were killed today when their helicopter was apparently brought down by a Taleban rocket during a firefight with insurgents in Afghanistan. The men, from Seal Team Six, were among 38 passengers who died when the Chinook crashed, marking the single deadliest day for foreign troops since the war began in 2001. Seven Afghan commandos, three US air force controllers, a dog and his handler and a civilian interpreter aboard the aircraft were also killed, along with the helicopter’s crew, who belonged to the US air force’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, well placed US military sources said. The Taleban quickly claimed responsibility and senior Washington officials later said that the twin-rotor Chinook CH-47 helicopter had apparently been sh