Partisan gridlock in Washington has triggered a partial shutdown of the US government, with Republicans and Democrats failing to agree a deal to keep federal agencies funded past a midnight deadline.
With no budget, the US government will have no choice but to send hundreds of thousands of federal workers on unpaid leave, affecting agencies as varied as the Justice Department, Nasa, the National Parks Service and the Pentagon in the first shutdown in nearly two decades .... http://www.independent.co.uk
