Sgt Bowe Bergdahl has told people treating him at a US military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape, a senior US official said yesterday.

Potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton writes in her new book that she raised concerns about a swap of Taliban prisoners when she was President Barack Obama’s secretary of state and disagreed with his decision not to arm Syrian rebels.

Bowe Bergdahl’s home town has abruptly cancelled plans for a welcome back celebration amid security fears over the prospect of big crowds – for and against the US soldier freed by the Taliban in a prisoner-swap deal.

Nearly five years after his capture by insurgents, Sgt Bowe Bergdahl’s "safety and health were both in jeopardy" and officials had to act quickly to obtain his release, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said yesterday.

The only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan has been freed by the Taliban in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.

An Irish 9/11 survivor, whose sister and niece were on one of the hijacked planes that was flown into the World Trade Centre, has said he will find it too "painful" to visit a new museum in New York dedicated to the victims of the infamous terrorist attacks.

US officials have received a new video of captured Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl they believe was taken within the last month, showing that the soldier is alive.

The Obama administration is offering to destroy some of Syria’s deadliest chemical weapons in international waters using a US government ship.

A huge database of troop names and email addresses a US army private allegedly downloaded to a personal computer could be used by foreign adversaries to launch cyber attacks on service members, a government witness said as the trial of Bradley Manning entered its third week.

Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law has pleaded not guilty to plotting against Americans in his role as al Qaida’s leading spokesman as a landmark case trying a terror suspect on US soil moves forward.

Tropical Storm Isaac swept across Haiti’s southern peninsula today, bringing flooding and at least three deaths while adding to the misery of a poor nation still trying to recover from the 2010 earthquake.

An Afghan delegation has visited the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to discuss the proposed transfer of five Taliban prisoners to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar.

The Afghan Taliban say they have reached a preliminary deal with the Gulf state of Qatar to open a liaison office there that could have a key role in peace talks to end more than a decade of war.

A top Indonesian al Qaida operative wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings has been arrested in Pakistan, foreign intelligence sources said today.

US President Barack Obama is approving the resumption of military trials for detainees at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending a two-year ban.

JULIAN Assange’s lawyer and a Swedish legal expert yesterday accused Swedish prosecutors of irregularities and illegality in the way they built a sex crimes case against the WikiLeaks founder.

The US military has suffered its 1,000th death of the Afghan war.

OSAMA bin Laden threatened in a new message released yesterday to kill any Americans al-Qaida captures if the US executes the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks or other al-Qaida suspects.

The Nigerian accused of the Christmas Day airline bomb attack has been co-operating with investigators and providing fresh intelligence in multiple terrorism investigations, senior US sources said.

ATTORNEY General Eric Holder says self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York for trial in a civilian federal court and he expects to seek the death penalty.

Self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York for trial in a civilian US court and prosecutors expect to seek the death penalty, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

Self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said today.

THE awarding of the Nobel Peace Price to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on darkened, still-asleep Washington. He won! For what?

A YEAR after the Bush administration abandoned its harshest interrogation methods, CIA operatives used severe sleep deprivation tactics against a terror detainee in late 2007, keeping him awake for six straight days with permission from government lawyers.

US President Barack Obama has restarted a Bush-era military trial system for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, but with new legal protections for suspects.

US president Barack Obama will announce today that he will resume the Bush-era military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees he once condemned, but with new legal protections for terror suspects.

US president Barack Obama will deliver a major speech today, laying out his long-term goal to rid the world of nuclear arms.

IN A final news conference, President George W Bush defended his record vigorously and, at times, sentimentally yesterday.

US President-elect Barack Obama highlighted alarming new US unemployment figures to urge the passage of his nearly $800bn (€595bn) economic recovery plan through Congress amid resistance from within his own party.

Australia confirmed today that the US has asked it to consider accepting detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for terror suspects, and the acting prime minister said they would do so on a case by case basis.

In city squares and living rooms, ballrooms and villages, the citizens of the world cheered the election of Barack Obama as US president, increasing hopes that America’s first black commander-in-chief would herald a more balanced, less confrontational America.

An Australian man who spent time at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and who met Osama bin Laden was found innocent today of receiving funds from the terrorist group.

Tropical Storm Gustav was weakening this morning as it moved through the Caribbean, a day after hitting Haiti as a hurricane.

A Moroccan prisoner released from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2004, was Osama bin Laden’s top bodyguard, the war crimes trial of the terror leader’s driver heard.

THE number of Americans who would condone torture, at least when used on terrorists in order to save lives, has risen over the past two years and now stands at over 40%, according to a new opinion poll.

THE Government is expected to face fierce criticism from the United Nations next month over its suspected complicity with US rendition of prisoners through Shannon.

The al-Qaida leader accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks and four co-conspirators faced a military judge today in their first appearance before a war-crimes tribunal.

The US military expects a confrontational hearing when the accused mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks and four alleged confederates are brought before a Marine colonel presiding over their war-crimes tribunal.

Lawyers for five 9/11 suspects accused the US government of rushing their cases at Guantanamo in order to influence the US presidential elections.

Military lawyers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four alleged co-conspirators are seeking to have the charges dismissed, it has emerged.

US military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees in 2003, using investigation methods they learned during self-defence training, according to Pentagon documents.

More than 70 people were arrested at the US Supreme Court in Washington today in a protest calling for the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Taliban foot soldier David Hicks described Osama bin Laden as “lovely” and trained with al-Qaida a month before the 9/11attacks on the US, police told an Australian court today.

Bruce Springsteen has hit back at critics who label him unpatriotic - insisting the US itself has been engaged in "anti-American" activity since President George Bush took power.