Only one of the five people killed in the raid in which Osama bin Laden died was armed and fired any shots, a senior US defence official said today, acknowledging that the new account differs greatly from original administration portrayals of a chaotic, intense and prolonged firefight.

US President Barack Obama faced a singing protest over the detention of Bradley Manning, a US soldier held for allegedly passing classified documents to WikiLeaks.

The US Army private suspected of giving classified data to WikiLeaks is being flown to a state-of-the-art prison where Pentagon officials said more extensive mental, emotional and physical health care will be available.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley has resigned after causing a stir by describing the Army’s treatment of the suspected WikiLeaks leaker as “ridiculous” and “stupid.”

Detectives ran up a massive bill of £16m (€22m) as they scoured the world for the expertise they hoped would nail the Omagh bombers.

Biological samples from the bodies of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates have been delivered to the FBI crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

A US marine who disappeared in Iraq and turned up in Lebanon nearly three weeks later left Germany today after six days of debriefing and evaluation in a military hospital, a Ramstein Air Base spokeswoman said.

The site for Northern Ireland’s new £80m (€119.1m) police college will be selected today.

Members of Northern Ireland’s policing board were under pressure today to ratify moves to site a new £80m (€118.6m) officer training academy at a food science centre.