Briton charged with helping 'shoe bomber'

LONDON -- A British man arrested last week in southwestern England was charged Wednesday with conspiring with convicted "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid in an explosives plot, police said.\nSajid Badat was charged with three offenses, including that between Sept. 1, 2001, and Nov. 28, 2003, he "unlawfully and maliciously conspired with Richard Reid and others unknown" to cause an explosion "likely to endanger life or cause serious injury" in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, London's Metropolitan Police said.\nBadat, 24, also was charged with two counts of possessing or controlling an explosive substance.\nHe was arrested Nov. 27 after police found explosive material at his home in Gloucester.\nShortly after the arrest, Home Secretary David Blunkett said the security services and police believed the suspect had "connections with the network of al Qaeda groups."\nIbrahim Master, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said last week that the suspect had been a student at the College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance in Blackburn, northern England.\nReid was sentenced to life in prison for a Dec. 22, 2001, bombing attempt aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight. When he pleaded guilty in October 2002, Reid said he was a member of al-Qaida, pledged his support to Osama bin Laden and declared himself an enemy of the United States.\nReid had tried to ignite plastic explosives hidden in his shoes on American Airlines Flight 63. Prosecutors said there was enough plastic explosives in his shoes to blow a hole in the fuselage and kill all 197 people aboard.\nBadat was one of more than a dozen people arrested and questioned under anti-terrorism laws in the past week but police said they were not linked.\nAn Algerian national, Noureddinne Mouleff, was charged earlier Wednesday with terrorism and fraud offenses.\nMouleff, 36, who lives in southern England, was charged under the Terrorism Act provision that cites "possession of items or articles connected to the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism."\nAppearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London, Mouleff was also charged with conspiring with others to defraud banks of $127,500. His bail application was rejected and he was ordered to attend a Dec. 10 hearing at the Old Bailey criminal court.