Since 11 September, New York sees the suicide attacker as its greatest foe - be they intent on delivering a lorry bomb, a gas canister or hijacking another airliner - and has geared its security measures accordingly.
More than 100 rescue workers, firefighters, sniffer-dog squads and bomb and gas experts were deployed to the gutted building in a subsidized housing complex in the city of Reims, east of Paris, officials said.
But the indictment makes no mention of a plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or blow up apartment buildings with natural gas -- allegations made previously in public statements and court arguments by Justice Department officials.