USS Cole suspects escape

Yemeni security forces were hunting 10 prime suspects in the al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole yesterday after they escaped from prison.

Embarrassed Yemeni authorities would not say how they escaped from the jail in Aden. Security forces were scouring the streets and the homes of the suspects' relatives were also raided.

One of the fugitives is Jamal al-Badawi, who allegedly helped buy the dinghy used by the two suicide bombers who rammed the destroyer in Aden harbour in October 2000, killing 17.

Officials said that the men might have left Aden for al-Qaida strongholds in Shabwah, northern Yemen.

Yemen committed itself to the war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks and has allowed American forces to enter the country and train its military.

Walid al-Saqqaf, editor of the Yemen Times, said: "The US would not have imagined the carelessness of the security. It's not just a case of local concern, but of international concern."

In an attempt to show that Iraq was not deflecting the US from its wider war on terrorism, the head of the US central command, General Tommy Franks, visited troops in Afghanistan yesterday.

· French officials said yesterday that powder initially thought to be the deadly toxin ricin when discovered in a Paris railway station last month appeared to be a harmless mixture of ground barley and wheatgerm.