Three charged with 'terror' offences in Britain

Two men and a woman were charged with terror offences today, British police said, following what was described as an "extensive investigation" helped by Belgium and France.
The three -- 29-year-old Soumaya Boufassil Mohammed Ali Ahmed and Zakaria Boufassil, both aged 26 -- were all from the central English city of Birmingham, police said.
Ahmed and Zakaria Boufassil were charged with "an arrangement as a result of which.... A quantity of sterling currency was made available to another and they knew or had reasonable cause to suspect that it would or may be used for the purposes of terrorism," police said in a statement.

Ahmed and Soumaya Boufassil were charged with gathering funds with "the intention of committing acts of terrorism or assisting another to commit such acts".
The three were among five people arrested earlier this month as part of what police said was an "extensive investigation" that involved French and Belgian authorities.
Another man arrested at the same time, 40-year-old Fazal Sajjad Younis Khan, was charged with possessing a tear gas spray. He has been released on bail and is due to appear in court next month.

The fifth man, aged 59, was released on bail without charge.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper cited unnamed Western officials last year saying several people with connections to slain Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud lived in the Birmingham area.

Suicide bombings at Brussels' airport and on a metro train in the city killed 32 people last month, while jihadists killed 130 in a bombing and shooting spree in Paris in November.
Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.
Abaaoud was killed in a French police raid just days after the November 13 Paris attacks.