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LONDON — Five men were arrested Friday in connection with a suspected terrorist plot targeting the pope, according to reports

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian terror suspects who have been held without charges almost seven years at Guantanamo Bay. In the first civilian court ruling for terror suspects challenging their detention, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said Thursday that the five men could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants.

Police say the operation remains open and more arrests have not been ruled out. A total of 18 people have been arrested across the country for their alleged links to Islamic terrorism and eight of those detained are claimed to be members of Al Qaeda. Two of the arrests took place in the Raval district of Barcelona, five in Castellón and one in Pamplona. National police say the detained are thought to have been engaged in recruitment activities and the financing Islamic groups and have links to the Al Qaeda for the Islamic Maghreb organisation. The additional ten arrested are...

An underground film showing the slaughter of Algerian soldiers is being used as a recruitment tool for British Islamic radicals The trail runs from a wet corner of a west London street to the dusty mountains of eastern Algeria, from a garage on the Thames to the Mediterranean, from a mosque off north London's Seven Sisters Road to Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. In one direction the trail is a conduit for volunteers and money - both heading for Islamist rebels fighting a brutal war against Algeria's government. In the other direction flow political refugees, communiqués boasting of ...

"Their hatred of official France manifests itself in many ways that scar everything around them. Young men risk life and limb to adorn the most inaccessible surfaces of concrete with graffiti—BAISE LA POLICE, f--k the police, being the favorite theme. The iconography of the cités is that of uncompromising hatred and aggression: a burned-out and destroyed community-meeting place in the Les Tarterets project, for example, has a picture of a science-fiction humanoid, his fist clenched as if to spring at the person who looks at him, while to his right is an admiring portrait of a huge slavering pit bull,...

LONDON, Sept 15, 2006 (AFP) - A French-Algerian national suspected of links to international terrorism has been deported from Britain to France on national security grounds, officials said Friday, amid heightened security here. The deportation of the 33-year-old suspect, identified only by the initials "M.K.", took place on Thursday, the Home Office said. He had been in custody for two years, and was alleged to have ties to an Al-Qaeda-linked group. A source close to the case however downplayed the significance of the case. "It is purely administrative," he said. Britain, which suffered a deadly multiple terrorist attack in London...

Abu Hamza, the militant, London-based Muslim cleric, maintained close contact with the leadership of al-Qa'eda during the years when it operated a worldwide terrorist network from Afghanistan, according to FBI files. Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph state that Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, dealt personally with Abu Zubeidah, Osama bin Laden's director of operations. Zubeidah, a Palestinian who is now in US custody, communicated bin Laden's instructions and messages from his hideout in Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda cells around the world. Hamza had the power to refer recruits to Zubeidah for "leadership training" in Afghan...

The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups. News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media. Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and...

Plans to 'top' 9/11 strikes 23/12/2005 20:13  - (SA)   Related Articles Pullout 'will lead to attacks' US at risk for more attacks US had 'bomber' in their hands Why is Osama so quiet?    Rome - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday. The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2 700 people, Pisanu...

Last Updated: Thursday, 14 April, 2005, 11:30 GMT 12:30 UK Guantanamo Bosnians cry 'torture' Six Guantanamo Bay detainees are challenging US federal authorities to reveal evidence of abuse at the camp. The six - all of Algerian origin and extradited from Bosnia - are suing the Bush administration as part of their effort to contest their detention. They want the government to release documents which they say would prove that prisoners were tortured. In their legal action, they say one of the six was beaten so badly by jailers that he suffered facial paralysis. The detainee, Mustafa Ait Idir, alleges...

ARIS, May 29 — Italian and German investigators have disclosed fresh information suggesting that hints of an attack involving aircraft and the United States were more widespread among European law enforcement agencies before Sept. 11 than previously suspected.The disclosures come after weeks in which the Bush administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced a shake-up today, have come under sharp criticism that they did not pay sufficient heed to signs of Al Qaeda plots in the United States that may have alerted them to the Sept. 11 attacks.A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman said today that before Sept....

