A German federal appeals court today upheld the acquittal of a September 11 suspect, starting the clock ticking on how long the Moroccan man could remain in the country.

A senior planner of the September 11 2001 attacks said the Hamburg al-Qaida cell was smaller than investigators believed, consisting only of himself and three of the suicide pilots, a German court was told in the first public release of statements by suspects in US custody.

The re-trial of the only September 11 terror suspect ever convicted opened today with the United States under pressure to allow testimony by alleged key al-Qaida operatives in its custody.

The only September 11 suspect ever convicted was freed by a German court today after his conviction for aiding the suicide pilots was thrown out last month.

A GERMAN court yesterday overturned the world's only conviction for the September 11 attacks and ordered a retrial for a Moroccan found guilty last year of aiding the Hamburg cell of suicide hijackers.

THE federal commission reviewing the September 11 attacks is examining whether the US failed to aggressively track one of the hijackers after obtaining his first name and phone number more than two years before 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 accused of aiding the German al-Qaida cell in planning the September 11 attacks was involved in the plot from the start, prosecutors alleged at the opening of his trial yesterday.

The second alleged September 11 terrorist to face trial anywhere appeared in court today in Hamburg, Germany.

A MOROCCAN student was yesterday convicted of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for helping suicide pilots in the September 11 attacks on the United States, ending the first trial connected to the suicide hijackings.

A Moroccan student accused of aiding the Hamburg terrorist cell involved in the September 11 attacks on the US went to Afghanistan in 2000 and attended a training camp there, his lawyer said yesterday.

The CIA has said Osama bin Laden provided the voice recording for the latest al Qaida videotape to air on television, but intelligence officials do not believe he was taped recently.

ARAB satellite station Al-Jazeera has broadcast parts of a videotape in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden can be heard naming all 19 September 11 hijackers.

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera today broadcast parts of a videotape in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden can be heard naming all 19 September 11 hijackers.

A SEPTEMBER 11 hijacker vowed as far back as 1999 that thousands would die when planes crashed into the World Trade Center, a German prosecutor said yesterday.

The Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the September 11 hijackers planned an attack on the World Trade Centre as early as April or May 2000, a German prosecutor said today.

Federal prosecutors today filed charges against Mounir El Motassadeq, the only September 11 suspect in custody in Germany, where several of the key hijackers were based.

US president George Bush said he was ‘‘plenty hot’’ to learn that student visas for two September 11 hijackers were delivered months after they flew planes into New York’s World Trade Centre.

The American government tonight faced embarrassment when a flight school where two of the September 11 hijackers trained received a letter saying they had been approved for visas.

Investigators in the German city of Moenchengladbach have ruled out any link to the al-Qaida network of a man they arrested on a tip that he was a member of the terrorist organisation, authorities said today.

German authorities have arrested a man in Hamburg who allegedly has direct links to the September 11 hijackers.

The CIA believes September 11 hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta met Osama bin Laden’s top commander in 1999, it has emerged.

The CIA believes the September 11 hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta met Osama bin Laden’s top commander in 1999, it emerged today.