BEN CARSON

Hundreds of protesters pack arena at University of Illinois, leading to isolated physical confrontations.

Republican presidential hopeful withdraws from campaign trail after string of poor primary results.

Long-shot candidate Ben Carson announced on 2 March that he would not participate in the debate.

The debate will be held days ahead of several primaries and caucuses on 5 March.

Democrats will face off in 17 states, while Republicans will battle in 15 states in March.

Trump widened his delegate lead among his rivals, getting him a step closer to winning the GOP nomination.

Voters in 14 states will head to the polls or will caucus to choose their party's nominee for president.

There are 565 delegates up for grabs in the SEC Primary on 1 March.

Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina all dropped out after outperforming Carson.

Two other polls released in the last two days, however, show Trump clearly in the lead.

Retired neurosurgeon confused an internet meme with a real quote from Russia's dictator.

Cruz crows that media won't pick candidate as Hillary welcomes battle with Sanders.

IBTimes UK looks at the main Republican candidates for the 2016 US presidential election.

Even in boycotting a debate with his Republican rivals, front runner Donald Trump managed to upstage them.

For the second year in a row, the top awards have all white nominees.

Two other student volunteers and a campaign staffer were also hospitalised following the accident.

The incident occurred during the presidential candidate's visit to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Republican presidential candidate also announced a flat tax plan on 4 January.

Carson has gone from nearly surpassing Donald Trump to scrambling to fix his campaign.

The top nine GOP candidates will face off in the final debate of 2015, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

The final Republican debate of 2015 will air live on CNN on 15 December.