| news jul/aug 2002 |
Explosion at Ecuadorean McDonald's restaurant injures three
A lunchtime explosion in a busy waterfront McDonald's restaurant Wednesday injured at least three people, police said.
Flyers found near the scene identified an unknown group, Militias of Ecuador, as responsible for the bombing, the police said.
The explosion shattered the windows of the fast food restaurant and neighboring buildings on the Malecon 2000 promenade, a complex of restaurants, bars and gardens that stretches 20 blocks along the Guayas River.
Another smaller bomb exploded nearby simultaneously causing minor property damage but injuring no one, police said.
28 August 2002, AP
White Powder Scare at Al Gore's Tennessee Office
Tennessee authorities are testing a "suspicious white powder" that was in an envelope opened Tuesday at former Vice President Al Gore's office in Nashville to determine if it contains anthrax.
An FBI official told CNN that investigators believe the white powder was sent as a hoax, but the bureau has not confirmed that officially.
Gore's office manager, Mary Patterson, opened the small package at approximately noon.
Patterson and Gore's Tennessee director, Robert McLarty, immediately turned off the office air conditioning and contacted local authorities, who dispatched a hazardous-materials team to the site, in the city's Loews Hotel.
Gore's offices in the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel will remain closed, at least until test results come back in four days.
Patterson described the package as a smaller-than-usual envelope, typically used to write personal correspondence. She said she noticed a stamp on the back of the envelope that said, "This Letter Has Not Been Inspected By The Corrections Department." She said the letter was handwritten, but she stopped reading its contents as soon as she saw the white powder.
Patterson is believed to be the only person who came into direct contact with the substance, Lawson said.
"There were about 25 people in the office, although she was the only one who came in contact with the suspicious envelope," Lawson told CNN. Patterson has shown no symptoms of any illness, Lawson said.
Nashville authorities have dealt with more than 400 similar reports in the past year, and none of the substances involved has tested positive for anthrax, Lawson said.
"This is pretty much the same except for the nature of the office -- it's high-profile," she said.
Added Gore's daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff: "People who are in the public eye and are controversial public figures have to be on the lookout for things like this, and my father is no exception."
Gore is vacationing with his wife Tipper this month in Washington state and was notified of the incident.
"He was immediately notified," Gore spokesman Jano Cabrera said. "He called both Mary and Robert personally talked to them at length, asked if they were OK and is getting updates as they become available."
27 August 2002, AP
Bomb Found in Book Posted to Colombian Prosecutor
Security agents on Tuesday foiled an attempt to kill Colombia's chief prosecutor with a bomb hidden in a book, the prosecutor's office said.
The explosives were hidden in a volume about South American independence hero Simon Bolivar sent to Chief Prosecutor Luis Camilo Osorio, a statement said, without saying who might have been behind the assassination attempt.
Authorities last year accused the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- a 17,000-strong Marxist band known by the Spanish initials "FARC" -- of trying to kill then presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe and the archbishop of Bogota with bombs disguised in bibles.
Osorio is known for his tough attitude toward the FARC.
20 August 2002, AP
2 Post Offices to Get Anthrax Tests
The discovery of anthrax spores in a Princeton mailbox has prompted federal officials to order anthrax testing at two New Jersey mail processing centers, authorities said Friday.
Diane Todd, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, said the Monmouth Processing and Distributing Center in Eatontown and Kilmer General Mail Facility in Edison would be tested on Sunday.
If anthrax spores are found, Todd said the contaminated areas would be sealed off.
"This is totally a precautionary measure," Todd said. "No new workers have reported exposure (to anthrax) and there is no new evidence that these facilities are contaminated."
Mailboxes in New Jersey were tested based on postal coding that indicates when items enter the mail system, federal authorities said. The postal service was able to pinpoint the boxes from which mail arrived during the time four anthrax-laced letters were processed by the Trenton regional plant last fall. Five people died from exposure to the anthrax.
The four letters were sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and to the New York Post. No arrests have been made, despite a $2.5 million reward.
16 August 2002
Fake Anthrax Mailer Gets 19 Years
A man who admitted mailing fake anthrax letters to abortion clinics was sentenced Thursday to 19 years and seven months in prison on firearms and theft charges.
U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott ordered Clayton Waagner to serve the term after completing a 30-year sentence in Illinois on escape and other charges. Waagner said he would appeal.
"I'm not remorseful," he told the judge. "I'm not begging for forgiveness for what I did, because I thought it was right."
Waagner, 45, of Kennerdell, Pa., was arrested at a copy shop in suburban Springdale on Dec. 5, about 10 months after he escaped from a jail in Illinois.
He was convicted of illegally possessing a handgun and a rifle; possessing a stolen handgun; and possessing a stolen car. Authorities said they arrested him in a stolen car with about $9,000 in his pocket, a loaded, .40-caliber handgun and several fake IDs.
Kelly Johnson, a public defender advising Waagner, argued for a lesser sentence, saying Waagner wasn't convicted of violent crimes.
Federal authorities have said that Waagner claimed responsibility for sending more than 550 letters filled with powder to about 280 women's reproductive health clinics in October and November, at the height of the nation's anthrax scare.
