A federal judge ruled today that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is competent to stand trial on terrorism-support charges, rejecting arguments that he was severely damaged by three and a half years of interrogation and isolation in a military brig.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with a plot to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and other targets, the FBI said.

US President George Bush said today the US-led global war on terror has “weakened and fractured” al-Qaida and allied groups, outlining as proof new details about the multinational cooperation that foiled terrorist plans to fly a commercial aeroplane into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast of the US.

Jose Padilla, the alleged al-Qaida operative held as an “enemy combatant” for more than three years, was en route to Miami tonight to face charges that he was part of a US terror cell that recruited fighters and raised money for global Islamic holy war.

Two men awaiting trial on charges of recruiting soldiers for worldwide radical Islamic holy war were today ordered to remain in solitary confinement after prosecutors said they could continue spreading Muslim extremism if allowed into the regular jail population.

A former Chicago gang member held as an al-Qaida suspect for two years, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States in addition to planning an attack with a “dirty bomb” radiological device, the US government said today.

The CIA has used harsh interrogation techniques against high-level al-Qaida figures, including forcibly submerging them under water until they fear they will drown, it was reported today.

PRESIDENT George W Bush has overstepped his authority since the September 11 attacks by jailing American citizens suspected of links to terrorism and denying them access to lawyers and courts, an attorney for a US-born terrorism suspect told the Supreme Court yesterday.

The US Supreme Court agreed today to decide whether the constitution forbids the Bush administration from holding American citizens indefinitely and without access to lawyers or courts when they are suspected of being “enemy combatants.”

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.

President George Bush does not have power to detain an American citizen seized on US soil as an enemy combatant, an appeals court ruled today.

A US Army Islamic chaplain who counselled al Qaida prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba has been detained as part of a military investigation, officials said.

A US Army Islamic chaplain who counselled al-Qaida prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba has been detained as part of a military investigation, officials said.

THE arrest of alleged al-Qaida operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could speed up terrorist attacks in the US that are in the planning stages, the FBI has warned.

NEARLY 100 terrorist attacks, some intended to take place on US soil, have been thwarted since September 11, 2001, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller. But he warned that many potential terrorists remain at large in the United States.

An al-Qaeda suspect plotting to detonate a potentially devastating 'dirty' radioactive bomb in America has been arrested.