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Student pursues an anthrax defense
A medical journal will publish his investigation into how a steam iron can kill spores inside an envelope.
A high school
senior who showed in a science-fair project that steam-ironing
mail can kill anthrax-like spores inside - without damaging the
other contents of the envelope - will have that research published
in June.
Marc Roberge, 17, of Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh,
decided to experiment after discussing his father's work as a
medical toxicologist for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention
office in the Pittsburgh suburb of South Park. His research will
appear in the Journal of Medical Toxicology.
"He's just 17. I was 35 before I had my first publication,"
said Roberge's father, Raymond, an expert on biological agents.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, anthrax attacks using
the mail killed five people and injured 17. A germ-warfare specialist
from the former Soviet Union told a congressional committee in
October 2001 that a hot steam iron could be used to kill anthrax
spores.
During a CNN interview several months later, Raymond Roberge said
that high heat could kill anthrax, but that he did not know whether
an iron would work.
Marc Roberge did not use anthrax in his experiments, which he
performed at home and at school. "The government might have
had a problem with that," he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Instead, he used a bacterial spore from the anthrax family that
is more heat-resistant than anthrax, and that scientists use as
a surrogate for anthrax.
He found that an iron at its highest setting, about 400 degrees,
killed all spores ironed for at least five minutes.
Roberge conducted the experiments as part of a science project
for his Advanced Placement biology course.
Bioterrorism expert Michael Allswede, of the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center, said people should not routinely iron their mail.
"But should there be another threat like the anthrax attacks
in 2001, it would be one of the techniques that could be used
by regular people," he said.
18 Feb 2006, AP
Indian city on high alert after 25 hurt in bomb blast
India's western Ahmedabad city has been placed on high alert after
25 people were injured, three of them seriously, in a bomb blast
at the main railway station.
"It was a bomb blast. It was meant to create panic and terror. Whether it was a handiwork of terrorist outfits is not clear," said A.K. Bhargava, police chief of Gujarat state which includes Ahmedabad.
He said that powerful explosives were used for the blast, but the impact was limited as there were no trains at the station early morning when it was detonated.
Two of the three people seriously injured suffered major damage to their hearing, doctors said.
The others were discharged after being given first-aid.
The explosion destroyed part of a railway platform in the city, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, witnesses said.
Two tea stalls were destroyed in the early morning explosion.
Gujarat state's home minister Amit Shah inspected the site of the blast and declared a state of "high alert," police said.
By late afternoon, trains were running on schedule after services had earlier been halted.
Police have stepped up security in other parts of the city as well, a government spokesman said.
Gujarat state was torn by bloody communal riots in late February 2002 after Hindus accused Muslims of torching a train carriage crammed with Hindu hardliners. A government inquiry later found the fire was caused by an accident.
More than 2,000 people -- mostly Muslims -- were killed in the ensuing riots.
15 Feb 2006, AP
Body Guard Assigned to Pop Star After Hate Mail Campaign
X FACTOR winner Shayne Ward has been given a bodyguard after receiving hate mail.
The Clayton singer has vowed to ignore the threats but has been given round-the-clock protection, says the Mirror.
One note warned Shayne, 21, and family to "look over their shoulders" and another made racist remarks on their Irish roots.
Shayne's mum Philomena, 48, has also received threatening phone calls and is scared to leave their Manchester home.
Shayne's sister Lisa, 24, said: "It's upsetting and stressful, but we're a strong family. Negativity from jealous idiots won't upset us."
It is believed the letters could be from enemies of Shayne's jailed relations. His father, Martin, 50, is serving eight years for raping a pensioner.
Two uncles
and a cousin also got life over a shooting.
13 Feb 2006, Manchester Evening News
White powder causes anthrax alert at NATO centre in Norway
A letter containing a mysterious white powder triggered an anthrax alert at a NATO centre in western Norway, the military said Wednesday.
Norwegian military spokesman Erling Kristiansen said a female civilian employee at the base had come in contact with the powder, and received medical treatment as a precaution. "This has been turned over to the police, who sent the powder for analysis," Kristiansen said. "The result should be ready in a few days."
The letter arrived Tuesday at the Jaataa military complex in Stavanger, the western city housing NATO's Joint Warfare Centre and the Norwegian military's operational command.
Kristiansen declined to give any details about the letter's sender or intended recipient.
Norway's largest newspaper, Verdens Gang, reported that the letter was sent from the United States and addressed to Americans at the NATO centre.
Several letters with suspicious powders have been received in Norway, but none has been proven to contain the deadly anthrax bacteria.
14 Feb 2006, AP
Beyonce Knowles Gets Hate Mail For Promoting Furs
Beyonce Knowles is reportedly being bombarded with hate mail for selling animal fur in her fashion range.
The curvy singer has been sent sacks of letters since her label, Dereon, started selling clothes made of rabbit and chinchilla fur - and teddy bears made of mink.
Furious animal
rights campaigners have even threatened to leave carcasses outside
the star's home, according to a report in Britain's News of The
World newspaper.
13
Feb 2006, Female First news
Oxford Steps up Security After Escalation of Threats
Colleges are mounting an unprecedented security operation in the wake of renewed threats from animal rights extremists, at the same time that it emerged five protestors attempted to break into Hertford College The protestors, believed to be members of the Animal Liberation Front, were participating in a demonstration outside Balliol on 28th January, organized by SPEAK.
The five campaigners are understood to have broken away from the main protest, before scaling the walls of Hertford’s Warnock House and Abingdon House annexes. Hertford’s Bursar, Peter Baker, said, "The protestors did not gain admission to any buildings and left the grounds soon afterwards.
The Principal of the college, Dr John Landers told The Oxford Student, "As a college we take the security of our students and staff very seriously and are endeavoring to ensure it in the light of recent events, but it would not be appropriate for me to discuss the specific measures involved." Meanwhile, students at Pembroke have been warned in an email to be vigilant about who they let into their college, and reminded of the policy of signing in all invited guests after midnight.
The email from the college’s Dean, Dr Adrian Gregory, told students, "The ALF ‘declaration of war’ is a real cause for concern. Colleges are going to be targeted (probably for vandalism, but we can’t rule out worse), and logically any attack is going to happen at night." Dr Gregory told this newspaper, "There have been no specific incidents in the last few months, but this was really an appeal for heightened vigilance and common sense.
JCR President Claire Addison said the sign-in system was nothing new, but acknowledged the need to be alert. "Security at Pembroke is very high at the moment - with a porter on the door at all times, CCTV coverage, and members’ only key entry at the main door." She described the regulations as a sensible measure, saying, "College are taking reasonable and responsible measures to ensure the safety of the students in what is an increasingly fraught situation.
The Steward of nearby Christ Church, John Harris, confirmed the college is also attempting to strike the balance between convenience and security. Harris stressed that termtime security is generally very high at Christ Church, but confirmed that it is usually tightened at times of particular concern.
Harris told The Oxford Student that the level of security during animal rights protests is dependent upon the specific event, with marches near the Town Hall or in the St Aldate’s area causing the greatest worry. During the 28th January SPEAK protest, the main gate to the college remained closed, with a custodian monitoring the wicket gate. Thames Valley Police is understood to have written to all colleges detailing its security advisory program.
It recommends stricter vetting procedures and scrupulous reference checks before employing staff, particularly temporary workers. They have also warned students to be vigilant.
9 Feb 2006, Oxford Student
'ETA
bomb' explodes outside disco
A car
bomb exploded at a discotheque in northern Spain on Tuesday night,
causing damage but no injuries because police had cleared the
area after a warning call in the name of the Basque separatist
group ETA, an Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN.
The blast came just four days after Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that Spain could be witnessing the "beginning of the end" of ETA, which is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its 37-year fight for Basque independence.
While government officials and political analysts speculate publicly about an imminent ETA cease-fire, the Basque ambulance service DYA received a call just after 7 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT) Tuesday in which the caller, speaking for ETA, warned of a bomb that would explode an hour later at La Nuba discotheque in the town of Urdax, in northern Navarra province, a DYA spokeswoman told CNN.
Civil Guards rushed to the site and cleared the area. The bomb, in a van parked outside the dance club, went off at 8 p.m., the ministry spokesman said.
Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso, in the eastern city of Valencia to speak at a conference honoring victims of terrorism, including many who have suffered at the hands of ETA, condemned the latest blast.
Last December, ETA set off a bomb at another discotheque in Navarra province, causing no injuries but property damage, after a warning call.
ETA is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.
ETA has not killed anyone since 2003, although it continues a campaign of bombings that caused injuries and property damage last year.
More than
500 ETA prisoners are now in Spanish jails, after police in Spain
and France, ETA's traditional rearguard region, have boosted cooperation
in recent years.
3 Feb 2006, CNN
15 wounded in Istanbul bomb blast
A bomb exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during Monday's afternoon rush, injuring 15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came days after a fatal bombing at an Internet cafe in the city.
In an e-mail, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization said it carried out both attacks in response to Turkey's policies toward the Kurdish people, the Firat News Agency said on its Web site.
The shadowy group -- believed linked to the main Kurdish guerrilla group, Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK -- has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb attacks in Turkey, including a blast in the Aegean resort town of Cesme last summer that wounded 21 people. The same group had also claimed Thursday's bomb attack on the Internet cafe, which killed one person and injured 15, including seven policemen.
"From now on, we will continue our actions uninterrupted" until the Turkish government changes its policies, the militant group said.
Turkey maintains its military drive against the autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels and does not recognize its sizable Kurdish population as an official minority.
The bomb blast at the supermarket damaged a wall and shattered windows.
"I was sitting inside when the explosion shattered the windows," said Zikri Cetinkaya, 48, who had been in a real estate office next door to the supermarket. "I immediately ducked and waited inside, I saw the ambulances outside but I was so afraid to walk to the market."
Kurdish guerrillas
have been fighting for autonomy in the southeast since 1984, a
battle that has so far claimed 37,000 lives. The European Union
and the United States consider the PKK to be a terrorist organization.
13
Feb 2006, AP
Woman Accused of Sending Mail Bombs
A former strip-club waitress mailed condoms filled with a potentially explosive mixture to a television station, strip clubs and other places, saying she was tired of being mistreated by men, according to court documents.
In FBI documents unsealed in a Boston U.S. District Court, Kimberly Lynn Dasilva, 40, said she "couldn't take it anymore."
None of the condoms exploded. They each contained a mixture of drain-cleaning detergent and gasoline, which could explode when combined, authorities said.
