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Tunisian authorities say a suspected religious extremist blew himself up while making a bomb in a home he was renting near the capital. … Separately, the interior ministry says an “extremist” was arrested on Friday after he blew off his hand while handling explosives in Menzel Bourguiba, 43 miles from Tunis. …

Police in the Netherlands are hoping to save money by training rats to sniff out things like drugs and gunshot residue. The animals are cheaper and faster than traditional lab work -- and they're very accurate. "Derrick" is unbeatable. He's right in 98.8 percent of all cases, the kind of accuracy only machines can achieve. But Derrick is no machine. He's part of an elite group of sewer rats currently being trained in Rotterdam to sniff out drugs, gunpowder or traces of other substances that cling to someone after they've committed a crime. The rats have an average success rate...

SNIPPET: "Egyptian security forces have reportedly arrested a number of jihadists operating in the Sinai Peninsula who are linked to Ramzi Mowafi, a former physician for Osama bin Laden. Sources have told Egyptian media outlets that Mowafi's group has been responsible for numerous attacks in the Sinai over the past two years. Among those recently arrested are a Yemeni and a Palestinian who were found in the possession of maps and laptops. In August 2011, Egyptian security officials told CNN that Mowafi, who is also thought to be an explosives expert, was spotted in the Sinai. At the time, Mowafi,...

Defenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.

U.S. officials charged an Uzbek citizen in Idaho with providing bomb-making knowledge and other support to an Islamist militant group, knowing that it would be used in an attack, authorities said on Thursday. Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, a national of Uzbekistan living legally in Idaho, was arrested in Boise and faces a three-count grand jury indictment in Idaho and a single-count indictment in Utah, prosecutors said. They said Kurbanov provided information and money to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The group supports establishing strict Islamic rule in Uzbekistan. Authorities said...

<p>The FBI has taken into custody a Minnesota man who was believed to be plotting a terrorist attack. Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo, was arrested Friday after authorities searched his home and found guns and explosive devices, according to an FBI news release.</p>

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the Carbon County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) are asking for help from the public in gathering information about the theft of approximately 559 pounds of high explosives from a USFS explosives bunker located near Red Lodge. A press release from the ATF says that in April 2013, someone used forced entry to get into an explosives storage facility owned and operated by the U. S. Forest Service. The storage facility is located approximately two miles south of the City of Red Lodge.

You’re gonna love this. It turns out that two products that most of us use multiple times a day can trigger a false positive result for explosives during a TSA screening. The culprits? Soap and lotion. Don’t believe me? A few days after the Boston bombings, Linda, an Oklahoma native, was flying out of Port Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Ohio when she was randomly chosen for a hand swab at a security checkpoint. The TSA agent swabbed her hand and promptly informed her that she had tested positive for explosives, specifically nitrates. The poor woman was naturally befuddled and...

A man accused of carrying out a deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon last week was in New Hampshire earlier this year to buy fireworks from a Seabrook store, according to the owner. Sales records show bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev purchased a reloadable mortar kit from Phantom Fireworks in Seabrook in early February. According to company president Bruce Zoldan, Tsarnaev purchased a “Lock and Load” kit containing 24 shells. The kit retails for $199.99. Tsarnaev took home two of the products, using a buy-one-get-one-free deal offered at the showroom in Seabrook, Zoldan said. The kits are designed to allow consumers...

Following the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday in which pressure cookers were used for the explosion, the cookware giant has decided to temporarily stop selling the items in their Massachusetts stores. Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with over 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing. "It's a temporary thing out of respect," said Kent, who is the Store Manager of the Williams-Sonoma at the Natick Mall. He referred Patch to corporate for further questions. Williams-Sonoma also has a local branch at Legacy Place in...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Two men told police they were experimenting with making explosives after watching a how-to on YouTube when their attempt exploded on a Bayonne fire escape yesterday afternoon, WPIX reported last night. Christopher Ziobro, 21, and Ghaias Mirza, 18, were being questioned in the 33rd Street incident in which no one was injured, the television report said. A man who lives in the apartment directly below told the station there were two loud blasts and milk containers were involved. WPIX Video at link

2 officers down, hand grenades and automatic gun fire 'many ambulances on route to watertown'? Anyone know what's going on? Cops retreating due to explosives on scene...

HANOVER, MA — Police and fire investigators are trying to determine who set off multiple homemade explosives near Route 53 in the last two weeks. Officials said the explosives have not caused any damage or injuries, but the State Police bomb squad had to be called in to detonate several unexploded devices found near Pine Street and Tower Hill Drive on March 12. Police had been sent to the area after witnesses at the Target store on the other side of Route 53 reported seeing a bright flash and hearing two explosions. Fire crews were also called to the nearby...

(CNN) -- The devices used in the Boston Marathon attack Monday are typical of the "lone wolf:" the solo terrorist who builds a bomb on his own by following a widely available formula. In this case, the formula seems very similar to one that al Qaeda has recommended to its supporters around the world as both crudely effective and difficult to trace. But it is also a recipe that has been adopted by extreme right-wing individuals in the United States. The threat of the "lone wolf" alarms the intelligence community.

News organizations are reporting that authorities in Boston believe at least one of the explosive devices in Boston was a pressure cooker. (Yes, like the closed pot you might use to cook rice at home.) As it happens, pressure cookers have a nefarious history in counterterrorism circles. In 2004, the Department of Homeland Security was concerned enough about pressure cooker bombs to issue an alert to federal and state security officials: “A technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps is the use/conversion of pressure cookers into IEDs,” the bulletin warned. That bulletin cited several plots from 2002 to 2004...

The explosives used at the Boston Marathon were pressure cooker bombs. These were not particularly well built bombs. These bombs were first used in Afghanistan. Happening Now reported:

Only two explosive devices were involved in an “act of cowardice” that left at least 176 people injured and three dead near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon yesterday, city officials said today. “Make no mistake, an act of cowardice and of this severity can not be justified or explained; it can only be answered,” Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said during a press conference at the Westin Copley Plaza Hotel today. “The loss we’ve suffered is enormous.” Authorities said the explosions were caused by two devices. No unexploded devices were found, Gov. Deval Patrick said. Other...

The ATF served a federal search warrant at the Georgia home of the popular Youtuber FPSRussia with the intention of finding explosives on Tuesday. Investigators suspect Kyle Myers, the host of the show, might be violating federal law with what he does, to the delight of many, with explosives on Youtube. Federal agents, accompanied by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and deputies with surrounding counties, searched Myers’ home along with his father’s 60-acre farm, where the show is filmed, in Carnesville. However, Kitty Wandel, the producer of the show, said that it was just her at the house at the...

FBI: Man Attempted To Bomb Bank, Trying To Set Off US Civil War By Pete Williams, NBC NewsFebruary 8, 2013 The FBI, ending a sting, says it has arrested a California man after he tried to set off what he thought was a car bomb at a bank in Oakland. Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, of San Jose, was arrested Friday morning, capping a months-long undercover investigation, the Justice Department said. Agents say he met last November with someone he thought was connected with the Taliban but who was actually an FBI agent. Prosecutors say Llaneza proposed car-bombing a bank in...