The US military has launched an investigation into claims that American forces shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three year-old-girl, shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US Marine in a western Iraqi town.

The Hamas militant group won local elections in the West Bank’s largest cities, according to preliminary results released today, dealing a harsh blow to the ruling Fatah party just six weeks ahead of a parliamentary poll.

The ruling Fatah movement chose interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate for January’s presidential election last night, but Fatah rebels said they would challenge the decision.

Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian uprising leader seen as a successor to Yasser Arafat, faces life in an Israeli prison after being was convicted today of ordering shootings that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk.

A Moroccan student was today convicted of being an accessory in the murder of more than 3,000 September 11 victims and helping support the Hamburg-based terror cell.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the army to ease restrictions on Palestinians amid increasing signs of popular resistance to Israel’s five-week occupation of major West Bank towns.

Jewish settlers began attacking Palestinians today as they returned home from the funeral of an Israeli soldier, shooting dead a 14-year-old girl and wounding several others in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinians said.

A stunned and grieving America was at war tonight - with the hunt for those responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington beginning in earnest.

Police in America are hunting two men they believe were involved in the twin terror attacks on New York and Washington.