On Sept. 21, a suspicious package arrived at the Bridgewater State College admissions office. Five more were found the next day.
U.S. Magistrate
Judge Robert Collings released her on a $10,000 unsecured bond
and scheduled a hearing in the case for Feb. 23.
9 Feb 2006, AP
Mail Bomb Targets Baffled by Attacks
When employees in the Bridgewater State College admissions office flipped through the mail five months ago, an 8-inch by 8-inch envelope caught their attention.
"It emitted a whitish powder," Bridgewater State College Police Chief David Tillinghast said. "When they set it down, it leaked some kind of liquid. Needless to say, that raised some hackles over there."
Within minutes, the building was evacuated and the Fire Department called, setting off a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe that led to the recent arrest of a former strip-club waitress.
Kimberly Lynn DaSilva of Hull, 40, a former waitress at The Foxy Lady in Brockton and Alex's strip club in Stoughton, was accused in U.S. District Court of sending explosive devices through the mail.
She was accused of mailing packages containing explosive devices to Bridgewater State College, The Foxy Lady, Alex's, the Outlaws motorcycle club in Taunton, the Fox 25 television station in Dedham and the KISS-108 FM radio station in Revere.
The package containing two condoms, one filled with Drano and the other with gasoline, was sent to BSC on Sept. 21, 2005. Similar packages addressed to the other businesses were found the next day at the Brockton Postal Annex.
Tillinghast said he can't figure out why the college was targeted. He said the suspect never attended the college.
"I'm not aware of any connection with Bridgewater State College," he said. "If it was just to make a splash, it caused more than a little one."
Tillinghast said the admissions building was evacuated and the state bomb squad responded.
"It was quite a scene back there," he said. "The admissions office is right behind the administration building. It caused a huge scene back there. They had all the yellow tape up."
The package received at Bridgewater State College was a bubble-wrap envelope containing a condom and a granular substance. A broken condom that appeared to have contained a liquid was also in the package.
A note, written on a word processor, read, "BOOM."
An FBI bomb technician found that if the two substances were to combine and combust, the resulting gases, if contained in an air-tight container, "could result in a low-level explosion," according to court papers.
In addition to the packages, authorities received several "taunting letters" referring to the packages. The name on the letters was that of another former strip-club waitress who DaSilva's ex-boyfriend was trying to date, according to court papers.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court, DaSilva was described by an ex-boyfriend as "very expensive" and "paranoid."
The former boyfriend, William Gauss, who once lived in Hyde Park, told authorities DaSilva "has a wild imagination and has imagined a variety of things which have never occurred," according to court papers.
Gauss told authorities he now has a new girlfriend.
DaSilva, who
now sells sex toys, was also described by Gauss as "a lonely
woman," according to court papers
9
Feb 2006, Enterprises
Animal Rights Violence Escalates
THE number of attacks by animal rights activists has escalated dramatically over the past decade, according to a report released by the Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) in Washington DC on Friday.
The FBR compiled information from more than two decades on harassment, intimidation, arson, vandalism, bombing, beatings, theft and even body snatching. It concluded that "the number, severity and scope of attacks" are growing. There were 88 such incidents in the 1980s, 132 in the 1990s, and 363 cases in the first five years of this century.
Instead of targeting increasingly better-secured labs or furriers, activists have switched to "tertiary targeting" - attacking companies that do business with the labs or furriers in a bid to force them to end their cooperation.
"88 animal rights attacks in the 1980s - and 363 in the first five years of this decade"In the case of animal-testing lab Huntingdon Life Sciences, for instance, the international Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign has targeted equipment suppliers, share market makers, insurers, auditors, banks and couriers.
The FBR hopes
new legislation may reduce attacks. In the first trial of its
kind since US law was amended to outlaw "animal enterprise
terrorism", jury selection was due to begin this week in
the trial of six SHAC members in Trenton, New Jersey, who face
charges of conspiracy, stalking and harassment against employees
of Huntingdon.
11 Feb 2006, New Scientist
Kenyan police have arrested five men suspected of plotting a bomb attack on last Saturday's African Nations Cup final between Egypt and Ivory Coast where Egypt President Hosni Mubarak was in the 74,000 crowd, a police official said today.
The men were
detained in separate raids on Friday and Saturday in Nairobi and
the north-eastern town of Wajir, about 500km from the capital,
after authorities were tipped off about the alleged plot, they
said.
"According to the intelligence we got, they were planning
a bomb attack on some location, which we have not yet established,
in Cairo," one senior police official said. "How far
that is true is yet to be known."
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still at a very preliminary stage, said the intelligence included monitored telephone conversations between Kenya, Egypt and South Africa.
He said South African authorities had alerted Kenyan police to the calls in which the suspects spoke of an apparent attack timed to coincide with Saturday's final, which was won on penalties by Egypt.
The official declined to identify the nationalities of the suspects.
A second police source said three of the suspects were arrested in Nairobi's crime-prone Eastleigh suburb, a frequent target for terrorism and weapons related raids where large numbers of Somali migrants live.
The other two were detained in Wajir, which is located near the Somali border, he said, adding that a sixth suspected member of the group is still at large and is being sought by police.
"They are under investigation but, at the moment, nothing concrete has been established," the official said, noting that the suspects were being moved frequently during their interrogation for security reasons.
Citing unnamed government sources, Nairobi's Sunday Nation newspaper said police were looking into whether the men might be affiliated with an international terrorism ring.
Kenya has been the site of several deadly terrorist attacks claimed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which intelligence agencies fear may be establishing a foothold in anarchic Somalia.
Since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi and the 2002 attack on an Israeli resort near the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, Kenyan police have seized weapons and arrested several people believed to be al-Qaeda members.
All have been released for lack of evidence.
13 Feb 2006,
Agence France-Presse
Animal
Rights Extremists Target Glaxo Executives in Mail Campaign
GlaxoSmithKline reacted with horror last night after two executives, including Sir Ian Prosser, became targets of a hate campaign by animal rights extremists. Letters sent to neighbours of the two have maliciously accused them of being rapists. The house of one was daubed with the words "paedo scum".
The targets of the campaign are understood to be Sir Ian Prosser, a non-executive director, and Simon Bicknell, the company secretary. Franz Humer, of the drug maker Roche, is also understood to have been targeted. GSK described the attacks as "deplorable, cowardly and depraved".
13 Feb 2006, The Independent
Police Officer Charged With Making Threats
A former police officer in a small western Maryland town faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted of making racial, bomb and anthrax threats after he was fired.
The FBI has charged Jeffrey Shifler with making more than a dozen anonymous phone calls and sending at least nine anonymous letters containing the threats. Shifler worked at the Hagerstown, Md., Police Department until he was dismissed in November 2003.
Shifler is expected to appear in federal court Friday. The FBI says the threats targeted police employees and a black city council member, schools and public office buildings.
Shifler was hired by the nearby town of Boonsboro after being fired in Hagerstown. It's unclear if he is still working there.
10 Feb 2006,
CNN
Dublin bomb device was 'potentially lethal'
Gardaí
say a device which exploded outside a house in Dublin yesterday
evening was elaborate and potentially lethal.
The pipe bomb exploded after falling from the boot of a car on Glin Road in Coolock.
It contained nails and explosives and was a timed device, according to officers at the scene. Gardaí say it could have killed and those who were nearby were lucky to escape injury.
The device is similar to others found recently in Limerick and Dublin.
Garda technical experts have been examining the scene outside the home of car dealer, John Ward.
At 4.45pm yesterday evening, when two men went to move the car the flask containing the bomb fell off the boot, broke apart and subsequently exploded.
However, the people who were at the scene had enough time to move away from the device before it exploded.
Army bomb disposal experts dealt with the pipe bomb device. Gardaí are still trying to establish a motive for the attack, and they are looking at the possibility that dissident republicans may have been involved.
9 Feb 2006,
RTE news
Oxford University Workers Hide Their Identities from Animal Rights Extremists
An unprecedented security crackdown is being mounted at Oxford University in the face of threats from animal rights extremists.
Police have warned the university to tighten up its vetting checks on new staff, and college deans, who believe that attacks are inevitable, have ordered students to sign in night-time guests with gate porters.
In a letter seen by The Times, the Dean of Pembroke College, Adrian Gregory, acknowledges that students may regard the tighter restrictions as an invasion of privacy. But he says that he fears that it is necessary because activists will conduct reconnaissance trips to identify the easiest targets among Oxford’s colleges.
Builders wearing masks to hide their identities restarted work on the university’s £18 million biomedical research laboratory in December, 16 months after intimidation and threats to contractors and shareholders suspended its construction.
The planned facility has become the main battleground in the fight between activists and those involved in animal research — the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) recently announced that anyone associated with Oxford University, including students, was a legitimate target for attack.
Security experts have reportedly been recruited to protect key workers at the site of the new laboratory.
A college boathouse was burnt down in an arson attack last July, despite the granting of a High Court order creating a no-protest zone around the university and homes of staff and students.
The ALF has this month falsely accused executives of GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company, of being convicted rapists. Activists sent letters to the men’s neighbours, purporting to be from a police officer.
Thames Valley Police has written to all Oxford colleges, giving details of its security advisory program to reduce potential risk. It recommends stricter vetting procedures and scrupulous reference checks before employing staff, particularly temporary workers.
A police spokesman said: "We are doing all we can to assist colleges in this and are there to provide advice if needed. We’ve offered our services and a number of colleges have taken us up on it.
"Colleges should be aware of what staff they’re taking on. We don’t want keys being copied, which would be a nightmare situation."
Dr Gregory told its student committee: "The ALF declaration of war is a real cause for concern."
He said it was likely that "colleges are going to be targeted, probably for vandalism, but we can’t rule out worse".
"Logically any attack is going to happen at night. In these circumstances, I don’t think we have any choice but to crack down on gate security. I’ve told the porters that we will need to seriously police the practice of students holding the door open for strangers at night.
"I’m authorizing the porters to send me names of anyone caught doing this. I know that this can seem a bit officious on the part of the porters, but the concerns are very real."
"I realize that holding a door open is frequently a reflex of politeness but we do have to be careful. In essence students need to think of our front gate as their front door at home."
Dr Gregory said that the college would be more vulnerable if it appeared to be a soft target.
"My guess is that activists will soon be mounting ‘reconnaissance’ in order to see which colleges they can hit," he said.
"It is also imperative that legitimate guests after midnight are signed in, and out if they leave.
"We have no interest in what students do in their private life and we simply need to know that anyone who is in the college at night has a student taking responsibility for them."
