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An Algerian who sought asylum in Sheffield has been jailed for plotting to bomb tourists at a French Christmas market. Lamine Maroni has been sentenced to 11 years in Germany. Three other men were also jailed for between 10 and 12 years each. They were found guilty by a Frankfurt court of conspiracy to murder scores of people outside Strasbourg Cathedral on New Year's Eve 2000. Prosecutors said they were part of a network of mostly North African extremists called the Non-aligned Mujahadeen, with ties to al-Qaida. Maroni had arrived in Sheffield as an asylum seeker in August 2000 and...

Intelligence agencies have had some success in tracking suspected al-Qaeda operatives. But the organisation is changing to continue its fight against the West. The West has never encountered an enemy like al-Qaeda before. The problem for the world's intelligence agencies is that it is not a unified organisation with an identifiable structure, like the IRA, but an amalgam of groups around the world whose members embrace Osama bin Laden's ideology of global jihad, or holy war. These Jihadi warriors share the belief that they have an obligation to fight the oppressors of their Muslim brothers, from Palestinians in the Middle...

FRANKFURT, Germany - One of four Algerians accused of plotting to blow up a French Christmas market told a German court Monday that he had spent six months in training camps in Afghanistan, and said he met two of the other defendants in neighboring Pakistan. In nearly four hours of questioning by Judge Karlheinz Zeiher, Salim Boukari said that on his journey back to Europe, he met co-defendants Aeurobi Beandalis and Fouhad Sabour in a guest house in Pakistan that was a base for people traveling to and from the Afghan camps. The three, along with fourth defendant Lamine Maroni,...

(15:20) Terror suspect tells German court: 'You're all Jews.' By Melissa Eddy, The Associated Press April, 16 2002 FRANKFURT, Germany - The trial of five Algerian men charged with plotting to blow up a French holiday market opened with a flourish today when a defendant disrupted the proceedings and was removed from court. While the other defendants shielded their faces from a TV camera allowed to tape the opening five minutes, 31-year-old defendant Lamine Maroni, speaking in Arabic, recited Koranic verses, swore and urged the others not to testify. He was warned not to continue, but went on in English...