Radioactive terror plot: eight charged in UK  August 18, 2004 -
2:30PM  British police have charged eight terrorist suspects
with conspiring to commit murder and use radioactive materials,
toxic gases, chemicals or explosives to cause "fear or injury"
in a case involving an alleged top al-Qaeda operative at the
centre of a US terror alert this month.  US Attorney General
John Ashcroft said federal authorities were determining whether
to press charges in the United States against the men, including
the top al-Qaeda suspect accused of having surveillance plans of
financial institutions in New York, Washington and New Jersey.
Yesterday's charges for the first time officially linked the
August 3 arrests across Britain and a series of arrests last
month in Pakistan to the August 1 terrorism alerts surrounding
the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Inc headquarters, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank buildings in
Washington, and the Prudential Financial Inc building in Newark,
New Jersey.  Ashcr