Secret documents about detainees at Guantanamo Bay reveal new information about some of the men the US believes to be terrorists, according to reports about the files.

George W Bush faced international condemnation tonight of his claim that British lives were saved as a result of torture.

The US government today defended the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, saying it is legal - not torture, as critics argue - and has saved American lives.

CIA director Michael Hayden, testifying in secret before the US Senate Intelligence Committee, failed to answer key questions about the destruction of secret videotapes showing harsh interrogation of terror suspects, the panel’s chairman said.

The extreme interrogation method used on a top al-Qaida captive was approved at the top levels of the US government, a former CIA agent claimed today.

The CIA has admitted it destroyed video tapes showing the interrogation of two terror suspects by the American intelligence agency.

European governments have built “a wall of silence” around accusations that they let the CIA abduct their residents and run clandestine prisons on their territory, a European investigator said today.

Poland and Romania have denied allegations that the CIA ran secret jails in the two countries to interrogate key terror suspects.

The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate high-level detainees in its war on terror, a Council of Europe report said today.

The US military is planning to build a $125 million (€97m) compound to hold war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Some of the best-known terror suspects in US custody are heading for prosecution after president George Bush signed a bill intended to put US treatment of detainees in compliance with international law.

US president George Bush finally acknowledged that the CIA ran secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the US and its allies, including Britain.

JORDAN is the homeland of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and has previously arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to carry out attacks in the moderate Arab kingdom.

Al-Qaida has lost its ability to launch co-ordinated attacks following the arrests in Pakistan of several top figures, a government minister said today.

The CIA is interrogating senior al-Qaida operatives at a secret detention centre in Jordan, an Israeli newspaper reported today, citing international intelligence sources.

VITAL information gained from the arrests of a senior al-Qaida terrorist and a militant computer expert highlights the progress Pakistan is making in the fight against terrorism.

PAKISTAN has arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect wanted by the United States in the dual 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said last night.

Pakistani agents staged a pre-dawn raid at an apartment complex today and arrested seven suspected foreign members of the al-Qaida terror group who had been living there for two months.

US FEDERAL courts dealt a double blow to the Bush administration’s strategy in the war on terror yesterday, ruling that the US military cannot deny prisoners access to lawyers or the American courts by detaining them indefinitely.

US officials believe they have identified a young former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida’s new chief of terror operations in the Gulf.

US investigators now believe that a hijacker in the cockpit aboard United Airlines Flight 93 instructed terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the jetliner into a field in Pennsylvania because of a passenger uprising in the cabin.

US authorities were yesterday interrogating the newly-captured chief of al-Qaida operations in the Persian Gulf.

Al-Qaida leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the network's chief of operations in the Gulf, has been captured according to senior US government officials.

MOHAMED ATTA, the lead September 11 hijacker, met Osama bin Laden at an Afghan training camp in December 1999, it was reported yesterday.

Moroccan authorities have arrested a senior al-Qaida recruiter known as "The Bear".

Several weeks before September 11, an FBI agent linked several students at Arizona flight schools to a London-based Muslim sheik who had received a letter from Osama bin Laden encouraging the downing of airliners, officials said.

Islamic terrorists are planning an attack on a US nuclear power plant to coincide with the July 4 Independence Day celebrations, it was reported today.

The FBI has warned its agents about unconfirmed information that al Qaida may be planning to attack supermarkets or shopping centres in the United States.

A senior al-Qaida commander arrested in Pakistan last month has reportedly told his US interrogators that the terrorist network has the capability to build a “dirty” nuclear bomb.

US special forces are planning a second raid inside Pakistan in a new bid to seize Osama bin Laden, it was reported today.

The White House has confirmed that troops have captured one of the key members of al-Qaida.

The capture of Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida’s most senior commander, is one of the most significant developments in the war on terrorism, experts said.

Pakistani authorities have handed over to the United States a man thought to be the biggest catch yet in the war on terrorism.

Pakistan has handed over to US authorities about 20 Arabs arrested last week in raids on suspected al Qaida hideouts, a senior intelligence official said today.

The Pentagon says al-Qaida would fragment if Osama bin Laden were killed.

Evidence is growing that Osama bin Laden is hiding in the White Mountains south of Jalalabad.

The CIA intercepted a message from an al-Qaida member boasting of plans to carry out a "Hiroshima" on America, it was revealed today.

A man alleged to be a key member of an Osama bin Laden cell which was set to unleash mayhem in Europe has admitted that he recruited followers at mosques in Britain.

A key member of an Osama bin Laden cell which was set to unleash mayhem in Europe, today admitted that he recruited followers at mosques in Britain.