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A man thought to be Iranian has had both legs blown off after attempting to throw a bomb at police in the Thai capital, Bangkok, officials say. Two other explosions were reported in the same busy commercial district of the city, injuring four other people. Police said one blast took place at the house the injured man rented with other Iranians. One of those men also threw a bomb at a taxi in the capital. Last month, the US embassy warned of possible attacks in Bangkok.

An Iranian newspaper report claimed Monday that the bomb used to assassinate a nuclear scientist last month was "made in the USA." .....

“Grand Slam” R&D funding: MOP needs to go deeper; Program wins award. (Jan 27/12) During the Second World War, attacking heavily protected targets like U-boat pens and protected “V-weapon” facilities was a key challenge. Enter a brilliant British engineer named Barnes Wallis, fresh off the dam-busting “Upkeep” bouncing bomb. His next trick was a 12,000 pound weapon called the “Tallboy,” a streamlined, spin-stabilized bomb with a claimed terminal velocity of Mach 1 when dropped from 20,000 feet. That mass, carrying 5,200 pounds of Torpex D1 explosive, made a crater 80 feet deep x 100 feet across when it hit. By...

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned on Sunday that Iran could develop a nuclear bomb within a year and reiterated that the U.S. would do anything to stop it. In an interview on the CBS program "60 Minutes" Panetta said, “The United States, and the president’s made this clear, does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us. And it’s a red line obviously for the Israelis so we share a common goal here. If we have to do it, we will do it.” He added, “If they proceed and we get intelligence...

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a 25-year-old described as an Islamic extremist was arrested in a plot to attack sites around Tampa, Fla., after taking possession of disabled guns and bombs The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Sami Osmakac on Monday. Authorities say Osmakac is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the former Yugoslavia. He has been charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His first appearance in federal court is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

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Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that the United States can successfully attack Iran, if necessary. His biggest worry is that Iran will "miscalculate our resolve. Dempsey, speaking to CNN during a worldwide tour, spoke one day after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned that the American government will not allow Iran to produce a nuclear weapon. He said that if Iran continues to enrich high-grade uranium, it could produce a nuclear weapon within a year, an estimate formerly given by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "My biggest worry is they [Iran] will miscalculate...

Man who placed bomb on MLK Day parade route sentenced to 32 yearsDecember 20, 2011 | By Michael Martinez, CNN A 37-year-old white supremacist, Kevin William Harpham, was sentenced Tuesday to 32 years in prison for placing a bomb-laden backpack along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington, in January, the U.S. Justice Department said. Harpham, an unemployed electrician from Colville, Washington, pleaded guilty in September to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to commit a federal hate crime. Shrapnel in the "improvised explosive device" contained anticoagulant to...

Iran is a year or less from “N-Day,” but the United States will stop it – no matter what, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS Monday night. His comments were far stronger than those of President Barack Obama, who has said that Iran must not reach nuclear capability but has not categorically stated that his administration will prevent it. Concerning the “military option,” Panetta told interviewer Scott Pelley, “There are no options off the table.” Asked if the Ahmadinejad regime can produce a nuclear weapon by the end of 2012, Panetta answered, “It would probably be about a year before...

The New York Police Department is warning local banks to bolster mailroom security after a letter bomb was addressed to the CEO of Deutsche Bank in Germany.

Nearly half the residents of the German city of Koblenz are being forced to leave their homes this weekend after the discovery of a 2-ton, unexploded World War II bomb, marking the biggest bomb-related evacuation in Germany's post-war history. Some 45,000 residents of the Rhineland city—including those in a jail, two hospitals and several nursing homes and hotels—are under orders to evacuate by Sunday, when a bomb-disposal squad plans to defuse the 10-foot bomb dropped by British fliers, most likely in a 1944 bombing raid. Found lodged in the bed of the ebbing Rhine River earlier this week, the bomb...

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama is reassuring Jewish supporters that his administration is committed to the security of Israel. He says: “We don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.” Obama was speaking to a group of campaign contributors at the Upper East Side home of Jack Rosen, a prominent businessman and chairman of the American Jewish Congress. Obama commented after Rosen mentioned “concerns” within the Jewish community about the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The AP reports that President Obama tried to assuage Jewish supporters during a fundraising stop in New York hosted by a prominent Jewish donor, who had been billed among prospective fundraisers ahead of time as a chance for a "substantive and candid" discussion about concerns in the Jewish community. Chief among them has been Israel and lingering questions among some Jewish voters about the administration's commitment to Israel. Continue Reading When the fundraiser's host, American Jewish Congress chairman Jack Rosen, mentioned "concerns" about the ties between Israel and the U.S., Obama declared, "We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's...

