British police have arrested a man in Manchester in connection with the ongoing anti-terror investigation while they released two suspects yesterday. Britain's charity regulator meanwhile froze the bank accounts of an aid organization linked in media reports to an alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic airliners.

Police said a suspect was held Wednesday in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester and they were searching his house. "It is in connection with an ongoing investigation and has been carried out acting on intelligence," a police statement said. On Wednesday evening, a High Court judge sitting at City of Westminster Magistrates Court in central London granted Scotland Yard detectives another week to hold eight of the suspects. A ninth, Umair Hussain, 24, was charged yesterday with failing to disclose information about his brother, Nabeel Hussain, who is believed to be in police custody.

Yesterday morning, police released without charge two suspects, including Tayyib Rauf, 22, whose brother Rashid Rauf is one of 19 people detained in Pakistan in connection with the plot and who is believed to be the alleged ringleader with connections to Al-Qaeda.

The release of Tayyib Rauf is significant in the sense that the Rauf family have been portrayed as being at the center of the alleged plot.

The Charity Commission, Britain's charity regulator, froze the bank accounts of Crescent Relief, which raised funds for victims of last year's Pakistan earthquake. It said it had launched a formal inquiry into the working of Crescent Relief, set up by Abdul Rauf, the father of Rashid and Tayyib. There have been media reports that the charity has been diverting money collected for victims of the earthquake to finance the alleged plot.

On Tuesday, 11 people appeared before the City of Westminster Magistrates Court charged with conspiracy to murder and a new offense of preparing acts of terrorism, under the 2006 Anti-Terrorism Act, which came into effect in April this year. All 11 people were remanded in custody and all deny the charges.

Eight of the suspects charged with conspiracy to murder and with preparing acts of terrorism under Section 5 of the Anti-terrorism Act will appear at Old Bailey on Sept. 4. Two others charged with failing to disclose information which might be of material assistance in preventing others from the commission of a terrorist act; and a 17-year-old boy were remanded in custody until Aug. 29.

The new Anti-Terrorism Act in theory gives police up to 28 days to hold terror suspects without having to charge them.

But continued detention must be renewed each week. Up to 14 days, police can seek an extension from a district judge at a magistrates court.

But beyond that they must get the go-ahead from a High Court Judge, as is the case now.

The plot allegedly involved plans to manufacture and smuggle the component parts of improvised explosive devices on to passenger jets, assemble them on board and then detonate them.

Yesterday's developments coincided with the high profile launch of the government's Commission on Integration and Cohesion by Ruth Kelly, the secretary of state for communities.

Kelly called for a "new and honest debate" on multiculturalism, diversity and extremism in British society. "The fact that Britain is open to people of all faiths has been a huge strength of this country. But what we have got to do is recognize that while there have been huge benefits, there are also tensions created. And the point of the commission that I am launching today is to try and examine how those tensions arise and what local communities can do on the ground practically to tackle those and make a difference."

Source:Arapnews