Magistrates in Italy on Friday dropped international terrorism charges brought against two of three Algerian nationals arrested earlier this week, dpa reported. The suspects were said by police to be running a "potentially operative" cell of Algeria's Salafist movement. This prompted speculation of an imminent attack in Italy, with newspapers Friday quoting tapped conversations in which the suspects allegedly spoke of blowing up a ship "as big as the Titanic". However, no explosive material was seized during police raids that led to their arrest and while a magistrate in Naples upheld the accusations brought against Yamine Bouhrama, his colleague in the northern city of Brescia ruled that Khaled Serai and Mohamed Larbi should only stay in prison on minor charges, including receiving stolen goods and forging documents. Italy has often been mentioned as a likely target of international terrorists and has stepped up security in the wake of the London and Madrid bombings, holding terror drills in a number of cities, including Milan, Rome and Naples. The police have arrested a number of terrorist suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, but most were later released owing to lack of evidence. --SP 2149 Local Time 1849 GMT
