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Port Authority cops who staff the agency’s bridges and tunnels were read harrowing details of a terrorist threat today advising them to be on the lookout for a fuel-filled tanker meant to explode prior to a secondary blast designed to decimate any first responders, The Post has learned. The chilling warning was read at roll call for four police commands – cops assigned to the Holland and Lincoln Tunnel; the George Washington Bridge; and also the Staten Island command, which incorporates the Bayonne and Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, a source said.

SNIPPET: "Authorities say 30-year-old Sheri A. Zulpo of Edgewood, N.M., was booked into the Coconino County jail on charges of terrorism, attempted first-degree murder and endangerment and possible federal charges may also be filed."

Labor unions across the country are delivering thousands of worker petitions to Capitol Hill this week, urging lawmakers to stop funding the new Air Force refueling tanker program and start investigating it. ... The machinists union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the AFL-CIO are targeting more than the obvious supporters in the Kansas and Washington state congressional delegations. The union will follow its petition drive with one-on-one meetings with lawmakers, zeroing in on Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania. ... The unions will roll out a range of arguments, from apple-pie-style pitches that show the economic...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Angry Boeing supporters are vowing revenge against Republican presidential candidate John McCain over Chicago-based Boeing's loss of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the parent company of European plane maker Airbus. There are other targets for their ire - the Air Force, the defense secretary and even the entire Bush administration. But Boeing supporters in Congress are directing their wrath at McCain, the Arizona senator and nominee in waiting, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing now will miss out on a...

PARIS (EJP)---French officials voiced outrage Wednesday after it emerged a gang had locked up and attacked a Jewish youth in the same Paris suburb where Ilan Hamili was tortured to death two years ago. Six youths from the southern Paris suburb of Bagneux, aged 17 to 25, are accused of locking up 19-year-old Mathieu Roumi in a storage room on February 22, beating and sexually tormenting him. Aged 17 to 25, the six youths -- who knew the victim -- had falsely accused him of stealing from them in order to lure him into a trap, judicial sources said. Once...

So might US investors want to switch out of gold bullion ahead of Easter this year and move into the single currency instead? After all, the Euro still pays 4.0% interest per year – a feat that dumb gold could never promise or achieve – and with Eurozone inflation holding at a record 3.2% year-on-year in February, the European Central Bank (ECB) is clearly in no mood to start slashing rates now. "Inflation will not slow as markedly as supposed," warned the ECB's Axel Weber last week. Colleague Juergen Stark added that he was "highly dissatisfied" with the current surge...

<p>Outsourcing by aircraft manufacturers has resulted in substandard parts being built into commercial airplanes that carry thousands of passengers daily, according to a government report.</p> <p>Major manufacturers such as Boeing Co., General Electric Aircraft Engines and Bombardier/Learjet often cut costs by allowing foreign suppliers to make airplane components, but do not adequately supervise the quality of their subcontractors' work, said the report this week from the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general.</p>

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Finance ministers from euro nations said Monday they were "concerned" about the strength of their currency as it hit an all-time high against the U.S. dollar. The euro purchased as much as $1.5266 in afternoon European trading, topping the previous record of $1.5238 it hit on Friday on speculation of a U.S. interest rate hike this month. The rising euro makes German cars and French champagne and other European Union exports increasingly expensive for the union's major trading partner, the United States. "In the present circumstances we face, we are concerned about excessive exchange rate moves,"...

JOBS at Airbus in Broughton are secure after the company scooped a £20bn deal with the U.S Air Force (USAF).

McCain Still Considering Tanker Deal By MATTHEW DALY – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Monday that he hasn't made up his mind on a $35 billion Air Force contract awarded to the parent company of French plane maker Airbus. McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, helped scuttle a previous deal that gave the contract for the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers to Chicago-based Boeing Co. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a new competition with Boeing Friday to build the refueling planes...

“Youths” in the suburbs of Paris are escalating their intifada against French society, ambushing and firing on police. PARIS: Dozens of hooded attackers fired buckshot and nails at police this weekend, wounding four officers, France’s interior minister said. Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an “ambush,” saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism at a local bakery. Three officers were hit in face with buckshot; another was hit in the leg with buckshot and nails and...

What could have been a done deal for the Boeing Co. five years ago came down to a two-horse race and finally a multibillion dollar loss for Everett on Friday in the sweepstakes to supply the Air Force with new jet refueling tankers. The Air Force's announcement that the $35 billion deal goes to Northrop-Grumman and Europe's Airbus parent, EADS, angered members of Washington's congressional delegation and raised the prospect of congressional hearings on the decision. "We are outraged that this decision taps European Airbus and its foreign workers to provide a tanker to our American military," six members...

Clinton and Republicans alike perceive the issue as the Democratic front-runner's biggest vulnerability. He appears eager to take up the fight. WASHINGTON -- As children sleep safely in their beds, a menace is set loose in the world -- and a phone rings in the White House. "Your vote will decide who answers the call," says a narrator, "whether it's someone . . . tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world." In her newest television ad, released Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton shows who should answer the 3 a.m. call: She is pictured picking up the phone, confident and...

Last year on Thursday, October 27, people took to the streets to protest at the deaths of two Muslim youths. Two days earlier, three youths in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois saw a group of police, and ran. The police, who were questioning a group of other youths who had broken into a building site, denied that they had given chase to the three Muslim youths. The three climbed an eight foot wall, to hide inside an electricity sub-station. They hid inside a turbine. As a result, all three became electrocuted. Two of the youths, 17-year old Ziad Benna...

France: Deadly Bombing in Paris Stratfor Though the situation in France is tense after weeks of large-scale strikes and riots in the Muslim suburbs surrounding Paris -- as well as recent problems ... http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=299540&selected=Analyses

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force on Friday announced one of the largest military acquisition programs in U.S. history, saying the service had chosen Northrop Grumman over Boeing to replace its aging air refueling tanker fleet. (SNIP) Boeing proposed a tanker based on its 767 commercial airliner, while Northrop -- working with Boeing arch-rival Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) -- offered a model based on the Airbus A330 airliner, which is larger than the 767. (SNIP) But one lawmaker called the decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman a blow to...

At an Air Force Association conference today in Washington, D.C., Boeing will make public for the first time a proposed U.S. Air Force refueling tanker based on its very large 777 commercial passenger jet — a potential alternative to a midsize 767 tanker. According to a draft request for proposal (RFP) the Air Force issued Monday, the government requires a tanker that can double as a troop carrier and supply plane. The proposed 777 tanker would have a much larger capacity for fuel, troops or cargo than either the currently offered 767 tanker or a rival offer based on the...

A Boeing 727 cargo plane which caused panic among US intelligence agencies after mysteriously disappearing from Angola's main airport turned up last week in Guinea, the Guardian can reveal. The plane, which was feared to be in the hands of international terrorists, was spotted on June 28 in Conakry, Guinea's capital, by Bob Strother, a Canadian pilot. It had been resprayed and given the Guinean registration 3XGOM. But at least the last two letters of its former tail-number, N844AA, were still showing. The plane, which was recently converted into a fuel tanker, was said to be owned by a member...