Search Results 11/05/05:
SCHOOL + THREAT:
Temecula, CA:
Bomb threat locks down school Valley News - 11/05/05
[This is the full 1 paragraph article - LR]Temecula Valley High School was briefly put on lockdown due to a bomb threat. Officers with the Hazardous Devices Team check out the object found on Margarita Road Wednesday afternoon. The team used a robot to safely clear the device; about 2:30 p.m., it was pronounced “disrupted and rendered safe” by Hazardous Device Team member Earl M. Quintana. Upon further investiagion[sic], the object was found to be a hydraulic accumulator.
Kenmore, WA:
Threat locks down Inglemoor High School Seattle Times - 11/05/05
Inglemoor High School in Kenmore was under a modified lockdown Friday after school officials learned of a vague threat indicating there would be a shooting at the school.
(...)They first learned of the threat about 6 p.m. Thursday, said Susan Stoltzfus, director of communications for the Northshore School District. The school, which has about 1,900 students, was searched, but nothing was found.
(...)The threat appeared on an Internet site often used by students and was "very nonspecific," said Stoltzfus, but it indicated there would be a shooting at the school the next day, an apparent reference to Friday.
Officials learned of the threat in a roundabout way, Stoltzfus said, with one student posting a report of the threat and then talking to a friend who was a neighbor of an assistant principal.
Grove City, PA:
Grove City High School Receives Fifth Bomb Threat WXPI & Pittsburgh.com - 11/04/05
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- In just a month, five bomb scares have had students at Grove City High School missing out on class time.
On Thursday, another threat was found written on a school wall.
(...)Bomb threats were discovered Oct. 6, 11, and 24 on restroom walls.
Grove City said police are investigating, but no one has been arrested.
Williamstown, KY:
Bomb threat - Purses, backpacks checked at GCHS Grant County News - 11/05/05
[It's good to see the FBI offering these schools assistance, IMHO. - LR]A task force associated with the Federal Bureau of Investigations visited Grant County High School on Tuesday, Nov. 1 and planned a meeting with school personnel on Nov. 2 after a bomb threat was discovered in a bathroom.
A student found the message, which said a bomb would go off on Nov. 1, written on the wall on Oct. 31.
(...)A bomb-sniffing dog from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport searched the school on Monday afternoon.
Howe said nothing was discovered.
Students entering Grant County High School on Tuesday, Nov. 1, had their purses and backpacks searched by school administrators.
Police officers from the Grant County Sheriff's Office and the Kentucky State Police assisted with the search.
(...)The FBI, according to Grant County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Chuck Dills, contacted the sheriff's department on Tuesday and offered assistance.
"They (the FBI) contacted us that they had received information about a bomb threat and they told us they were available if we needed them," he said. "We've accepted their offer to ensure the safety of students at the high school."
Howe confirmed that some FBI personnel offered services to the school district.
"At this point, they've offered their services simply because this was a threat on the general school population," she said. "They may assist with the interviewing process, along with school personnel."
Moses Lake, WA:
Sheriff's Office responds to bomb threat Columbia Basin Herald - 11/04/05
No bomb found, Head Start program canceled ThursdayMOSES LAKE --The Grant County Sheriff's Office and Grant County Fire District No. 5 responded to a bomb threat Thursday morning at the Head Start program on East Craig Street in Moses Lake.
A 911 call was made early Thursday morning before the Head Start program began after a teacher in the building received a phone call from what sounded like a male caller.
The caller advised the teacher of a bomb he said was to be inside her classroom.
(...)The statement also reported that an explosive detecting dog from the Grand Coulee Police Department arrived on scene an hour after law enforcement responded to the incident.
The dog found no sign of an explosives device and the school was cleared and staff allowed access back into the building.
Denise Schmidt, home based services coordinator with Family Services of Grant County, who is also housed in the same building as Head Start, said it is still unknown as to who made the call.