Waagner had faced from 15 years in prison to life without parole and a $250,000 fine on each count.
He also faces federal bank robbery charges in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and charges of car theft in Mississippi and possession of a pipe bomb in Tennessee.
15 August 2002, AP
Salvadoran police turn up explosive materials inside prison
Police raiding El Salvador's largest prison Tuesday found 85 machetes and materials for building homemade explosives, contraband authorities believe dozens of prisoners were planning to use as part of a massive escape plot.
Guards and police agents who suspected that three different groups of prisoners were planning a joint jailbreak searched cells and common areas in the La Esperanza maximum security prison on the northern outskirts of the capital, San Salvador, federal prison director Rodolfo Garay said at a news conference.
Inside a large cell housing 10 prisoners serving time for a variety of crimes, authorities found a small block of dynamite, a detonating device and other materials that could be used to build a bomb, Garay said.
Searches of other cells found 85 machetes, a pistol, three boxes of bullets and several bags of crack cocaine and marijuana.
Garay said authorities believed those prisoners who were hiding the explosive materials planned to build a bomb that would allow themselves and dozens of other inmates to escape the prison building, then use the machetes and other weapons to kill coming guards and run to freedom.
13 August 2002, AP
New Jersey Mailbox Tests Positive for Anthrax
U.S. postal inspectors investigating the anthrax mailings linked to five deaths have discovered a mailbox that tested positive for traces of the bacteria, a postal official said on Monday.
The mailbox was found on Thursday night in Princeton, New Jersey, and has been sent to a U.S. Army facility in Aberdeen, Maryland, for forensic analysis, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Dan Mihalko told Reuters.
He said the mailbox was discovered as investigators checked hundreds of boxes from which mail is funneled to a postal sorting center in Trenton, New Jersey, where four anthrax-laced letters were postmarked last year.
"We've been looking at all the mailboxes that feed into the Trenton facility," Mihalko said. "One of them did test positive."
The mailbox was sent to the army laboratory for more conclusive tests, he said, adding, "We've seen in the past, field tests that turn up false positives."
Five people died and 13 were sickened last year as anthrax-tainted letters were sent to government officials and media outlets in Washington, Florida and New York. The letters were mailed in the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The FBI launched an investigation in October to find the person responsible for the anthrax attacks. Authorities are offering a $2.5 million reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
12 August 2002, Reuters
Austrian injured in Italy as he handles homemade bomb, Italian police say
An Austrian man lost five fingers and was being treated Monday for burns after a bomb he had assembled went off in his home in the South Tyrol region of Italy, police said.
Stephan Topitz, 38, was hospitalized in Innsbruck, across the border, a Carabinieri police official said in Merano on condition of anonymity.
Police said they went to the home Sunday after a telephone caller reported hearing a blast, the official said.
Five other bombs were seized from the home, which is in the South Tyrol, or Alto Adige, an officially bilingual, Italian-German-speaking Alpine region.
The man is being investigated for possessing explosives, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Police have been watching Topitz since last year, when they found a mix of chemicals, which could be used for explosives, in the Austrian's car, the police official said.
ANSA said police also seized a computer and materials glorifying the Third Reich, Hitler's dream of a thousand-year-long empire and were looking into the possibility that he had contacts abroad with neo-Nazi groups.
A total of five fingers were blown off from the man's hands, and his chest and hands were burned in the explosion, the police official said.
12 August 2002
Two Hurt As Experiment Explodes
An explosives experiment blew up at an institute that does much research for the military, critically injuring two researchers with burns and shrapnel wounds, authorities said.
Jim Gombarcik and Tom Burky were combining materials Sunday afternoon at Battelle Memorial Institute's research center when the explosion happened, spokeswoman Katy Delaney said. Battelle is the world's largest independent, nonprofit research institute.
"These are very experienced guys with this sort of thing, and we do this type of research all of the time," she said.
Gombarcik, 30, of Delaware, was flown by helicopter to Ohio State Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Monday morning. Hospital spokesman Ken Philips said he was burned over a third of his body and doctors had to remove debris from his eyes. Burky, 34, of Johnstown, was in critical condition at another hospital.
The men work for a Battelle division that researches security technology, munitions and explosives, Delaney said. She did not know what type of substances they were combining in a device that resembles a cement mixer.
The explosion happened inside a sealed "blast chamber," a room constructed from materials that can withstand such an explosion, Delaney said. The building is on the institute's 1,000-acre campus about 15 miles west of Columbus.
he division often conducts research projects for the Department of Defense, but this experiment was part of internal research Battelle performs to develop its own products.
The institute has had a hand in creating such common inventions as the compact disc and bar codes on products. It also worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb, and government contracts represent almost 90 percent of its revenue.
12 August 2002
Explosion in home outside Beirut leaves one person dead, two wounded
Three small bombs exploded Sunday in a village southeast of Beirut heavily damaging a house and leaving at least one person dead and two wounded, security officials said.
