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Terror suspect to be held 28 more days

LONDON - A judge on Friday ordered that a British man wanted in the United States for allegedly aiding terrorists be held for 28 more days as lawyers prepare for an extradition hearing.

Judge Christopher Pratt at Bow Street Magistrates Court ordered that Babar Ahmad, whom U.S. authorities have accused of using U.S.-based Web sites to recruit fighters and raise support for Taliban forces in Afghanistan, remain in custody pending a hearing Sept. 10.

Ahmad, 30, was arrested in London on Aug. 4 on a U.S. extradition warrant from a federal judge in Connecticut. The warrant accuses him of trying to raise money for "acts of terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan" from 1998 through 2003.

At a court hearing a week ago, lawyers representing U.S. authorities alleged that Ahmad was in contact with a Chechen rebel behind the October 2002 Moscow theater siege and that he had a document on battle group plans for U.S. Navy vessels supporting operations in Afghanistan and enforcing sanctions against Iraq.

MOSCOW - The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized Friday that Pope John Paul II is not welcome in Russia, reiterating that an icon the pontiff once hoped to return personally in a conciliatory gesture is a copy of a revered 16th-century work.

Patriarch Alexy II told President Vladimir Putin that the icon - known as the Mother of God of Kazan - will be turned over to the Russian Orthodox Church at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin this month, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

But Alexy noted that the icon, now at the Vatican, previously was determined to be "one of many copies" of the original.

"For that reason there is no need for the pope himself to bring it," he said.

U.S. COPTER CRASHES: A U.S. military helicopter crashed and caught fire Friday on a university campus in southern Japan, grazing a building on its descent and injuring all three crew members, officials said. The three crew were taken to a U.S. military hospital, said Shunei Nakamura of the Ginowan Fire Department. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED: The government declared a state of emergency Friday, arresting about 100 democracy activists and using tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who staged a rare show of dissent in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldives.