LONDON

Radical cleric arrested under British anti-terrorism law

Police arrested a radical Muslim cleric Thursday on suspicion of preparing or instigating “acts of terrorism,” a move that could delay U.S. attempts to extradite the suspect for allegedly trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and on other charges.

The arrest of Abu Hamza al-Masri, who already was being held in a British prison on the U.S. warrant, suggests British authorities plan to pursue charges against al-Masri under British law.

Al-Masri was taken to a central London police station for questioning by anti-terrorism officers, police said. If British authorities formally charge al-Masri, the case has to be resolved before any extradition proceedings, according to officials.

British law bars extradition to countries that might execute a suspect, and officials have made clear they would not send the Egyptian-born al-Masri to the United States unless it rules out the death penalty.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Government keeping more secrets, report says

Government secrecy has increased sharply in the past few years — keeping Americans in the dark about information they should be able to access, says a report released Thursday by a coalition of watchdog groups.

It found the federal government created 14 million new classified documents in fiscal year 2003 — a 26 percent increase over the number of documents stamped secret in 2002, and a 60 percent increase over 2001. Those numbers cover over 40 agencies, but exclude the CIA.

At the same time, the government is declassifying fewer documents, the report said. Some 43 million pages were declassified in 2003, down from 44 million the year before — and a significant decrease from 2001 when 100 million pages were declassified.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Effort to nab Web criminals nets 156 arrests, convictions

A summerlong effort targeting Internet crime has resulted in dozens of arrests and convictions on charges including use of “spam” e-mail to steal credit card numbers, computer hacking and online fraud, Justice Department officials said Thursday.

The suspects were identified during more than 160 federal investigations into a variety of Internet crimes that victimized about 150,000 people and caused $215 million in estimated losses, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said. The initiative began June 1 and ended Thursday.

Although the arrests make only a tiny dent in overall online crime, Ashcroft said it was important that law enforcement officials demonstrate they take the problem seriously. Identity theft alone, he said, costs the U.S. economy an estimated $50 billion a year.

“This is a series of cases that is designed to signal that we do not believe the Internet to be off-base for law enforcement,” Ashcroft told reporters.