FOR much longer than millennia, islands have been a source of intrigue, writes Dan MacCarthy. Someone gazes out from the mainland wondering: “What is out there?”

A defence lawyer who gained rare access to an ultra-secret section of the Guantanamo Bay prison said yesterday it does not meet international standards under the Geneva Convention.

The man who called himself the “mastermind” of the September 11 attacks, and four comrades, are back before a military judge in Guantanamo Bay to face charges that could lead to their execution.

The Pentagon has said it is ready to resume a trial at Guantanamo Bay for the acknowledged mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four other men.

A grand jury has indicted a Virginia teenager on charges of murder and solicitation to murder over the killing of her DNA scientist father who was stabbed to death with a sword.