| news mar/apr 2003 |
Powder
Scares Hit Washington State
A
mail distribution facility was evacuated early Tuesday after
a white powder was found among a group of envelopes, but federal
sources said comprehensive tests showed no signs of any biotoxins.
Elsewhere, six workers were taken to a hospital Tuesday in Fort Myers, Fla., after they were exposed to an unknown white powder when they opened a Postal Service mail container that was unloaded from a FedEx plane that arrived from Memphis, Tenn.
Tacoma Fire Department Capt. Jolene Davis said the material there was found about 12:45 a.m. on a mail processing table.
Four people who were close to it were decontaminated as a precaution and taken to a hospital for checkups, she said. They were released by late morning.
Two federal officials, one at Homeland Security and one at the Department of Health and Human Services said comprehensive testing showed no signs of any biotoxins in the powder.
Samples were being sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for a final review, one official said.
Depending on additional test results, the mail center could be reopened later in the day, Davis said.
Postal Inspector Jeff Scobba said no threats had been received.
Scobba said all 12 envelopes in the area of the powder were bagged. One was addressed to the U.S. State Department and another to police in the town of Sequim, but Scobba said it was not known whether those two were specifically affected.
The powder found in Florida was being tested, but it was not immediately known if it was toxic, said Southwest Florida International Airport spokeswoman Laska Ryan.
Students at three elementary schools near the airport were kept inside for more than three hours as a precaution.
One of
those taken to a hospital complained of a burning sensation
in his nose, said Paul Filla, a spokesman for the Lee County
Emergency Management Service. FedEx spokeswoman Pam Roberson
said the treated workers all worked for the Postal Service.
22 April, 2003, AP
Bomb defused at MP's office
Army bomb
experts have defused a bomb which was left outside the north
Belfast office of the DUP MP, Nigel Dodds.
Houses were evacuated when a caller claiming to represent the
dissident republican Continuity IRA said a 100lb bomb had been
left at the office.
Police said the bomb was an improvised explosive device, made up of a 25lb gas cylinder with an explosive device attached.
Mr Dodds said it was not just an attack on him, but an attack on democracy.
However, he said: "What it does show is that there are evil people out there who are quite prepared to use force and violence to achieve their political ends.
17 April 2003, BBC
Bomb attack on Beirut McDonald's
A bomb
has exploded in a McDonald's restaurant in Lebanon, wounding
at least three people.
Saturday's blast was caused by a small amount of dynamite hidden
in the toilet of the restaurant in Dora, a Christian district
of Beirut.
Police later found a car filled with 55 kilograms of TNT in a nearby car park.
The car did not explode because of failures in two of the three detonators, police said.
It is the fourth on an American fast food outlet since early March - but the first to occur at a time when the restaurant was bound to be full.
The other attacks - which occurred at night or around dawn - have hurt no one.
On 24 March, a small bomb went off at a British cultural centre in Beirut but caused no injuries.
Last week, a man stormed into a British bank in Beirut with explosives strapped to his body, threatening to detonate himself before he gave himself up to police.
In November, an American nurse was shot dead at a clinic in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon where she worked.
American businesses and western embassies in Lebanon have been given armed guards by internal security forces since the start of the Iraq crisis.
6 April 2003, BBC
Bomb
drama at Beirut bank
Lebanese police have arrested an anti-war protester who held
customers and staff hostage in a UK-linked bank in the capital,
Beirut, threatening to detonate explosives strapped to his body.
The man, identified by police as 45-year-old Samir Abdel Karim
Berro, held up the HSBC bank for at least one hour before agreeing
to surrender and there were no casualties.
He said he was acting in defence of "the people of Iraq and the people of Palestine" in a statement he was allowed to read out to reporters as part of the surrender negotiations.
Lebanese Interior Minister Elias Murr personally took part in the negotiations, entering the city centre bank to talk to Mr Berro for 15 minutes.
The interior ministry confirmed after the incident that the would-be bomber had had TNT explosives strapped to his body.
He had "wanted to blow himself up because he had nothing to lose", Mr Murr told Lebanese TV as police questioned Mr Berro in custody.
