[angkor]

Once again we have the (Reuters, AP, AFP) "threat to expat" filler story, which as per normal quotes precisely one expat who says "Nobody is panicking" buried within reams of scary filler material.

I know that "foreign correspondents" need to meet weekly line quotas and to justify their existence overseas, but can't we get some variation on this theme once in a while?

It is a pain in the neck for overseas workers to repeatedly have to debunk these hysterical and inaccurate stories to their friends and families.

-- signed angkor,
former & future expat

[livius]

Spanish police on Wednesday arrested two suspected Basque separatists accused of planting a 55-pound bomb on a busy train.

Actually, the bomb was already on the train, which was headed from Irun (Pais Vasco) to Madrid. They stopped the train in Burgos and deactivated the bomb, as well as arresting the person carrying it. It was 55 kilos, btw, which translates to over 100 pounds.

Charmartin is like Penn Station - all sorts of railway and bus lines converge there, not to mention the Metro. It would have been horrible carnage.

I was there last week, and there were rumors that ETA was planning a sort of "holiday special." Glad they got them!