Many colleges
have a signing-in system, but it is not always rigorously enforced.
8 Feb 2006, The Times
Danish Consular Reports Suspicious Package
A Defense Force bomb squad has been called to a downtown Auckland building, after Danish trade officials reported today that they had received a suspicious package.
Inspector Barry Smalley, from the police northern communications centre, said a specialist police search team and an explosives detection dog were also being sent to the building in Quay St.
"There's a package that's arrived in the mail that they are not happy with," he said.
"We are following normal procedures for any suspicious package. In light of recent developments in the media, we are considering it as a potential risk."
Denmark's consulate in Beirut was torched at the weekend during a protest over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, while there have been similar attacks on Danish and Norwegian missions in Damascus.
In New Zealand, the decision of three newspapers to reprint the cartoons has ignited debate over freedom of speech.
Mr Smalley said the Danish trade office in Auckland initially advised authorities in Wellington about the package.
"They notified us and we responded accordingly." He said streets around the building had not been closed off, as the threat was not yet considered of that level.
It was a case
waiting for the bomb squad and specialist search group to assess
the nature of the package.
7 Feb 2006, NZ Stuff
Bomb
explodes at police headquarters in Afghan city
A bomb
exploded Tuesday outside the police headquarters in the main city
in southern Afghanistan, and officials said at least 15 people
were killed or wounded.
"We think the bomb was attached to a motorbike that was parked outside the building," police commander Bashir Khan said as he surveyed the site of the blast in Kandahar. "There are many casualties."
A reporter for The Associated Press said he saw three bodies lying on the ground covered in blood and several wounded people being carried away.
The site of the blast is up against a concrete wall that surrounds the heavily guarded police headquarters. Several cars and motorbikes in the area were destroyed, but the wall and the buildings inside the police compound were not damaged.
Afghan and
Canadian troops cordoned off the area. The attack is the latest
in a string of bombings in Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold.
The violence has raised fears for this country's nascent democracy
four years after the Taliban were ousted for hosting Osama bin
Laden, reports the AP.
7 Feb 2006, Pravda.ru
White Powder Threat Evacuates Clear Channel Studios
Employees of a Miramar broadcast center housing several radio stations are being allowed to return to their jobs after a telephoned threat indicated the building would sustain a ‘white powder attack.’ Police evacuated the building, but found no evidence of danger.
The telephone call to the ClearChannel broadcast center in Miramar at 7601 Riviera Boulevard was made last night, but not reported to police until this afternoon. Units from the Miramar police department, including specially a trained dog, were called in to search the building, and were surprised when the dog indicated a package located in the building’s mail room might contain explosives.
Miramar police say a second dog was called to the building and confirmed the first dog’s findings, so the building was evacuated and special units were called in, including hazardous materials teams from Hollywood and Broward County, and the Broward Sheriffs Office bomb squad.
After an inspection
of the building, police decided that the dogs had indicated that
they call a ‘false positive’, where a substance the
dogs detect mimics the scent of explosives.
7
Feb 2006, CBS4 News
Parcel Bomb Received by Education Official in India
Imphal, India--A bomb was recovered from a parcel received by an official of the state's education department.
Police today said that L Somorjit, district project coordinator of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, received a parcel yesterday at his residence at Thangmeiband here.
Suspecting some foul play, the official did not open the parcel and called in the police. A bomb was found inside the parcel, which was later defused by experts.
A sit-in protest was carried out today by officials of the education department in front of the office of the Zonal Education Officer, Imphal.
Meanwhile, an Assam Rifles (AR) official informed that troops of 4 AR apprehended a Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) cadre during a search operation at Pangai, Imphal East.
One sophisticated lethal bomb was recovered from him.
Spot interrogation revealed the presence of another KYKL cadre in the same village, who was also held by the AR.
One crude bomb and two demand letters were recovered from him.
Both were
handed over to Lamlai police station
5 Feb 2006, WebIndia
27
injured by bomb blast
AT least 27 people were injured when a bomb exploded outside a
restaurant in Yala town in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority
south, police said today.
"The bomb went off at 7:30pm at Tara restaurant. So far 27 people are wounded, including five in serious condition, but no-one has died yet," a police officer said.
The bomb was strapped to a motorcycle which two teenagers parked in front of the restaurant, police said. They left the scene shortly before the bomb exploded last night.
Four people were killed on Thursday in two bombings in nearby Narathiwat province, part of flaring violence this week in the Muslim-majority provinces along the southern border with Thailand.
The blast came as tens of thousands of people protested in Bangkok to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who they accuse of corruption and of failing to curb two years of unrest in the south.
More than 1,000 people have died in near-daily shootings, bombings and arson attacks, which are blamed on a volatile mix of Islamic separatists, organised crime and local corruption.
5 Feb 2006, Reuters
Bus
bomb kills at least 13 in Pakistan
A bomb
exploded on a bus in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing
at least 13 people and wounding 20, the latest incident in worsening
separatist violence in troubled Baluchistan province, officials
said.
The blast in a pass at Kolpur, about 60 km (38 miles) south of Baluchistan's capital Quetta, came hours after eight people were killed when suspected tribal militants fired rockets into a town in the province near the country's main gas field.
Hospital officials said there were 13 dead at Quetta hospital and 20 wounded. Baluchistan police chief Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqoob said the toll could be higher as he had reports that people were still trapped in the wreckage of the bus.
He blamed Baluch tribal militants who have stepped up an insurgency seeking greater autonomy and more benefit from natural gas resources in the province, which is Pakistan's main source.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters the blast was caused by a bomb that may have been hidden in a bag placed under a seat of the bus, which had been traveling to the eastern town of Lahore.
Yaqoob said it was apparently a time bomb that exploded in the rear of the vehicle. "A man may have come on the bus and left it there and it exploded later," he said.
The bus bombing followed two passenger train derailments in the past week that killed three people and injured dozens.
The government has ordered inquiries into the train incidents. Officials said the first derailment a week ago appeared to have been caused by sabotage and have not ruled out this in the second, which occurred on Saturday.
The bus attack was the worst incident blamed on tribal militants since they attacked Pakistan's largest gas field in the Sui area of Baluchistan last January, killing 15 people and disrupting fuel supplies to industry for over a week.
On Saturday, tribal militants fired more than 100 rockets into the town of Sui killing eight people.
Police said this attack damaged 16 houses and killed two military guards and six civilians and followed a similar rocket blitz on Friday and Saturday in the nearby town of Dera Bugti.
Sui is the site of Pakistan's main gas field and is about 720 km (450 miles) southwest of Islamabad.
The area's senior administrator, Abdul Samad Lasi, said militants also blew up a section of gas pipeline and a water pipeline in a gas field in Dera Bugti overnight, while a land mine blast on Sunday morning killed a civilian in a nearby district.
Speaking earlier in response to the rocket attack, Sherpao said security forces were currently limiting their activity to defensive action but warned that "this strategy can be changed for the protection of gas installation and local population."
"Attacks on national installations cannot be tolerated."
The violence came after President Pervez Musharraf on Friday demanded Baluch tribal leaders disband "private militias."
The military launched a major crackdown on militants in Baluchistan after a rocket attack on December 14 during a visit by Musharraf to Kohlu. The crackdown coincided with the announcement of plans to privatize two gas distribution firms in Baluchistan.
Baluch nationalists say hundreds of people have been killed.
Analysts say
this could be an exaggeration, but the independent Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan has accused the government of "gross
human rights violations" in Baluchistan.
5 Feb 2005, Yahoo
New Trial for Six Accused of Targeting Animal Testing Firm
NEWARK, N.J. -- The undercover videos on the group's Web site show animals being slapped, force-fed, screamed at and otherwise manhandled, allegedly by workers at a research laboratory that uses animals to test the safety of drugs and chemicals.
But federal prosecutors say the group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, also used its Web site to incite violence against the testing company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, and its employees.
When both sides face off in a courtroom this week in Trenton, what the animal activists call an exercise in free speech will be portrayed by the government as domestic terrorism.
Seven members of the Philadelphia-based group, which goes by the acronym SHAC, were arrested in May 2004 and charged with animal enterprise terrorism, conspiracy and interstate stalking, part of a plan to drive Huntingdon Life Sciences out of business. Charges against one of the defendants were dropped; the other six are to stand trial in federal court in Trenton, where jury selection begins on Monday.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie would not discuss the case, citing the upcoming jury selection process. But in a news release the day the defendants were arrested, Christie said the group used "violence and intimidation" to further their cause.
"This is not activism," Christie said at the time. "This is a group of lawless thugs attacking innocent men, women and children."
The indictment lists numerous acts of vandalism, harassment and intimidation that followed postings on the group's Web site, including the overturning of a Huntingdon employee's car in the driveway of his home and the throwing of rocks through his windows; the smoke-bombing of the offices of two Seattle insurance companies that did business with Huntingdon, leading to the evacuation of two high-rise office buildings; spray-painting and threatening to burn down the homes of several officials of companies doing business with Huntingdon, and a cyber-attack on Huntingdon's computer network.
The group makes no apologies for its five-year campaign against the British-based Huntington, saying it kills 500 animals per day and vowing to shut it down. Criticizing the company's operations _ and even applauding the illegal actions of others who lash out against it _ is not against the law, said Andrea Lindsay, a spokeswoman for the group.
"Anything they can pin on the defendants is an act of free speech," she said. "The government contends it rises to the level of domestic terrorism. We say it's free speech.
"The defense contention is they (the defendants) were only reporting information," Lindsay added. "Even if they said we support the illegal actions of somebody, that's not illegal."
Officials of Huntingdon, which has a research lab in Franklin Township, Somerset County, stressed that their company is not on trial.
"The defendants are being tried for inciting criminal attacks against law-abiding citizens carrying out essential research that is required by government authorities," said Mike Caulfield, Huntingdon's general manager. "We're grateful for the Justice Department's efforts in bringing this case, and we, along with the rest of the biomedical research community, will be watching the outcome very carefully.
"We've heard one preposterous claim after another leveled against our company by these defendants over the past five years," he added. "If the defendants' claims about HLS were even fractionally true, we would have been put out of business long ago."
The defendants, Kevin Kjonaas; Lauren Gazzola; Jacob Conroy; Joshua Harper; Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer, could face as much as 13 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000 each if convicted.
They are the first people to be charged in New Jersey under the federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a 1992 law that was expanded in 2002 and equates their alleged activities with domestic terrorism.
The indictment alleges the defendants incited others to commit vandalism and harassment against employees of Huntingdon and companies that did business with it by putting employees' names, addresses and other personal information on a web site. Afterward, the group would post reports on the incidents on its Web site.
