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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...