The targeted first floor of a three-story building belonged to the parents-in-law of a police sergeant employed at a prison in the Beirut suburb of Roumieh, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
They gave only the sergeant's family name, Akouri, and said he was presumed to be the target of the attack but that a precise motive wasn't yet known.
The sergeant lived in the first floor home in the village of Beitshay, a few kilometers (miles) southeast of the capital Beirut, the officials said. He wasn't home at the time of the explosion.
Maha Akouri died en route to a hospital and her daughter, Dolly, was wounded, they said. Further details on the two, including how they were related to the sergeant, weren't immediately clear. The identity of the second person wounded, a woman, wasn't known.
Explosions are not uncommon in Lebanon, which is still recovering from a devastating 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. In May, a car bomb killed Jihad Jibril, a senior commander of the radical Palestinian group PFLP-General Command in the Lebanese capital. In January, a car bomb killed Elie Hobeika, a former Cabinet minister and ex-militia leader, and three bodyguards.
11 August 2002
Army Scientist Denies Anthrax Mail Involvement
A former U.S. Army scientist identified as a "person of interest" in the investigation into last year's deadly anthrax mailings said on Sunday he had nothing to do with the attack and lashed out at the government and media for unfairly focusing on him.
Steven Hatfill, a medical doctor and germ warfare expert, held a news conference with his lawyer to respond to media reports and government leaks he says have ruined his life.
"I have had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with the mailing of these anthrax letters and it is terribly wrong for anyone to contend or think otherwise," Hatfill said. "I have never worked with anthrax, I know nothing about this matter."
Hatfill's attorney, Victor Glasberg, said he would file an official complaint to the government about what he said were leaks involving his client from the FBI and other law enforcement authorities regarding the investigation.
Hatfill has been questioned several times by federal investigators, undergone a polygraph test and had his apartment searched in the probe into who mailed letters containing anthrax last fall that killed five people and sickened 13 others.
The anthrax attacks came shortly after the Sept. 11 hijacked airliner attacks in New York and Washington, further unnerving an already jittery public.
Hatfill, 48, was one of about 30 U.S.-based scientists the FBI has had under scrutiny as part of its investigation, citing him as a "person of interest."
Hatfill has worked for the Army Medical Institute of Infectious Disease, center of the nation's biological warfare defense research, at Fort Detrick, Maryland. He also previously worked at Science Applications International Corp., a defense contractor.
But while he is an expert in viral agents he said he has no experience with bacterial agents like anthrax.
Hatfill gave his consent at the end of June for the FBI to search his residence. In a second, well-publicized search of his apartment on Aug. 1, agents rummaged through trash bins outside the residence in Frederick, Maryland, armed with a search warrant.
11 August 2002, Reuters
Long After Anthrax Scare, Agency Mail Delays Persist
It has been nearly a year since terrorists contaminated the postal system with anthrax spores, but many federal departments are still reporting problems with their mail.
"I was getting invitations for holiday parties as recently as June of this year," said Rob Nichols, deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Public Affairs at the Treasury Department. "If someone needs to get a document to us urgently, we will make them aware of the difficulty, and that first-class mail is not the way to do it."
During last fall's anthrax attacks, spores were found in the mailrooms for the Supreme Court and the main building of the Justice Department, and a mailroom worker for the State Department was taken to the hospital with the disease. Faxes and e-mails helped employees work around the disruption, but some places, like the Supreme Court, where no electronic filing is allowed, had serious difficulties.
Since then, the Postal Service is more or less back to normal, but that good news has yet to reach several hundred thousand government workers. At 13 of the major federal departments, all but three report an average delivery time of seven to 10 days after the postmark. The State Department's mail is regularly delayed by about three weeks.
Much of the delay is attributable to irradiation, which the Postal Service does in New Jersey for all mail bearing a Zip code of a federal building in Washington. That adds an extra four days to delivery time.
But once the mail arrives, each department deals with it in different ways, from air sampling at the Commerce Department to "heightened awareness" at the Agriculture Department.
Guidelines from the General Services Administration, issued July 22, tried to address these wide variations in mail screening in federal departments. But, like the mail, it looks like they will take some time to get through.
The agency's most important message was for federal agencies to stop routine testing of offices or mailrooms for anthrax spores, because the risk is low after irradiation and the tests are unreliable.
Gloves or masks "ease the fears of some workers" but are also not necessary for safety, according to the guidelines. Instead the "standard operating procedure" for all federal mail should be X-ray screening and placing mailrooms in enclosed areas, ideally with separate ventilation systems.
Both the Energy and Commerce departments perform the anthrax testing discouraged by the GSA. The Energy Department holds the mail in an on-site mailroom to perform tests, including air sampling, "to ensure it is secure." The department's mail is delayed by five to eight days, a spokesman said.
At Commerce, mail is held for at least 24 hours in the mailroom while "filtration screening" of the air is done to test for hazardous substances. It is then delivered about 48 hours after arriving, leading to a total delivery time of about a week.
Meanwhile, officials at the Environmental Protection Agency said they were considering the purchase of a similar containment device and air sampling system, to detect biohazards including anthrax bacteria. Mail currently is X-rayed and processed by workers wearing gloves and protective masks, and it takes about six days to arrive.
