Sen. Mitch McConnell returns to senate after 3-month absence

In the US, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returned to the Senate in a wheelchair to vote on Monday for the first time in three months, after he was hospitalised for a June fall in his home.

McConnell's lengthy absence from the Senate generated a flood of criticism and online speculation, as he initially remained quiet for weeks about his condition.

The 84-year-old senator eventually disclosed a month later that he had been "briefly unconscious", due to the fall, and had also been treated for mild pneumonia in the hospital.

McConnell, who holds the distinction of being the longest-serving Senate leader, is in his final months of his four decades in office.

He is retiring at the end of January after one of the most consequential careers in modern politics.