Former US homeland security secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of George Bush’s Cabinet to raise the US terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.

Al-Qaida today posted a video showing what it claimed to be an attack by its fighters seizing a US-Afghan post in southern Afghanistan, in what experts said was a step-up in the terror group’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda.

US President George Bush today praised the security forces who shot dead al-Qaida's second-in-command in Iraq.

US defence officials in Washington today confirmed that Abu Azzam, a leading deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq, has been killed.

An internet statement released by the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades militant group claimed responsibility for today’s rocket attacks in Jordan and Israel.

A group citing ties to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for today’s Sharm El Sheikh bombings that killed at least 62 people, according to a statement posted on an Islamic website.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared today that their people would stop all violent attacks against each other, pledging to break a four year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.

EGYPT yesterday freed an Israeli Arab businessman convicted of spying in exchange for Israel’s release of six Egyptian students, a deal that signalled a warming of relations between the two countries.

Egypt today released an Israeli man convicted of spying, as part of a prisoner swap that signalled a warming of relations between the two countries, Israeli officials said.

A MAN describing himself as an American member of al-Qaida warned on a video broadcast yesterday that the US will be attacked “at any moment” and “the streets will run red with blood.”

The death toll from the Sinai resort blasts continued to rise today after an attack on a luxury hotel blamed on al-Qaida.

THE toppling and trial of Saddam Hussein could have “enormous repercussions” for other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, an expert said yesterday.

The toppling and trial of Saddam Hussein could have “enormous repercussions” for other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, an expert on the region said today.

ISRAEL’S cabinet yesterday voted to release several hundred Palestinian prisoners, a move that could help push forward a US-backed peace plan.

Israel’s Cabinet voted today to release groups of Palestinian prisoners – but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the release would be conditional on a Palestinian crackdown against militant groups.

Thousands of mourners have attended the funerals today of six people killed in internal Palestinian fighting.

Twenty-five high-powered sniper rifles were sent by the United States Government 12 years ago to a group of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan that included Osama bin Laden, according to court testimony and the guns’ maker.