Free Republic

Evidence has reached debkafile's counter-terror sources that the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed after takeoff from Beirut on January 25, killing all 92 aboard, was blown up in mid-air. This was an al-Qaeda operation timed for one month to the day after its failed attempt to destroy an American Northwest airliner bound for Detroit. It is becoming clear that either a bomb was planted on the Ethiopian flight with a timer or a passenger acted as suicide bomber. Western security agencies in the Middle East involved in combating al Qaeda believe that its planners picked on the Ethiopian flight...

Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction, saying they couldn't rule out negligence. "If everything went right, we wouldn't all be here right now," Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said. "There's a point where negligence raises to the level of criminal conduct, and that's what we're investigating."

MIDDLETOWN - The five people who died in the Kleen Energy plant explosion on Sunday included three Connecticut residents, as well as one man from Missouri and one from Canada. Peter Chetulis of Thomaston; Chris Walters of Florissant, Missouri, and Roy Rushton of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, were killed in the blast, according to a release from the Middletown Police Department. Colchester resident Ronald Crabb, 42, and Old Saybrook resident Raymond E. Dobratz, 58, were also killed. Crabb and Dobratz worked as pipefitters. It was unclear what jobs the other men held. The cause of death was undetermined, the release states....

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) _ A section of an under-construction power plant that exploded was too unstable to search Monday, and left questions about whether anyone was trapped inside because authorities do not have an exact roster of everyone who was on duty at the time of the blast.

Several people were killed and at least 14 injured Sunday in a powerful explosion at a natural gas plant under construction in Middletown, Conn., officials said. Betsy Hard, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said there were multiple deaths but she didn't know how many. Middletown deputy fire marshal Al Santostefano said 50 construction workers were in the section of the power plant where the explosion happened at 11:17 a.m. He said he didn't know what caused the blast. Dogs were searching for victims in the rubble, but there were no signs of life...

An explosion in Middletown, Connecticut has rocked the town. Initial reports are that about a dozen people have been injured. Middletown, United States - The Middletown Fire Department just said in a phone interview that they are in the process of putting out a second alarm. There are an unknown number of casualities. The explosion took place at NRG Power Plant on River Road. According to their web site they are the fossil-fueled electric generating plant in the state. Reports are saying that the blast could be felt as far away as Durham.

(Feb. 7) -- Authorities said a power plant explosion has killed at least two people and injured 100 in the Hartford, Conn., suburb of Middletown Sunday. "We had an explosion at our new Kleen power plant," said Middletown Police Officer Kevin White. He told AOL News there are "mass casualties." White confirmed at least two people were dead. According to local CBS affiliate, WFSB-TV, 250 are injured. There are reports of people trapped under collapsed parts of the plant.

Daily Mail: The four-minute film, shot by optometrist Jack Moss, brings an entirely new perspective to the terrible event which killed a team of seven, including science teacher Christa McAuliffe, who had been chosen by NASA to become the first civilian in space. Video at source.

Investigators said they were told by witnesses that the 62-year-old man had been drinking when he fashioned a device using a motorcycle muffler, a piece of pipe, gunpowder, match heads and gasoline.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new theory suggests the Moon was formed after a natural nuclear explosion in the Earth's mantle rather than after the impact of a massive object with the Earth, as previously thought. The problem with the impact hypothesis is that simulations calculate the Moon should be composed of 80% impactor and 20% Earth, whereas in fact the isotope ratios of light and heavy elements found in Moon rocks so far examined are virtually identical to those on Earth. The fission hypothesis is an alternative explanation for the formation of the moon, and it predicts similar isotope ratios in...

An explosion has ripped through a military base in Iran's southern province of Hormozagan, damaging properties and leaving three people injured. The incident took place at around 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (0530 GMT) as an explosive charge went off in Naiband district of Bandar Abbas — Hormozagan Province's capital. "Garbage collected at the base was set on fire, which caused the explosive charge to go off," Police and Security Chief of Hormozgan province Mohammad Hassan Poravar was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency. "Three people were wounded in the explosion. They have been taken to hospital for...

The Islamist Hamas rulers of the territory said the three were targeted by an Israeli tank that fired a shell toward them as they were moving in a field that militants use to launch rockets into Israel. An Israeli army spokesman had no immediate comment.

Astronomers have uncovered evidence that a massive, explosive white dwarf star in a binary star system with a Sun-like star in our Milky Way Galaxy is growing in mass and is much closer to our solar system than previously thought. The report is being presented by Drs. Edward M. Sion, Patrick Godon and student Timothy McClain of Villanova University at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, DC. This result is of special interest because it may shed light on the still unidentified type of stellar objects that explode as Type Ia supernovae, the kind of supernova...

URGENT -- HUGE BLAST ROCKS KABUL, AFGHANISTAN. MORE TO COME

We have a building on fire that dries milk and makes cheese. There was a propane explosion earier, and the building is on fire, but an outside propane tank is in danger, they just filled it yesterday with 30,000 gallons, if that thing goes off it will be like a bomb! They are evacuating a square mile, every person, every business, nursing homes, schools. But this is a small town, if it goes, the whole town will shake!

Something big just blew up in baytown texas

PASADENA, Texas -- A huge explosion rocked a plant in Pasadena Wednesday. It happened before 9 a.m. at American Acryl, located in the 12100 block of Port Road at Highway 146. A thick, black cloud of smoke was visible for miles over the area, and reports from the scene indicated the plant was still burning at 9:20 a.m. A shelter-in-place was issued for Seabrook via an automated message from city officials.

An explosion has torn through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm, killing at least 90 people. Another 60 people were injured in the blast, the city's emergency services told the BBC. About 200 people are said to have been in the club, named as the Lame Horse, when the blast occurred at 2315 local time (2015 GMT). Police say they are investigating whether the accident was caused by fireworks. A spokesman for the prosecutor-general's main investigative unit told Itar-Tass news agency this was not a terrorist attack. "We are talking about a failure to observe fire regulations," he...

More than 100 federal agents entered the smoldering Caribbean Petroleum Corporation fuel depot on Sunday as the investigation began in earnest into the cause of an explosion that rocked the San Juan metro area early Friday morning and sparked a massive fire that burned for more than two days. The blast registered 2.8 on the Richter scale and the ensuing blaze sent up an enormous tower of toxic smoke that forced the evacuation of some 1,500 residents from communities surrounding the Bayamón facility. Marcial Orlando Félix, the head of the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Bureau in Puerto Rico...

While government officials withheld speculation on the cause of the blast as fire brigades continued to battle the ensuing fire, union leaders called Friday evening for officials from the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. to explain what caused the powerful explosion and massive fire at the company’s fuel facility near San Juan Bay. Ricardo Santos, an official at UTIER, the largest electrical utility union in Puerto Rico, said information had begun to circulate that work had been done at the facility to try to stop a leak on Thursday afternoon. The blast, which rocked the San Juan metro area, occurred at around...