Palatka, FL:
PHS gets bomb threat: Search on for suspect Palatka Daily News - 11/05/05
PALATKA — An unidentified phone call of a bomb threat at Palatka High School on Thursday morning has fueled a search for a suspect by the Palatka Police Department and school officials.
Friday morning, after an announcement over the public address system at the school of a cash reward for information, Palatka Assistant Principal Rick Surrency received a phone call from a possible information source. Surrency said past history forces the school and law enforcement to take each threat very seriously
(...)Palatka Assistant Chief of Police James Griffith said the cost of responding to such a threat is also why the penalty is very high if prosecuted and convicted. “Most times it is a third-degree felony,” Griffith said. “If convicted, that carries at least a five-year prison term. It is serious stuff.”.
Richmond, VA:
Binford Middle School evacuated due to 'suspicious package' NBC Ch.12 - 11/04/05
Students at Binford Middle School were cleared out of class Friday afternoon when a suspicious package was spotted across the street from their school.
Richmond Police actually shut down the entire 17-block of Floyd Avenue while the bomb squad inspected the suitcase. When they opened it up, all they found were clothes.
BOMB SEARCH RESULTS:
Scottsboro, AL
Police find pipe bomb during drug raid WAFF48News - 11/04/05
(...)Components of a homemade pipe bomb were discovered Wednesday night while police were conducting "Operation Meltdown".
"I've seen them before and this is one of the most well-made ones," says Major Ralph Dawe with the Scottsboro Police Department.
While serving 52 warrants, all related to the possession of a controlled substance, Scottsboro Police stumbled onto a rare but serious situation.
(...)Federal authorities are examining the apparent pipe bomb and are trying to determine why he had the materials to build such a device.
(...)The man's name is being withheld pending an investigation by the US Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and Scottsboro Police.
Marshalltown, IA
Bomb threat turns out to be false alarm Times Republican - Date Unknown
A bomb threat was reported at the Iowa Veterans Home Friday afternoon, less than two hours before Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was to appear at a grand opening for a new medical clinic.
Local law enforcement said, however, the bomb threat and Grassley's visit did not appear to be related.
"It appears to be totally coincidental," said Marshalltown Police Chief Lon Walker
(...)The caller told a switchboard operator at the Iowa Veterans Home (IVH) that a bomb would go off in the cemetery at 12:52 p.m. That area was not part of IVH where senator was scheduled to be.
(...)Dustin Vande Hoef, a staffer in Grassley's office, said the threat did not cause enough alarm to consider changing the senator's schedule, as far as he knew. The senator made his visit as planned.
Walker said the investigation into the matter is closed, unless new leads arise.
Dublin, Ireland
Northern Irish meeting abandoned after bomb scare Reuters UK - 11/05/05
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Down Royal race course in Northern Ireland was evacuated and racing abandoned on Saturday following a bomb threat, police said.
"Police have evacuated Down Royal race course ... following a telephoned bomb warning," a spokeswoman said. "We have no further details at this time."
Belgium:
Scouts cause Leuven bomb scare[From News Briefs Section - LR] Expatica - 11/04/05
The suspicious package found on Thursday at the Leuven train station was part of scouting game. Scout leaders have contacted police will pay all costs. The station was evacuated for just under an hour after the package was found near the signal house. A worker with rail operator NMBS-SNCB found the package and alerted police. Train traffic was halted as the bomb disposal squad destroyed the package.
Davenport, IA:
Man charged in phony bomb case WQAD-TV Ch. 8 - 11/05/05
DAVENPORT, Iowa A man is accused of placing fake bombs on railroad tracks in downtown Davenport.
Hunter Sims Junior is charged with felony counts of false reports. This week, authorities discovered two suspicious devices he allegedly placed on tracks.
Thailand:
Insurgents Continue Mayhem The Nation - 11/05/05
Fresh violence in the South broke out yesterday as insurgents planted bombs, stole state-issued guns and shot volunteers.
In Pattani’s Yarang district a 15-kilogram bomb was primed to blow up the house of an assistant village headman, but heavy rains prevented the device from going off.
