Briefly

By | Monday, May 26, 2008

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BRITAIN

Student detained over al Qaeda manual

LONDON — Academics at a university in central England say a Muslim student and staffer were detained for nearly a week under British terrorism laws for attempting to print an al Qaeda manual as part of the student's dissertation research.

The arrest of Nottingham University master's student Rizwaan Sabir, 22, and staff member Hicham Yezza riled professors and raised questions about how closely authorities should be policing university work. Both were released without charge six days later, although Mr. Yezza, an Algerian, was subsequently re-arrested for violating immigration laws and is being deported.

Mr. Sabir was writing on the American approach to al Qaeda in Iraq, according to his dissertation supervisor, Rod Thornton, a terrorism researcher and a former British soldier. Mr. Sabir's supporters say he downloaded and sent the al Qaeda training document to Mr. Yezza, an acquaintance, because he didn't want to pay the printing fee. Someone then alerted police, who swooped in and arrested them both on May 14.

Mr. Sabir's academic adviser, Bettina Renz, said Saturday that the manual — freely available on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site — was "obviously" part of the student's research into Islamic extremism.

BELGIUM

Crew survives cargo plane crash

BRUSSELS — A large cargo plane crashed and broke apart close to a row of houses while trying to abort a takeoff yesterday at Brussels Airport, authorities said.

The Boeing 747-200 skidded to a halt in a field at the end of a runway at about 1:30 p.m. Four of the five crew members on board the plane, operated by U.S.-based cargo carrier Kalitta Air, were slightly injured and were hospitalized, said Jan Van der Cruysse, spokesman at Brussels Airport.

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