THE US government proposed a third version of its airline passenger pre-screening programme yesterday, stripped of controversial data that had aroused privacy concerns and blocked earlier versions.

A flight from Los Angeles to London was diverted to New York today because of what officials said may have been unfounded fears of a security breach.

US LAW enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago which warned of a possible terror attack in Glasgow against “airport infrastructure or aircraft”, according to reports.

THE US Government is urging Americans to be vigilant about suspicious activity after British police defused a bomb in London’s West End, but officials said they saw no potential terrorist threat in the United States ahead of next week’s Fourth of July holiday.

US authorities are in “close contact” with their UK counterparts over the car bombs discovered in London, the US Department of Homeland Security said today.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he wants to tighten travel rules for Europeans entering the US without visas, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported today.

EVERYBODY travelling to the United States will have to send their details two days in advance for clearance, Michael Chertoff, US Secretary for Homeland Security, told parliamentarians in Brussels.

Black US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been given Secret Service protection amid fears for his safety, a senior law enforcement source said today.

HOMELAND Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday said the world is facing a critical test as it seeks to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, and that there will be no way “to put that genie back in the bottle” if it fails.

Michael Brown, who lost his job as director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because of Hurricane Katrina, today said his biggest regret a year later was that he was not candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

Airline passengers soon will have their names checked against the US “no-fly” list before flights take off for the US, the homeland security chief said.

THE alleged scheme to blow up passenger jets in mid-air was very close to execution and was “in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaida plot”, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.

An alleged scheme to blow up transatlantic passenger jets in mid-air using liquid explosives was in the final stages of planning and bore some of the hallmarks of an al-Qaida plot, US officials said today.

Passengers arriving into the United States from the UK will undergo rigorous inspections after security was heightened in response to the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights.

IN dramatic and sometimes agonising terms, US disaster officials warned US President George W Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach New Orleans's levees.

Unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognising the scope of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local officials, a damning US government investigation says.

THE new acting director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) yesterday pledged to intensify efforts to find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors in shelters.

The new acting director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency today pledged to intensify efforts to find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors now in shelters.

THE Bush administration was yesterday fighting to save face after its botched rescue plans left New Orleans at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina.

US President George Bush today threw more resources at the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast as criticism mounted that a slow response by the government had contributed to the misery of thousands of people in the region.

President George Bush was briefed by senior aides today on the evacuation of three London Tube stations.

US President George Bush has chosen an appeals court judge to be his new Homeland Security chief, turning to a former federal prosecutor who helped craft the early war on terror strategy.