| nov/dec2002 |
Bomb experts called to Prime Minister's Sydney home after suspicious package arrives
Bomb experts were called to the Sydney residence of Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday after a suspicious package was delivered, police said. It was later found to be harmless.
A police spokeswoman said forensic and hazardous chemicals experts were called to the prime minister's official residence in Kirribilli, a leafy suburb, around 9:30 a.m. (2230 GMT).
It was not known if the prime minister was home at the time, the spokeswoman said on usual condition of anonymity.
"A package was delivered to Kirribilli House this morning which was thought to be suspicious," the spokeswoman said. "The package was examined by forensic experts ... before the item was taken away for further examination."
Police later said the contents were found to be harmless.
"It was not white powder or any hazardous material," a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity. He would not give further details.
Australia has been on a heightened security alert since the Oct. 12 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali, in which more than 190 people died, 88 of them Australian tourists.
Last month the government also said it had received a credible threat of a terrorist attack within Australia "in the next couple of months." Security has been tightened in the lead up to New Year's Eve celebrations in Sydney, where about one million revelers gather each year on the harbor foreshore to watch fireworks.
30 Dec 2002, AP
Blast at Government HQ in Chechnya Kills 32
At least 32 people were killed and dozens injured Friday in blasts at the government headquarters in Grozny, capital of the rebellious Russian province of Chechnya, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.
Two huge explosions went off within a minute of each other, devastating the five-story government building, Russia's NTV television said.
The head of the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, was not hurt in the attack, which Russian news agencies said had been carried out by suicide bombers.
Television pictures showed stunned people drenched in blood stumbling out of the wreckage, helped by Russian soldiers and civilians. Debris was strewn over a large area and cars parked nearby were smashed and gutted.
Two vehicles packed with explosives -- a truck and an off-road vehicle -- rammed through protective barriers around the building, RIA news agency quoted Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev as saying.
Footage broadcast by Russian television showed the building, one of few to have been rebuilt after Russian troops seized the capital in 2000 and one of the city's most heavily guarded, completely wrecked by the attack.
The attack bore all the hallmarks of the guerrillas who have been fighting to free Chechnya, in southern Russia's Caucasus region, from Moscow's rule for almost decade.
22 Dec 2002, Reuters
Explosion on Pakistani Bus Wounds at Least 15
An explosion ripped through a passenger bus in the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad on Saturday, wounding at least 15 people, two of them critically, police and ambulance workers said.
Hyderabad is about 100 miles north of Karachi, where there have been a series of bomb attacks this year blamed on Islamic militant groups.
Two of the wounded were in critical condition, police said. No other details were immediately available.
21 Dec 2002, AP
Four dead after suspected rebels attack police station, set off car bomb in eastern Colombia
Suspected rebels attacked a police station in eastern Colombia and set off a car bomb Friday. The blasts and shootouts killed four people.
Three carloads of rebels drove up to the police post in Cucuta, a city on the Venezuelan border 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of Bogota, and opened fire, police commander Col. Edgar Orlando Vale told Caracol Radio.
Police fought back, killing one of the attackers, who police believe were members of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second largest guerrilla group, which has a strong presence in the region. A civilian outside the police station also died in the crossfire.
The rebels then fled, leaving behind a vehicle rigged with 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of dynamite that exploded in front of the station, killing two police officers.
The explosion destroyed the police station as well as a nearby house, electrical wires and motorcycles, causing panic among local residents.
Fourteen civilians and three police officers were wounded in the attacks, which according to army Gen. Jorge Duvan Pineda were in retaliation for the police capture of local ELN leader Grimaldo Alvarez, known as "The Grandfather," and two other rebels early Friday.
Another car bomb was discovered and deactivated in the outskirts of Cucuta later Friday morning, Vale said.
Also Friday, rebels in southwest Colombia detonated a bomb where police were setting up a registration checkpoint for cars entering and leaving the city of Neiva, 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Bogota. The explosion wounded three police officers and two civilians, said police Col. Luis Alejandro Gomez.
Police blamed members of Colombia's largest rebel group — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — for that attack.
On Thursday night, two gunmen entered a bar in the town of Tame and killed five city hall employees, the army said.
