Al-Qaeda to strike UK, warns police chief

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">LONDON: Painting an alarming picture, the British police warned that terrorist outfit al-Qaeda was planning to target the country, and called for new stringent laws to tackle such conspiracies.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">"There''s real clarity now that al-Qaeda affiliates are targetting Britain," Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said as reports claimed that a poison ricin attack planned by al-Qaeda operative Kamel Bourgass was aimed at the busy Heathrow Express rail link.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Blair''s warning came days after Bourgass, an Algerian who had been linked to al-Qaeda, was given a 17-year prison term for killing a special branch detective constable and plotting to spread poison ricin on British streets</span><br /><span style="" font-size:="">.</span><br /></div> </div>