The Transportation Department does not conduct air sampling but encloses its mailroom and keeps it under negative pressure. All mail workers wear pressure suits and gloves. The mail takes about 10 days from postmark to reach employees' desks.
The Defense Department is exempted from the GSA guidelines and will "continue to procure military standard biological detection equipment," according to an accompanying memo from John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
A Pentagon spokesman said that toward the end of February, he received Christmas cards dated the beginning of December but that now delivery takes about 10 days. In 2000, officials built a separate mail plant adjacent to the Pentagon, where mail is screened by X-ray, dogs and "other means." Since October, officials have removed the post office boxes at the Pentagon -- about 1,000 of them -- which allowed staff to have a temporary address.
The State Department, which was hit worst by anthrax, estimates the average delivery time is three weeks, possibly because of the major disruption caused by the closing of its mail facility in Sterling. It is still waiting to be decontaminated. Meanwhile, officials have leased a temporary mailroom where letters and packages are X-rayed.
"We may be worse than most because we went through such a bad time. It was taking months to get Christmas packages and bills out in the pouches to the embassies," a spokeswoman said. As at many federal agencies, she said, employees had grown much more reliant on e-mails and faxes.
But the other departments affected by anthrax are not necessarily those with the most elaborate systems in place. At the Justice Department, a spokeswoman estimated the mail arrives about five days later than it did before October.
"It is X-rayed, and the dogs go over it here in the building, but no one is wearing gloves or anything, and it feels like business as usual," she said.
Likewise, the Agriculture Department is operating a policy of "heightened awareness" in its mailroom, leading to delays of about a week.
The Supreme Court has special problems, because legal documents must be received in the original to be considered "filed." Their delivery now takes a few days longer than usual, a spokesman said.
After the week-long evacuation of the building in October because of anthrax, the Supreme Court moved its mailroom to a new off-site location to handle all incoming mail, including hand-delivered documents, although officials would not comment on their use of screening devices.
The Treasury mail goes through several security steps. First it is held off-site, in a facility shared with the White House, for "a new set of screening procedures." Then it goes to the Treasury annex for X-raying. This causes considerable delay, said a spokesman, who regularly gets mail three months old.
At the Labor Department, all mail passes through a metal detector, and any mail destined for executives at high risk of threats gets a second, more detailed, inspection. Mail arrives about seven days after it was sent.
New guidelines at the Interior Department have added to the X-ray screening with measures such as making sure recipients of suspicious packages can vouch for them before they are released from the mailroom. It takes about 10 working days for mail to arrive.
A note of optimism is found in the mailroom of the Education Department, where the supervisor, David Mason, said the atmosphere of fear had gone. Officials X-ray everything that comes in, and the mail is delivered about a week after being mailed.
"It's not like it used to be, when everyone was extremely cautious. . . . We're back to regular life," Mason said.
8 August 2002, Washington Post
Bomb Blast in Nepali Capital Wounds
At least six people were wounded when suspected Maoist rebels hurled a bomb at a business college in the Nepali capital on Thursday, police said.
The insurgents, fighting to replace the Himalayan kingdom's constitutional monarchy with one-party communist rule, threw the bomb into the principal's room on the first floor but the principal was not inside.A police officer said the blast shattered window panes and doors and damaged a ground-floor wall, but there was no danger of the three-story building collapsing.
The wounded included a teacher, two college employees and three passers-by, he said. The incident took place early in the day when few students were at the College of Applied Business.
Nepal's state-run radio said Maoist rebels were responsible for the blast, but there were no immediate claims by the outlawed guerrillas.
8 August 2002, Reuters
Bombs Kill 14 as Colombian President Sworn
Suspected FARC rebels fired mortar shells on the presidential palace and a nearby slum, killing 14 people just blocks away from where right-winger Alvaro Uribe was being sworn in as president on Wednesday pledging to get tough with the Marxist guerrillas.
Despite heavy security, including 20,000 soldiers and police and a U.S. surveillance plane, three mortars smashed into the palace, wounding three people and causing superficial damage to the building Uribe will occupy for the next four years.
In an apparent misfire, an equal number of mortars fell on a nearby Bogota shantytown, killing three children and 11 other people -- just as the inauguration of the clean-cut, 50-year-old lawyer began in Congress.
There were groans and mayhem on the slum streets, as bodies were pulled from a shack. A few streets away, a camouflage-clad policeman, his head bleeding, staggered from the presidential complex, a rifle hanging by his side.
Oblivious to the bombings, Uribe donned Colombia's red, yellow and blue presidential sash and addressed Congress, footsteps away from the palace. In a prepared speech, he promised a firm hand with insurgent forces and said he would negotiate with them only if they laid down their arms. "We are offering democracy, so that arms can be replaced by argument," said Uribe. He turned pale when officials took him aside after the ceremony and told him what had happened.
Police fired shots into the air to secure the shantytown, pushing back homeless people and drug addicts so forensic teams could count the dead. At one site, a mortar crashed into a boarding house, decapitating one man and killing seven other people. Forensic teams placed numbers on the dead, and snapped photos.
