World News 14-08-2003 Terror Threat Halts BA Flights who: British Airways what: Cancel Saudi flights after terror threat where: Heathrow when: Yesterday snippet: "British Airways suspended flights to Saudi Arabia after the Government warned there was `credible intelligence` of a serious terrorist threat to the UK`s aviation interests," reports The Evening Standard`s website, thisislondon.com. "The company chose to temporarily scrap its four services a week to Jeddah and Riyadh after holding talks with the Department for Transport." "Seven men arrested by Saudi officials on Tuesday on suspicion of being terrorists had been plotting to attack aircraft at Riyadh airport," reports The Independent`s crime correspondent, Jason Bennetto. "Saudi authorities discovered material indicating the suspects had put King Khalid International Airport under surveillance ready for a possible attack." Smouldering anti-Western sentiment may have been stirred up last week, says The Telegraph, by the royal pardon granted to six Britons and a Scottish-born Canadian who had been convicted of bombings "in an alleged struggle for control of the illicit alcohol trade". "The royal pardon added fuel to the fire as far as the Islamist battle with the government is concerned," says Mushari al-Zaidi, a Saudi expert on radical Islamic groups. "They see it as a clear case of double standards." [... more]

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