Carlos the Jackal on trial for 4 attacks in France

PARIS?? Carlos the Jackal has gone on trial again ? this time over four deadly attacks in France nearly three decades ago.

The 62-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, went before a special Paris court Monday on terrorism-linked charges.

He is already serving a life sentence handed down for a triple murder in 1975.

A panel of anonymous magistrates will rule after the six-week trial.

Ramirez was one of the most feared masterminds of terror during the Cold War.

He is charged with instigating attacks in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others.

He has denied any role in the attacks.

French operatives caught Ramirez in 1994 in Sudan. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison three years later.

'A kind of star'
"I am really in a combative mood," Ramirez, 62, told Europe 1 radio last month. "I'm not fearful by nature ... My character is suited to this kind of combat."

The Marxist with a Che Guevara beret became the face of 1970s and 80s anti-imperialism, his taste for women and alcohol adding to his revolutionary mystique.

"He was the symbol of international leftist terrorism," said Francois-Bernard Huyghe, a terrorism expert at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, IRIS, in Paris.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Obama rail initiative a 'train to nowhere'?
   2. Mill's revival brings back blankets, US jobs
   3. Downturn takes heavy toll on younger Americans
   4. Cain: I'm a Koch 'brother from another mother'
   5. FDA: Moldy applesauce repackaged by school lunch supplier
   6. Is Burma breaking out of China's embrace?

"One day it could be in the service of the Palestinian cause, the next day he could put bombs in French trains. He was a kind of star," he added.

Ramirez's got his nickname after a reporter saw a copy of Frederick Forsyth's "The Day of the Jackal" at his flat and mistakenly assumed it to be his.

His larger-than-life ego manifests itself today in waging hunger strikes and writing letters to U.S. President Barack Obama. He also married his attorney inside the prison walls.

But he and his modus operandi are anachronisms, experts say.

"Carlos the Jackal was the Osama bin Laden of his day," his biographer, John Follain, told Reuters TV. "Terrorism has evolved so much that today he represents a solitary voice in the desert, a pretty old-fashioned voice."

Huyghe was more blunt: "A man like Carlos is really a dinosaur today. I think of him as 'historical remains'."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45188009/ns/world_news-europe/

world series game 1 exotic animals exotic animals college board scott hall lra lra