But the group says it never told anyone to break the law or commit illegal acts. A section of its Web site urging people to call Huntingdon and companies that deal with it "and ask them to justify their involvement in animal cruelty" includes a caution that "SHAC does not encourage repetitive, rude or threatening phone calls and e-mails. Make your point politely."
The defendants are optimistic they will be acquitted, Lindsay said.
Three weeks
of testimony ended in a mistrial last June after one of the activists'
lawyers grew too ill to continue.
5 Feb 2006, AP
Two Hooters Restaurants Receive Mailed Bomb Threats
Two Sacramento Hooters restaurants received bomb threats in letters sent via the U.S. Postal Service last week, Sacramento Police Sgt. Terrell Marshall said.
On Jan. 26, the Hooters at 1785 Challenge Way in the Arden area received a threat to blow up the restaurant. The following day, the Hooters at 3341 Truxel Road in Natomas received the same threat in the same handwriting, Marshall said.
The motive
is unknown, and the incidents remain under investigation, Marshall
said.
2 Feb 2006, Sacramento Bee
ALF Bombing in Britain Indicates an Escalation in Violence
For years, hard-line American animal rights activists have followed as their British counterparts led the way in increasingly violent attacks on their enemies. It was British activists who were the first to physically attack executives of companies they disliked, a technique since emulated in the United States. By the time the fringe of the American animal rights movement began bombing buildings and engaging in widespread arson, their British counterparts had been doing so for years.
Once again, British hard-liners seem to be leading the way. This fall, the British section of the Animal Liberation Front claimed the Sept. 7 bombing of the home of Paul Blackburn, the corporate controller of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He was singled out because his firm is a customer of the animal testing corporation Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the most visible target of eco-radicals today. It was the first known bombing of an individual's home claimed by the ALF, although ALF activists have made bomb threats and, in one case, set off a smoke device at a scientist's home. Other animal rights extremists have sent letter bombs.
The porch of Blackburn's Buckinghamshire home was damaged. Blackburn was out of the country at the time, but his wife and child were home.
The ALF, which openly advocates arson and other crimes but claims to oppose violence directed at humans, took responsibility on a Web site. "We realize that this may not be enough to make you stop using HLS, but ... this is just the beginning," the statement from "Brigade G" of the ALF said. "We have identified and tracked down many of your senior executives and also junior staff, as well as those from other HLS customers. Drop HLS or you will face the consequences."
In another
case of animal rights extremism that riveted the British public,
police in late September arrested five people during dawn raids
in connection with the theft of an elderly woman's body from her
grave. After the remains of Gladys Hammond were stolen in October
2004, her family was told they would only be returned if the family
shut down its Newchurch farm, which breeds guinea pigs for use
in experimental medical research. Ultimately, the family complied.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Suspected Postal Bomb Found in Sweden
The suspected bomb which was found in the post box of a building in central Filipstad on Wednesday morning was made safe by the police's bomb disposal unit at around 8pm.
The device had been placed in the letter box outside the property owned by the Metall union. It was discovered when someone went to collect the mail.
"Cables and possibly a battery were visible, so it was closed and the police were informed," said Bjarne Andersson, duty commander at Värmland police, earlier in the day.
The building, which was mostly residential, was evacuated and police cordoned off the area. The bomb disposal unit arrived from Gothenburg at around 6pm.
After an inspection the technicians decided to destroy the device in the letter box itself.
"They blew up the object. We still don't know what it contained - the bomb technicians took the pieces with them to Gothenburg for further technical investigation," said Lars Bloom, Värmland police area manager, to TT.
It was still
unclear on Thursday morning who was behind the incident, since
no threats had been made in connection with the bomb.
2 Feb 2006, The Local
17
Arab countries call Danish government to punishment
Interior ministers from 17 Arab countries have issued a joint
statement calling on the government of Denmark "to take the
necessary measures to punish those responsible." United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan was officially "concerned."
Governments from Pakistan to Syria have demanded apologies not
just from Denmark but France, Germany, Norway and other Western
European governments.
What human rights atrocity has so inflamed their sense of outrage? A Danish newspaper published cartoons. Last September.The daily Jyllands-Posten's cartoons, which have since been reprinted in free-speech solidarity by publications in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland, not only broke the Koran's strictures against depicting the prophet Muhammad, but one added insult to blasphemy by drawing his turban in the shape of a bomb.
The cartoons are undeniably offensive to Muslims. Yet the overreaction by opportunistic, authoritarian governments and backpedaling European officials has been deeply disappointing.
Islamic tradition considers any depiction of Muhammad blasphemous. Angry and violent reaction to the cartoons' publication was predictable from radical Islamists, who will seize upon almost any reason to rail against the West. Armed fanatics in the West Bank and Gaza, for example, stormed European Union offices, kidnapped at least one German (he was later released) and went hunting for Danes, French, Germans and Norwegians at four hotels. The leader of Lebanon's governing Hezbollah faction said this all could have been avoided if only novelist Salman Rushdie had been murdered. Hundreds of students in Pakistan chanted "Death to France" and "Death to Denmark."
What's most disheartening is the response from governments in the Middle East and Europe. The former have seized on the opportunity to direct their citizens' considerable anger toward the West. Some European leaders, meanwhile, perhaps overcompensating for government policies widely seen as harmful to Muslim immigrants, are apologizing for one of the core freedoms of a democratic society.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who for months maintained a sensible position, that a private newspaper's editorial judgment is not the government's business, is now walking around issuing letters of regret. Norway's deputy foreign minister, Raymond Johansen, traveled to Lebanon to deliver an official apology.
Such sentiments
foster the dangerous notion that governments are responsible for,
and answerable to, their countries' private media. And it judges
all news content, satirical or otherwise, by the standard of how
much offense it gives, a surefire path toward self-censorship,
reports Los Angeles Times.
3 Feb 2006,
DOJ confirms new Abu terror plot
Members of the Abu Sayyaf Group are planning a series of new bomb attacks on or before Valentine's Day, the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed Friday.
Chief State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco said the DOJ received information about the plot in January. He added that the new threat is separate from a previous Abu Sayyaf plot to conduct retaliation attacks for the conviction of the Valentine's Day bombers last year.
The Abu Sayyaf earlier claimed responsibility for three simultaneous bombing incidents in Metro Manila and in Mindanao that killed 11 people during Valentine's Day last year.
A Makati court later sentenced to death Indonesian national Rohmat and Filipino bombers Gamal Baharan and Abu Khalil Trinidad after finding them guilty of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder charges.
Velasco said the DOJ does not discount the possibility that similar bomb attacks will be conducted this year. He said an Abu Sayyaf member involved in last year's V-Day bombing who turned state witness revealed information about the plot.
Velasco said the DOJ and the Philippine National Police (PNP) is taking the threat very seriously.
He called on the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities as the attacks may occur in places where there are high concentrations of people.
He added that the DOJ did not intend to leak the information but a major daily carried the story.
Deputy Director General Vidal Querol, Metro Manila police chief, told ANC that more policemen will be deployed in vital installations in and around Metro Manila.
He said police
visibility will also be increased in malls, churches and in other
populous areas.
2 Feb 2005, ABS-CBN
Bomb
scare holds up Sri Lanka parliament
Sessions in Sri Lanka's parliament were held up while police with
sniffer dogs combed the premises following a bomb threat.
The assembly opened half an hour behind schedule and Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara then cancelled sittings scheduled for Thursday and Friday. He ordered parliament be opened on the next scheduled date -- February 14.
The scare effectively cost two days of sittings in parliament, which usually meets only eight days a month.
"In view of the security situation, party leaders agreed to put off sittings (scheduled for Thursday and Friday) till February 14," the Speaker said on the floor of the house after policemen and sniffer dogs were withdrawn.
He did not elaborate on the threat but officials said nothing was found in the sprawling complex located on a man-made lake island.
Police dogs were called in for the first time to the inner chamber of the red-carpeted parliament building, officials said. Even an opposition legislator's chair anchored to the floorboards was removed during the search.
Forensic experts were also called in to give the all-clear to parliamentary authorities, officials said.
In 1987 an employee lobbed a grenade, killing
a district minister and wounding several other lawmakers, in a
committee room of the assembly.
2 Feb 2006, AFP
Bomb
hoax forces Danes to evacuate embassy in Syria
A telephoned bomb threat against the Danish embassy in Damascus
forced staff to evacuate the building on Wednesday while security
personnel cordoned off streets and searched the complex, witnesses
said.
A diplomatic storm has blown up over cartoons deemed offensive to Islam and the Prophet Mohammad that were published in a Danish newspaper in September and republished in Norway last month and in the French paper France Soir on Wednesday.
No bomb was found and staff were allowed to return to the embassy after an hour, the witnesses said. The embassy had no immediate comment on the incident.
Earlier this week the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the cartoons as an offence to Muslims and Arabs and demanded the Danish government punish the offending paper, Jyllands-Posten. About 200 demonstrators gathered in front of the embassy on Tuesday to protest against the cartoons, witnesses said.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said his government cannot apologize on behalf of independent media that have only exercised their right to free speech, but Jyllands-Posten has apologized for offending Muslims.
France Soir said it was reprinting the cartoons in the name of freedom of expression and to fight religious intolerance.
One of the caricatures depicts the prophet wearing
a turban shaped like a bomb. Islamic tradition prohibits realistic
depictions of prophets, and considers caricatures blasphemous
1 Feb 2006, Reuters
Danish
newspaper evacuated after new bomb threat
The main offices of the Danish newspaper that angered many in
the Muslim world by publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad
were evacuated on Wednesday evening after a bomb threat, police
said.
It was the second time in two days that the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper were evacuated in Aarhus, Denmark's second city.
"A bomb threat was made over a telephone
by an English-speaking man from a public phone in the neighborhood
(of the newspaper in Aarhus)," police said.
1 Feb 2006, Reuters
Animal
fanatics attack drug firm director's home
A director
at Britain's biggest pharmaceutical company has had his home defaced
by animal rights activists, heightening scientists' fear that
an increasingly violent campaign against drugs companies and academia
is under way.
Simon Bicknell, the company secretary at GlaxoSmithKline, had the words "Paedo scum drop HLS or go bang!" daubed across his garage.
The graffiti referred to the company's use of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the firm that carries out drug testing on animals.
The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility, stating on a website that it would return unless Mr Bicknell "quits his sick and amoral job".
"Next time it won't just be wet paint we leave on his doorstep," the statement added.
