The White House said it was “deeply disappointed” at a UK Appeal Court ruling that revealed intelligence relating to torture allegations in the case of a former Guantanamo detainee.

The Nigerian accused of the Christmas Day airline bomb attack has been co-operating with investigators and providing fresh intelligence in multiple terrorism investigations, senior US sources said.

Al-Qaida can be expected to attempt an attack on America in the next three to six months, intelligence chiefs told the US Congress.

America's intelligence chief made a blunder of his own after he admitted top-level errors over the handling of the Christmas Day plane bomb attempt.

The September 11 terrorist attacks would not have happened had US intelligence agencies been organised in 2001 the way they are now, the top US intelligence official has said.

JAPAN gave its military the green light yesterday to shoot down any incoming North Korean rocket, with tensions high ahead of a planned launch that the US and allies say will be an illegal missile test.

North Korea is loading a Taepodong rocket on its east coast launch pad in anticipation of the launch of a communications satellite early next month, US officials said today.

US President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners, according to two US officials familiar with drafts of the plans.

US President-elect Barack Obama highlighted alarming new US unemployment figures to urge the passage of his nearly $800bn (€595bn) economic recovery plan through Congress amid resistance from within his own party.

US president-elect Barack Obama signalled a clean break from Bush administration policies with surprising appointments for the top intelligence jobs, according to Democrat sources.

This is a partial list of passengers and a complete list of crew for American Airlines Flight 587 which crashed in New York yesterday, killing all those on board.

The United States has demanded the speedy return of the US spy plane being held in China.

In a tense stand-off with China, US President George W Bush demanded the prompt return of 24 crew members of a US Navy spy plane and the release of their crippled plane ‘‘without further damaging or tampering.’’

A collision between a United States Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet was blamed by a top US officer today on a ‘‘pattern of increasingly unsafe behaviour’’ by China’s military in the South China Sea.