America’s largest bank JPMorgan Chase lost $2bn in the past six weeks in a trading portfolio designed to hedge against risks the company takes with its own money.

The trial of a former US Navy sailor accused of communicating with suspected terrorists and leaking information to UK supporters will begin today.

President George Bush is starting his sixth year in office with a flurry of activity designed to trumpet upturns in the economy, defend US action in Iraq and challenge critics who claim his methods of fighting terrorists infringe on civil liberties.

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.