The American pastor who plans to burn 200 copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of 9/11 has been accused by former members of his evangelical church of using his own supporters as unpaid labour in his furniture business.Terry Jones has come under fire in his church's hometown of Gainesville, USA for using his own flock to work in an antique and used furniture business owned by him and his wife, Sylvia.

While the pastor moves between two homes, a $300,000 house in Slidell, Louisiana and a holiday apartment in Tampa, Florida his unpaid workers, motivated by their Christian beliefs, live in low rent accommodation owned by Mr Jones.

Condoleezza Rice ordered George Bush not to return to Washington after the 9/11 attacks before hanging up the phone, the former national security adviser has revealed in a documentary interview.

In a heated exchange, Rice argued with the US president in Florida not to return to the White House because it was a potential terrorist target.

The jury in the Bronx synagogue bomb plot case was told Wednesday that the informant who provided the four suspects with phony bombs and missiles was paid $97,000 by the FBI.

The FBI gave Pakistani immigrant Shahed Hussain $44,000 for expenses and $53,000 for "his services" over a three-year period, agent Robert Fuller said.

The planned mosque and Islamic center blocks from ground zero got a new boost Wednesday from a coalition of supporters that includes families of Sept. 11 victims. New York Neighbors for American Values rallied for the first time at a municipal building near ground zero.

"I lost a 23-year-old son, a paramedic who gave his life saving Americans and their values," Talat Hamdani said, and supporting the Islamic center and mosque "has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with standing up for our human rights, including freedom of religion."