North Korea faces anger over sinking of South's warship

North Korea is facing international condemnation after investigators blamed it for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. 

Pyongyang rejected the claim as a "fabrication" and threatened war if sanctions were imposed.
The international report found a North Korean submarine's torpedo sank the South Korean navy ship, causing the deaths of 46 sailors.


China urged restraint and did not criticise the North.

The US administration described the sinking as an "act of aggression" that challenged peace.
Britain, Australia and Japan also expressed anger at North Korea. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged to take "stern action".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the report was "deeply troubling".
Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said North Korea's actions would deepen the international community's mistrust.
'UN resolution'
 
The investigation team, which included experts from America, Australia, Britain and Sweden, said it had discovered part of the torpedo on the sea floor and it carried lettering that matched a North Korean design.

Pyongyang said it would send its own inspection team to the South, to "verify material evidence" behind the accusation.

A North Korean defence spokesman said the country would "respond to reckless counter-measure with an all-out war of justice", the state KCNA news agency reported.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Beijing had "noted" the report and would make its own assessment, but called on both sides to exercise restraint.


The Cheonan went down near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border, raising tension between the two nations, which technically remain at war.

The shattered wreck of the 1,200-tonne gunboat was later winched to the surface, in two pieces, for examination.


Investigators examined eyewitness accounts, damage to the vessel, evidence collected from the seabed and the injuries sustained by survivors and those who died.

There had earlier been a number of explanations suggested for the sinking, including an accidental collision with an unexploded sea mine left over from the Korean War.

Mr Lee's presidential office said he had told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd his government would be taking firm measures against the North, and through international co-operation would make the North admit wrongdoing.

Japan's Prime Minister said in a statement that North Korea's action was "unforgivable".
Yukio Hatoyama said Japan would support South Korea if it sought a UN Security Council resolution against North Korea.

Black hole hurled out of galaxy

A supermassive black hole may have been observed in the process of being hurled from its parent galaxy at high speed. 

The finding comes from analysis of data collected by the US Chandra space X-ray observatory.
However, there are alternative explanations for the observation.

The work, by an international team of astronomers, has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Normally, each galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its centre.
Given that these objects can have masses equivalent to one billion Suns, it takes a special set of conditions to cause this to happen.

High-speed exit The authors believe this could be the result of the merger of two smaller black holes.

But there are alternative explanations for the bright X-ray source; it could also be a Type IIn supernova, or an ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) with an optical counterpart (which could represent several phenomena).

Simulations using supercomputers suggest that when this happens, the larger black hole that results is shot away at high speed.


However, this depends on the direction and velocity at which the two black holes are rotating before their collision.

Marianne Heida of the University of Utrecht used data in the Chandra Source Catalog to compare hundreds of thousands of sources of X-rays with the positions of millions of galaxies.

The material that falls into black holes heats up dramatically on its final journey, which often means that black holes are strong X-ray sources.

X-rays are also able to penetrate the dust and gas that obscures the centre of a galaxy, giving astronomers a clear view of the region around the black hole, with the bright source appearing as a star-like point.

Looking at one galaxy in the Catalogue, Ms Heida noticed that the point of light was offset from the centre and yet was so bright that it could be associated with a super massive black hole.

Ms Heida said: "We have found many more objects in this strange class of X-ray sources. With Chandra we should be able to make the accurate measurements we need to pinpoint them more precisely and identify their nature."

Plane crash in Libya kills more than 100 on board

A passenger plane has crashed in Libya, killing more than 100 people on board, officials in the capital Tripoli say.

The Airbus 330 crashed on landing at Tripoli airport after a flight from Johannesburg, Afriqiyah Airways said.
Sixty-one Dutch nationals were among those killed, Dutch tourism board ANWB said. A Dutch boy was the sole known survivor, the Libyans say.

British and South African passengers are also thought to have been on board. The 11 crew were said to be Libyan.


Nicky Knapp, a spokeswoman for Airports Company South Africa, said seven passengers were booked to connect to London Gatwick airport, 32 to Brussels, 42 to Dusseldorf in Germany, and one to Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

"Nationalities and names won't be revealed at this stage," she said.

"A 24-hour helpline has been set up to assist families and relatives."
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende confirmed that "several dozen" Dutch nationals were killed.
Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Ad Meijer said the boy who survived was undergoing surgery in Tripoli for his injuries, including broken bones.