Jorge Antonio Bernal, the mayor of Tame, a town 390 kilometers (240 miles) northeast of Bogota, ordered residents into their homes for the night as authorities searched for the gunmen.
Colombia is torn by a 38-year civil war that pits the leftist rebels against the government and right-wing paramilitary groups. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the fighting each year
20 Dec 2002, AP
Bomb
explosion in telephone booth kills one, wounds 20 in southwest Colombia
A bomb exploded
in a telephone booth in southwest Colombia, killing one person and
wounding 20 others, a police commander said.
The bomb went off Monday in front of offices for Telecom, Colombia's national phone company, in the city of Neiva, 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Bogota, said police Col. Luis Alejandro Gomez.
No suspects have been identified in the attack, Gomez said.
Late Monday, another small bomb exploded in front of a radio station in Valledupar, a city 660 kilometers (410 miles) north of Bogota. The RCN station was damaged, but there were no injuries, police said.
Last week, leftist rebels fighting the Colombian government launched a string of attacks in the capital that put authorities on high alert and prompted an emergency operation by soldiers and police to search for suspected rebels planning future attacks.
Colombia is torn by a 38-year civil war that pits the rebels against the government and right-wing paramilitary groups. About 3,500 people, mainly civilians, die in the fighting each year.
17 Dec, 2002, AP
Letter bomb threatens sports star
Italian sports star Valentino Rossi has been given police protection after he was mentioned as a possible target of a group opposed to capitalism and prisons.
The group, called
"The Five Cs", reportedly made threats against the reigning
world MotoGP champion in a leaflet found in a letter bomb defused
by Italian police at Milan's Malpensa airport.
News reports today said that Rossi was targeted because of his relations
with the Spanish energy group Repsol-YPF, which was among the Spanish
targets cited by the group.
Repsol is one of the commercial sponsors supporting Rossi in the world motorcycling championship, in which he rides a Japanese-made Honda.
The letter bomb found at Malpensa on Saturday was addressed to Iberia Airlines.
Police officers in Pesaro told the Italian news agency ANSA they were taking the threats to Rossi seriously and that the world champion had been put under discreet police protection.
"It's not something to be underestimated ... I'm a bit worried but it's seems strange to me that something like that is related to the sport," Valentino's father, Graziano, told Italian television networks.
Rossi is expected to leave Italy soon for London, where he has his official residence. The rider often spends several days in his native town of Tavulla, near Pesaro, between races and tests.
16 Dec, 2002,
Second
parcel bomb addressed to Iberia found
A parcel containing explosive material addressed to the Milan office
of the Spanish airline Iberia was deactivated at Milan aiport on
Saturday, airport police said.
It was the second parcel bomb in as many days addressed to to an office of the Spanish airline in Italy.
Police sid the parcel, a large envelope, contained explosive powder and a fuse.
It was spotted in the airport's post office, which had been on alert following the discovery of a similar package sent to the office of the airline in Rome on Friday.
No one has claimed responsibility for sending the packages.
14 Dec, 2002
Bomb explodes in town mayor's office, suspected bomber injured.
A suspected bomb ripped through the office of a Philippine town mayor in what investigators suspect may have been the result of a personal grudge, police said Friday.
The device exploded shortly before midnight Thursday at the office of Carmona Mayor Roy Loyola of Carmona town, severing a hand of the suspected bomber, Domingo Alwardo, said Police Chief Superintendent Enrique Galang. Carmona is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Manila.
Alwardo, a supporter of Carmona Vice Mayor Ador Alumnia, also sustained third-degree burns on his face and body. He was able to jump to the ground from the mayor's second-floor office, Galang said.
He said the suspected bomber was trying to plant the device in the ceiling when it exploded prematurely.
"When he was interrogated, he admitted that if given the opportunity, he would really kill the mayor," Galang said, adding the man mentioned a grudge over a land problem.
An unexploded hand grenade and a cellphone which could have been intended as a timing device were recovered from the site.
Loyola, in a radio interview with Manila radio DZBB, blamed Alumnia, pointing out that Alwardo was the vice mayor's supporter. Almunia admitted in the same program that Alwardo was his supporter but denied ordering the bombing.
The two local officials have a running feud over money and political issues.
12 Dec, 2002, AP
Colombian senator
injured by bomb hidden in a book
A prominent senator was injured when a bomb hidden in a book exploded
in his congressional office, police said.