The incident comes just days after activists launched a threatening campaign against staff and students of Oxford University, which is building a laboratory designed to house animals for research.
"This is just the beginning of our campaign of devastation against anyone linked in any way to Oxford University," the ALF said in a statement following an attack on an Oxford architecture business.
"Every individual and business that works for the university as a whole is now a major target of the ALF."
Work on the laboratory was stopped after the contractor was harassed, but restarted late last year after pledges of support from the Government.
Builders working on the site now wear masks and work behind hoardings to protect their identity.
Dr Simon Festing, the director of the Research Defence Society, said he feared that new laws preventing the harassment of individuals was driving a small extremist core of the animal rights movement to violence.
"We are all braced for a nasty time now," he said.
"We are entering a new era. There have been five or six years of campaigns based on harassment of individuals but you can't do that now. The activists are getting extremely angry."
Dr Festing's comments refer to a number of threats and violent attacks in recent months on staff and property belonging to both Oxford University and customers of HLS.
Corpus Christi College boathouse was torched in an attack, while decorators and builders have been sent letters warning them that they deal with the university "at your peril".
Meanwhile, an explosive device containing fuel was left outside the house of Paul Blackburn, corporate controller of GlaxoSmithKline. The widow of a former director at Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche was also targeted.
Robin Webb, who is the press officer for the ALF, said "anyone associated with Oxford University" was a legitimate target.
Recent changes to the law governing activists has forbidden them a number of acts including economic sabotage.
Oxford University has obtained an injunction forbidding activists from demonstrating all week outside the laboratory site on South Parks Road.
Activists are also no longer allowed to harass people at their homes.
Robert Cogswell, founder of Speak, an Oxford-focused animal rights group, said the police were "making a rod for their own back" with aggressive policing.
Two teenagers
were charged at a Speak demonstration in Oxford at the weekend,
one with a breach of the Public Order Act and the other with criminal
damage.
30 Jan 2006, Telegraph
Bomb
Targets Turkish-American Association
A bomb exploded Monday at a Turkish-American friendship association
in a southern city that hosts a U.S. air base, wounding five Turks.
authorities said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Turkish Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida have been planning attacks on U.S. targets in Turkey. Leftist and Kurdish militants also are active in the country.
A man who is believed to have placed the bomb at the entrance hall was seen running away, regional governor Cahit Kirac said.
A janitor and four students taking English courses at the association were wounded, Kirac said.
The explosion occurred in the hall and shattered windows in the four-story building in downtown Adana. The city, about 280 miles south of the capital, Ankara, is home to Incirlik Air Base, which hosts 10 U.S. military refueling aircraft supporting war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There is lots of smoke here, I have to get out," an official who answered the telephone inside the association said before hanging up.
Selahattin Genc, who was teaching a class of 15 at the time, told the Anatolia news agency the bomb went off close to the entrance of a classroom that was being refurbished.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara confirmed the explosion but could not say what caused the blast. A U.S. consulate also is located in Adana. Turkey is NATO's sole Muslim member.
Al-Qaida-linked Turkish militants carried out a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, killing some 60 people.
In June 2003, a Turkish man hurled two hand grenades into the garden of a U.S. Consulate in Adana. The man pleaded guilty and said he had been protesting Israel's attacks on Palestinians.
The consulate mainly
deals with U.S. military personnel serving at the Incirlik Air
Base. Many of those troops left during the Iraq war after the
U.S. Air Force ended its patrols from Incirlik over northern Iraq.
30 Jan 2006, AP
ETA
bomb at jobs agency injures policeman
A bomb exploded outside an office of the Spanish state employment
agency in the Basque country yesterday, causing extensive damage
and injuring a policeman, police said.
A Basque police statement blamed the separatist
guerrilla group ETA for the blast at the Employment Institute
(INEM) office in the Bilbao suburb of Santutxu.
Police received no warning of the explosion, but a passer-by alerted
them to a suspicious bag outside the office 20 minutes before
the blast, giving the police time to cordon off the area.
The blast caused extensive damage to the office and broke glass in nearby houses and vehicles.
A Basque police officer was slightly hurt and treated at the scene for cuts on his hands, the police said.
The police blamed the explosion on ETA, which has killed about 850 people in a nearly four-decade campaign for an independent state carved out of northern Spain and southwest France.
The bomb contained 3 to 5 kg of explosives and was similar to bombs that blew up at a post office and a court building in the Basque towns of Zuya and Balmaseda last week, causing damage but no injuries, the police said.
ETA, classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, regularly detonates bombs although no one has been killed in an ETA attack since May 2003.
Spain's parliament last year endorsed the Socialist government's offer to talk to ETA if it gave up violence and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has spoken optimistically of the chances of ending ETA violence.
ETA has sent conflicting signals since the offer last May, calling for a peace process while continuing with its bombing campaign and a campaign of extortion to raise funds from businesses in the Basque country.
French police have arrested four suspected ETA members in the last week, the latest of dozens of arrests north of the border.
29 Jan 2006, AP
Minister: 'High risk' of dirty bomb
It is probably only a matter of time before Europe falls victim to a terror attack with a "dirty bomb" combining conventional explosives and radioactive material, according to Germany's interior minister.
In an interview with a newspaper released ahead of time on Saturday, Wolfgang Schaeuble said the spread of "dirty" material and weapons of mass destruction rendered the threat of attacks by international terrorists "extremely serious."
"The question is probably no longer whether there'll be an attack with a dirty bomb, the question is when and where it's going to happen," he told Germany's Welt am Sonntag paper, citing reports from intelligence services.
In remarks due to be published on Sunday, Schaeuble said, however, that there had not yet been any concrete evidence of militants attempting to acquire the dirty material.
He added that the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian election earlier this week and the stand-off between western powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear ambitions posed new security risks which could have far-reaching consequences.
"Against this backdrop, developments in Iran not just on the question of proliferation, but also on the issue of external security and the impact on life in our own country as well represent a danger," Schaeuble said.
27 Jan 2006,
Reuters
Fake Anthrax Letters Suspected In New York City Evacautions
A Santa Cruz man indicted for sending three letters that appeared to be laced with anthrax may have sent four similar parcels, which were responsible for the partial evacuations of several buildings in New York, authorities said.
Four letters delivered to New York addresses on Monday and Tuesday have "obvious similarities" to three letters Paul Charles Steeves is under indictment for, said Christine Monaco, an FBI agent in New York.
Steeves sent letters that appeared to contain baking soda to three California addresses and posted threats on two Web sites, one related to the actress Drew Barrymore and the other to her boyfriend's New York-based band The Strokes, according to the indictment.
The New York letters -- received at a United Nations family planning agency, a federal credit union, an Army recruitment center and an Army Corps of Engineers facility -- caused partial evacuations, Monaco said.
Agents are looking into whether Steeves sent the letters received in New York, said FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy.
Steeves sent letters to an FBI office in Watsonville, a Berkeley rehabilitation center and an Oakland probation, according to the indictment.
He also posted a message on drewsmiles.com, a Barrymore fan site, saying he suffered a chemical poison attack at the hands of a secret government and that it was "payback time," an agent with the Oakland-based FBI domestic terrorism squad. Steeves said he would "launch the greatest terrorist attack ... since Sept. 2001," according to agent Jennifer Burnett.
Steeves has said he sent what he called "protest
letters," according to the FBI.
27 Jan 2006, AP
Bomb
squads secure Olympic sites
Italian officials are sending bomb squads to venues and deploying
thousands of police to patrol potential targets at the site of
the Turin Olympics.
Explosives experts using sniffer dogs were securing competition sites and lodgings for athletes, foreign dignitaries and media for the Feb. 10-26 games, Interior Ministry officials said Friday.
Once each area is cleared, it will be put under round-the-clock surveillance, the officials said during a briefing in Rome on security measures. Of the more than 9,000 officers to be on guard, some 5,500 are already in place.
The ministry was optimistic that arrangements were running smoothly, but journalists noted instances of lax security or inefficiency, indicating some problems still needed to be solved.
At the main media center in Turin, only one security check was open, forcing reporters to wait in a half-hour-long line. Inside, security staff were seen either strolling around or drinking coffee at the bar, and there were no guards at the entrance of at least one of the media villages in Turin.
The Interior Ministry officials, who spoke anonymously, as is standard ministry practice, said that such problems could arise while organizing such a complex event, but would be worked out during the coming days.
Italian security forces bear most of the responsibility for ensuring a safe Olympics. A half-dozen countries, including the United States, Britain and Israel, are helping Italy prepare, but the only foreign agents allowed to carry firearms will be those protecting VIP visitors.
So far, 21 heads of state, six royal families and 15 heads of government have confirmed they will participate, the officials said. First lady Laura Bush is expected to lead the U.S. delegation.
FBI director Robert Mueller, who visited Turin earlier this week, expressed confidence in Italy's ability to secure the Olympics.
"The Italians are tremendously professional in protecting and providing security for such events, and from everything I saw, everything is well prepared and ready for the Olympics," Mueller said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The ministry officials said Italy would remain on alert, though they had no information on specific threats to the Olympics.
Restrictions will be placed on Olympic airspace, and an AWACS surveillance plane deployed by NATO will patrol the skies.
Some 300 police with skiing equipment will patrol the Olympic ski courses even after closing hours.
Italy also has not ruled out suspending the European open-borders treaty, which would restore frontier controls during the games, the officials said.
Turin police have set aside contingents to deal with possible demonstrations, the officials said.
The Winter Games region and the Olympic torch
relay across Italy have been targets for anti-globalization activists,
leftist groups and protesters against a high-speed rail link being
built across the Turin area to France.
27 Jan 2006, AP
"Bomb Prank" at Gas Station Triggers Evacuation
Whoever left a briefcase with wires sticking out next to a gas pump at the BP station at Detroit and Bradley roads Monday morning may have thought it was a prank. But Westlake Police didn’t find it amusing.
A bomb robot moved the suspicious briefcase to a wooded area behind the gas station and safely detonated it. The black briefcase was empty but had wires sticking out.
Authorities believe the briefcase was deliberately left at the gas station to disrupt business and traffic in the area.
Police say the person responsible faces charges of inducing panic and possibly using a hoax weapon of mass destruction.
A BP employee notified police that the briefcase was left at the set of pumps at the west end of the gas station at 6:45 Monday morning. One of two officers who first arrived at the scene happened to be a bomb technician. He determined that assistance from the hazardous devices unit of the Westshore Enforcement Bureau was needed.