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY (2nd update, 1:56 p.m.) -- A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and wounded 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday. The explosion, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday." SNIPPET: "Zamboanga city, a predominantly Christian trading hub 540 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, is located in a volatile region long troubled by a decades-long Muslim insurgency, extortion gangs and kidnap for ransom syndicates."

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will target NATO's missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel.

Why, despite the growing danger posed by Iran's nuclear program, have the United States and other nations restricted themselves to negotiations, economic sanctions and electronic intrusions? None of those tactics has been particularly effective or produced enduring changes. The main argument against military action is that it would set Iran's nuclear program back only a few years, and that Tehran would retaliate directly and via surrogates, drawing the U.S. into another unwinnable war. Many fear also that Iranians will rally behind their regime with nationalist fervor, dashing hope of regime change for decades and turning Iran's largely pro-Western population against...

US Government Urges American Citizens to Leave Syria as US Aircraft Carrier Approaches As the violent crackdown against Syrian dissidents continues, the US government is warning all American citizens in the country to leave immediately, according to CBS. Turkish citizens are also being warned to stay out of the country. The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was pulled from that country last month. The U.S. embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available,” began a statement released Wednesday on the embassy website. “The number of airlines serving Syria has decreased significantly...

North Korea threatens 'sea of fire' (UKPA) – 17 minutes ago North Korea is threatening to turn South Korea's presidential Blue House into a "sea of fire". North Korea's military made the threat one day after South Korean troops conducted military drills near the island where North Korean staged a deadly artillery attack a year ago.

<p>A popular Russian newscaster has reportedly caused a stir following a live newscast in which she apparently gave President Obama the middle finger.</p> <p>The Telegraph reports that online footage of the incident, which occurred earlier this month during an afternoon broadcast on the privately-held REN TV channel, is being "avidly viewed" in both Russia and the United States.</p>

WASHINGTON—Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called for replacing the leadership of Iran and said that could be accomplished within a year, adopting a more aggressive posture toward the U.S. adversary than advocated by the rest of the Republican field or by President Barack Obama. Mr. Gingrich's comments came at a televised candidates' debate Tuesday night at a moment when multiple polls showed him leading in the race for his party's nomination. The eight candidates offered sharp distinctions over a range of national-security issues, among them the proper speed of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and continued foreign aid to...

As noted before, there is a wealth of information at New York jihad bomb plotter Muhammad Yusuf's website, including several collections of ahadith about jihad. Here is one segment of that collection. Muhammad Yusuf says at his website that he collected these together himself, but actually they are just long passages from the canonical hadith collection of Bukhari, the collection Muslims consider most reliable. It is noteworthy that none of the Islamic spokesmen in the U.S. will make any effort to show that these hadiths are false, or that Muhammad Yusuf is misunderstanding them. Yet it is on the assumption...

While international sanctions continue to mount against Iran and its nuclear program, the Obama administration acknowledged Tuesday that the steps have done little to change Iran's behavior. National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon said at a conference at the Brookings Institution that Iran is paying a steep price for its intransigence. Growing international sanctions, diplomatic isolation and growing defense alliances in the region continue to ratchet up the pressure on Iran and have helped slow its nuclear efforts. But Donilon also admitted that "the Iranian regime has not fundamentally altered its behavior." This month, the International Atomic Energy Agency questioned whether...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

A Dominican with an anti-American grudge has been busted for building a bomb in his upper Manhattan apartment to blow up a police station, sources said Sunday night. -snip- The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

Pentagon officials are speaking publicly about the military's new 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator, or MOP, known now as the biggest "bunker-busting bomb" in the world. The Air Force has already received an undisclosed number of these bombs from Boeing, all designed to fit exclusively with the B-2 and B-52 bombers. "It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities... to a magnitude far greater than we have now," Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said at a briefing Wednesday.

TEHRAN: A massive explosion at a military arms depot near the Iranian capital Tehran killed 27 elite Revolutionary Guards on Saturday and wounded 16 others, state broadcaster IRIB said. Officials said it was an accident which happened as troops were moving ammunition at a base in Bidganeh, near the town of Shahriar, some 45 km (28 miles) west of Tehran. While there was no indication of any attack, the explosion shook homes and rattled windows for miles around at a time of mounting tensions with Israel over Iran's nuclear programme. "So far, 27 personnel of Revolutionary Guards have been martyred...

TEHRAN — An explosion at a Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons depot near the Iranian capital killed 17 soldiers Saturday, Iranian state TV reported a Guard spokesman as saying. Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif told the semi-official Fars news agency that an earlier announcement putting the death toll at 27 had been readjusted following the discovery of a “misprint.” Firemen from several cities rushed to the scene to control a raging fire ignited by the explosion, which was felt by many people in Tehran, 30 miles to the east. Witnesses reported a thick black column of smoke rising from the site. ......

At a meeting of the IAEA in Vienna, Israel and Iran lobbed accusations while the Obama White House allowed another nation closer to nuclear armament. "And the nations who have those weapons are becoming increasingly dangerous despite Obama’s campaign promises. Even more inexplicably, despite having the full support of the UN the Obama administration has repeatedly failed to deal with Iran in firm fashion diplomatically. "

"We should consider... doing  everything we can to bring it down." AP via TownHall: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. should consider even tougher penalties against Iran's government and "be doing everything we can to bring it down." Rice tells ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. should never take the option of military force off the table when it comes to dealing with Iran. She says the current Iranian government is trying to obtain a nuclear weapon and has repressed its own people. Rice says "the regime has absolutely no legitimacy left." Diplomats have told The Associated...

UPDATE 11/4/11 @ 1:45 p.m. RANSON, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities say they have found no sign of a reported explosion inside a small-town post office in West Virginia and no sign that white powder sprayed out. The scare prompted officials to quarantine 15 postal workers Friday, though none showed signs of illness. Click here to find out more! Ronald Fletcher, a firefighter with Citizens Fire Company, is the designated spokesman for the case at the U.S. Post Office in Ranson. Fletcher says workers reported a package had exploded in a storage locker about 7:45 a.m. But the package in question...

Prince George's County Police have arrested two juveniles for allegedly making a bomb threat at a Riverdale high school. Police said the threat was called in to Parkdale High School at 10:15 a.m. Thursday. When officers arrived to the school they were approached by two students who said an individual asked where he could find the school principal, and threatened to blow up Parkdale High School if they didn't tell him. Through the course of the investigation, the detectives were able to trace the initial phone call of the bomb threat to one of the students' cell phone, police said....

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns...

"The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal...

A bomb outside the Indian High Court in the capital Delhi has killed at least nine people and injured 45, Home Secretary RK Singh has said. Police said the bomb was apparently placed in a case outside the main gates leading to the reception at the court. The area was busy with lawyers and witnesses waiting for day passes. Police have now placed Delhi and the financial capital Mumbai on a state of high alert. In June, a bomb exploded in a car outside the same Delhi court complex. There were no casualties on that occasion. Crowded area The latest...

Jihadists are being encouraged to strike America in a sickening new way by bombing the funerals of U.S. service members killed in action. A recent post on the Ansar al-Mujahedeen web forum cites 2009's Fort Hood massacre as a truiumph. It urges readers to conceal suicide vests under fake military uniforms to get close to funeral VIPs like military brass and state governors. An unnamed author on the site writes: 'There is no doubt that targeting America in these times will have a significant impact in hastening its withdrawal from the countries it occupies, on top of which is Afghanistan.'

Brazil takes out clandestine airstrip with bombs By the CNN Wire Staff (CNN) -- The Brazilian Air Force on Friday dropped eight 500-pound bombs on a clandestine airstrip in the jungle near the Colombian and Venezuelan borders, part of wide military operation that goes beyond targeting drug traffickers. Video of the scene, released by the air force, showed craters on the destroyed airstrip, which they say was used to move drugs. The highly-publicized effort, dubbed Operation Agatha, is an effort against drug trafficking, illegal mining and logging, and trafficking of wild animals, the military said. "This operation is a first...

POLICE are on the brink of an arrest in the Madeleine Pulver bomb hoax case, confident they have identified a key "person of interest". Strike Force Haddon officers targeted the suspect within days of the attempted extortion at the Pulver family's Mosman home on August 3. While investigators have kept details of their inquiries under guard, The Sunday Telegraph understands that some fingerprint analysis from the scene has been completed and has since been returned to officers. The imminent breakthrough helps to explain Madeleine's relaxed and carefree day yesterday. She spent the day playing school hockey, before shopping with friends...