Sen. German Vargas Lleras, a member of President Alvaro Uribe's governing coalition, was opening Christmas presents sent to his office Friday evening, among them the book with the explosive device, when it went off, police said.
The extent of his injuries were not immediately known.
The senator, the nephew of former president Carlos Lleras Restrepo, has been an outspoken critic of leftist rebels.
Officials were investigating how the book, apparently sent through the mail, managed to pass through security checks undetected.
Earlier Friday, another bomb hidden in a gift injured a Bogota pilot, police said. The pilot was not identified and officials did not say how badly he was injured.
Colombia is torn by a 38-year civil war pitting leftist rebels against illegal right-wing militias and government forces. Some 3,500 people die every year in the fighting and in bombings and assassinations.
11 Dec 2002, AP
Bombs hit cinemas in Bangladesh
At least 15 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in a series of bomb blasts in a densely populated town in northern Bangladesh.
The explosions took place almost simultaneously at four cinemas in the densely populated town of Mymensingh, 110 kilometres (70 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.
There were bodies lying in blood and many injured crying for help.Officials say the death toll is likely to rise.
There was no indication as to who might have been behind the attacks and police said they had no idea as to the motive.
In September, at least two people died and 200 were hurt in bomb blasts at a cinema hall and circus in Satkhira, a district town nearly 180 km (112 miles) south of Dhaka. No one admitted planting those devices.
7 Dec, 2002, BBC
Bombs might have caused explosions at McDonald's, car dealership in Indonesia
Indonesia's national police chief said Friday that bombs caused explosions at a McDonald's restaurant and a car dealership the day before, and his office was determining whether the blasts were linked to the Bali attacks.
Bachtiar said the bombs that blew up Thursday in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar were different from those used in the Oct. 12 attacks in Bali that killed nearly 200. But he said police were not ruling out a link with Bali and other earlier bombings elsewhere in Indonesia.
"I'm investigating whether there is a connection between the Makassar bombs and other bombings including Bali," Bachtiar said.
The first explosion at the McDonald's killed three and injured two, police said. About an hour later, a second explosion tore through a car dealership owned by Indonesian Welfare Minister Jusuf Kalla, damaging four cars but causing no injuries.
Bachtiar called the bombings the latest attempt to destabilize Indonesia, and vowed to find the perpetrators.
"We need to be alert," he said. "There are still groups of people that want to create security problems and fear among the people with these bombs. We are serious about revealing those behind these acts of terror."
But while Bachtiar blamed both blasts in Makassar on bombs, McDonald's management had told The Jakarta Post newspaper that the explosion was a kitchen accident.
Bomb blasts have become a regular feature of a running conflict between Muslims and Christians on Sulawesi island, located about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Since 1999, nearly 2,000 people have died in the fighting and tens of thousands have been left homeless.
A peace deal was signed late last year but clashes have increased in recent months, including a string of bus bombs and raids on villages.
7 Dec 2002, BBC
A bomb squad team has blown up a Christmas parcel after postal workers raised the alarm.
Staff at the Royal Mail's Springburn depot in Glasgow believed the package to be suspicious. The package, which was addressed to Australia, was isolated before it was detonated well away from the building. It was found to have contained a pair of jeans and electronic massager. The package was found not to contain anything sinister.
The St Rollox depot was particularly busy with some 300 staff dealing with the usual early December rush. A Royal Mail spokeswoman said bomb squad officers had decided not to evacuate the depot. A Strathclyde police spokeswoman said: "We received a call from the Royal Mail to say they had a suspect package.
"Officers attended the scene and decided to call the bomb squad, However, the package was found not to contain anything sinister."
7 Dec 2002, BBC
Dutch ANP News Agency Evacuated After Bomb Warning
The head office of Dutch news agency ANP was evacuated Wednesday after police received a warning that a bomb might have been planted in the building.
"There was a report coming in from police in Rijswijk that there were explosives in the building. They had a warning," ANP editor-in-chief Rob de Spa told Reuters. "Everybody's standing on the street at the moment."
The ANP head office is in Rikswijk, near The Hague.
The police warning in Rijswijk came on the same day that all Dutch outlets of Swedish furniture retailer IKEA were shut after explosive devices were found at two branches.
