More than 700 German police officers raided dozens of mosques, apartments and small businesses across Germany on Wednesday in a bid to break up a loosely organized network of Islamic radicals, authorities said. Counterterrorism officials and prosecutors said 22 people were arrested, most on suspicion of raising money for extremist causes and forging passports and other official documents. Investigators said there was no evidence that the network was planning any attacks and gave few details about its ideological goals or motives.

The sweep was part of an aggressive anti-terrorism strategy recently initiated by the German government, which faced heavy internal and external criticism for moving slowly in response to threats from Islamic radicals after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The leaders of the Sept. 11 plot were part of an al Qaeda cell in Hamburg that had attracted the attention of German investigators before the hijackings but managed to keep its intentions secret.

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The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry urged the Japanese government last week to review its policy on foreign students because their academic performance has been declining.  The ministry also called on law enforcement authorities to tighten immigration screening procedures for privately financed overseas students, some of whom sometimes overstay their visas to get illegal jobs.

In a report evaluating the policy, the ministry recommended that the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry review existing systems concerning foreign students.   The number of foreign students studying in Japan totaled about 117,300 last year, topping the 100,000-mark target set by the government in 1983 when the number of overseas students totaled about 10,000.