French intelligence agents have arrested four people believed linked to terror suspects detained in Syria several months ago, officials said Wednesday.
Three men and one woman were detained Tuesday and were in custody in Tours, a city southwest of Paris, according to the French national police. The four are believed linked to two Frenchmen charged in November with suspected terrorist ties after they were expelled from Syria, police said.
Those men, from near Tours, had traveled to Syria in October and were allegedly planning to continue to Iraq, but were arrested by Syrian authorities who suspected them of terrorist connections, according to French judicial officials. Investigators are trying to determine whether the men were traveling on their own or as part of a broader terrorist network.
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Held In Contempt, Al-Arian Launches Hunger Strike
Jan 24, 2007
TAMPA - Sami Al-Arian has begun another hunger strike after being held in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia, his supporters say.
In the meantime, Al-Arian has appealed an order with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that says his plea agreement in Tampa does not protect him from having to testify in Virginia.
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Britain’s laboratories have been ordered to strengthen security on stocks of more than 100 deadly viruses and bacteria after an MI5 warning that Islamic terrorists are training in germ warfare. The biological agents include polio, rabies, tuberculosis and avian flu. Food poisoning bacteria such as E. coli and the sources of a number of rare tropical and Middle Eastern illnesses are also included.
Scientists and laboratory staff in universities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies who deal with agents will have to be vetted by police, and their laboratories will be checked by government safety inspectors. Stock will have to be regularly audited.
The crackdown comes after MI5 privately warned the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that al-Qaeda was actively recruiting scientists. Extremist groups are known to have targeted students, offering to fund courses in return for using their newly acquired expertise.
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