A worldwide campaign to track down terrorists was picking up pace yesterday, one day after US officials sought increased powers to combat terror at home.
But even as the massive investigation spread, fresh fears emerged in the US that the terrorists could have been planning to use crop duster aircraft to attack the country with chemical or biological weapons.
French police yesterday detained four suspected Muslim militants in the Paris region on orders of anti-terrorist judges.
The detentions were linked to a Europewide crackdown on Muslim extremists following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US, that have left an estimated 7,000 people feared dead.
It was not clear whether there was a direct link between the latest arrests and the US attacks, but seven people detained in France in similar raids last week had been under surveillance for their alleged links to bin Laden.
In the US state of Virginia, prosecutors said they had Monday charged a man with fraudulently helping to obtain valid state identity cards for some of the suspected hijackers who executed the US hijack attacks.
The identity cards helped the suspects obtain credit cards and tickets for the four passenger flights they hijacked.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft told a congressional hearing Monday that the FBI and immigration authorities had detained or arrested 352 people, and were seeking to question an additional 392 -- a number far higher than originally acknowledged. None of the detainees has however been charged with a crime related to the Sept. 11 attack, with most held on immigration or other charges.
Investigators are trying to piece together clues left by the terrorists to find trails leading to other potential terrorists -- and to the masterminds of the strikes.
But despite the biggest investigation in US history, none of those picked up in US have been charged with a crime directly related to the terror attacks
"Thus far we cannot connect any of those people that we're looking at to any of those 19 hijackers," an official was quoted as saying by the New York Times yesterday.
Ashcroft also told Congress that the FBI "has confirmed that Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers, was acquiring knowledge of crop dusting aircraft prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11."
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from