Foreign dignitaries, including U.S. drug czar John Walters, the presidents of Venezuela and Argentina and Prince Felipe, the heir to the Spanish throne, listened to a youth orchestra in Congress as pandemonium reigned nearby.
In the days leading up to Uribe's inauguration, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, has launched attacks in the lawless countryside, including mortar-shelling an airport in the eastern Arauca province. At least 36 were killed in clashes with the army on Tuesday. .
7 August 2002, Reuters
Anthrax Probe at Researcher's Home
The home of a former Army scientist considered a "person of interest" in the investigation of last fall's anthrax attacks has been searched for a second time by FBI and Postal Service agents. But investigators still refuse to label the researcher, Steven J. Hatfill, a suspect in the case.
The FBI gained a search warrant Thursday to look inside Hatfill's residence at Detrick Plaza Apartments in Frederick, Md., according to two U.S. government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hatfill consented to the first FBI search on June 25 and no warrant was needed. Federal agents also searched trash bins outside Hatfill's apartment.
A dark blue van was parked nearby with its back doors open and white cardboard boxes sat next to the bins. Agents also searched a self-storage unit in Ocala, Fla., that Hatfill used, one official said. The unit also was searched in June.
It was unclear whether the FBI contacted Hatfill before gaining the warrant to search his home. Hatfill keeps a residence at the apartment building, but has not lived there since the first search, according to neighbors.
FBI Director Robert Mueller declined to say why a second search was conducted. "We're making progress in the case but I can't comment on ongoing aspects of the investigation," he said. Hatfill, 48, was not questioned and no arrests in the case are imminent, a government official said.
Five people were killed in last fall's anthrax mailings. Federal investigators did talk to Hatfill about the case when his name first surfaced last winter, but no details of the interview have been disclosed.
During the first search, FBI agents, some in protective clothing, removed computer components and at least a half-dozen garbage bags full of materials from Hatfill's apartment. But officials said no trace of anthrax was found in his home or at the storage unit. The apartment complex is outside Fort Detrick, where Hatfill worked for two years for the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, center of the nation's biological warfare defense research.
Hatfill worked at the facility until September 1999. Although he probably had access to anthrax, his primary duties didn't involve working with it, a spokesman for the base has said. Hatfill and another scientist, Joseph Soukup, commissioned a study of a hypothetical anthrax attack in February 1999 as employees of defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., said Ben Haddad, spokesman for the San Diego-based company.
The FBI has identified Hatfill as one of 20 to 30 scientists and researchers with the expertise and opportunity to conduct the anthrax attacks. The bureau has searched about 25 homes or apartments after getting permission from the people interviewed, a federal law enforcement official said.
2 August 2002, Associated Press
6 Die in Jerusalem University Bomb Blast
A bomb exploded in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University during lunchtime Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding more than 70.
The blast, in the university's Frank Sinatra International Student Center, came at a time when classes were not in session. However, the student body, which includes Israeli Jews, Arabs and foreign students, were taking exams and the cafeteria was busy at the time of the blast.
Witnesses initially said they believed a suicide bomber was responsible, but Israeli police said preliminary evidence suggested that someone planted the bomb. "We're talking about an explosive device, apparently not a suicide bomber. It is being checked," said Jerusalem's Deputy Police Chief Ilan Franco.
Israeli government spokesman Danny Seaman confirmed that six people were dead, and rescue services said more than 70 were injured, some critically. There was no immediate word on the nationalities of the casualties.
31 July 2002, Associated Press
British retiree to be extradited from Spain for trial over fatal letter bomb to woman
A 71-year-old Briton is to be extradited from Spain to face trial for the alleged murder of a woman early 20 years ago, a court official said Tuesday. Keith Cottingham, of Kent, England, had his appeal rejected Monday by Spain's National Court, a spokeswoman said. His lawyers had urged that the April extradition ruling be thrown out as their client was not well enough to stand trial. The court spokeswoman said the extradition must now be approved by the Spanish cabinet, something not likely to happen until after the summer recess in September. Cottingham, who has long protested his innocence, has been in custody since his arrest 10 months ago. British authorities want Cottingham to stand trial for the killing of Barbara Harrold at her luxury home in May 1984. Police say Harrold died from injuries sustained when she opened a letter bomb believed sent by Cottingham. Cottingham has lived in Benidorm, Spain, for nearly two decades in a villa he bought from Harrold. The two were known to have had a row over a tax bill shortly before Harrold's death. Cottingham is believed to have gone to Britain to post the letter bomb and then returned to Spain.
30 July 2002, Associated Press
Anti-Semitic poster attached to fake bomb found on highway near Moscow
A sign with an anti-Semitic slogan attached to a fake bomb was found early Tuesday on a highway near Moscow, following several incidents involving similar signs with real explosives.
Police brought out dogs to check what looked like an explosive device attached to the poster on the Dmitrov highway, but found no bomb, said Farid Khasanov, a spokesman for the Moscow regional police. He called the poster "a practical joke."
Russia has seen a wave of what the media has dubbed "poster terrorism" - most of it anti-Semitic - since May, when a booby-trapped sign reading "Death to Jews" exploded in the face of a woman who tried to remove it from the roadside. Several signs have appeared since then, some with real explosives and others with dummy bombs.
30 July 2002, Associated Press
Here they zap, if not zip, mail to U.S. government
Birthday cards for the President. Diplomats writing to the State Department. That letter to your congressman. These days, they all go through Logan, Gloucester County.
All mail destined for federal offices in Washington - a quarter-million items a day - passes through Logan, home to a facility that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, bombarding parcels and post with sterilizing electron beams and X-ray waves.
Between Interstate 295 and the Commodore Barry Bridge, the gray, square structure that houses Ion Beam Applications is the nation's front line against another anthrax mail attack on the federal government.
29 July 2002, Associated Press
Two bombs found and defused in northern Italy
Two small bombs were found Monday in northern Italy and defused by explosive experts - one near a Fiat car dealership and the other near a labor union office, Milan police said.
There have been no claims of responsibility so far, said Col. Marco Rizzo of the Carabinieri paramilitary police. Tensions have been high in the field of labor lately. Some union leaders have agreed to go along with government reforms making it easier to fire workers, and automaker Fiat, trying to stem money losses, has recently announced it would lay off thousands of workers for a month this summer as it cuts auto production.
The two explosive devices appeared to be similar, Rizzo said. In each case, a gas canister had been connected to a timer and placed inside a basket containing a flammable liquid, said Rizzo. It was not immediately clear if the devices were capable of being exploded. Some Italian news reports said the wires were not properly positioned. However, the head of a team of anti-terrorism investigators in Milan, prosecutor Ferdinando Pomarici, told Italian news agencies that the two bombs were "rudimental, but, had they exploded, they would have done damage."
A worker who was entering the car dealership in Milan noticed a device hidden in a flower pot near the entrance and police were called, said Rizzo. The other device was found minutes later in Monza, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Milan.
The building housing CISL union offices was evacuated while bomb disposal experts went to work. CISL leaders recently agreed to conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi's plan to overhaul labor law, which has largely been in favor of workers.
Last week, a bomb scare in Parliament in Rome briefly caused a suspension of work but no bomb was found. Italy has been on high alert for terror attacks since Sept. 11, and it has seen a comeback of domestic terrorism. Terrorists on the extreme left and right in the 1970s and 1980s bloodied the country with shootings and bombings. After a long stretch of relative calm, two terrorist shootings in the last three years claimed the lives of government advisers working on economic and labor reform.
29 July 2002, Associated Press
Colombian authorities find, deactivate bomb on domestic airliner
Army bomb technicians deactivated a bomb set to blow up a commercial airliner Monday, the army said.
The bomb, which authorities said was capable of destroying a plane, was found in the middle of an airport runway in the town of Tame, 310 kilometers (195 miles) northeast of Bogota, Gen.
Carlos Lemus told RCN television. Lemus said the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group, was responsible for the attempted bombing. He said the target was a Satena airlines flight expected to land this morning. "According to the information we have, (the bomb) was supposed to be activated when the plane from Satena landed," Lemus said.
A man was arrested near the airport after confessing that he belonged to an urban ELN force, Lemus said. Authorities said they did not know why that flight in particular was targeted.
Satena is owned by the government, and its planes are piloted by the Air Force, but the company has commercial routes, like the one to Tame.
29 July 2002, Associated Press
Bomb Kills Girl in Bogota, Colombia
A small bomb exploded outside a hardware store in downtown Bogota Monday, killing a 17-year-old girl and injuring 10 other people, police said.
The victim, a waitress, died on the way to the hospital, police Capt. Fabio Rodriguez told reporters. Police said it wasn't clear who set off the explosion. Earlier Monday, bomb technicians deactivated a bomb found on an airport runway in the town of Tame, 195 miles northeast of Bogota, the army said.
Gen. Carlos Lemus told RCN television that the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group, was responsible for the attempted bombing. He said a man arrested near the airport belong to the group. Lemus said rebels had hoped to blow up a Satena airlines flight landing later in the day. But it was not clear why that flight was targeted.
Meanwhile, the army said eight rebels died in clashes with troops in several areas of Colombia. Colombia's 38-year civil war pits leftist rebels against government forces and illegal right-wing militias. Some 3,500 people, most of them civilians, die in the fighting every year.
29 July 2002, Associated Press
Bosnian native sentenced to 10 months for anthrax threats
A man who mailed letters threatening to use anthrax against government agencies was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Amir Omerovic, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia, had faced up to five years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in February. After serving his term, Omerovic will be confined to his home for six months and placed on supervision that will include mental health treatment, Judge Alan Nevas ordered Monday.
Federal prosecutors said Omerovic mailed letters in October to Gov. John Rowland, the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and other public agencies in Connecticut. The letters referred to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "This is only the beginning," the letters said. "Americans will die. Death to America and Israel."
The letters did not contain anthrax or any other substance. Federal officials said there was no evidence that Omerovic had access to anthrax.