(...)They defused the bomb and discovered it contained 15kg of fertiliser mixed with two-centimetre metal pieces, electrical wires, nine-volt batteries and a mobile phone.
Investigating officers believe the bomb was planted at the house on Thursday night in the hope of drawing bomb squads before it blew up.
In the province’s Thung Yang Daeng district, 10 insurgents riding six motorcycles raided five village defence volunteers’ homes and made made off with five shotguns after threatening their wives and children to make them hand over the guns.
The five village defence volunteers were attending prayers at a local mosque when the raiders drove up.
(...)In Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat, a volunteer ranger was critically wounded by two gunmen yesterday afternoon . (...)Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will meet Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon at a Bangkok hotel today to discuss the violence in the deep South during a brief stopover on his official visit to Japan, the United States and France.
Saleh chaired the June 30 meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), with which Thailand recently engaged in a war of words over a statement by its secretary-general, Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, about the ongoing violence in the predominantly Muslim region and the flight of 131 Thai Muslims to Malaysia.
SUSPICIOUS POWDER:
Sarasota Springs, NY
Part of Wilton Mall evacuated Ch. 9 Capital News - 11/04/05
[No report on what the powder was although it appeared to be deteriorating cloth. -LR](...)Three stores in the mall were closed down and evacuated after a suspicious white powder was found on some clothing. Emergency and HAZMAT crews sealed off the stores and took the substance and the clothing with the powder and sent it to Albany to be tested.
Assistant Fire Chief of the Maple Avenue Fire Department, John King said, "One of the customers picked up clothes and it fell off the clothes and it was deteriorating some of the clothes."
(ANOTHER REPORT...)
Mall stores evacuated after suspicious substance found Newsday - 11/05/05
(...)A customer was trying on a shirt at the Wilton Mall in Saratoga Springs when she found white powder on it. The substance was deteriorating the clothes and the woman's mouth and eyes became irritated, police said.
(...)Emergency and hazardous material crews evacuated the store, Rue 21, and two other stores.(...)
(...)Police have not determined the substance. An investigation is ongoing.
SUSPICIOUS DEVICE/PACKAGE:
Universal City, CA:
Suspicious Subway Package Leaves Thousands Stranded LA Times - 11/04/05
[The whole article talks about the stranded commuters - nothing about the package reported. - LR]A suspicious package at a subway stop in Universal City on Thursday temporarily stranded as many as 20,000 evening rush-hour passengers, many of them headed for the newly opened Orange Line bus service into the San Fernando Valley.
SUSPICIOUS FIRES:
Beckham Co., OK:
Blaze blackens Beckham County The Oklahoman - 11/04/05
[Video Report available - LR]A Beckham County wildfire scorched miles of prairie and farmland and threatened homes Thursday afternoon, as another fire burned areas of Rogers County.
The Beckham County fire broke out about 1:30 p.m. Thursday about four miles west of Erick, Sheriff Scott Jay said. Flames left a swath of destruction seven miles long and two miles wide, destroying one home and several barns and abandoned farm houses, Jay said.
(...)The fire is considered suspicious because there were multiple starting points. Wylie said it’s possible it started from a motorist throwing flammable materials out a window.
Anyone with information can call the Northwest Rogers County Fire Protection District at (918) 443-2471.
Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Mob attacks rescue workers at fire scene Edinburgh News - 11/04/05
POLICE and fire crews were pelted with bricks and fireworks during a mob attack in Londonderry.
Up to 50 youths turned on the authorities as they dealt with a car set alight in the city's Shantallow district.
Officers moved in last night after being alerted to a suspicious vehicle being driven in the area. They stopped the car only for it to be set on fire by a crowd at Ardnamoyle Park.
Tallahassee, FL
Fire razes Hindu temple in US PlanetGuru - 11/05/05
New York, Nov 5 (IANS) A Hindu temple in Florida in the US was destroyed in a devastating fire amid weeklong celebrations of the Diwali festival.
The Gujarati Samaj temple on Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee was razed early Thursday. It was the only place of worship in Leon County for about 110 families from India.
