US prosecutors charged an astronaut today with trying to kidnap a romantic rival, but they declined to file an attempted murder charge against her that had been recommended by police.

The US Pentagon has ordered an investigation into possible abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison after a Marine officer said she overheard guards boasting about beating detainees.

A HIGH-calorie diet combined with life in the cell block — almost around the clock in some cases — is making detainees at Guantanamo Bay fat.

US authorities will review the rules for handling and monitoring detainees at Guantanamo Bay following the suicides of three men there, military officials said.

More Guantanamo Bay detainees protesting against their indefinite confinement joined a hunger strike, raising the number of those refusing food to 89 from 75, the US military said today.

GUNMEN ambushed a bus full of Iraqis working for the US military, killing 17 civilians and wounding 13 in Tikrit yesterday, while a car bomb and a gun attack killed four members of the Iraqi security forces elsewhere in northern Iraq.

The al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden remains capable of carrying out terrorist acts, a US military spokesman warned today.

A US Navy fighter jet has been reported missing in southern Florida.