Later, a bomb robot belonging to the Southwest Enforcement Bureau kept in Berea was brought in to move the briefcase.
The gas station and nearby businesses, as well as residents within a 300-foot radius of the gas station, were evacuated as a precaution. Bradley and Detroit roads were closed to traffic in the area until 9:30 a.m.
Evidence technicians will be examining the remains of the suitcase, said Capt. Guy Turner, public information officer for the Westlake Police.
Turner said it was the first time the bomb robot had been used in Westlake. It’s standard operating procedure for police to treat a suspicious package as a possible bomb, he added.
Turner told reporters officers were obviously concerned about a possible explosive device being placed so close to gasoline tanks.
The bomb robot did its job, Turner said.
"We’d one-hundred times like to see a robot blown up instead of a human," he said.
Police said
they would be examining any surveillance video taken by the gas
station or other nearby businesses to try and identify the culprit.
25 Jan 2006, Westlife
Mail Bomb Scare Evacuates Florida Housing Complex
A mailman said he found a small explosive device inside a mailbox at an Abacoa development Monday, triggering the evacuation of about 30 residences, authorities said.
The evacuations started shortly after 12:50 p.m. when the mailman spotted the device — a firecracker or fireworks attached to a clay-like substance — inside a box of outgoing mail in the clubhouse of the Antigua development, police said. He told his supervisors the device was attached to a letter addressed to U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, police said.
It turns out, however, that the device was not attached to any letter, Jupiter police officer Sally Collins said. If there were mail for Foley in the box, it probably was not related to the device being there, she said.
Timothy J.W. Hoban, whose home and real estate office is across the street from the clubhouse, saw the mailman rush away from the mailbox.
"He looked pretty worried," said Hoban, 28. "He saw something suspicious and he freaked out."
A short time later, firefighters, police and the FBI descended on the complex. Worried residents stood in the street to see what the commotion was about. Firefighters knocked on the door of Hoban's home and told his family to evacuate.
"We thought something was going to blow up," Hoban said. "It was getting kind of crazy."
The sheriff's
office bomb squad determined the device was not an immediate threat,
Collins said. Residents were allowed back to their homes and businesses
within two hours of the evacuation, residents said. Authorities
are investigating the incident
24 Jan 2006, Palm Beach Post
Man
killed trying to bomb tax office
A man died early today when he tried to bomb the main tax offices
in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence, police and firemen
said.
The man's mangled body was found near the downtown offices, which suffered only minor damage in the blast at 2.40am they added.
22 Jan 2006
Anti-Hunt Group Survives Mail Campaign
Against Them
The League Against Cruel Sports had its freepost address targeted
An animal welfare group whose freepost was targeted with bulky packages and empty envelopes will pay just £2,000 of the £500,000 postal cost, it has said.
The League Against Cruel Sports said Royal Mail had agreed it would be liable only for the cost of mail sent before it cancelled the address.
It received mail including excrement and bricks, after an e-mail urged hunt supporters to abuse the address.
The league said it was delighted the "spiteful" campaign had failed.
It said the campaign followed an e-mail to pro-hunters, citing the support of the Countryside Alliance, which urged them to target the freepost address.
Bomb squad
The Royal Mail depot in Poole, Dorset, called in the bomb squad after bulky packages arrived addressed to the league.
The parcels were later found to contain bricks.
The police, CID and Royal Mail fraud investigators launched an inquiry as the league was swamped by vanloads of mail.
This was a nasty and low-down campaign waged by the hunters, which has spectacularly backfired
League spokesperson
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "The freepost that was operated by the league was cancelled in December and since then any items that have been sent to the freepost have been returned to sender."
A spokesperson for the league said: "We will carry on exposing the hunters' illegal activities, their cruelty to animals, and the new depths to which they sink in their desperation to carry on tormenting wildlife.
"They have wasted the time and resources of the bomb squad, the CID, and the Royal Mail, through their petty and spiteful campaign.
"Next time the price of posting a letter goes up, you have the hunters partly to thank for that."
The spokesperson said donations had increased due to "disgust" at the tactics used.
"This was a nasty and low-down campaign waged by the hunters, which has spectacularly backfired."
Widespread circulation
The league alleged senior figures in the Countryside Alliance and the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA), were involved in circulating the e-mail.
However, both bodies denied organizing the campaign.
Once something like that starts it gets a life of its own
The Countryside Alliance said: "We know that supporters of hunting have got in to this but it's nothing to do with the Countryside Alliance.
"We were alerted to it but we certainly haven't advertised it because in the past it has happened to us and it's not something that we advocate."
Meanwhile, MFHA director Alastair Jackson said he had "no idea" where it started.
"All sorts of different people have heard from different sources but once something like that starts it gets a life of its own.
"My wife was e-mailed about it, everyone in the countryside was e-mailed by someone or other. So many people heard and passed it on to their friends, I have simply no idea."
The league also alleged that City law firms, estate agencies and chartered surveyors were involved in the mail campaign - as well as the wife of a Buckingham Palace employee.
Meanwhile,
TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson used his national newspaper column
to print the Freepost address and urge people to send empty envelopes.
23 Jan 2006, BBC
Hawaii Governor’s Office Closed When Powder Found in Envelope
An envelope with a Philippine postmark containing a suspicious white powder caused officials to shut down the Governor's Office on the fifth floor of the state Capitol yesterday.
The substance was identified by the Honolulu Fire Department's hazardous materials unit as Johnson & Johnson baby powder, and there were no injuries.
Lingle, who was readying for a news conference to show off a federal official awarding the state $500,000 for excellent performance in administering food stamps, was stuck in her office with the assembled news media for three hours.
"Talk about your worst nightmare," Lingle quipped as she fielded questions from reporters about the office shutdown.
Lenny Klompus, Lingle's communications director and senior policy adviser, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken over the matter and was investigating who sent the envelope to Lingle.
The envelope had scrawled across the front, "To the honorable Governor, Miss Linda Lingle, Hawaii, USA."
The envelope contained no letter, just the white powder.
Klompus said Lisa Vallejos, a receptionist, opened the envelope at about 10 a.m. with an automatic letter opener.
"There was a puff of powder, and she put it in a cardboard box and was smart enough to immediately turn it over to authorities," Klompus said.
The city's Hazmat team put the substance through an infrared scanner, Klompus said, and it was immediately recognized as a harmless substance.
Klompus said officials did not know why the letter was sent or if it was related to Lingle's recent trip to the Philippines.
Lingle said the receptionist "feels fine, and we have a lot of confidence in the Hazmat team."
21 Jan 2006, Honolulu Star
FBI’s LA Boss Says Homegrown Terrorists are Top Concern
The FBI's new regional chief says the threat of homegrown militants remains a top concern five months after authorities uncovered an alleged terrorism plot by Americans targeting synagogues and military recruiting centers around Los Angeles.
"What keeps me awake at night? A homegrown cell that has taken seed and grown," J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "That is one of the things that we fear the most."
Three men - two of them U.S. born - were indicted last month on federal charges of conspiring to wage war against the government through terrorism for allegedly planning shooting rampages at the Los Angeles-area sites. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Tidwell said the homegrown threat has increased as terrorist groups have spread their ideology overseas through propaganda. He said one of the suicide bombers in the July attacks on London's public transit system was a citizen who'd been radicalized in a year.
"Now, it's an idea," he said. "That's why you've got radicalized homegrown entities picking up the sword ... that gives us pause."
Also Wednesday, Tidwell announced that appointment of a 20-year FBI veteran as the bureau's anti-terrorism chief in Los Angeles.
Warren T. Bamford will serve as special agent in charge of counterterrorism and domestic terrorism. He is currently section chief of the bureau's Strategic Information and Operations Center, a 24-hour clearinghouse for strategic information and the center for crisis management and special event monitoring.
Though there currently is no specific credible threat against Los Angeles-area sites, Tidwell noted that the region is home to a number of possible targets, from Hollywood studios to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, one of the world's busiest.
He expressed concern terrorists would try to carry out suicide bombings on those targets.
"That's
why you see so much talk about suicide bombings," he said.
"That's why you see every police department of any size going
over to Israel to see how they're dealing with it."
20 Jan 2006, AP
Suspicious
Package Causes Bomb Scare in Colorado
A suspicious
package in a local woman's home give the Colorado Springs Bomb
Squad, along with Manitou Springs residents, quite an interesting
weekend.
Just after 5:30 yesterday afternoon, Manitou Springs Police responded to a call due to a concerned hunch. The woman told police that she had no idea how the package got in her house.
Police decided not to take any chances when they saw that it had no return address.
The bomb squad used X-ray capabilities to determine that the package contained nothing more than a picture frame.
The woman is still confused as to where the box came from.
20 Jan 2006,
KRDO TV News
British Princes in Bomb Scare
British royals PRINCE WILLIAM and PRINCE HARRY were left shaken following a bomb scare at the British Army's Sandhurst Military Academy on Saturday (14JAN06).
The alert was sounded when a suspicious box was discovered just 100 metres (328 feet) away from the princes' living quarters - but a closer inspection revealed the container was merely a lunchbox full of clay.
A royal source says, "There was a massive security flap and it was a big relief when it was all over."
After 90 minutes
it emerged the box was a fake bomb specially made for training
purposes - which had fallen from the back of a vehicle earlier
that day (14JAN06).
17 Jan 2006 ContactNews
Man
in court over threatening letters
A man who sent more than 100 threatening letters containing white
powder to community groups and individuals, including Queensland
Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson, has been ordered to seek psychiatric
help.
Michael Stanley Wilson, 43, from Blackbutt north-west of Brisbane, pleaded guilty in the Queensland District Court on Monday to eight counts of using a postal service to harass, two counts of using a postal service to make a threat and three counts of hoaxes involving dangerous substances.
Crown prosecutor Michael Nicolson told the court that between November 2003 and February 2004, Wilson sent out a number of threatening letters to police, media outlets and childcare centres, some of which contained an anthrax looking substance - that was in fact ground up chalk.
Judge Milton Griffin sentenced Wilson, who has already spent 159 days in pre-sentence custody, to two years of probation, which includes psychiatric treatment and a two year good behaviour bond.
In the numerous letters Wilson sent, he warned the recipient of the letter to beware of a spiritual group called the Ramthas School of Enlightenment whom he said was telling him, via voices in his head, to be a paedophile and kill children.
He claimed in some letters that Ramthas was going to hurt children, and in others, said it was he that was going to molest and kill the children.
