Nidal Ayyad

In many ways, he is everything that prime suspect Mohammed A. Salameh is not: a man of educational achievement with a professional career, just starting a family, a newly sworn American citizen with real roots in his community. But authorities say the remarkably dissimilar Salameh and newest suspect Nidal Ayyad share significant bonds--a Palestinian heritage and key roles in the deadly bomb attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Shouting their defiance, four Islamic militants were sentenced Tuesday to spend the rest of their lives in prison without parole for last year's bombing of the World Trade Center. In imposing the maximum possible punishment for what the government has termed "the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history," U.S. District Judge Kevin T. Duffy called the defendants sneaks and cowards. "What you sought to do in the name of Islam . . . " he admonished them, "violated the laws not only of man, but God."

Saliva from one of the World Trade Center bombing suspects has been found on an envelope containing a letter claiming responsibility for the blast, sources close to the case said. The sources said Nidal Ayyad, 25, Kuwaiti-born engineer charged with taking part in the bombing, was matched to the envelope through a DNA test. The letter was received by the New York Times on March 2 claiming responsibility from a group calling itself the Liberation Army Fifth Battalion.

A federal jury on Friday found four militant Muslims guilty of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in what prosecutors called the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The jury convicted the defendants on conspiracy, assault and various explosives charges after a five-month trial during which 207 witnesses testified and 1,003 exhibits were presented--re-creating the horror of the explosion on Feb. 26, 1993.

The hunt for overseas connections to the World Trade Center bombing intensified Tuesday as federal investigators said that they have identified a man in Germany as the source of a cash payment to a New Jersey man charged in the case. The man wired funds from Duesseldorf to the Jersey City, N.J., bank account of Mohammed A. Salameh nine days before the bombing, authorities said.

After 18 weeks of testimony by more than 200 witnesses, government prosecutors in the World Trade Center bombing trial wrapped up their presentation Tuesday--capping a case that has been remarkable for its detail as well as its shortcomings. Prosecutors rested their case against the four defendants after two final days of testimony by David Williams, the FBI's primary investigator of the terrorist attack last Feb. 26. Williams gave an overview of the circumstantial evidence.

Even their allies dismissed them as "nobodies." They were just a small band of young immigrants upset that a member of their mosque had been sentenced to a long jail term despite being acquitted of the murder of Jewish right-wing leader Meir Kahane. They staged a few small street demonstrations. They raised some money for the convicted man's family and legal fees.

Federal authorities presented formal charges Thursday against key suspect Mahmud Abouhalima and a lesser figure as they began closing the circle of people sought in the bombing of New York's World Trade Center. In a day of fast-paced developments, Jim Esposito, head of the FBI's Newark, N.J., office, said "the circle is now very narrow," with five people in custody and one more being pursued. At the same time, James M.

Three weeks after a massive explosion killed six people and damaged one of New York City's most prominent landmarks, the motive behind the bombing of the World Trade Center remains, if anything, more mysterious than ever. Tracking leads on the East Coast, in Europe and in the Middle East, investigators have turned up a mass of evidence and have focused attention on a motley array of characters worthy of a detective novel: the sheik, the prison inmate, the scientist, the immigrant foot soldiers.

A federal jury on Friday found four militant Muslims guilty of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in what prosecutors called the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The jury convicted the defendants on conspiracy, assault and various explosives charges after a five-month trial during which 207 witnesses testified and 1,003 exhibits were presented--re-creating the horror of the explosion on Feb. 26, 1993.

After 18 weeks of testimony by more than 200 witnesses, government prosecutors in the World Trade Center bombing trial wrapped up their presentation Tuesday--capping a case that has been remarkable for its detail as well as its shortcomings. Prosecutors rested their case against the four defendants after two final days of testimony by David Williams, the FBI's primary investigator of the terrorist attack last Feb. 26. Williams gave an overview of the circumstantial evidence.

Saliva from one of the World Trade Center bombing suspects has been found on an envelope containing a letter claiming responsibility for the blast, sources close to the case said. The sources said Nidal Ayyad, 25, Kuwaiti-born engineer charged with taking part in the bombing, was matched to the envelope through a DNA test. The letter was received by the New York Times on March 2 claiming responsibility from a group calling itself the Liberation Army Fifth Battalion.

Federal authorities presented formal charges Thursday against key suspect Mahmud Abouhalima and a lesser figure as they began closing the circle of people sought in the bombing of New York's World Trade Center. In a day of fast-paced developments, Jim Esposito, head of the FBI's Newark, N.J., office, said "the circle is now very narrow," with five people in custody and one more being pursued. At the same time, James M.

Three weeks after a massive explosion killed six people and damaged one of New York City's most prominent landmarks, the motive behind the bombing of the World Trade Center remains, if anything, more mysterious than ever. Tracking leads on the East Coast, in Europe and in the Middle East, investigators have turned up a mass of evidence and have focused attention on a motley array of characters worthy of a detective novel: the sheik, the prison inmate, the scientist, the immigrant foot soldiers.

Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the militant Egyptian cleric whose New Jersey mosque was a site of worship for suspects accused in the bombing of New York's World Trade Center, Thursday denied knowing any of the suspects, including one said to be his own driver and bodyguard.

Investigators said Wednesday that they believe the possible mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing is a 33-year-old former chauffeur and bodyguard for Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, a militant Egyptian cleric, and that the suspect has fled to Pakistan. Sources familiar with the investigation said Mahmud Abouhalima, the man they are seeking, was "associated" on the day of the bombing with Mohammed A.

Working with a list of potential suspects obtained from bank accounts and other records, federal investigators now expect that their inquiry into the World Trade Center bombing will lead to at least two--and perhaps as many as a dozen--more arrests, officials said Friday.

The men suspected of exploding a bomb beneath the World Trade Center received tens of thousands of dollars from a bank account in Germany, giving credence to the theory that the act may have been the work of a sophisticated international terrorist organization, authorities said Thursday. Officials still have not determined the precise amount of money transferred to the suspects or the identity of the benefactors.

The hunt for overseas connections to the World Trade Center bombing intensified Tuesday as federal investigators said that they have identified a man in Germany as the source of a cash payment to a New Jersey man charged in the case. The man wired funds from Duesseldorf to the Jersey City, N.J., bank account of Mohammed A. Salameh nine days before the bombing, authorities said.

Working with a list of potential suspects obtained from bank accounts and other records, federal investigators now expect that their inquiry into the World Trade Center bombing will lead to at least two--and perhaps as many as a dozen--more arrests, officials said Friday.