Police search for explosive fertilizer

PARIS - French police were scrambling Tuesday to locate 1,100 pounds of fertilizer that could be used to make a powerful bomb, after the material was discovered missing on Monday in northern France.

The fertilizer, ammonium nitrate, is believed to have been stolen over the Easter weekend from the port of Honfleur near the mouth of the Seine River, according to officials quoted by local news media.

Ammonium nitrate is highly explosive when mixed with diesel or fuel oil, and has been used for some of the most destructive terrorist bombs in recent history, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and bombings that killed 62 people in Turkey last year.

NATO TERROR SIMULATION: European officials conducted a simulation showing how al-Qaida could kill 40,000 people and plunge the continent into chaos if a crude nuclear device were detonated outside NATO headquarters in Brussels. The closed-door war games Monday were attended by more than 50 people from 15 countries.

SAUDI ATTACK SUSPECT: Saudi Arabia blamed Mustafa Abdel-Qader Abed al-Ansari, a wanted man with links to a London-based opposition group, for the attack Saturday on offices of oil contractor ABB Lummus Global Inc., saying Tuesday he had slipped back into the kingdom to lead his brother and two cousins on a rampage that killed six.

NATO BOMB PLOT SUSPECTS: Turkey's interior minister said Tuesday that authorities have detained all of the suspects in an alleged plot to bomb a June NATO summit to be attended by President Bush and other leaders.

Sudan was elected to another three-year term on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, but the U.S. delegation, citing allegations of ethnic cleansing in Sudan's western Darfur region, walked out of the meeting before the vote. The deputy representative of Sudan, Omar Bashir Manis, accused the United States of "shedding crocodile tears," and said American forces had committed atrocities against prisoners and civilians in Iraq. Sudan ran uncontested, as one of four nations chosen by the African Regional Group to fill four allotted vacancies on the commission.

NIGERIAN RELIGIOUS ATTACK: Fighters of a predominantly Christian tribe attacked a town dominated by a rival Muslim ethnic group, razing homes and mosques and killing at least 80 people, Nigerian police said Tuesday. The death toll was likely to rise as police and family members collected bodies, a police commander said. Nigeria's ThisDay newspaper put the death toll at 100 or more, with three mosques and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.

COLOMBIAN REBEL SENTENCED: The most senior Colombian rebel leader ever captured in Colombia was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison for aggravated kidnapping and rebellion, a justice official said. Ricardo Palmera was a top member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when he was captured in Quito, Ecuador in January.

IMF LEADER: Former Spanish Finance Minister Rodrigo Rato was selected Tuesday as the new managing director of the 184-nation International Monetary Fund. The selection was made in a vote by the agency's 24-member executive board. Rato will succeed Horst Kohler, who resigned March 4 to run for the presidency of Germany.

CHINA DROPS BAN ON CATHOLIC LEADER: The head of Hong Kong's Catholic church said Tuesday that he visited China last week at the invitation of mainland officials, marking the end of a six-year ban on one of Beijing's most outspoken critics. Bishop Joseph Zen, who was barred from the mainland in 1998, met with government officials and Shanghai Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian during a three-day trip that ended Friday, he said.

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright