Abu Hamza’s extradition to US is delayed

By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 5: Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza, who late in July was refused permission to appeal to the House of Lords against his extradition to the US, has got a temporary reprieve from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Abu Hamza al-Masri, of Egyptian origin, is serving a seven-year sentence in Belmarsh prison for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred in Britain. He was sentenced in February 2006.

British home secretary Jacqui Smith had in February cleared his extradition to the United States.

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3 men face retrial over July 7 plot

By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 5: Three men, who have been accused of helping the July 7, 2005 bombers to reconnoitre possible targets in London, will face a re-trial.

Their trial had collapsed after the jury members could not decide on their verdicts at the end of a three-month trial on August 1. The three have been accused of undertaking a "hostile reconnaissance of potential targets" during a two-day trip to London, visiting the London Eye, the London Aquarium and the Natural History Museum more than six months before the July 7 bombings in London.

However, Waheed Ali (25), Sadeer Saleem (28) and Mohammed Shakil (32), who lived in Leeds in northern England, have always denied single charge of conspiring with convicted July 7 bombers. They had been charged with conspiring with the four July 7, 2005 bombers and others.