Afriqiyah Airways said on its website: "We are very sorry to announce the tragic loss of Afriqiyah Airways flight 8U771 from Johannesburg in an accident during landing at Tripoli International Airport at 04:00 UTC (06:00 am Tripoli time) today Wednesday 12 May.

"We extend our deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the victims. The search and rescue mission has now been completed."

Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zidan said 104 people had been on board the plane - 93 passengers and 11 crew.
He said that the remains of 96 victims had already been recovered.

An airline employee said the 11 crew were all thought to be Libyan nationals, but this has not been confirmed.
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said said it was "aware of reports that there were British nationals on board the flight, but this has not been confirmed".

"We are urgently investigating. A consular team from the British Embassy are on their way to the airport. Consular staff in Tripoli are urgently seeking further details," it said.

Libya's state TV showed footage of a field scattered with pieces of plane debris, and police and rescuers walking with surgical masks and gloves.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Some reports suggest the plane crashed very close to the runway.

"It exploded on landing and totally disintegrated," a Libyan security official told news agency AFP.


A flight recorder has already been recovered, and officials hope this will provide some clues as to what caused the disaster.

However, Mr Zidan ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash.

The airport is currently sealed off and ambulances have been going back and forth to the airport.
Our correspondent adds that the weather has been sunny and clear over the past few days.


Afriqiyah Airways is a low-cost Libyan airline founded nine years ago and operates a relatively new fleet of Airbus aircraft.


It flies many routes between Africa and Europe with passengers often transiting through Tripoli, our correspondent adds.


Daniel Hoeltgen, spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency, said the airline had undergone 10 recent safety inspections at European airports, with no significant safety findings, the Associated Press reports.

He added that a team of French crash investigators was already on its way to Tripoli to help Libyan officials determine the cause of the crash.

Pakistan Taliban behind Times Square bomb plot

The US has evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

Mr Holder said the militants helped to facilitate the plot, and "probably helped finance it".
US officials had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the 1 May plot.


A Pakistani-born US citizen has been charged with the attempted bombing in New York's tourist quarter a week ago.


Faisal Shazhad, 30, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, has co-operated with investigators, and admits receiving bomb-making training in the Pakistani region of Waziristan, prosecutors have said.

"We've now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack," Mr Holder said on ABC television's Sunday current affairs talk show This Week.

"We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working at their direction."

Mr Holder said there was nothing to suggest the government of Pakistan was aware of the plot.
He also said the Obama administration was satisfied for now with the level of co-operation it was receiving from Islamabad into the investigation of the attempted bombing.

His words were echoed by White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan, "It looks like he was working on behalf of the TTP, the Pakistani Taliban. This group is closely allied with al-Qaeda. This is something that we're taking very seriously."

If proved true, this would be the first time the Pakistani Taliban has been linked to a terror plot in the United States itself.

The bomb was discovered last Saturday evening in Times Square, which was busy with tourists and theatregoers at the time.

Bomb disposal experts were called in after a street-vendor noticed smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder, which had been left with its engine running and hazard lights flashing.

In the hours that followed, a claim of responsibility by the Pakistani Taliban was dismissed by the New York police. The city's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said there was no evidence the attempted bombing was the work of al-Qaeda or any other big terrorist group.


However, the unexploded bomb left crucial evidence intact that detectives used to trace Mr Shahzad.
He was arrested two days after the failed bomb attempt, trying to board a flight to Dubai from New York's JFK airport.

Mexican drug violence claims 24 lives in 24 hours

Drug violence in the Mexican state of Chihuahua left 24 people dead in the span of 24 hours this weekend, the state attorney general's office said Sunday.
The killings were scattered over four locations throughout the state, with eight dead in Juarez, 10 killed in the capital of Chihuahua, five killed in Cuauhtemuc and one killed in Parral.



All the slayings occurred in public places, with the killings in Cuauhtemuc occurring in a bar, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general.
The killings took place between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, Gonzalez said.
The victims -- all male -- ranged in age between 18 and 25 years old.
No other details about the killings or the victims were immediately available.
"This is an indicator of the incrementally increasing war between the two cartels battling for Juarez Plaza, the state's drug trafficking corridor," Gonzalez said, referring to an ongoing battle between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels for dominance in the area. Juarez Plaza is a major thoroughfare through the area.
"I can't give you a reason why the violence is picking up the last week of April going into this month," Gonzalez added.
Some Mexican news organizations have reported that the Sinaloa Cartel had defeated the rival Juarez organization but Gonzalez said, "There is no winner to this war."
The spate of weekend killings followed another bloody week in the Ciudad Juarez area.
On Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed in drug-related violence in Juarez, authorities said.
The slayings included four people whose bodies were found at one location, another three -- one of them a woman -- who were found slain at a second location, and another eight victims who were killed at a bar, police spokesman Jacinto Seguro said.
On Tuesday, 10 people were killed, Seguro said, including three who were shot outside a supermarket. Another victim was killed outside a shopping mall.
In all, 25 people were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday, Seguro said.
Ciudad Juarez is the most violent city in Mexico, with more than 2,600 drug-related deaths in 2009. No official numbers are available for this year, but more than 500 killings have been reported by local media. Some reports have the figures as high as 810 in Juarez this year.

