Italian jet lands in France after apparent hijack attempt LYON, France (AP) =97 A former Italian policeman with a history of mental=20 illness tried to hijack an Italian jetliner Wednesday, claiming he was an=20 al-Qaeda terrorist with a bomb, police said. The same man hijacked a plane= =20 three years ago and held hostages for three hours. Stefano Savorani, 29,=20 was arrested after he tried to hijack the Paris-bound Alitalia plane=20 claiming he had a box of explosives. The jet landed safely in the southern= =20 French city of Lyon, and no injuries were reported. "Oh God, he's done it=20 again," his mother, Orella Savorani, told the Italian news agency ANSA=20 after learning about Wednesday's incident in Lyon. French authorities said= =20 it was not immediately known why he was not in prison for the earlier=20 hijacking. Savorani, who was dismissed from the police force for mental=20 illness, hijacked an Air France jetliner carrying 76 passengers three years= =20 ago after threatening to blow up the plane. He surrendered after releasing= =20 12 hostages. French authorities said it was not immediately known why he was not in=20 prison for the earlier hijacking. The suspect's mother said he was being=20 treated for schizophrenia and that she began worrying about where he was=20 when he failed to return after borrowing about $500 to pay his fees for a=20 university in Bologna, Italy. The Paris-bound Alitalia jet, which took off= =20 from Bologna, was over Switzerland when Savorani stood up, brandished a=20 rectangular box and threatened to blow up the plane, police said. "I belong= =20 to an al-Qaeda network. I want to make a declaration to the press,"=20 Savorani told passengers. It was unclear whether he forced the plane to=20 land in Lyon or whether it was the pilot's decision. Alitalia said 57=20 passengers and seven crew members were on board. Enzo Bianco, head of the=20 Italian parliamentary committee on secret services, said the suspect was=20 "disarmed and captured," the Italian news agency Ap.Biscom reported. "This= =20 makes us breathe a sigh of relief at the help from the French police who=20 captured this sole hijacker," he said. French police said that in addition to the earlier plane hijacking,=20 Savorani also commandeered an Italian train in 1998 with a fake weapon.=20 "It's the same person," a police spokesman said. "He's done it again." The= =20 diversion of the plane comes as France has been steeling itself against=20 possible terrorist actions. French police have arrested at least 18 people= =20 in recent days suspected of being involved in terrorist groups in a series= =20 of raids in and around Paris. Earlier Wednesday, Interior Minister Nicolas= =20 Sarkozy told the lower house of Parliament that authorities were exercising= =20 "extreme vigilance" against a possible attack. Defense Minister Michele=20 Alliot-Marie said in an interview published this week that France was a=20 leading target of terrorist groups. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (nalis) http://www.nalis.gov.tt (T&T National Library & Information System Authority) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************