SOUTH AFRICAN Giniel de Villiers took the lead on day seven of the Dakar Rally after Volkswagen teammate Carlos Sainz lost nearly five minutes in the sand dunes of Mauritania.

A HAMBURG court yesterday acquitted a Moroccan man of helping the September 11 hijackers after a 5½-month trial that was only the second anywhere of a suspected attacker.

A Hamburg court today acquitted a Moroccan man of helping the September 11 hijackers after rejecting a dramatic last-minute motion for new evidence by a lawyer for relatives of US victims of the attacks.

A Moroccan who allegedly helped the September 11 hijackers but was freed on evidence suggesting he knew nothing of the plot awaited a verdict today in only the second trial anywhere for the attacks on the United States.

A MOROCCAN who was found guilty of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers told a court yesterday his conviction was “unjust” and denied that an al-Qaida cell ever existed in Hamburg.