According to a report released in April by the Mexican government, Chihuahua state is Mexico's hardest-hit state by drug violence, with 6,757 people killed since the start of the drug war at the end of 2006.

United and Continental Airlines to merge

US-based United Airlines and Continental Airlines have agreed a deal to merge, creating the world's biggest carrier. 

The loss-making companies said they expected the deal, worth $3.2bn (£2.1bn), to deliver savings of more than $1bn a year.

The combined group will be named United Airlines


But new branding will combine the current Continental colours with the United Airlines name.

After the deal was announced shares of both firms rose in morning trading in New York.

United's parent UAL Corporation saw its shares rise by 62 cents, or 2.9% to $22.22, while Continental shares were up 63 cents, or 2.8%, to $22.98.


Although United is seen as the dominant partner, the merger was described as "a merger of equals".
Together United and Continental currently fly to 370 destinations worldwide, flying 144 million passengers a year.

Combining the two companies will create the world's biggest airline, based on the total number of passenger-miles flown.

Continental's boss Jeff Smisek will be chief executive of the new company based in Chicago, while United Airlines' Glenn Tilton will serve as the non-executive chairman.

Mr Tilton called the deal "great... for our customers, our employees, our shareholders and our communities".
Cuts expected
 
"We are creating a stronger, more efficient airline, both operationally and financially, better positioned to succeed in a dynamic and highly competitive global aviation industry," he said.

The companies did not give any details on potential job cuts, but said they expected front-line employees to be "minimally affected by the merger", with staff reductions coming from retirements and voluntary redundancy.

The two companies currently employ a total of 86,000 people.
Analysts expect redundancies to form part of the merger, with airlines anxious to cut costs following a recent collapse in profits within the industry.


Chief executive Jeff Sismek said some cost-savings would come from getting the most out of aircraft and sharing IT services.
They also hope that the better choice of routes will be attractive to sought-after business customers.

Both companies are full-service airlines and have faced intense competition from low-cost operators.
United Airlines' parent company UAL reported a loss of $82m for the first three months of the year, after reporting a $1.1bn loss for 2009.

Continental reported net losses of $282m last year.
"This airline deal is expected to bring much-needed consolidation to the US airline industry as it suffers chronic oversupply," commented Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at FBE Aerospace.

"This announcement puts other players like American Airlines and US Airways on watch for who makes the next move."

Last month British Airways and Iberia followed the consolidation trend, merging to create one of Europe's largest carriers.


The United-Continental merger still has be approved by shareholders and competition regulators and will need the agreement of unions.


They hope to complete the deal by the end of the year.

NYC cops hunt man caught on film in bombing

US police have made "substantial progress" in investigating an attempted car bomb attack in New York city, US Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Mr Holder said police had established "good leads" into who parked the vehicle in Times Square on Saturday.

City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier cast doubt on a claim by the Pakistani Taliban that it was behind the attempt.


Police have released CCTV footage of a white man seen removing his shirt near the scene and putting it in a bag.

Mr Holder told reporters he was confident the investigation would be successful "and the people responsible for that attempt will be found and brought to justice".

"We have some good leads," he said, referring to the CCTV images. "We are following a number of other leads as well."

He was also cautious about linking the incident to international terrorism and claims of responsibility by the Pakistani Taliban.

"I know that group in the past has claimed responsibility for incidents that [they] ultimately were not connected to," he said.

Experts say the device would have caused mayhem had it exploded.
Times Square was packed with tourists and theatregoers when a street vendor raised the alarm.
Investigators released a video of a man taking off his shirt, stuffing it into his bag and them walking off, looking in the direction of the car.

Although police are keen to find the man, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to call him a suspect.

Mr Bloomberg, speaking on ABC's Good Morning America programme, warned that the person on the tape may not become a suspect.

