Three held in Norway 'al-Qaeda bomb plot'

Three people have been arrested in connection with a plot to bomb targets in Norway, police in Oslo have said.
Two of the plotters were arrested in Norway and one in Germany, said the head of the Norwegian security police, Janne Kristiansen.
The men - a Uighur from China, an Iraqi and an Uzbek - are said to have ties to al-Qaeda and to be linked to bomb plots in the US and UK, Ms Kristiansen said.
The three, all Norwegian residents, had been under surveillance for a year.
US prosecutors say the Norwegian case is linked to foiled bomb plots in New York and the English city of Manchester.
"We believe this group has had links to people abroad who can be linked to al-Qaeda, and to people who are involved in investigations in other countries, among others the United States and Britain," Ms Kristiansen said.
She said one of the men was a Norwegian citizen, 39, a Muslim Uighur from China, who had lived in Norway since 1999.
The group had links to al-Qaeda, Norway's security police chief said
Another was an Iraqi citizen, 37, who was granted Norwegian residency on humanitarian grounds.
The third man was an Uzbek national, 31, who was granted permanent residency in Norway on grounds of family reunification, Ms Kristiansen said.
She gave no details of where the men were arrested, nor any information about locations which may have been targeted for attacks.
Ms Kristiansen said the arrests had been brought forward because news of the probe was about to appear in the international media.
"Such an exposure of the case, without a foregoing arrest, could have proved destructive to the investigation, and with great danger of destruction of evidence," she told a news conference in Oslo.
"We have not chosen this timing completely by ourselves, but we think that we have a solid case, which in the end, naturally, will be up to the courts to decide."
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera says Norway may have been targeted because it has troops in Afghanistan.
Twin plots
On Wednesday, US prosecutors unveiled charges against five men wanted over a plot to bomb the underground system in New York. The plot was foiled in September.
One man, Najibullah Zazi, has already pleaded guilty.
"The charges reveal that the plot... was directed by senior al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan," the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
One of those charged in New York is Abid Naseer, 24, born in Pakistan and arrested in the north-east of England on Wednesday. The US is now seeking his extradition.
Mr Naseer was remanded in custody by a court in the UK on Wednesday night.
The former construction site worker is suspected of being the ringleader of a plot, thwarted in April 2009, to bomb targets in Manchester city centre.
As in Oslo, the police operation in Manchester was also brought forward.
Police had to make arrests ahead of schedule in the Manchester plot after a senior UK police officer unwittingly revealed details of the operation.
A bid to put Mr Naseer on trial in Britain was aborted last year and his deportation was blocked when a judge said he could face torture in Pakistan.
source http://news.bbc.co.uk