Wilson, who has a history of mental illness, also sent a letter to Mr Atkinson warning him of his paedophile desires and telling Mr Atkinson he was "dead".
The group Ramthas has strongly denied that it endorses paedophilia.
Mr Nicolson said police raided Wilson's caravan on February 23, 2004, and found a number of fresh letters he was preparing to send.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Griffin said it was a "particularly serious offence" but conceded Wilson was not intending to carry out the threats.
"This may have caused great distress to those who received the letters," he said.
"They
had the potential for causing great disruption to the important
services within the community."
Threatening
Packages Sent to President Bush
A man was in federal custody yesterday on charges of sending threatening
packages to President George W. Bush, including one last month
marked "Brace for impact" that shut down the White House
mailroom, authorities said.
Steven Baldwin, 39, is accused of mailing two packages to Bush at the White House on July 20 - one bearing the words "Biological weapons enclosed" and the other labelled "Letter bomb!" with a rambling five-page letter bearing Baldwin's signature, the Secret Service said in court documents.
On Dec. 14, according to the documents, Baldwin allegedly mailed a third package, this one labeled "Brace For Impact, I've Read Your Fortune & The Signs Are Not In Your Favor."
The White House mailroom was shut down for about two hours until authorities determined it contained a cellular telephone wrapped in wires, according to the court papers.
Baldwin, of the Seattle suburb of Renton, appeared before a U.S. magistrate Thursday on charges of making a false threat using biological weapons, a false threat using explosive materials and a threat against the president.
A detention hearing was scheduled for Wednesday. Baldwin could face as much as 20 years in prison if convicted.
Secret Service agent Erik Rasmussen wrote in an affidavit that Baldwin had been warned before the third package to stop sending threatening mail to the president.
14 Jan 2006, AP
Animal Rights Activists,
Police, and Construction Workers at War Over the Oxford Animal
Laboratory
Two construction workers emerge from behind a sheet of aluminium siding, their faces concealed beneath balaclavas. It is a crisp January afternoon in Oxford and the razor wire surrounding the university's planned new animal research laboratory in South Parks Road glistens with frost. However, the protesters corralled by police on the opposite pavement do not believe the balaclavas are for warmth alone. "They don't want us to see their faces," said Mel Broughton, a spokesman for Speak, a campaign group opposed to the new biomedical facility. "Perhaps it's because they're ashamed."
Moments later the builders are joined by police officers and process servers wearing fluorescent jackets, ready to serve writs if necessary. Forming a cordon, the officers help the builders roll an empty wheelbarrow directly in front of the protesters, who hurl abuse at them with the aid of a megaphone.
For weeks tension in South Parks Road has been building as Thames Valley police backed by scores of private security guards and process servers hired by the university have tried to ensure that animal rights activists do not halt work at the facility for a second time. With 500 protesters expected to arrive in the center of Oxford today for a mass rally, police say the conflict is entering a critical phase.
No concrete has been poured at the site which the protesters have dubbed the Fortress since July 2004 when the previous contractor, Montpellier, abandoned the £18m extension to Oxford's department of experimental psychology after a campaign of intimidation against its shareholders. Towards the end of November, security guards, backed by a high court injunction preventing protesters from approaching within 10 metres of the facility, quietly re-entered the site. A few days later, following an overnight announcement by the university that work had resumed, they began bussing in builders from a new, unnamed contractor.
So far the workers, escorted to the site each day in unmarked cars overseen by a police helicopter, have concentrated on making the site secure, erecting a two meter high wall around the concrete shell abandoned by Montpellier 17 months ago.
After threatening letters were sent to builders and decorators in the Oxfordshire area by the Animal Liberation Front in October, the university will not discuss any details concerning the contractors, subcontractors or third party suppliers. They say the contractors are not ashamed but fear what might happen to them should their identities become known.
The delay in construction had been "very frustrating and unsettling" for researchers, said a university spokeswoman. The university would be watching protesters to ensure there were no breaches of the injunction.
While Speak says it considers secondary targeting a "legitimate" tactic, it denies any involvement in violence or criminal acts. Protesters, who under the terms of the injunction are permitted to demonstrate only on a small patch of gravel opposite the building on Thursday afternoons, have already been involved in a number of clashes with police, and Speak is trying to bus in supporters from as far away as Scotland.
The activists say they believe they know the name of the contractor and, in a repeat of the tactics used against Montpellier and the Cambridgeshire medical research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences, are threatening to target its employees, shareholders and suppliers unless it withdraws from the project. The activists and the media are prohibited by the injunction from naming the contractor. However, a spokesman for the company cited by the protesters as the new contractor said their information was "100% wrong".
The police, like the university, refuse to discuss security measures, but claim that so far the injunction has been a success, with far fewer protesters expected in Oxford today than at previous demonstrations. Nevertheless, Superintendent Steve Pearl, head of the national extremism tactical coordination unit, said it was "inevitable" that at some stage protesters would discover the contractor's identity.
"This is a critical time on both sides. In the past, activists haven't hesitated to commit criminal acts against contractors and their suppliers. Last year we also saw arson attacks on college boathouses. I guess that in the next few weeks we're going to see more of the same."
The arguments
Speak: Oxford is hiding "a nasty secret" and "behind the beautiful architecture and dreaming spires lies suffering and death in the university labs". The university described the new lab in its planning application as an animal hotel but wants to conduct brain experiments on primates to replace those lost when protesters closed a similar lab in Cambridge.
Oxford University:
The new facility has been planned for over five years and is not
a replacement for the Cambridge lab. It will amalgamate current
research on one site, with 98% of the animals used being rodents
and fish. The lab will be one of the best in the country in terms
of animal welfare and research could lead to cures for life-threatening
or disabling diseases
14 Jan 2006, The Guardian
FBI
Arrests 3 ELF Members in Bomb Plots
The FBI has apparently foiled an alleged plot to blow up cell towers, power plants and US Forest Service sites.
Three people authorities claim are affiliated with the radical environmental activist group Earth Liberation Front were arrested in Auburn Friday in connection with an alleged plot to destroy government facilities as well as cell phone towers and power generators.
Twenty-year-old Zachary Jenson of Monroe, Washington; 20-year-old Lauren Weiner of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 28-year-old Eric Taylor McDavid of Foresthill were arrested Friday morning in the parking lot of an Auburn shopping center on Bell Road. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Drew Parenti the arrests were the culmination of an extensive and lengthy investigation.
Parenti said the three were involved in an ELF-backed plot to use explosives to destroy U.S. Forest Service facilities. The plot also allegedly included plans to destroy unspecified cell phone towers and power generation facilities. Following the arrests, Parenti said there was no indication of any immediate threat to public safety.
The suspects are being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail. They are expected to make their first court appearances on Tuesday.
The investigation into the alleged suspects was the result of a joint effort between the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Fire and Forestry, and a number of local agencies.
Investigators believe the group may have some loose affiliation with a group of Newscastle residents charged in a series of ELF-motivated incidents beginning in 2004.
Last year, four people allegedly affiliated with ELF were charged with conspiracy and attempted arson in the attempted firebombing of houses under construction at the Twin Bridges housing development in Lincoln.
Last November, Eva Holland, 25, and her sister Lili Holland, 20, of Newcastle each pleaded guilty to one count of attempted arson in connection with the December 2004 incident. Ryan Lewis, 22, also of Newcastle, entered a guilty plea to two counts of attempted arson and one count of arson. The three are scheduled to be sentenced January 27.
A fourth defendant, 24-year-old Jeremiah Colcleasure awaits trial in connection with the case.
Eva Holland and Lewis were also charged in the January 12 attempted arson of a business complex in Auburn. Part of the plea agreement called for prosecutors to drop charges against Holland in that case.
Lewis was
also charged with arson in the February 2005 firebombing of a
Sutter Creek apartment complex.
14 Jan 2006, AP
Texas Newspaper Evacuated After Receiving Threatening Note and Powder
Waco, TX--A scare at the Waco Tribune-Herald forced the evacuation of parts of the newspaper building Thursday. Workers called police after finding a threatening letter with a white powdery substance inside.
The hazardous materials team evacuated the first floor and isolated the suspicious letter. The ordeal left many workers out on the street for more than two hours while crews determined what was in the envelope and if it was dangerous.
Waco Assistant Fire Chief Joe Molina says, "A lot of times we receive these calls because of a powder. This particular letter threatened and used the word ‘anthrax’, so we had to step up the response."
After testing
the powder, HAZMAT crews determined it was not dangerous, just
calcium carbonate, a substance found in chalk.
15 Jan
2006, KCENTV
Town Hall Evacuated After Suspicious
Substance Found in Payment Envelope
A granular substance found in an envelope with a resident's payment for sewer service Wednesday led to an evacuation of Town Hall offices.
Fishers Deputy Fire Marshal Ron Lipps said the safety precautions were appropriate, but that the substance -- "finer than sugar, but not a powder" -- was probably not toxic.
"Obviously, everybody's still nervous about the anthrax thing from a couple years back," said Lipps, who confirmed that town staff had sealed the envelope and its contents inside a plastic bag for possible analysis.
Lipps said an employee in the clerk-treasurer's office reported the substance just after 11 a.m. Staff remained there to avoid possible contamination while other offices emptied, ventilation was shut down, and police and fire officials arrived.
After 30 minutes,
investigators reopened the building. By the end of the work day,
police had interviewed the homeowner who sent the bill and determined
there was no danger.
12 Jan 2006, IndyStar
UK
Airport Staff Evacuated for Postal Bomb Scare
A mortar shell sent through the post sparked a bomb scare at Liverpool airport.
Dozens of Royal Mail workers were evacuated after the suspicious package was spotted during a routine X-ray scan.
An Army bomb disposal team was rushed to the depot and a 100m police cordon was put up while they investigated.
But the frantic activity revealed the mortar as nothing more than a harmless collectors' item.
It had been put in the post and was due to be delivered by air mail.
A Royal Mail representative said the package should never have been sent through the post as all weapons are restricted.
But Merseyside police said they would not be carrying out an investigation into the incident, despite the disruption caused.
The alarm was raised at 11.45pm at the postal depot in the airport grounds.
Fire crews were called out and put on standby until the all clear was given at 2am when staff returned to work.
Main airport buildings were unaffected by the evacuation as all passenger flights had finished when the alarm was raised.
The airport's Royal Mail depot deals with thousands of letters and parcels being sent around the UK and abroad.
There is a long list of items that the Royal Mail will not accept through the post including matches, pesticides, overseas lottery tickets and weapons, although guns for use in sport can be sent with certain restrictions.
