Pinochet was provoking a rupture of due process and equality before the law because he refused to be processed."The stalling tactics of General Pinochet's defence lawyers continue to postpone the start of his trial They argue that he is too ill to face prosecution The general is entitled to lodge another technical appeal. Evidence in this case is being weighed by the judge, Juan Guzman, who must decide next month whether formally to prosecute the general or to throw the case out.. The Reverend Al Sharpton, who says he might run for the American presidency in 2004, began a hunger strike in a New York jail where he is serving a 90-day sentence for trespassing on a US Naval base on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The Reverend Al Sharpton, who says he might run for the American presidency in 2004, began a hunger strike in a New York jail yesterday where he is serving a 90-day sentence for trespassing on a US Naval base on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Mr Sharpton and three other prominent New York politicians, called "The Vieques Four", were sentenced last Wednesday in Puerto Rico after a civil disobedience rally. They were transferred to a New York detention centre to serve their sentences. Sanford Rubinstein, a lawyer for Mr Sharpton, said: "Both his legal team and his family are concerned about Mr Sharpton's health, but the hunger strike will continue until the release of The Vieques Four."The US Navy has been using large areas of Vieques, a Caribbean island of 33,000 acres off Puerto Rico, as a bombing range for 60 years.

Resistance was galvanised when a stray bomb killed a security guard on the range two years ago.Puerto Ricans will vote on the future of the ranges in a referendum in November. New York politicians anxious for Hispanic support have been rushing to the cause of those wanting to oust the US Navy from Vieques.Mr Sharpton, the Harlem-based firebrand for minority rights, wants to supplant the Reverend Jesse Jackson, hindered by an adultery scandal, as the leading spokesman for African Americans.. A jury in New York has found four alleged associates of America's most-wanted fugitive, Osama Bin Laden, guilty of multiple terrorism charges arising from the bombings in August 1998 of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 people dead. A jury in New York yesterday found four alleged associates of America's most-wanted fugitive, Osama Bin Laden, guilty of multiple terrorism charges arising from the bombings in August 1998 of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 people dead. Two of the four men, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 27, and Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali, 24, were both found guilty of murder for their part in the attack on the embassy in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam and face possible death sentences. The other defendants could be sentenced to life imprisonment.The verdicts, which represent a major victory for the US government's efforts to avenge the attacks, came after 12 days of jury deliberations. The trial itself lasted more than three months amid unprecedented security. More than 100 spectators packed the courtroom as the verdicts were read.In one of the worst terrorist attacks on the United States, a massive truck bomb exploded outside the Nairobi embassy at 10.30 am on 7 August 1998 that killed 213 people, including 12 Americans, and injured another 4,000 people.

Within seconds, a second bomb shattered the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, killing 11 people. Mohamed and Al-'Owhali were accused of participating directly in the attacks.The other two defendants, Wadi El Hage, 40, and Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, 36, escape the risk of execution because they were viewed as having played secondary roles in the plot. Odeh was charged with helping to mix the bomb ingredients in a Nairobi hotel. El Hage was described by prosecutors as a former personal secretary to Bin Laden, considered the mastermind of the whole plot and is believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan.The complicated trial, which left the jury pondering over 1,000 questions on the verdict forms, was completed in half the time that most had predicted. For the US government, pursuit of the perpetrators has only just begun. Six other defendants charged in the conspiracy are in custody; 12 others, including Bin Laden who is believed to head the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, are being sought.Members of the jury will be asked to return to the courtroom this morning to consider whether or not the death penalty should be applied to Mohamed and Al-'Owhali. Mohamed confessed to an FBI agent that he helped grind TNT for the bomb in Tanzania.