LOS ANGELES - POLICE and federal agents arrested 88 people linked to a notorious Southern California street gang in raids on Thursday that capped the largest such sweep by the US Justice Department, authorities said.

The arrests stem from federal indictments charging 147 suspected members and associates of a gang that has operated for decades in and around Hawaiian Gardens, a small working-class city near the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

WHITE PLAINS (New York) - FOUR men arrested after planting what they thought were explosives near two New York City synagogues were disappointed that the World Trade Center wasn't still around to attack, a federal prosecutor said on Thursday as the men appeared in court for the first time.

The suspects were arrested on Wednesday night, shortly after planting a 16.78-kilogram mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, another synagogue a few blocks away, authorities said.

WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama sought on Thursday to quell a domestic backlash against his efforts to close the internationally condemned US prison at Guantanamo Bay and roll back some of the most divisive Bush-era anti-terrorism policies.

Mr Obama made his case in a much-anticipated speech a day after the US Senate, controlled by fellow Democrats, handed him a stinging setback by blocking funds to shutter the prison until he presents a detailed plan on what to do with the 240 terrorism suspects held there.