MADRID, Spain -- Police investigating radical Islamic cells in Spain arrested three Algerians and a Moroccan on Tuesday. The four men were detained in the northern cities of Victoria and Teruel and in Madrid, said a national police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Moroccan, Khalid Zeimi Pardo, 27, is suspected of ties to Moroccan fugitive Amer el Azizi, who is wanted in connection with the Madrid terror bombings and the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, the spokesman said. Zeimi Pardo also had contact with the alleged mastermind of the Madrid attacks, a Tunisian named...

MADRID, Spain (AP) — Police on Wednesday arrested a Moroccan and three Algerians in connection with an alleged plot by a radical Islamic cell to blow up a court and other buildings in Spain, officials said. The three Algerians, who were not immediately identified, were arrested Wednesday night in the southeastern city of Gandia. One was described as a right-hand man of Mohamed Achraf, who police suspect of masterminding a plot to ram a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into Madrid's National Court, a hub of anti-terror investigations. Achraf is being held in Switzerland, and Spain last week...

Sixteen people have been killed in an attack by an armed group of suspected Islamist militants in southern Algeria, state television said today. The report said Friday's attack had happened near the town of Medea, some 80 kilometres south of Algiers. Earlier the El Watan daily said eight people had been killed and four wounded on Friday evening when Islamist militants stopped a vehicle carrying fans to a football match in the capital Algiers at a checkpoint. According to a tally based on official and press reports, more than 70 people have been killed since the start of September in...

PARIS -- Counterintelligence agents have arrested two Algerians suspected of ties to a dismantled network accused of planning a chemical attack, judicial officials said. The men, whose names were not disclosed, were placed under investigation - one step short of being charged, the officials said Friday. They were arrested on Monday in the Paris region. The arrests stemmed from a French investigation into a network that allegedly was preparing attacks with toxic gas against Russian interests in France, officials have said. One of the two was described as an important member of the cell who made frequent trips to Spain....

A Spanish judge has charged four Algerian men with membership of a terrorist organisation. The judge said chemicals found in their homes could have been used to make explosives. Police also found a mobile phone that had been modified in a similar way to phones used as detonators in the Madrid train bombings in March. The indictment alleges the men were working to support an Islamic militant cell based in France. The men were originally arrested along with 12 others in January 2003 on suspicion of being part of an Algerian extremist group with links to al-Qaeda. They were later...

Arab mercenaries with British travel papers have been killed fighting in Chechnya, according to Russian military officials. Documents, letters and videotapes found after a gun battle suggest the men were recruited in Britain, Moscow said. It said the mercenaries were part of a group of 10 rebels fighting east of the Chechen capital, Grozny. Three members of the group died in a fierce gun battle with Russian troops and two had documents from the UK. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow reports one of the victims, an Algerian by birth, is alleged to have been found with a travel document...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Opposition leaders are hoping a new international effort will come up with a plan to end the seven-week strike against President Hugo Chavez and lead to an agreement on elections. Representatives from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain and Portugal agreed to create the new forum this week known as the "Group of Friends of Venezuela" to seek solutions to the work stoppage. Strike leaders are demanding Chavez agree to a plebiscite in February on his presidency. Although the vote would be nonbinding, strike leaders believe Chavez would be so embarrassed by the outcome he would...

AS the net closed in on alleged Bali mastermind Hambali - Asia's most wanted man, who was arrested in Thailand a month ago - it transpired that he was carrying a forged Spanish passport. It was yet another piece in the jigsaw puzzle linking global terrorism to Spain. The al-Qa'ida cell in Spain made videos of potential targets in the US including the twin towers in New York. It also had videos of terrorist training camps in Indonesia and Afghanistan with footage on the preparation of car bombs. The pilots of the suicide flights met in Spain. Part of al-Qa'ida's...

