Radical Cleric to Be Extradited to US

Radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and four other terror suspects who have fought for years to avoid facing charges in the United States have no more grounds for appeal and can be extradited from Britain immediately, Britain's High Court ruled today. The British government said it planned to put the men on planes to the United States "as quickly as possible"—a move that could come within hours.

The judges rejected last-ditch applications by al-Masri, Khaled al-Fawwaz, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdul Bary, and Syed Talha Ahsan, who have been battling extradition for between eight and 14 years (to get an idea of how drawn-out the process has been, check out our al-Masri grid). Al-Masri is wanted in the US on charges that include conspiring to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998. (More Abu Hamza al-Masri stories.)