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A Spanish judge has ordered an Algerian man be remanded in custody indefinitely as part of investigations into the Madrid bombings in March which killed almost 200 people. Nasreddine Bousbaa was arrested this week and is suspected of being involved in producing fake passports for the suspected perpetrators of the March 11 train bombings. Bousbaa has admitted knowing Jamal Ahmidam, one of the suspected masterminds of the four coordinated attacks on packed commuter trains heading for Madrid, in which 191 people were killed and 1,900 wounded. Ahmidam was one of seven suspects who blew themselves up on April 3 as...

Madrid - A man was due to appear before a judge on Friday after being arrested as part of the investigations into the Madrid bombings in March in which almost 200 people died, legal sources said. The man, said to be an Algerian, was arrested late on Thursday and is suspected of being involved in producing fake passports found in a Madrid apartment. Seven people, thought to be leaders of the March attacks, died in April when they blew the apartment up as police closed in on them. A total of 191 people were killed and 1 900 wounded in...

Algeria's extremist militant group, the GSPC, has declared war on foreign people and companies in the oil-rich North African country.The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, gave their war declaration on an Islamic website today. They declare war on &NULL;everything that is foreign and atheistic within Algeria's borders. The GSPC is one of the largest militant groups in Algeria and is believed to have ties with al Qaeda. They made news headlines last year with the prolonged kidnapping of 32 western tourists, including one Dutchman, Arjan Hilbers.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police arrested five foreigners on Wednesday after carrying out their first raids in a widening probe of suspected al Qaeda activities centering on a French national who spent over a year in Japan. Police searched 10 locations following media reports last week that Lionel Dumont, who was arrested in Germany last December, was trying to build up a base in Japan to support al Qaeda among a network of foreigners in the country. Dumont, a French national of Algerian descent, is suspected of being involved in delivering equipment and funds to al Qaeda during his stay...

Al Qaeda operatives flushed out of Afghanistan and other locales have likely cast their eyes on the continent of Africa as a source for new recruits and funding, a senior U.S. military officer said March 8. "There has, without a doubt, been some al Qaeda presence in portions of North Africa," Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the State Department's Foreign Press Center here. Wald, the deputy commander for U.S. European Command, noted to reporters he'd recently returned from an 11-nation trip to Africa. EUCOM's area of responsibility extends from the North Cape...

Interview with Algerian Terror Leader Associated with Al-Qa'ida: The Islamic State Will Arise Only Through Blood and Body Parts The Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat published an interview with Nabil Sahrawi, also known as Abu Ibrahim Mustafa, a leader of the Salafi Group for Da'wa and Fighting in Algeria. This group has been linked with Al-Qa'ida. Prior to publication, the interview, which is Sahrawi's first, was posted on Islamist websites. At the beginning of the interview, Sahrawi tells about his organization, which was founded in early 1999, and states that it supplanted the Armed Islamic Group. According to Sahrawi, his group was...

HAMBURG, Germany: Italian authorities on Wednesday asked for the extradition of an Algerian man suspected of recruiting militants to carry out suicide attacks against coalition forces in Iraq, officials said. Abderrazak Mahdjoub 30, was arrested Nov. 28 in Hamburg at the request of Italian authorities, who arrested two other North African men the same day in Milan. All were charged in warrants with association with the aim of international terrorism - a charge introduced in Italy after the Sept. 11 attacks. Hamburg prosecutors have until Jan. 8 to act on the request for extradition, and are expected to make a...

An Algerian pilot falsely accused by the United States of training the September 11 hijackers is suing the US authorities. Lotfi Raissi, 29, the first person accused of participating in attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, has filed for damages against the US department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Raissi, who was detained by the British for five months following the attacks, says his life has been ruined by the trauma he was put through. He said: “I love the US. I lived and trained there and had hoped to make a life for myself...

Australia let suspect go, say French Australian authorities ignored warnings that an al-Qaeda member was tracked to Sydney in 1999 and could have been establishing terrorist cells, according to Europe's top counter-terrorism investigator. The Algerian man was detained in Sydney and questioned and incriminating material seized from his flat at the request of the judge in charge of all French terrorism investigations and prosecution, Jean-Louis Bruguiere. A French intelligence team travelled to Australia to direct his interrogation by Australian Federal Police. Despite French claims that the man was linked to a plot to launch major terrorist attacks in the United...

An Algerian immigrant who helped raise up to £250,000 for terrorism has been jailed for four years and warned he would be deported on his release. Farid Belaribi was linked to an international fraud network which included two men imprisoned for 11 years for raising funds for the al Qaida terror network. The 37-year-old, of Hamilton Street, Leicester, admitted conspiracy to defraud banks and credit card companies but denied any knowledge that the money was being used for the purposes of terrorism. Belaribi was arrested as part of a major investigation into terrorist activity in Leicester in January last year,...

