Undercover agents in a sting operation arrested a Somali-born teenager just as he tried blowing up a van full of what he believed were explosives at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony, federal authorities said.
The bomb was a fake supplied by the agents and the public was never in danger, they added.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5.40 p.m. local time last Friday just after he dialled a mobile phone that he thought would set off the blast but instead brought federal agents and police swooping down on him.
Yelling ‘Allahu Akbar!’ – Arabic for ‘God is great!’ – Mohamud tried to kick agents and police after he was taken into custody, according to prosecutors. (PA)
Lightning kills seven in South Africa
A lightning strike in a remote area of eastern South Africa has killed seven people attending an end-of-year meeting for nursery schools, a government official said yesterday.
Bonginkosi Meshack Radebe, the provincial welfare minister, said a four-year-old child was among those killed.
The others were adults and included a nursery school principal and teachers who had gathered from across the rural area for the meeting.
Mr Radebe said 40 others were injured. He is travelling to the scene, a community hall in an impoverished area of KwaZulu-Natal province.
He said his department will pay for funerals and provide other assistance. (PA)
Superjumbo back in the air
A Qantas superjumbo has taken off from Sydney en route to London on the first passenger flight for the airline’s A380s since a mid-air engine explosion earlier this month.
The Australian airline grounded its fleet of six superjumbos following the engine disintegration shortly after one took off from Singapore on November 4.
Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward said the flight left Sydney a few minutes late but with no problems. It was headed for Singapore, then London.
The November 4 incident was the most serious safety scare for the world’s newest and largest jetliner and prompted modifications to the Rolls-Royce engine used on 20 A380s by three airlines. (PA)
Black Friday feeling
Millions of US shoppers braved the rain and cold to crowd stores while others grabbed online bargains on Thanksgiving’s Black Friday.
Early signs pointed to bigger crowds at many stores including Best Buy, Sears, Macy’s and Toys R Us. The buying frenzy was focused on TV and toy deals, but to the retailers’ delight, many also bought gifts such as clothing and jewellery.
Black Friday, usually one of the busiest US shopping days of the year, is a day in which stores have enough sales to put them “in the black”. (PA)
Election rally shooting
Taiwanese voters flocked to the polls for local elections, hours after a gunman opened fire on a campaign rally in a Taipei suburb, killing one man and badly wounding the son of a former vice-president.
Police said a suspect who may belong to a criminal gang was in custody.
Lien Sheng-wen, son of former vice-president Lien Chan, and another man, who later died, were shot when the attacker rushed the stage at a primary school in Yung Ho, on the outskirts of the capital. A city council candidate was apparently the intended target. (PA)
Suicide bombers kill 12 at police station
Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms blew themselves up at an Afghan police headquarters yesterday, killing at least 12 officers in a deadly border region that has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world.
In a statement e-mailed to the media, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in the eastern Paktika province.
The attackers made it through three security gates before reaching the main building on the police compound, said Nawab Waziry, the provincial council head.
One attacker detonated his explosives inside the police headquarters building, while the other blew himself up near the entrance about 20 minutes later, Mr Waziry said.
“The site was covered with blood,” Mr Waziry said. (PA)
Marines’ gay objection
Opposition to lifting ban on openly gay troops is strongest among US Marines, it is reported.
Most of those in America’s armed forces have no strong objections to repealing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law, says a Pentagon survey of 400,000 active duty and reservists to be released on Tuesday.
But the Washington Post said the survey found resistance strongest among marines – an attitude apparently shared by their leader, Commandant General James Amos, who has said that the government should not lift the ban in wartime. (PA)