29 July 2002, Associated Press
L.A. Times Evacuated After Threat
The Los Angeles Times building was evacuated Monday night and surrounding streets shut down after the newspaper received a bomb threat.
The newspaper notified police after receiving the call, said Officer Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Officers arriving on the scene cornered a suspect alone on the building's first floor, Lee said.
Police negotiators were talking to the man, who had a backpack that he said contained a bomb. "He said he had an explosive device and he threatened to blow it," said Lt. Horace Frank, another police spokesman. Frank said the man had made no demands. Police had learned the man's identity by Monday night but were not releasing it. However, Frank said the man wasn't a newspaper employee.
Lee said it was not immediately known how many people had been in the building, located in downtown Los Angeles. An area extending two blocks in every direction was sealed off. At least two other, smaller buildings near the Times offices were also cleared out.
It wasn't immediately clear how the incident would affect production of the newspaper's Tuesday edition. Calls to the Times' metro desk and switchboard rang unanswered and newspaper officials could not immediately be located for comment.
30 July 2002, Associated Press
Bomb threat causes brief evacuation of Italy's parliament chamber
An anonymous bomb threat prompted politicians to briefly evacuate the floor of Italy's parliament Thursday morning.
Explosive experts combed parliament's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, but found no bomb.
Politicians left the hall during the search but remained inside the building, returning about 30 minutes later. Security around the building, and particularly at all entrances, was tightened after the scare. Authorities offered no details on the contents of the threat or how it was received.
Italy has been on high alert for terror attacks since Sept. 11. The nation has also suffered domestic terrorism, with numerous bloody attacks in the 1970s and '80s by radical leftists and rightists. An offshoot of one of the most notorious leftist groups, the Red Brigades, has claimed responsibility for killing two government advisers over the past three years.
25 July 2002, Reuters
Authorities Probe Possible Bomb Plot
A man described as a Ku Klux Klan member was arrested Friday on federal firearms violations as authorities investigated a possible plot to blow up county offices and kill the sheriff.
Authorities found at least two bombs, "an arsenal of numerous weapons" and bomb-making materials at two homes, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell said. One of the homeowners, Charles Robert Barefoot Jr., 39, was arrested and in federal custody. Three people, including Barefoot's son, were held for questioning.
"Sources have revealed that Junior Barefoot was meeting with members of his group or organization, and there were threats that were communicated," Bizzell said. He said the threats targeted himself, the courthouse, the sheriff's office inside the building and the jail. Additional security measures were taken because of the alleged threat.
Bizzell did not reveal what may have motivated the alleged plot. There was evidence of a connection between the Klan and the alleged bomb plot, Bizzell said. A Klan robe was among the items seized at Barefoot's home in Benson. Barefoot's wife, Renee, said her husband started his own Klan chapter a few months ago, but otherwise declined to comment on the charges Friday.
Daniel Leigh Barefoot, 18, Barefoot's son, was charged with burning an unoccupied building and burning personal property. He was held on $150,000 bond. Bizzell said other arrests were pending. Barefoot was expected to appear before a federal magistrate Friday.
In September, the town of Benson refused to allow a group called the Church of the National Knights to have a float in a parade for the 52nd annual Mule Days celebration. Town officials said they suspected the organization was associated with the Klan. Smithfield is 30 miles southeast of Raleigh.
19 July 2002
Police targeted in bomb attack
Two police officers have escaped injury in a bomb attack in County Down.
They were travelling along the Killough Road near Downpatrick when their car was hit with an explosive device. A police spokesperson said the officers were badly shaken but otherwise uninjured.
Army bomb experts are using a robot to examine an area at the side of the road to check for booby-trap devices. Police have described the incident as a terrorist attack but have not yet said which paramilitary group they believe was responsible.
17 July 2002
Anti-terrorist police investigating a suspected Real IRA bombing campaign have charged a man with plotting to cause an explosion.
John Paul Gerard Hannan, 19, of no fixed address, was charged with conspiring to cause an explosion on or before 14 November 2001. He is also facing a charge of possessing an explosive substance at Hilltop Farm in West Ardsley, West Yorkshire, on that day. Detectives further charged him with having a firearm with intent to endanger and possessing a grenade.
12 July 2002
Venice is on a high state of alert following reports of a possible attack on the city's ancient Jewish ghetto by militants linked to the al-Qaeda network.
Officers from the specialist Digos anti-terrorist squad patrolled the ghetto area on Thursday and made checks around the synagogue and other buildings. Divers and small submarines were also checking canals in the area, reports said, but police would not say what they were looking for.
"There is an alarm in general, but I do not want to say anything more than that," Venice's Chief of Police, Domenico Bagnato, told the Ansa news agency. He added: "For a few months now, there has been a general alert in Venice and more intensive security measures have been put into motion to avoid anything untoward taking place."
The web site of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica said that investigators had uncovered plans by a group linked to al-Qaeda to plant a bomb in Venice's Jewish area.
11 July 2002
Anti-terrorist police are continuing to question a man in connection with a series of bombings in Birmingham and London.