(...)"It looked like a burning box," Teague said. "It was so intense that much of the evidence must have been destroyed. We are all devastated here at not being able to save a house of worship."
Khartoum, Sudan
Lutheran Church torched in Khartoum suburb Sudan Tribune - 11/03/05
Nov 1, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Two weeks after a Lutheran church was torched by unknown arsonists in a Khartoum suburb, Sudan’s newly installed “government of national unity” still has not responded to church leaders requesting an investigation into the attack.
Most of the simple church structure - a traditional construction of bamboo reeds, wooden poles and mud with a straw roof - was “completely burned” shortly after midday on October 18, the Rev. Yousif El-Denger Z. Kodi told Compass by telephone from Khartoum.
(...)Since the fire had been started in broad daylight, Lutheran church leaders inquired around the neighborhood whether any suspicious persons had been seen near the church site before it was set on fire.
“But when we asked people, they were too afraid to say anything,” Rev. Kodi said.
(...)The cleric said the only political official to visit the burned church so far had been Philip Magowck, general secretary of the SPLM for the Omdurman region. Rev. Kodi has received no comment since the visit from the SPLM representative.
Nor has there been any communication from the Khartoum governor, Dr. Abdelhalim Motahfi, the official responsible for security and police investigations in the capital.
The landmark peace agreement signed between the government of Sudan and the SPLM in January declares freedom of religion a basic right, guaranteeing “to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground,” including religion.
Religious tensions fueled by the imposition of Muslim law over the overwhelmingly Christian south by Sudan’s Islamic government in the north had played a key role in the last 21 years of civil war, which claimed at least 2 million lives and displaced another 4 million people.
EXPLOSION/EXPLOSIVE:
Grozny, Chechnya
Serviceman injured in mine explosion in Chechnya ITAR-TASS - 11/05/05
GROZNY, November 5 (Itar-Tass) - A mine explosion injured a serviceman of the Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya's Itum Kale district.
It occurred during a search and reconnaissance operation near the highland village of Bugaroi on Friday, a Chechen police officer told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
Bilbao, Spain:
ETA suspected of latest bomb explosion TVNZ.com - 11/04/05
[Appears that two bombs exploded - one on Thurs. and one early Fri. morning - LR]A bomb exploded early on Friday next to the headquarters of Spain's ruling Socialist Party in Bilbao in the Basque Country, police said.
"There was a small explosion at 1:10 in the morning (1:10 pm NZ time)," a Basque police spokesman said.
The device, which police said might have been made from a canister of camping gas or a bottle of inflammable liquid, caused no injuries and damaged only the building's window blinds, he added.
(...)Police suspect ETA was behind a bomb that exploded early on Thursday in the Basque seaside town of Zarautz, causing slight damage but no injuries.
ETA, classed as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the European Union and the United States, has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in its campaign for an independent Basque state carved out of northern Spain and south-western France.
Mosaki, North Waziristan, Pakistan:
Eight killed in Pakistan blast Times of India - 11/05/05
PESHAWAR: Suspected militants set off a blast while making bombs at their compound in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday killing at least eight people, including a woman and three children, army officials said.
The explosion occurred in the tribal village of Mosaki, about 20 km east of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said.
Several male foreigners were among those killed, but Sultan said he did not have their identities or nationalities, and it was not immediately clear if top Taliban or al-Qaida suspects were among them.
The suspects set off the blast while making detonators for improvised bombs at their mud-walled compound, Sultan said.(...)
AL QAEDA/AL QAIDA:
Al Qaeda in Iraq warns foreign diplomats to leave Boston.com - 11/05/05 - EXCERPT:
BAGHDAD -- The country's most feared terrorist group warned foreign diplomats yesterday to flee Iraq after announcing it will kill two kidnapped Moroccan Embassy employees. Insurgents killed 11 Iraqi security troops and an American soldier in separate attacks.
The warning came in a statement posted on an Islamist website in the name of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which also claimed responsibility for the July kidnap-slaying of two envoys from Algeria and one from Egypt, as well as the abduction and beheading of many foreign hostages.