"There are millions of people that come through Times Square," he said.
"This person happened to be in a position in which a camera got a good shot of him, and maybe he had something to do with it but there's a very good chance that he did not. We're exploring a lot of leads."
He reiterated that there was "no legitimate evidence" of a link to al-Qaeda, the Taliban or any other militant group.

But he said he believed there was a good chance that the perpetrators would be caught.
"Working with the White House, working with Homeland Security, working with the FBI, all city agencies working together, there's a high probability that we will find out who did this and apprehend them," he said.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI are examining hundreds of hours of security videotape from around Times Square, officials said on Monday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told that nothing had so far been ruled out.

"Right now, every lead has to be pursued," she said. "I caution against premature decisions one way or another."

Investigators are still poring over evidence from the Nissan Pathfinder in which the homemade petrol and propane bomb was found.

The SUV's engine was still running and its hazard lights flashing when the alarm was raised.
Police evacuated a wide area of the district and closed subway lines, while a controlled explosion was carried out.

Officials said the bomb was crude, but could have sparked a "significant fireball".
Investigators said on Monday they had spoken to the registered owner of the SUV, but would not give details.

The car's registration plates did not match the Nissan and belonged to a car owner in the state of Connecticut. He told officers he had sent the plates to a scrap-yard.

The NYPD has been on constant alert since the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Earlier this year, two men, one an Afghan immigrant, pleaded guilty to a plot to set off suicide bombs in the city's subway system.

And last year four New Yorkers went on trial accused of plotting to bomb synagogues in the city and fire missiles at military aircraft.

Execution does not stop Chinese knife attacks

Early in the morning on March 23, Zheng Minsheng walked in front of an elementary school in Fujian province. Wielding a knife, he attacked the students who happened to be around, killing eight and wounding several others.
Authorities said Zheng, 42, carried out the attack because he was frustrated at "failures in his romantic life," according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Whatever his real motive was, the senseless killing, reported widely by the Chinese media, shocked the nation. Zheng was tried, sentenced to death and executed on April 28.
If Chinese authorities thought Zheng's execution would deter similar attacks, they were wrong. The day he was executed, a knife-wielding man attacked elementary school students in southern Guangdong province, wounding 16 students and a teacher. The attacker was later subdued by the police, and no one died.
The next day, a man in Jiangsu province barged into a kindergarten and stabbed 31 people, including 28 students, two teachers and one security guard. "It was too horrible to imagine," one eyewitness told local reporters. "I saw blood everywhere." Police apprehended the suspect, 47-year-old Xu Yuyuan.

Then, on April 30, a man barged into a village school in Shandong province, carrying a hammer and a can of gasoline. Wang Yonglai, a local farmer, attacked preschool students with the hammer, causing head injuries. He then set himself on fire and died. According to a Xinhua report, the local farmer went berserk after the local police told him that the family house he had just built using 110,000 yuan (US$16,110) of family savings had to be torn down because it had been built on farmland, which is illegal in China.
It was the third such school attack in three days.
The spate of school attacks is prompting public anger. "What is going on with these people?" Wen Jia, a father of a pre-schooler in Beijing, asked. "Why take their frustrations on defenseless children? We need better security in schools, but we also need to take care of the mentally ill."
On Friday, the Ministry of Education on its website issued an urgent circular ordering kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools to beef up security and restrict strangers from entering the campuses. The ministry instructed schools across the country to hire security guards, install security facilities and ensure that pupils are escorted home. Schools are also urged to teach pupils to how to protect themselves.
Guns are strictly controlled in China, but until recently possession of large knives were not. Chinese authorities have recently issued a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when they buy knives longer that 15 centimeters.

Other measures are being put in place. In Jiangsu province, local police have helped schools set up "campus security team" composed of 70 security guards with batons and pepper spray. Police in Beijing have distributed "forks", long poles with semi-circular prongs that security guards could use to fight assailants. In Changsha, capital of central Hunan province, parents formed vigilante teams to patrol local elementary schools.
This series of school attacks are blamed on people with personal grievances or suffering from mental illness.
Says Ding Xueliang, a sociology professor in Hong Kong: "The Chinese society has generated enormous pressure on individuals and some of those individuals have perhaps had emotional and psychological problems. They want to cause general attention from the population and attacking kids perhaps is the best way from their perspective of achieving this objective."
These recent incidents are covered extensively in the local media and on the Internet, prompting concerns over copycat violence. Says sociologist Ding Xueliang: "With the mass media (reports), particularly on the Internet, more individuals are likely to copy such practice, if the Chinese government does not do things quickly and effectively."

