US INDICTS FIRST SUSPECT FOR SEPT 11 ATTACKS

Zacarias Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent, could face capital punishment if he is found guilty.
The French justice minister has said her country will seek to protect the rights of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman indicted in the United States for conspiracy in the 11 September attacks.
Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said that, while France respected the US investigation, it did not accept the death penalty.
She said consular protection - particularly concerning the right to defence - would be offered to Moussaoui, the first person to be charged in connection with the September attacks.
Four of the six charges faced by Moussaoui are punishable by death if he is found guilty, said US Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Moussaoui, 33, was detained on immigration charges in August when he aroused suspicion at a Minnesota flight school where he sought training.
He is reported to have said he wanted to learn how to fly planes but was not interested in how to take off and land them.
The indictment says Moussaoui underwent the "same preparation for murder as the hijackers".
Moussaoui is alleged to have received training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, sought pilot training and to have received funding from sources in Germany and the Middle East.
US officials had earlier mentioned Moussaoui as a possible 20th member of the suicide hijacking team. Ashcroft has not ruled out the possibility that terror suspects could face the death penalty if extradited from Europe to America.
Ashcroft, speaking at the U.S. Embassy in London following discussions with UK Home Secretary David Blunkett, said extraditions would be dealt with on a "case-by-case basis."
The British prime minister´s office said on Monday that if Osama bin Laden was captured by British forces in Afghanistan, he would immediately be handed over to U.S. officials.
Downing Street made the statement a day after two British officials - including Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon - said the British government would extradite bin Laden for trial in the United States only if assurances were given that he would not face the death penalty.
Asked at Wednesday´s news conference whether he was willing to give a guarantee that terrorist suspects who were extradited to the US would not face capital punishment, Ashcroft said: "It is clear that the United States, most of the states in the United States and the federal government of the United States, have laws, the violation of which provides death eligibility in terms of the sentencing.
"We deal with this on a case-by-case basis. Individuals and nations with which we have dealt regarding extraditions have dealt on a case-by-case basis and I think that is the best way to go forward."
Britain is required by national law, and as a signee of the European Human Rights Convention, not to extradite anyone to a country where a suspect could receive the death penalty. The United States has not signed the convention.
But analysts say the handing over of bin Laden in Afghanistan to the United States would make irrelevant any questions about extradition and the death penalty in the United States, because bin Laden would not be on British soil and would not be subject to British law.