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "Staff were evacuated as a precaution but were allowed back to work at 2am when it was discovered that the item was safe. We don't discuss the security measures that we take with post."
A John Lennon airport spokesman said: "We regarded this as small incident. No-one was hurt and the package was found to be safe after examination.
"Staff returned to work at 2am. The terminal buildings were unaffected because all the flights had left."
10 Jan 2006, Liverpool Echo
Explosive Device Defused at San Francisco Starbucks
Police defused an explosive device found in the bathroom of a Starbucks on Monday. No one was injured.
Authorities were called around 1:15 p.m., after an employee reported finding something suspicious in the store's bathroom. About 100 people were evacuated from the store and apartments above it, and the street was closed to traffic, said Sgt. Neville Gittens.
"This was a good device. If it had exploded, it would have caused injuries or damage," said Gittens, who would not describe its size.
Once the device was disabled at about 2:10 p.m., police allowed people back into the apartment building and reopened the street. The store, located at a busy city intersection, remained closed Monday evening while authorities investigated.
Seattle-based Starbucks declined to provide further details.
In 2003, police
said the windows of 17 Starbucks stores were clouded with glue
and some of the door locks were jammed. Vandals also posted phony
notices purporting to be from Starbucks management announcing
the company's intention to abandon some of their San Francisco
stores to make room for more locally owned coffee houses.
10 Jan 2006, AP
Justice Department Offices Evacuated
for Suspicious Package
The U.S. Justice Department building in Washington was briefly evacuated on Monday after a suspicious package on a nearby bus triggered a security alert, a local official said.
A spokesman for the city's transit authority said a homeless person had left a coat on a bus but police had investigated and found it not to be a threat.
"It's been cleared," said spokesman Steven Taub of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Earlier, a law enforcement official said stressed that the evacuation was ordered "out of an abundance of caution."
"Unfortunately, in this day and age, it's a common occurrence," the official said.
The U.S. Capitol,
the White House and the Washington Monument have been evacuated
several times as officials have checked out similar threats that
turned out to be false alarms
9 Jan 2006, Reuters
China
courthouse bomb kills 5
Report: Farmer angry over property dispute turns suicide bomber
Five people were killed and 22 injured after a man set off a bomb in a courtroom in far western China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
The explosion rocked a courthouse in Minle County in Gansu province on Friday morning, Xinhua said, citing local police.
A 62-year-old farmer, Qian Wenzhao, walked into a meeting room of the county courthouse and ignited explosives.
Two people died on the spot, and three died later in hospital, Xinhua said. The dead included the president of the court and a senior county official, as well as Qian himself.
In 2004, a court ordered Qian's son to pay his ex-wife 71,000 yuan ($8,800) as part of a divorce settlement, Xinhua reported. The son paid a fraction of the amount before fleeing.
In May 2005, the Minle court sent officers to detain the son in Xinjiang, west of Gansu province. On the way back he killed himself.
In November, the Minle court paid Qian 98,000 yuan for the loss of his son, and Qian said he was "satisfied," Xinhua reported.
But later Qian demanded the court also address his demands for his son's property in Xinjiang, as well as the house of the son's ex-wife, who had died in October.
Ding wanted to "vent his resentment", Xinhua said, but it did not offer a specific reason.
Discontented or disturbed attackers in China have used mining explosives or fertilizer devices in previous bombings.
In August, a farmer with lung cancer set off a bomb on a bus in Fuzhou in southeastern Fujian province, wounding 31 people, and in July a murder suspect set off a bomb in a shopping mall in northeastern China, injuring 47 people.
A man set off a bomb on a bus in the western Xinjiang region in January 2005, killing 11 people.
On Saturday,
Xinhua reported an explosion in a coal mine in Xinjiang in November
was set off deliberately in the Beitaishan Coal Mine, killing
11 people.
7 Jan 2005, AP
Postal Service Anthrax Detection Program Criticized
The government’s $750 million anthrax detection system for mail hasn’t found a single piece of tainted mail.
But the Government Accountability Office warned in a report last year that negative test results may be unreliable, and a homeland security expert questioned if there are better ways to spend money.
The U.S. Postal Service system was completed in early December when the last of nearly 300 mail sorting facilities was equipped.
The system was authorized after letters laced with anthrax spores were sent through the mail in September and October 2001 to members of Congress and the media, killing five and sickening 17 in four states.
No arrests have been made in the case.
"The good news is we haven’t detected any anthrax-tainted mail at any of our facilities in the U.S. mail system," said Al DeSarro, spokesman for the Postal Service’s western region.
Since officials launched the Northrop Grumman system in 2002, machines have scanned roughly 22 billion pieces of mail, DeSarro said.
The equipment, which tests air quality around mail as it moves at 100 mph through the sorting system, was installed in October 2004 at the Denver Mail Processing and Distribution Center, the largest postal facility in the Rocky Mountain area where 9 million pieces of mail are processed a day.
The Colorado Springs center in the 3600 block of East Fountain Boulevard, where anthrax detection equipment was installed in July, handles an average of 1.6 million pieces of mail a day for more than 180 post offices in southern and western Colorado.
The two Colorado systems have screened about 500 million pieces of mail, 180 million of those in Colorado Springs.
Without impeding delivery time, the machines screen most first-class mail sent within Colorado. Mail coming from outside Colorado likely is screened at other points, DeSarro said.
A gap lies in screening items mailed in rural areas to other nearby rural areas. Although some mail may be routed through detection systems in Colorado Springs and Denver, some may not, he said.
"Not all mail is screened," he said. "We had to take the majority of where the population centers and the mail are, and so there are parts of the mail that don’t (get screened), and it depends on the state."
He said tests are conducted periodically to verify the equipment’s effectiveness; exercises allow officials to practice reacting to a positive test.
"Everyone is grilled on this stuff," DeSarro said.
If anthrax were detected, an alarm would sound, triggering an emergency plan that includes evacuating and treating employees and isolating and testing suspicious pieces of mail. In addition, the incident is immediately reported to other mail centers nationwide.
DeSarro credited the new system with re-establishing confidence in the mail system.
But the GAO criticized the Postal Service for not using a scientific validation method to ensure sample tests are accurate. Without that, the March GAO report said, "There can be little confidence in negative results."
The Postal Service disputed the finding in a written response, saying it uses best available scientific knowledge and practices and relies on experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"There is still no consensus among experts concerning the best sampling method to utilize," wrote Patrick Donahoe, the service’s chief operating officer and executive vice president.
Donahoe recommended an interagency task force consider creating validated test methods for biological, chemical and radiological threats, not just anthrax.
Agencies are studying the testing issue and looking into retooling the system to sense other pathogens, which DeSarro declined to name.
For homeland security expert Charles Peña, the system raises questions about homeland security spending.
First, anthrax is extremely difficult to obtain and there’s little indication terrorists are interested in it. Second, it’s doubtful massive numbers of people would be killed.
"You don’t mean to be insensitive, but when you’re looking at the expenditure of dollars, that’s one factor that needs to be looked at," said Peña, a senior fellow at the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C.
He believes shoulder-fired rocket launchers aimed at commercial airliners pose a greater threat, as do hazards that could enter the nation’s largely unguarded ports.
Still, the anthrax episode was a "real event" and it threatened lawmakers, so it’s no mystery why the project was funded, he said.
"We tend to respond to what we know, whether anthrax attacks or bombs on subways. An event happens and you respond to that," Peña said.
"When you’re playing defense like that, you’re always playing catch-up," he added. "It is harder for government to be forward-looking."
7 Jan 2006, Colorado Springs Gazette
Security Threat Closes U.S. Embassy in Malaysia
The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia remained closed Tuesday following the New Year holiday following a security threat that surfaced last week.
The sprawling embassy in Kuala Lumpur was closed Friday due to "recent suspected surveillance incidents," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Kathryn Taylor told The Associated Press. It was supposed to reopen Tuesday following a three-day holiday, but officials decided against it.
"We are still evaluating the situation. As far as we are concerned, the threat still applies and we are not at a place where we are ready to reopen yet," she said, declining to give details.
The embassy is working closely with Malaysian police and is hopeful of reopening sometime this week, she added.
Police have said they are investigating and have stepped up patrols around the embassy.
In October, the U.S. Embassy was among at least a dozen diplomatic missions that received suspicious packages by mail that triggered evacuations. The packages contained warnings of retaliation for perceived injustices against Muslims but were declared hoaxes.
In August
2004, a suspicious powder was mailed to the U.S. Embassy with
a leaflet demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Police
also dismissed it as a prank.
3 Jan 2006, AP
Police
step up security at Bangladesh gas field after bomb threat
Police tightened security at a natural gas field in northern Bangladesh
after a bomb threat by a banned Islamic group blamed for a string
of deadly blasts.
"We have received a complaint from Shahijibazar gas field that their deputy general manager got a letter from Jamayetul Mujahideen warning that it would blow up the gasfield," said Mili Biswas, superintendent of Habiganj district, 300 kilometres (180 miles) northeast of the capital.
"We have taken the threat seriously. Security has been stepped up immediately and police are investigating," she added of the state-owned gas field.
Police believe Jamayetul Mujahideen is responsible for a series of blasts across Bangladesh since August that have killed 28 people, including four suicide bombers. Leaflets left at blast sites bearing the name of the group called for the imposition of Islamic law.
The judiciary has been a prime target of the bombers, with four lawyers and two judges among the dead.
The blasts have shaken Bangladesh, which cherishes its reputation as a moderate Muslim nation and secular state.
The country, which has two Islamic parties in
its four-party coalition government, has mobilised thousands of
police, army and paramilitary troops to search for members of
the group led by Afghan war veteran Shaikh Abdur Rahman.
3 Jan 2006, Yahoo
Sri
Lanka bomb blast 'kills five'
A bomb blast in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Trincomalee has
killed five people and wounded two, police say.
They said the victims were all young Tamils from the area, about
250km (150 miles) north-east of Colombo.
It is the latest in a string of deadly blasts in the north and east linked to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict. More than 40 soldiers have died in the violence.
The government blames attacks on troops on Tamil Tiger rebels. A truce between the two sides is under severe strain.
The circumstances surrounding Monday's blast in Trincomalee are not clear.
One policeman told the AFP news agency that officials were investigating whether the Tamil youths had been transporting explosives.
The recent violence is the worst since the truce was agreed four years ago, after two decades of conflict had claimed more than 64,000 lives.
The Tigers want autonomy
for minority Tamils in the north and east.
3 Jan 2006, AP