For the terrified pupils and worried parents, the solutions are not coming quickly enough.

Failed car bomb was not al-Qaeda plot, says NY mayor

There is no evidence the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York was the work of al-Qaeda or any other big terrorist group, the city's mayor says.

Michael Bloomberg spoke after police dismissed claims by a Pakistani Taliban group that it was responsible.
Investigators are hunting a middle-aged white man seen removing his shirt near the scene at Times Square on Saturday evening and stuffing it into a bag.

President Barack Obama has vowed the US will track down the perpetrators.
Investigators have been gathering evidence from the Nissan Pathfinder in which the homemade petrol and propane bomb was found.


The engine was still running with hazard lights flashing when the SUV, emitting smoke, attracted the attention of a street vendor.

Police evacuated part of the bustling entertainment district and shut subway lines, while a controlled explosion was carried out.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on Sunday the bomb was crude, but could have sparked a "significant fireball".

Another component of the device was a rifle cabinet packed with more than 100lb (45kg) of fertilizer, although police said it was not of a type volatile enough to explode.


Commissioner Kelly said they were looking for an unidentified white man, thought to be in his 40s, who was spotted behaving "furtively" nearby.


CCTV captured the suspect walking down an alley and changing a shirt, while looking back in the direction of the smoking SUV.

Police are also examining a home video taken by a tourist of a man seen near the car.

Police have established that the car's registration plates do not match up with the Nissan.
They belonged to a car owner in the state of Connecticut, who told officers he had sent the plates to a scrap-yard.

A Pakistani Taliban group claimed in a one-minute internet video that it was behind the failed attack.
Tehreek-e-Taliban said the bomb was revenge for the deaths of its leader and the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
But the police commissioner and the mayor cast doubt on the claim.

"There is no evidence that this is tied in with al-Qaeda or any other big terrorist organization," Mr Bloomberg said.


The mayor earlier told reporters New York had avoided what could have been "a very deadly event".


US Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano has said there was so far no evidence that it was more than a "one-off event", but added it was "a potential terrorist attack".


Duane Jackson, the 58-year-old handbag seller who spotted the vehicle, has been hailed as a hero.
The Vietnam War veteran alerted a passing police officer, after noticing the car parked illegally with its keys in the ignition.

"That's when the smoke started coming out and then we heard the little pop, pop, pop - like firecrackers going out," he said.

The New York Police Department has been on constant alert since the 9/11 attacks.
Earlier this year, two men, one an Afghan immigrant, pleaded guilty to a plot to set off suicide bombs in the city's subway system.

And last year four New Yorkers went on trial accused of plotting to bomb synagogues in the city and fire missiles at military aircraft.

Ahmadinejad blasts U.S. before visit

Just days before his planned trip to New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has proof the United States and Israel are linked to the world's leading terrorist organizations, according to state-run media.


"We have documents that prove (Washington) is the root of world terrorism," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Tehran, Press TV reported. "It has been aiding and abetting extremist groups over the past years."

Ahmadinejad said his nation "cuts any hand that signs a document against Iran," according to the semi-official FARS news agency.

His remarks came as the United States pushes for new international sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad plans to attend a United Nations summit on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which opens Monday,

The United States "is the only country to have used the atomic bomb in military conflict," Ahmadinejad said Saturday, according to Press TV. "They even admit themselves that they resorted to using (similar weapons) during the war they waged on Iraq."

The United States has not admitted using such weapons in the Iraq war.

Ahmadinejad planned to offer at the U.N. conference major proposals that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear program, his top adviser, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, said, according to IRNA official news agency.
Iran insists that its program is aimed at producing nuclear energy, while Washington accuses it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad urged the United States to engage his government, saying that "companionship is better than confrontation," FARS reported.

His remarks came at a ceremony celebrating May Day, or International Workers' Day.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Ahmadinejad in some of the Obama administration's strongest language to date.

"Iran, with its anti-Semitic president and hostile nuclear ambitions, also continues to threaten Israel, destabilize the region, and sponsor terror," Clinton said, addressing the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee.

"The United States is committed to pursuing [a] diplomatic path," she said. "But we will not compromise our commitment to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons."

New York police defuse 'car bomb' in Times Square

New York City police have defused an improvised car bomb parked in Times Square, one of the city's busiest tourist areas, officials say.

They say propane tanks, fireworks, petrol, and a clock device were removed from a parked sports utility vehicle.