On Thursday, another Internet statement attributed to the group said the two Moroccans had been condemned to death. There was no indication yesterday that they had been killed.
Rabat, Morocco
Al Qaeda hostages to be martyrs if killed - Morocco's scholars Reuters South Africa - 11/05/05
RABAT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda members in Iraq will suffer the "horrors of hell" if they kill two Moroccan hostages and the victims will die as martyrs, Morocco's influential Islamic scholars organisation said on Saturday.
On Thursday, al Qaeda said it had put the two Moroccan embassy employees on trial and sentenced them to death because of Morocco's support for the U.S.-backed Baghdad government. The two men were seized late last month.
"The two Moroccans would be considered martyrs if this iniquitous verdict were to be carried out as they were carrying out a duty assigned to them by their nation and legitimate state," said the powerful Islamic body which groups thousands of mosque preachers and Islamic scholars and thinkers.
The umbrella organisation, known as the High Council of the Ulema (Islamic scholars) and the Councils of Ulema in the Moroccan Kingdom, called the Iraqi al Qaeda hostage-takers "aggressor apostates".
"Killing the two Moroccan nationals would be considered as the assassination of all Moroccans," it said in a statement, basing its argument on the Koran.
It added that the al Qaeda members who are holding the two men captives "will suffer opprobrium on the land and the horrors of hell in heaven".
COLLEGE CAMPUS RELATED:
Eastern New Mexico UniversityENMU science building evacuated due to bomb scarePORTALES — An Eastern New Mexico University chemistry student was arrested by Portales police at his home Wednesday night, hours after officials evacuated an ENMU science building following a bomb scare.
No injuries were reported, but law enforcement officials said explosive chemicals were removed from the building.
Joshua Gilpin, 28, an ENMU graduate student, is charged with possessing an explosive incendiary device, tampering with evidence and larceny, officials said.
He was in the Roosevelt County Detention Center on Wednesday night. Bond was set at $25,000 cash only. (...)University officials said a professor spotted four suspicious packages in Roosevelt Hall and notified police about 9 a.m. Wednesday.
(...)Ordnance disposal experts from Cannon Air Force Base were called to the scene and recovered the packages. The Cannon team x-rayed and opened the cans, according to court records.
An agent from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives confirmed that three chemicals found would make an explosive device: sulfur, potassium nitrate and red phosphorus, court records show.
PARIS RIOTS:
Paris Riots Spread To More French Cities KOCO Ch.5 - 11/05/05
AUBERVILLIERS, France -- Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, as youths torched an ambulance and stoned medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 200 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest.
Bands of youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and more than 750 cars overnight as the violence that spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport through the affected areas.
(...)Fires and other incidents were reported in the northern city of Lille, in Toulouse, in the southwest, Rouen, in the west and elsewhere on the second night of unrest in areas beyond metropolitan Paris. An incendiary device was tossed at the wall of a synagogue in Pierrefitte, northwest of Paris, where electricity went out after a burning car damaged an electrical pole.
(...)The Interior Ministry operations center reported 754 vehicles burned throughout France from Friday night to Saturday morning - three-quarters of them in the Paris area.
Arrests were also up sharply, with 203 people detained overnight, the center said. By comparison, Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that police had made 143 arrests during the whole first week of unrest.
(...)The persistence of the violence prompted the American and Russian governments to advise citizens visiting Paris to avoid the suburbs, where authorities were struggling to gain control of the worst rioting in at least a decade.
EXTRA LINKS:
Amber Alert Issued In Cleveland County KOCO Channel 5 - 11/04/05
An Amber Alert has been issued in Cleveland County for a toddler reportedly taken by her mother Friday morning.
Authorities said November Loper, who is almost 3 years old, lives in the custody of her grandmother. Police said the girl's mother, Misty Loper, took the girl from the grandmother's home on Spring Creek Drive and was taken away by two men in a white pickup truck with Oklahoma license plate number 678-PUA.
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