UN health officials are helping Algeria to investigate an outbreak of plague in the west of the country which has claimed at least one life. A team from the World Health Organization and other international bodies went to the Oran region after reports of plague emerged last month. Algeria's health ministry has announced 10 laboratory-confirmed cases to date and one probable case

Britain's first convicted al-Qaida terrorists have been jailed for 11 years each after they were found guilty of raising funds and recruiting people for the terror network. Illegal immigrants Brahim Benmerzouga and Baghdad Meziane raised thousands of pounds through a credit card fraud for an international network of terrorists planning a Jihad, or holy war, against the West. The two Algerians also worked together to make military equipment, false travel documents and recruitment material available to the terrorist organisation, a jury at Leicester Crown Court heard. Benmerzouga, 31, and Meziane, 38, became the first men in Britain to be convicted...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German prosecutors sought prison sentences Tuesday of up to 12 1/2 years for four Algerians accused of plotting to bomb holiday crowds they considered ``the enemies of God'' at a French Christmas market two years ago. In nearly five hours of closing arguments, prosecutors disputed claims laid out in testimony by Aeroubi Beandalis, Salim Boukari, and Fouhad Sabour that they, along with Lamine Maroni, had planned to attack an unoccupied synagogue. ``They were fully aware that many innocent people — including children — could die or at least be injured,'' said prosecutor Volker Brinkmann. He asked...

In the 15 months since 11 September attacks in the United States, European security agencies have reported the dismantling of several networks of Islamic militants said to have been either plotting attacks on European soil or providing logistical support to al-Qaeda. Many if not the majority of those arrested have been Algerian. Tunisian, Moroccan and Libyan nationals have also been involved in the networks, but Algerians predominate. Security experts say this is linked to the Islamic insurgency that has been raging in Algeria for the last decade. Campaign of repression In January 1991, the Algerian army interrupted parliamentary elections after...

PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris court sentenced two Algerians to life in prison Wednesday for a nail bomb campaign at railway stations in the French capital in 1995. The court found Smain Ali Belkacem and Boualem Bensaid, both 34 and serving jail terms on terror-related charges, guilty of two separate attacks using home-made bombs to target civilians at Paris train stations, injuring about 44 people. The seven judges acquitted Bensaid of directly causing the bloodiest attack of France's worst post-war bomb campaign -- a blast at Saint Michel metro station in the heart of Paris in July 1995, which killed...

   Algerians march against deportationLast Updated Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:05:12MONTREAL - Hundreds of people from Algeria held a rally Saturday, pleading with Ottawa to not force them to return to their homeland. In April, the federal government announced it would start deporting Algerians who've been denied refugee status.   Protest in Montreal Ottawa had suspended the practice in 1997 because it considered the country in northern Africa too dangerous. Although the federal government continues to warn Canadians not to travel to Algeria, it's decided that men, women and children originally from there can be sent back. The move has...

Two Algerian men accused of taking part in a bombing campaign on the Paris public transport system in 1995 have gone on trial. Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, both aged 34, are being tried before a special court in Paris which deals with terrorism trials. The bombing wave killed eight people and injured around 200 others. The worst attack happened on 25 July at the Saint-Michel suburban railway (RER) station - when all of the eight fatalities occurred, and 150 were injured. Explosives and nails had been packed into a gas bottle, and the explosion caused horrific injuries....

Investigators talk of a 'new generation' who adopted radical views in Europe BRUSSELS After 12 months of intensive investigations into terrorist networks in Europe, the police are increasingly focusing on the North African diaspora as a recruitment pool for terrorist groups. Young men from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have been involved in a series of incidents in the last year, among them alleged plots to attack the U.S. embassies in Paris and Rome and the deadly bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia in April. That members of the North African diaspora are involved in terrorism in Europe is nothing new....

LILLE, France (AP) — Roving bands of young people set fire to cars and trash cans Saturday in the second straight night of rioting in this northern French city over a court's refusal to imprison a police officer who killed an Algerian man. One rioter threw a gasoline bomb at a government building, causing a small fire, authorities said. Eight people were arrested in the latest violence in Lille, said city prosecutor Philippe Lemaire. Most of the rioters were of North African descent. A night earlier, six people were detained in similar rioting. All had been released by Saturday, but...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The trial of five Algerian men, suspected of having links to al-Qaida and charged with plotting to blow up a French Christmas market in December 2000, opens under tight security Tuesday. The five are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, possessing explosives and weapons with the intent to kill, and falsifying documents. Prosecutors will seek to establish direct links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, starting with an assertion in the indictment that all five trained at camps in Afghanistan between 1998-2000. The trial is expected to last up to a year, and if found...