4 Dec, 2002, AP
Bomb
Scare Shuts 10 IKEA Shops in Netherlands
Police were searching
10 IKEA home furnishing stores in the Netherlands for bombs Wednesday
after explosive devices were found at branches of the world's biggest
furniture retailer.
All IKEA's Dutch stores were closed and its 4,000 employees told to stay home after bombs were found and defused at its stores in Amsterdam and Sliedrecht in the southwest of the country Tuesday, police and a company spokeswoman said.
"We decided together with the police because of safety reasons that the company's stores in the Netherlands would be closed today," said IKEA spokeswoman Helen van Trearum.
Local media reported that a suspect package had also been found at an IKEA store in Utrecht, central Netherlands and the nearby section of motorway closed, snarling rush-hour traffic.
"The investigation into these explosives gave us reason to believe that there could be an explosive in an IKEA store. There are 10 in the Netherlands and management chose to shut them while we are searching," Dutch police spokeswoman Elly Florax told Reuters.
"I cannot tell you as yet why we are taking this so seriously," she added.
Dutch media reported that a huge police operation to seal off the stores and close down roads near the stores had caused traffic chaos.
"We don't want to take any risks. We are taking this very seriously," IKEA's Van Trearum said.
4 Dec, 2002, AP
Suspicious
letters arrive at parliament, NATO, government offices
Authorities were investigating letters containing suspicious powder
which were sent to government offices , the Belgian parliament and
NATO (news - web sites) alliance headquarters on Tuesday, officials
said.
A police civil protection squad was sent across Brussels to analyze the letters and check whether they did not contain harmful substances.
Over the past year, letters have been sent to several Belgian and international institutions and some embassies, containing suspicious powders. None, so far, were found to be dangerous.
During an anthrax scare in the United States last year, five people died and 11 were injured inhaling anthrax spores sent through the mail.
3 Dec 2002, AP
Singapore
tightens border security with bomb scanners
Singapore is installing two US$2.5 million x-ray machines to screen
cargo coming into the country for nuclear material that could be
used by terrorists to make bombs, customs officials said Friday.
The machines will scan all containers entering Singapore, one of the world's busiest ports, through its sea and land entry points from January next year, said Jaswant Singh, the assistant director-general for the Customs and Excise department.
Singapore's security officials have been on high alert since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A plot by members Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida allied terror group, to blow up the U.S., British and Australian embassies in Singapore with truck bombs was uncovered in December. Anxiety increased further last month after bombings on the island of Bali in neighboring Indonesia that killed nearly 200 people.
"Before Sept. 11, we were already looking to increase border security, but with the Jemaah Islamiyah arrests and the Bali bombings, we have been testing and acquiring new technology," Singh said.
The new machines, similar to those used in the United States, were chosen because they can screen "a large number" of containers at a time. A 40-foot (12-meter) container can be scanned in about six seconds, Singh said.
Singapore also began using handheld bomb detectors last month that scan cargo for radiation and traces of chemicals that could be used to make explosives, Singh said.
U.S.-bound cargo will be inspected for terror weapons by both Singapore authorities and American customs inspectors as part of a container security agreement between the two countries, Singh said.
Each year, some 300,000 ships travel from or through Singapore to the United States.
29 Nov 2002, AP
Kenya Suffers 2nd Fatal Attack in 4 Years
The twin attacks on an Israeli-owned beach resort and an Israeli charter jetliner have left Kenyans shocked and wondering why their country should be the target of two deadly terrorist attacks in four years.
The attack Thursday on the Paradise Hotel, which killed at least 15 people including the three suicide bombers, and the firing of two missiles at the airliner rekindled memories of the Aug. 7, 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in which 219 people died.
"The first question that came to mind was why Kenya? The second one was how is it going to affect the country especially since we've just recovered from the last bomb blast," said Neel Kamal Plahe, a computer programmer in Nairobi.
Unlike Israel and the United States — themselves targets of terrorism — Kenya seems an unlikely target. The East African country plays no important role in Middle East politics. There is no history of religiously motivated violence in its diverse population.
It is a relatively stable country in a region of instability with a population of 28 million, between 10 and 20 percent of whom are Muslim. Most of Kenya's Muslims live along the coast where the Thursday attacks occurred.