Part of the district - where many theatres are sited - was sealed off.
Both US President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the quick response by the New York Police Department.

"We are very lucky," Mr Bloomberg told reporters. "Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers, we avoided what could have been a very deadly event."

He said the bomb "looked amateurish" but could have exploded, adding that the incident was a "reminder of the dangers that we face".


Correspondents say the New York City Police Department is on constant alert after a series of alleged terror plots in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

"The NYPD bomb squad has rendered safe an improvised car bomb," said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

The alert was triggered when a street vendor saw smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street and Seventh Avenue at about 1830 (2230 GMT) on Saturday.


The vehicle had its engine running and hazard lights flashing, officials said.
Police shut down several blocks of Times Square, as well as subway lines, while a robotic arm broke windows of the vehicle.

"There were explosive elements, including powder, gasoline, propane and some kind of electrical wires attached to a clock," police spokesman Paul Browne told reporters early on Sunday.
"No motive has been identified," he added.

Security footage is being reviewed after reports that a person was seen running away from the vehicle.
The car's plates do not match the registration, the spokesman said.


Jerry Brown, one of the tourists evacuated from the nearby Marriot Marquis hotel, told the BBC: "Guests are sitting on the street and there is considerable chaos... There is talk about moving us to another hotel but I am not sure how this is going to happen."

Most Broadway shows went ahead despite the alert.
FBI agents have joined NYPD investigators at the scene.
The White House said President Obama was being kept up to date on the investigation.

The most recent terror alert in New York City involved a plot to set off suicide bombs in the subway system.
Earlier this year an Afghan immigrant, Najibullah Zazi, and an associate, Zarein Ahmedzay, both pleaded guilty in connection with the attempt.

Last year four New Yorkers went on trial accused of plotting to bomb synagogues in the city and fire missiles at military aircraft.

Taiwan-China flight forced to land after bomb hoax

An airliner travelling from Taiwan to China made an emergency landing after a passenger jokingly claimed he had a bomb on board, officials say.

The Taipei-Shanghai flight of Taiwan's China Airlines landed safely in Hangzhou, eastern China, and the passenger was held for questioning.



Police then checked the man's luggage and found no explosives.
The man - identified only as Lin - later admitted he made the comment as a joke, the officials said.

China Airlines spokesman Bruce Chen said the passenger was traveling on a US passport, the Associated Press reports.

He did not appear to have been drinking excessively, the spokesman added.
The plane eventually took off from Hangzhou and later landed safely in Shanghai.
It was not immediately known how many passengers were on board.

Greeks protest austerity cuts at May Day rally

Greek protesters clashed with police who fired tear gas during the annual May Day rally on Saturday in Athens, where thousands of people gathering for the event seethed over government belt-tightening plans to deal with the country's debt problems.


Waving red flags, the crowd at times surged toward the line of police, who wore helmets and carried riot shields. The police pushed them back each time.


Protesters threw objects toward police, and scattered fires were burning on the streets. A van belonging to state broadcaster ERT was set on fire, and 19 people were taken in for questioning, a spokesman for the Greek national police told.

About 12,000 people were protesting in Athens, and rallies were also taking place in the northern city of Thessaloniki, the spokesman said. Protesters there smashed two ATMs, the glass frontage of a bank, and a car, but no one was arrested or being questioned, the spokesman said.

The annual May Day rally has taken on an angry tone this year as the Greek government prepares to enact austerity measures to cap its large deficit and massive debt.

The package of measures was expected to be revealed Sunday. It is likely to include cuts in civil servants' salaries, pay freezes, reductions in pension payments, changes to tax rates, and increases in the value-added tax consumers pay on purchases, Ilias Iliopoulos, the general secretary of the public sector union ADEDY said Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund and the European Union are discussing a bailout for Greece, whose economic problems threaten the stability of the common European currency, the euro.

The amount of the aid package being negotiated was not clear, but the IMF and EU are likely to demand the austerity measures as a price for a bailout.

Greece's national debt of 300 billion euros ($394 billion) is bigger than the country's economy, and some estimates predict it will reach 120 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.

Standard & Poor's this week downgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating to junk status, making Greece the first European country to fall below investment grade.

The downgrade makes it harder and more expensive for Greece to borrow money to pay back its debts. That makes the prospect of a bailout more crucial for Athens.

Also this week, Moody's Investors Service downgraded nine Greek banks, including the National Bank of Greece, citing their weakened financial strength and the country's "challenged" economic prospects.