Oklahoma bomb teams removed what is believed to be an Improvised Explosive Device from a gas line in Okfuskee, a small town about 30 miles east of Oklahoma City, authorities said.

POLICE may have a new lead in the fake bomb case that terrified a teenager in Sydney's lower north shore. ..... Channel Nine reports that staff at Mosman's Buena Vista Hotel noticed a man dressed in dark clothing acting anxiously on Wednesday afternoon. When police cars sped past the hotel towards the Pulvers' home, the man reportedly became more stressed and ran out.

A White House terrorism strategy released today says Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aid in "advancing violent extremist narratives" and should be monitored by the government. The 12-page strategy (PDF), which outlines ways to respond to violent extremism, promises that: "We will continue to closely monitor the important role the Internet and social-networking sites play in advancing violent extremist narratives." President Obama said in a statement accompanying the report that the federal government will start "helping communities to better understand and protect themselves against violent extremist propaganda, especially online."

A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby. Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material. The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove. Only later did he realize...

Police are trying to defuse a bomb strapped around the neck of a terrified teenage girl at a multimillion pound mansion in Sydney, Australia. Cops raced to the Mosman home of the 18-year-old victim, who is part of one of Sydney's wealthiest families, after she raised the alarm. A senior police officer has described the device as a 'collar bomb' and it's believed a ransom note has been attached to the girl's neck.

Peshawar 30 July 2011, Bomb disposal unit has defused the remote control bomb in university town Peshawar. According to police officer Abid Khan of Police station PeshtaKhara, that unknown terrorist has fixed a remote control bomb in Dora Road, Sufaid Dheri University town Peshawar. The bomb which was local made and attached with mobile phone, near to school on road, local people called the police and inform about the bomb. Police called the bomb disposal unit and they defuse the bomb in 11 am. After the bomb defusing police start search operation in area.

A Department of Defense official tells CNN's Barbara Starr that a search of the hotel room found Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo had enough to make two bombs. The ingredients included gunpowder, shotgun shells, a pressure cooker, 18 pounds of sugar used to enhance the explosion and Christmas lights to be used as a timer. At the surplus store Abdo bought a uniform and asked to have Fort Hood patches sewn on.

Staffers at Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group run by conservative activist Grover Norquist, evacuated their building Monday morning after a bomb threat was called in, according to authorities. A spokesman for the Washington D.C. police department, Anthony Clay, confirmed to The Daily Caller that officers from the explosive ordnance division were called to the building that houses the organization’s D.C. offices shortly after 9 a.m. The employees have since been allowed to return to work, another officer told TheDC from the scene. No explosives were found, the officer said. Police had shut down 12th Street in Washington near...

Nuclear Iran? Not on Bibi's watch- Retired CIA officer Robert Baer -a man with extensive Middle East experience- made the claim yesterday on KPFK (LA) that Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister are "planning to bomb Iran this fall". Alas, Mr Baer is clearly dead-set against the kind of beating Iran will need to be dealt ("But yer honor... he needed killin'!") if these apocalyptic ogres in Tehran are ever to be contained... so take his pacifist-alarmist tone with a fistful of salt- same bit you get from Farrakhan, actually. Baer's angle appears to be "warning" us that Israel will be "dragging us" into another...

The democrat hid his identity behind balloons after planting the bomb. Democratic strategist and bomber– Milton H. “Skip” Ohlsen III. (P-D) Top local democrat Milton Ohlsen III was indicted today for planting a bomb in a parking garage that injured a local attorney. FOX 2 reported: A former Democratic political operative has been indicted by federal authorities for allegedly planting a bomb in a CLayton parking garage in 2008. The bomb went off, seriously injuring a Clayton attorney. Police believe he was not the bomber’s intended target. Milton Ohlsen iii nicknamed “Skip” is well known to law enforcement. He’s also...

The top U.S. military official says weapons flowing from Iran into Iraq are becoming more lethal and sophisticated, just as Washington and Baghdad are negotiating whether American troops will remain in the country beyond the years end.

China's debt bombBy Katie Benner June 28, 2011: 10:41 AM ET As the world watches the Greek credit crisis unfold, a Sino-debt disaster is brewing halfway around the world. Jim Chanos, the hedge fund manager who is famously shorting China, told Fortune late last year that the country was "embarking on something unprecedented." He was referring to the massive construction boom that has been underway for years, and that was supercharged by a 2008 stimulus package that pumped four trillion yuan ($586 billion) into the economy. In his opinion, the speculative bubble in real estate would end in a big...