30 March 2003
Iraq car bomb kills Australian
A car bomb blast - believed to be a suicide attack - has killed an Australian journalist in Kurdish-held northern Iraq.
Paul Moran, 39, a cameraman originally from Adelaide, died when a taxi exploded next to him after he had just finished filming near the village of Khurmal.
Reports say one other person was killed, but no details were available.
Kurdish officials blamed the attack on a militant group, Ansar al-Islam, which controls the area.
The group,
which has been accused of links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network, has been targeted by US war planes and a ground assault
is also said to be planned against it.
23 March 2003
Students
charged in bomb hoax
Three students have been charged with making a hoax bomb after
a major security alert at Luton University.
Bomb squad officers were called to the Bute Street student accommodation
at 0600 GMT on Friday after three students woke another resident
and showed him what they said was a bomb.
The three were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
They were later rearrested and charged on suspicion of conspiracy to make a hoax bomb.
22 March 2003
Police
release two bomb suspects
Detectives have released two of the three men arrested after
two bombs were found in a flat near Gatwick Airport in West
Sussex.
The men were being held under the Terrorism Act following the
discovery of two "home-made" devices in Langley Green,
Crawley, on Tuesday.
Sussex Police said a third man remained in police custody on Friday morning for further questioning.
The force was granted an extra 72 hours to question the men during a special hearing at Crawley Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Police say the suspects are of western European origin.
Army bomb disposal experts were called to the property on Tuesday - they found two bombs.
People living near the flat were moved out of their homes overnight as a precaution.
21 March 2003
India
bus bomb kills 11
At least 11 passengers were killed and 40 others injured when
a bomb exploded on a bus in north-east India.
The bus was heading for Assam's capital, Guwahati, from Goalpara
on the state's border with Bangladesh on Sunday.
It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.
Police said a bomb ripped through the bus at Bagangopa village around 1730 Indian time.
Six passengers died on the spot, five on the way to hospital.
Forty others were injured, seven of them seriously.
16 March 2003
Saudi officials
say they are looking for those responsible for a "bomb
hoax" at a shopping centre in the country's main commercial
city, Jeddah.
A Saudi-owned newspaper had earlier reported that 16 sticks
of dynamite had been defused, after being discovered in three
emergency exits of the al-Mahmal centre.
They had been found by a security employee an hour before they were set to go off at 0900 (0600 GMT) on Saturday, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat reported.
But an interior ministry spokesman quoted by the official SPA news agency said someone had disguised plastic tubes as sticks of dynamite.
An examination of the tubes revealed no explosives, he said.
The seven-storey al-Mahmal centre has more than 100 shops and is on one of Jeddah's busiest streets, King Abdul Aziz road.
The centre is reported to have been briefly evacuated on Saturday, but then opened as usual.
In recent years, there have been a series of unexplained blasts targeting Westerners and security services in the kingdom.
9 March 2003
Driver killed in Paris car bomb
A booby-trapped
van has exploded in a residential area of north-west Paris,
killing one man.
Several passers-by were slightly injured by the blast and three
other vehicles were set ablaze, on a street near the Paris ring
road.
Investigators have opened a criminal inquiry, apparently suspecting
that it involved a settling of scores.
Police do not believe the incident was terrorist-related.
Police say the victim, named as 55-year-old Rene Chalon, had a long record for common crimes.
Mr Chalon is believed to have triggered the device when he switched on the ignition.
Police say that the use of bombs in the criminal world in Paris is "very rare".
5 March 2003, BBC
Bomb
part found in prison
A bomb detonator has been found inside a County Antrim prison.
It was discovered during a series of searches ordered after
a bullet exploded in a toaster at Maghaberry jail.
The detonator was found in a prison block called Bush House which holds remand prisoners.
Two bullets were also found in the complex.
Visits were stopped on Tuesday and more searches are to take place.
Maghaberry houses both republican and loyalist inmates, including the convicted loyalist leader Johnny Adair.
Security sources say the finds may be linked to a campaign by loyalists and republicans demanding to be segregated.
The Prison Service said it was reviewing search procedures at the jail.
4 March
2003, BBC
