Abu Hamza Appears In New York Court

Abu Hamza has appeared in a New York court on terror charges following his extradition from the UK, but the radical cleric did not enter a plea.

An aircraft carrying the 54-year-old touched down in the United States earlier on Saturday after he lost a High Court bid to remain in the UK on Friday.

Hamza is accused of attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and of involvement in the abducting of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998.

He also faces charges of advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001.

The former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in London arrived in court without the hook he uses as a hand, and complained through his lawyer that he wanted it to be given back.

Hamza, who was jailed in the UK for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred in 2006, first faced an extradition request from the Americans in 2004.

Four other men - Khaled al Fawwaz, Adel Abdul Bary, Syed Ahsan and Babar Ahmad - who also had last-ditch extradition challenges thrown out in London, pleaded not guilty to other terror charges.

Ahmad, a computer expert from south London, and Ahsan are accused of offences including using a website to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.

They appeared in a court in New Haven, Connecticut.

Bary and al Fawwaz were allegedly involved in, or supported, the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. They appeared alongside Hamza in New York.

On Friday, UK High Court Judge Sir John Thomas ruled that all five men could be extradited immediately to the US to answer the charges.

US Attorney Preet Bharara called the extraditions "a watershed moment".