BRITAIN yesterday barred radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri from returning to the country that was his home for the past 20 years, saying his presence was no longer “conducive to the public good.”

Lebanon today freed the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, hours after Britain declared he would not be allowed to return to its shores.

TEN terror suspects, including a radical preacher described as “al-Qaida’s ambassador to Europe”, were detained yesterday in a series of early morning raids across Britain.

Islamic fundamentalist cleric Omar Bakri, who left Britain, where he faces a criminal investigation in the wake of the London bombings, was arrested in Lebanon today.

Arab media reacted cautiously to the beheading of an American civilian on a video issued by an associate of Osama bin Laden, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.

Several weeks before September 11, an FBI agent linked several students at Arizona flight schools to a London-based Muslim sheik who had received a letter from Osama bin Laden encouraging the downing of airliners, officials said.