However, Ted Dagne, a specialist in African affairs at the U.S. Congressional Research Service, said it had been long feared that Africa would become a battleground in the war against terrorism.
"Security services are not as well-trained to track and contain this kind of threat," he said. "There are also large Muslim populations. It's easy to mingle, and Westerners are more vulnerable in Africa than Europe. They stand out and the security protection is not as good."
The 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing, and a simultaneous blast at the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Tanzania in which 12 died, proved that Kenya was not immune to terrorism.
Both attacks were blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network and Kenyan and Israeli officials suspect al-Qaida in this latest attack, despite a claim of responsibility by the previously unknown Army of Palestine in a fax to news organizations in Beirut.
As elsewhere in Africa, Kenya's police lack resources, and the security, judicial, immigration and customs services are notoriously corrupt.
With porous borders and the busiest international airport in the region, large numbers of foreigners move freely in and out of the country. Kenya's neighbors are among some of Africa's most unstable countries — Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. All are awash in weapons.
"I think we are a fairly cosmopolitan country with a large number of Israeli interests, like hotels, which renders us vulnerable to terrorist attacks," said Mukhisa Kituyi, an opposition politician and former member of a parliamentary foreign affairs committee. "We've got a very porous border which we don't have a substantive capacity to control."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States identified this region as a possible terrorist haven and set up a joint command task force for the area in Djibouti, where some 800 U.S. troops, including special forces, are stationed.
Kenya is considered a key regional ally in the war against terrorism, and U.S. Marines are to begin an annual exercise on the Kenyan island of Manda, about 150 miles north of Mombasa, next week.
That too makes the country a target, according to some Kenyans.
Khelef Khalifa, director of Muslims for Human Rights, said Kenya's association with American and its links to Israel could make it a tempting target.
28 Nov 2002, AP
Indian Troops Find Bomb-Making Unit
Police in India-controlled Kashmir raided a girls high school Thursday and found a bomb-making laboratory, seizing explosives they said militants planned to use in the Himalayan region.
Hours after the raid, suspected Islamic militants hurled a grenade at the local headquarters of state-run All India Radio in Srinagar, police said. No casualties were reported.
Acting on a tip, police raided the Muslim Girls Public School in Srinagar before it opened Thursday, and found at least four large bombs and sacks full of land mines and other explosive devices in an unused part of the school.
There was nobody in the bomb lab at the time, and nobody was immediately arrested, although school officials were being questioned, police said.
"These bombs were being manufactured in the school and nobody knew. The explosive material we have found is of very high grade, and the devices were being smartly concealed inside fire extinguishers," Srinagar police Superintendent R.J. Swain said.
He said the bombs could have caused considerable damage.
"The explosive devices were being readied for use in Srinagar and elsewhere," Swain said. "It could have resulted in large scale violence and attacks. And if they had succeeded the damage would have been considerable."
Elsewhere in the city, soldiers caught a villager with a sack of weapons and ammunition that he was delivering to a militant hide-out in Srinagar.
Abdul Rashid Najar said he had been paid about $10 to deliver the two automatic guns, ammunition and hand grenades from the border town of Sopore.
Najar was a courier for the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, Border Security Force spokesman Tirath Acharya said.
The outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of a dozen rebel groups fighting Indian forces for Kashmir's independence or merger with neighboring Pakistan. At least 61,000 people have been killed in the 13-year-old insurgency.
India accuses Pakistan of funding and training the militants who slip into Indian territory and attack security forces and civilians. Pakistan denies the charge saying it only offers the rebels diplomatic and political support.
28 Nov 2002,
APBomb Blast at a South African Airport, No Injuries
Sun Nov 24, 5:23 AM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A bomb exploded late Saturday at a small
South African airport where police helicopters were housed, causing
no injuries but damaging the building, police said.
"A bomb exploded at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, causing structural damage to the building," police spokesman Selby Bokaba told Reuters on Sunday. "No one was injured."
He described the damage to the airport building as minor, and said
that until engineers arrived to certify the site was safe he would
not be able to tell whether the blast had damaged the helicopters.
At the end of October, nine bomb blasts shook the township of Soweto,
near Johannesburg, damaging railway facilities and a mosque. A 10th
explosive device went off at a Buddhist temple near Pretoria.
Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi linked previous bombings to a
shadowy group of white extremists known as the "Boremag,"
who are already accused of plotting to overthrow the black majority
government.
Bukoba did not name any suspects for the Midrand attack.
One airport worker said the bomb had damaged the part of the airport
where the police air service was based, but Bokaba said he could
not confirm that.
Midrand airport, about 20 km (12 miles) from central Johannesburg,
is a base for regional flights within South Africa. It is mainly
used by private pilots and flight training schools, but can handle
domestic passenger airliners and is sometimes used by charter flights
Envelope With Threat Halts Mail Sorting
An envelope with a threatening message written on it prompted the lockdown of the sorting center at the U.S. Postal Service's processing facility in Hartford Tuesday.
An employee who handled the envelope about 9 a.m. noticed a written threat, warning that hazardous materials were inside, postal officials said. They would not disclose the specific wording or whether the threat referred to anthrax.
The cavernous sorting room of the Weston Street plant, the state's largest mail processing facility, was immediately sealed off after postal inspectors felt a "lumpy" substance inside the envelope, officials said.
Wearing protective clothing, hazardous materials teams from the Hartford police and fire departments, as well as the state Department of Environmental Protection, secured the envelope and took it to the state police criminal laboratory in Hartford, officials said.
An analysis of the substance in the envelope determined it was not hazardous, officials said, though they declined to identify the material.
Shortly after the letter was discovered, an employee in the sorting room complained of chest pains. She was treated at Hartford Hospital and released, officials said.
Postal officials said they do not believe the employee's ailments were connected to the material found in the envelope.
The sorting room was reopened for normal business about 1 p.m. Tuesday. The facility's front lobby, where members of the public conduct routine business, remained open throughout the incident because it is shut off from the sorting room, officials said.
The U.S. Postal Inspector's Office, which is part of the newly formed national Joint Terrorism Task Force, is conducting a criminal investigation to find out who mailed the envelope.
20 Nov 2002
US capital hit by 'bomb threat'
Investigators looking into a bomb threat that brought part of central Washington to a standstill say they did not find any explosives.
Morning rush hour in the US capital was disrupted and some government offices were evacuated after a man claiming to have a truck containing explosives demanded to see the president.
He was arrested, and a white truck parked on Independence Avenue, about 1.5 kilometres (one mile) from the White House, was searched.
An official said two "suspicious packages" were "neutralised with water cannon" but that no explosives were found.
The authorities ordered the evacuation of the US Department of Agriculture buildings near to where the truck was discovered, and closed Independence Avenue - which is a major route through the capital.
But the area was soon reopened, and the federal employees returned to work.
Wednesday, 13 November, 2002
Fast food outlets bombed in Lebanon
Police in Lebanon
say three restaurants with US connections have been damaged by small
bomb explosions.
The explosions took place early in the morning near the capital
Beirut and in the northern city of Tripoli.
The restaurants were closed at the time and nobody was injured in the attacks.
In Jounieh, just north of Beirut, a Pizza Hut outlet and a nearby Winners fast food restaurant were targeted. In Tripoli, the facade of another Pizza Hut restaurant was destroyed by a blast.
In May, a bomb exploded outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Tripoli, and in September, another bomb explosion happened under a car parked outside a McDonald's outlet in Jounieh.
Nobody was injured but the blasts caused extensive damage.
Anti-American sentiment has risen in Lebanon during the two-year-old Palestinian uprising, because of US support for Israel.
Lebanese students and activists have organised boycotts of goods and franchises associated with the United States.
Many see the US as the power that allowed Israel to invade Lebanon at the cost of thousands of lives in 1982.
Tuesday, 12 November, 2002
One person has been killed and two others injured in a bomb explosion in Nepal.
Suspected Maoist rebels are believed to have carried out the attack which took place in Banepa, north-east of the capital, Kathmandu.
The bomb had been placed in a rubbish container in front of a telecommunications tower.
"One person was killed when a bomb went off on Friday morning and the injured have been rushed to hospital," district official Umesh Pandey told Reuters.
The attack comes ahead of a general strike next week called by the Maoists.
The rebels have called the strike to protest against last month's move by King Gyanendra to assume full executive powers and appoint a new prime minister after dismissing the administration of Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Friday, 8 November, 2002
