Physicist placed under investigation for terrorism

October 12th, 2009 Preliminary charges filed against French physicistPARIS — A French investigating judge has filed preliminary charges against a physicist at the world's largest atom smasher who is suspected of al-Qaida links, a judicial official said. The 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, who works on the Large Hadron Collider, is suspected of involvement with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African group that targets Algerian government forces and sometimes attacks foreigners.

October 12th, 2009 French physicist questioned as terror suspectPARIS — A French physicist working at the world's largest atom smasher who is suspected of links to al-Qaida appeared Monday before a magistrate who will decide whether to file preliminary charges against him. The 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, who works on the Large Hadron Collider, is suspected of involvement with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African group that targets Algerian government forces and sometimes attacks foreigners.

October 11th, 2009 Physicist exchanged e-mails with al-Qaida contactPARIS — A French physicist arrested last week while working at the world's largest atom smasher has acknowledged to investigators that he corresponded over the Internet with a contact in North Africa's al-Qaida branch, a judicial official said Sunday. The Internet exchange vaguely discussed plans for terror attacks, but nothing concrete was planned, the French judicial official said, speaking on condition that his name not be used because the investigation is ongoing.

October 11th, 2009 LONDON - British government laboratories had employed a physicist to work for Cern, Europe's world-renowned particle accelerator facility, who has now been arrested on charges of terrorism. Adlene Hicheur, 32, who is alleged to have links with Al-Qaeda, worked for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire where he collaborated with some of its leading researchers.

September 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials have arrested three terror suspects - a father and son in Colorado and a man in New York, according to reports Sunday. The men are suspects in an ongoing investigation into an alleged plot to carry out bomb attacks in the US, CNN reported.

September 19th, 2009 COLORADO - A Colorado man under FBI investigation for his alleged role in a New York subway terror plot has admitted to having ties to Al Qaeda and is in negotiations to plead guilty to a terror charge, a source at the Department of Justice told Fox News. The source said 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi, who until now had protested that he had no connection to Al Qaeda, changed his story Friday.

August 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Monday urged the central government to reimburse expenses incurred by the state in tackling terrorism, saying that the state government "cannot alone mobilize resources to fight terrorism". "The state government alone cannot mobilize the resources to fight this menace of terrorism," Chouhan said at the chief ministers' conference on internal security which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened Monday in New Delhi.

August 6th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Special Investigation Unit (SIU) has arrested another important suspect who is said to be behind the Mumbai terror attacks and is allegedly linked with the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT). FIA sources said on Wednesday that the SIU was already questioning five suspects, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu Al-Qama, of Islamabad, Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah of Sheikupura, Shahid Jamil Riaz of Bahawalpur and Hammad Amin Sadiq of Rahim Yar Khan to probe their links with the Mumbai attacks.

June 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has urged Washington to continue aiding Pakistan's fight against terrorism, as it would only be an investment in US security. "There is room for greater investment from both the private sector and non-governmental organisations.

June 18th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has acceded to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, an official said. "With the accession to this convention, Pakistan is now party to 11 international conventions against terrorism.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A "global justice" initiative that has been in the works for months will give the FBI and Justice Department bigger roles in combating terrorism around the world, reports the Los Angeles Times. The move is being seen as part of President Obama's broad national security strategy that involves the presumption that pretty much all terrorism suspects, no matter where they're aught, will be able to contest their detention in some way.(ANI)

May 13th, 2009 LONDON - Less than one in ten of those people arrested for terrorism offences every year in Brtiain are ever convicted, according to new Government figures. lmost 230 people are arrested for terrorism offences every year, The Telegraph quotes the newly released statistics, as saying.

April 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The release of the four Department of Justice classified memos that reveal the controversial approval given by the Bush administration to torture and interrogation techniques used on GITMO detainees have had a chilling effect on US counter terrorism, believes intelligence think tank STRATFOR. According to STRATFOR, realistically, those most likely to face investigation and prosecution are those who wrote the memos, rather than the low-level field personnel who acted in good faith based upon the guidance the memos provided, in spite of the fact that Obama has reassured that there will be no witch hunt.

April 24th, 2009 WARSAW - India and Poland have renewed their commitment and determination to fight the menace of terrorism. In a statement issued here on the second day of her three-day visit to Poland, India's President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said that during her meeting with Polish President Lech Kaczyuski, both agreed that their countries had suffered at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

March 17th, 2009 PARIS - French physicist Bernard Espagnat was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize, worth 1 million pounds ($1.41 million), the John Templeton Foundation announced in Paris Monday. The 87-year-old Espagnat was named the recipient of the world's most generous individual scientific award for his work in the field of quantum mechanics, particularly for his experimental proofs on Bell inequalities.