Children eager to track Santa Claus on his annual Christmas Eve journey to homes across the world can download a new mobile app thanks to a military aerospace agency.

The annual US defence department’s Santa-tracking operation broke its own records for phone calls, emails and Facebook and Twitter followers on Christmas Eve.

As all intelligent children know, Santa Claus and his team of toy elves work tirelessly throughout the year from their secret base at the North Pole.

As well as watching for a nuclear missile attack, America’s air defence body is tracking Santa’s Christmas Eve flight for the 55th year.

A vapour trail resembling a missile launch that crossed the skies off the Southern California coast has left US defence chiefs baffled.

Canadian fighter jets escorted a Cathay Pacific plane from Hong Kong to a safe landing in Vancouver International Airport following a bomb threat.

A software engineer , furious with the US Internal Revenue Service, crashed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees today, officials said.

US defence chiefs said today that they are monitoring the movements of two Russian submarines patrolling off the east coast of America.

INDIA will set up an aerospace defence command to shield itself against possible attacks from outer space, officials said.

American and Canadian fighter planes were launched to intercept a pair of Russian bombers after the bombers came close to Alaska while conducting an exercise, military officials said yesterday.

North Korea fired a flurry of missiles into the sea today in what was widely seen as a bid to pressure Washington into addressing demands for economic aid and other concessions amid a long-running nuclear stand-off.

Radars, satellites, cameras and jet fighters normally dedicated to detecting any threats against the US and Canada were being used today to “track” Santa Claus in his global Christmas Eve travels.

Blindsided by terrorists and beset by poor communications, US officials were so slow to react on September 11, 2001, that the last of four hijacked planes had crashed by the time Vice President Dick Cheney ordered hostile aircraft shot down.

Plagued by miscommunication and confusion, the Pentagon’s air-defence command missed an opportunity to possibly intercept at least one of the hijacked planes on September 11, the federal panel reviewing the attacks said today.

COULD military jet fighters, the final line of defence, have stopped or lessened the destruction on September 11, 2001, by shooting down airliners aimed at some of the nation's best-known buildings?

US Air Force fighter jets were scrambled today to intercept a privately owned plane that flew too close to the White House.

A 15-year-old student pilot who crashed a light aircraft into a 42-storey Florida skyscraper was being pursued by a Coast Guard helicopter and two military jets for flying without permission, officials said tonight.

A passenger plane was turned back to Los Angeles escorted by US Air Force jet fighters after a passenger allegedly uttered an anti-American threat during a confrontation with flight attendants.

Fighter jets were eight minutes away from one of the hijacked airliners when it crashed into the World Trade Centre, it was revealed today.

A bomb threat against a Virgin Airlines jumbo jet with 314 people aboard caused four Canadian jet fighters to escort the flight to an unscheduled landing yesterday in Newfoundland.

Aircraft carriers and guided missile destroyers moved into the waters near New York and Washington after President George Bush placed the US military on its highest alert status.