Obama unveils $50bn US infrastructure package

US President Barack Obama has unveiled a $50bn infrastructure spending package aimed at reviving the faltering American economy and cutting the country's mounting unemployment.

Obama says the six-year investment will revamp ageing roads, lay and maintain railways and upgrade airport runways. While the programme will not create jobs immediately, the President says the package will bring a significant number of people back to the workforce. Speaking in Milwaukee on Labor Day, Obama says no area of the workforce has been hit harder during the recession than the country's construction workers. "It doesn't do anybody any good when so many hardworking Americans have been idled for months, even years, at a time when there is so much of America that needs rebuild...