Algerian Earthquake Kills More Than 250 Thursday May 22, 2003 3:19 AM By HASSANE MEFTAHI Associated Press Writer ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A powerful earthquake shook the Algerian capital region Wednesday night, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,600, state-run radio said. Rescuers feared families were buried in the rubble as apartment building walls collapsed, trees crushed cars and weeping survivors walked amid debris. ``This is a misfortune that has struck the Algerian people,'' Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on television. The quake was deadliest in towns east of the capital of Algiers, particularly in Rouiba, where...

One of the freed tourists kidnapped in the Sahara desert said today that his captors had demanded money to buy weapons to overthrow the Algerian Government. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in southern Algeria, 17 of whom were released yesterday. This led to a range of theories blaming Islamic extremists or smugglers that operate in border regions. But Gerhard Wintersteller, a retired technician who led an eight-member group of tourists that went missing in late March, said that the kidnappers "told us they wanted to install an Islamic state in Algeria and overthrow...

LONDON (Reuters) - A judge has ordered the extradition to France of an Algerian man accused of involvement in a 1995 bombing campaign on the Paris subway that killed eight people. Rachid Ramda faces charges in France of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. "At a committal hearing today it was decided that extradition could proceed," a Home Office spokesman said on Friday. Ramda now has 15 days to appeal against the decision, which must also be approved by Home Secretary David Blunkett. The case caused a diplomatic row between Britain and France when the London High Court...

A German court has convicted four Algerian men of plotting to bomb a busy Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg, and sentenced them to prison terms of 10-12 years. The plot was foiled by German police just before it was to have taken place in late December 2000. In handing down the Frankfurt court's sentence, presiding Judge Karlheinz Zeiher said the four men had intended to kill defenseless people with the aim of spreading terror in France and throughout Europe. He said they wanted to punish France because of its support for the Algerian government. Judge Zeiher said...

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...

The man behind the failed weekend hijacking of an Algerian airliner asked to be flown to North Korea, the head of Algeria's national security agency said on Monday. Ali Tounsi, head of the DGSN security services, said Farouk Bouleoudina, 37, was under the influence of anti-psychotic drugs when he attempted to hijack an internal flight yesterday from the eastern city of Constantine to the capital Algiers. Bouleoudina burst into the cockpit and demanded that the Boeing 737-800 change course for North Korea, claiming falsely that two accomplices had brought a bomb on board the aircraft. The flight captain told Bouleoudina...

ROME (Reuters) - A man found with his left hand almost severed late on New Year's Eve in the Italian city of Turin slipped out of hospital on Saturday before police could find out what happened to him, his doctor said. Police initially said they were investigating the possibility that the young man, who said he was from Algeria, had been the victim of a punishment under Islamic law, which prescribes amputation as a penalty for certain crimes. The man had no papers but identified himself as Faod Salih and said he was 18. He told doctors and police he...

Algerian Islamists kill 56 in raids on army and families By Aomar Ouali in Algiers 06 January 2003 Islamic militants ambushed a military convoy in north-east Algeria and attacked families near the capital, Algiers, in a weekend of killings that claimed at least 56 lives, Algerian media reported yesterday. The ambush on Saturday night killed 43 soldiers and seriously wounded 19 others, the deadliest assault suffered by the Algerian military in at least five years. In the other attack, Islamic militants killed 13 people from two families overnight on Saturday in Zabana, 30 miles south of Algiers, the official news...

Baggage handler caughtwith guns, bombs in carAlgerian, 27, employed at Paris airport where alleged 'shoe bomber' boarded Posted: December 29, 200211:07 p.m. Eastern © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com Security is high at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris after a baggage handler was found to have guns, explosives and detonators hidden in his car. Reports from France 3 and LCI television indicate the suspect is a 27-year-old Algerian man, who lives in the northern Parisian suburb of Bondy. The airport, one of Europe's busiest employing 55,000 and handling 100,000 passengers per day, is the same one where Richard Reid of Britain boarded a...

SEATTLE (AP) — German officials in Seattle Wednesday questioned Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted in an unsuccessful plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, about the structure of the al-Qaida terrorist network, an attorney taking part in the proceedings said. ``The question is how the network of al-Qaida works,'' said Ulrich von Jeinsen, a German attorney who represents the Families of Sept. 11 Organization. German law allow relatives of crime victims or their lawyers to participate in trials. ``Ressam is a member of al-Qaida. He had been in Afghanistan for training,'' von Jeinsen said. ``The reason we are here is...