US: The US government has agreed to pay $300,000 (€253,036) damages to an Egyptian man who was held for months in a New York detention centre after September 11th, 2001, then released without charge and deported.
The settlement is the first in a number of cases taken by non-US citizens who claim their constitutional rights were abused in a sweep that saw dozens of Muslim men arrested and held without charge.
Almost 800 non-US citizens were arrested in the weeks after the terrorist attacks, mostly for immigration violations, and almost 200 were identified as of high interest to investigators and held in maximum-security detention centres.
Ehab Elmaghraby, who ran a restaurant near New York's Times Square, was arrested on September 30th, 2001, while federal agents were investigating his landlord, who had once applied for pilot training.
Mr Elmaghraby was detained for almost a year, during which he claims to have been kicked and punched while shackled, cursed as a terrorist and subjected to numerous unnecessary body-cavity searches.
He accuses former attorney general John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller of conspiring to violate the rights of Muslim immigrants on the basis of their race, religion and national origin.
The settlement could affect the outcome of a class action lawsuit taken on behalf of hundreds of former detainees which will be heard by the same judge.
It came as a CBS poll showed President George W Bush's approval rating falling to an all-time low of 34 per cent, down from 42 per cent last month. Only 30 per cent of Americans approve of the way Mr Bush is handling the Iraq war and just 43 per cent approve of his conduct of the "war on terror".
Republican efforts to restore unity, following last week's furore over Dubai Ports World's bid to operate six US ports, have been hampered by the revelation that the US Coast Guard expressed concerns about the United Arab Emirates company.
The coast guard, which is responsible for port security, said intelligence gaps meant it could not determine if Dubai Ports World might support terrorist operations.
The White House, which has agreed to an unusual 45-day national security review of the port deal, said the coast guard's concerns had been addressed.
Senator Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said the revelation of the coast guard's concerns highlighted the inadequacy of the administration's initial assessment of the port deal.
"I am more convinced than ever that the process was truly flawed," she said. "I can only conclude that there was a rush to judgment, that there wasn't the kind of painstaking, thorough analysis that needed to be done, despite serious questions and despite the involvement of a wide variety of agencies."