December 19, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 14, 1423

LONDON, Dec 18: British anti-terrorism police arrested seven North Africans on Wednesday in the latest swoop on extremist networks believed operating in a nation many fear is a prime target.

As some British firms issued anti-terror kits to staff and authorities urged extra vigilance in the run-up to Christmas, police picked up four men in London and three in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, all in their early 30s.

“They are all people who have contacts with networks operating in this country and Europe,” said one security source. “That is not to suggest, however, that there has been a specific threat or target identified.”

Lothian and Borders police in Scotland, who were handling the inquiry, declined to give more details of what was the latest of a string of such swoops in recent months.

Since the September 11 attacks, Britain has detained more than 200 terror suspects and, prior to Wednesday’s arrests, 26 were still awaiting trial, according to the Home Office.

Britons were alarmed in November by front-page reports that three other North Africans had been arrested for involvement in a plot to release cyanide gas on London’s Underground rail system.

ACQUITTED: Two men suspected of being militants linked to Al Qaeda were acquitted on Wednesday of plotting to bomb the US embassy in Paris after a court ruled there was insufficient evidence.

A Rotterdam court found French national Jerome Courtailler and Algerian Abdelghani Rabia not guilty of hatching a plot to attack the US embassy in the heart of the French capital.

The court also freed Saaid Ibrahim and Adel Tobbichi, who faced charges of belonging to an unidentified criminal organisation and forging passports.—Reuters