Former Green Beret faces arson charges

A FORMER US soldier went on trial under tight security in the exclusive Mediterranean principality of Monaco yesterday, accused of a 1999 arson attack that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra.

Ted Maher, 44, a former Green Beret who was employed as one of Safra's nurses, looked pale when he entered the courtroom packed with journalists and witnesses but closed to the public.

Maher has been held in Monaco's tiny waterfront jail since Safra's death in December 1999, when he allegedly confessed to setting fire to the ailing banker's heavily fortified penthouse in a botched bid to prove himself a hero.