He was arrested on Monday afternoon in Northern Ireland, at the request of the Metropolitan Police Service's Anti-Terrorist Branch. Scotland Yard said he was being held in connection with continuing inquiries into bomb attacks last year in Birmingham, Ealing and outside the BBC in west London.
Four men have been already been charged in connection with the bombings. The latest man to be arrested was held under the Terrorism Act 2000.
11 July 2002
US terror experts set for UK ports
US customs inspectors could soon be based at British sea ports as part of the American-led war against terrorism.
It is feared groups linked to Al-Qaeda could try to smuggle a crude weapon of mass destruction into the US inside a sea container.
Three European ports, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre, have already signed up to the new American initiative. Felixstowe in Suffolk, the largest container port in the UK, could soon follow suit.
Sea ports carry 90% of world trade - it is a vast global business on which everyone's prosperity depends. However, high security was never really built into the container system - until now.
The United States wants to station its own customs agents at ports around the world to help screen suspect containers heading towards the USA. In Europe, agreements have been signed in the last two weeks with Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Havre, and the US Customs Commissioner, Robert Bonner, says Felixstowe is the first British port he wants to add to the list.
Making container traffic more secure is a massive task - about six million containers arrive at sea ports in the United States every year. The fear among US officials is that one of them might conceal a dirty bomb - a crude nuclear or biological weapon. If such a device were to explode inside an American port, it could threaten thousands of lives and badly damage world trade.
To minimise the risk, containers will now be pre-screened before they reach American soil, but only at selected ports. That has raised fears that ports outside the system will suffer commercially because it will take them longer to ship their cargo to the United States.
10 July 2002
The principal of one of the Indian capital's most prestigious schools has said that one student and three staff members have been injured in an explosion.
Principal Nina Sehgal Nina Sehgal, headmistress of the Delhi Public School's Noida branch, told the BBC there was a loud sound in the school's lobby at about 0745 in the morning. But she ruled out reports suggesting the explosion was caused by a bomb. The AFP news agency, however, quoted a receptionist at the school as saying she saw someone throw something into the lobby just before the blast.
The school's 4,000 pupils include the children of top bureaucrats, senior politicians and industrialists. Lucky escape Ms Sehgal said none of the injuries was serious.
9 July 2002
Huge bomb deactivated in Colombia
Police in Colombia have deactivated a massive bomb in the southern town of Florencia which was discovered a few hours before a visit by the Colombian President, Andres Pastrana.
Mr Pastrana said that the device - containing about 200 kilos of explosives - was a clear attempt to prevent him travelling to Florencia - but the visit went ahead as planned.
Mr Pastrana insisted that he would continue to govern as normal until 7 August when he hands over power to the President-elect Alvaro Uribe.
Colombian officials believe the bomb in Florencia was planted by left-wing guerrillas.
8 July 2002
Bombs shatter Algerian celebrations
A bomb reportedly killed 35 people in a market near the Algerian capital as the country was marking Independence Day.
Algerian state radio said 80 people were also injured in the blast in Larba, 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Algiers - one of four to hit Algeria on Friday.
It was market day and many of the dead were said to be farmers' sons in town for the bustling weekend trade.
Islamic extremists are being blamed for the attacks on the 40th anniversary of Algeria's independence from France. No-one was killed in the other three explosions, which wounded four soldiers and two civilians.
5 July 2002
Bomb rocks Nepal PM's party offices
A bomb has exploded at offices in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, used by supporters of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Ten people were injured in the blast at the main office of the Nepali Congress Party. A young man was seen rushing out of the building covering his face after throwing the powerful bomb.
Dozens of people are said to have been gathering for a meeting at the time of the explosion, but Mr Deuba was not among them.
Party officials said a senior government minister, Chiranjivi Wagle, had just entered the premises when the bomb went off, but that he was safe.
The explosion damaged part of the building and shattered windows in nearby houses. The injured were rushed to hospital and security personnel cordoned off the area.
It is not yet clear who is behind the attack.
5 July 2002
Three arrested over suspect packages
Three men have been arrested following a lengthy investigation into hoax bomb calls and the sending of suspect packages.
The packages were sent to 10 Downing Street and St Andrews University, where Prince William is studying.
A police spokesman confirmed two men were arrested in the Strathclyde force area, while a 53-year-old man was arrested by the Garda in Dublin.
The arrests follow a UK-wide investigation into hoax bomb calls, e-mails and the sending of packages which allegedly contained toxic material. Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Munro, the officer in charge of Fife Constabulary crime management department, confirmed two men were arrested in the Strathclyde force area. "A report has been submitted to the regional procurator fiscal in Dundee in connection with a number of offences," he said.
Mr Munro confirmed that neither of the men was being held in custody. He revealed that in a "co-ordinated operation involving Fife Constabulary and the Garda Siochana", a 53 year-old man had also been arrested in Dublin. "In this instance a report is being submitted to the director of public prosecutions in Dublin," said Mr Munro, who added that this was also not being detained.
It is believed packages were sent to the university both before and after Prince William arrived to start his history of art degree course. In March, suspect packages were sent to the Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair and an aide to Mike Rumbles, Lib Dem MSP for Aberdeenshire
4 July 2002
