Bomb threat shuts Australia international airport

SYDNEY - One of Australia's busiest international airports was locked down after a man brandished a knife and made a bomb threat at a food court, prompting travelers to flee in panic, officials said Sunday.

Queensland state police said they evacuated Brisbane Airport's international terminal late Saturday after finding a "suspicious device" when they responded to reports of the 50-year-old man, who spoke Arabic, threatening a woman.

Terrorism was later ruled out as the cause and the man was charged with domestic violence offences, falsely claiming to destroy or damage an aviation facility, and making a hoax bomb threat.

The device was found to be "inert", but Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said its complex appearance "indicates just the extraordinary lengths that a person has gone to to create perception of risk, threat and fear".

The device looked like a small, black safe with wires sticking out of it, according to a photograph released by police.

The man, who was taken into custody by police, is due to face court on Monday. The terminal was reopened after 2 hours.

There have been growing fears of terror-linked attacks by radicals inspired by Islamic State and other groups, with a foiled effort to target an Etihad flight with a crude bomb in Sydney in 2017.

Canberra introduced sweeping new security laws last year that included allowing Australian police to conduct random identity checks at airports.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Police probe hoax bitcoin bomb threats across US, Canada

US law enforcement officials on Friday were investigating a wave of hoax emailed bomb threats demanding bitcoin payment that caused worry but no damage in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

On Thursday in North America, hundreds of businesses, government offices and schools received awkwardly-worded letters threatening to set off explosives if payments of $20,000 in cryptocurrency were not received.

The threats led to scattered evacuations of schools and transit stations before the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies dismissed them as lacking credibility.

Hoax threats were received in cities including Washington, New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Grand Rapids, Iowa, Denver, Ottawa and Calgary, Alberta.

Investigators do not yet know who was responsible, 2 federal officials said on Friday. There is no evidence to suggest that any of the recipients made ransom payments, one of the officials said.

Cisco Systems Inc's Talos cyber security unit said it believes the threats came from a group of fraudsters previously responsible for sending "sextortion" emails that claim to have videos showing the recipients having sex.

The fraudsters threaten to release compromising videos they claim to have obtained with software that recorded people through webcams on their computers.

Some of this week's bomb threats came from the same internet addresses used in those sextortion campaigns, Talos researcher Jaeson Schultz said in a blog post.

"The criminals conducting these extortion email attacks have demonstrated that they are willing to concoct any threat and story imaginable that they believe would fool the recipient," the blog said.

"We expect these sorts of attacks to continue as long as there are victims who will believe these threats to be credible, and be scared enough to send money to the attackers," it said.

A similar series of hoax bomb threats occurred in December 2015, prompting officials in Los Angeles to close the city's public school system, which national law enforcement officials later criticized as an over-reaction.

Two weeks previously, a married couple inspired by Islamic State had killed 14 people at a California county office building in a shooting rampage.

A teenager with dual Israeli-US citizenship was arrested in Israel in March 2017 for making bomb threats to more than 100 Jewish organizations and Jewish community centers in dozens of US states over several months.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook looking into bomb threat in California headquarters

Facebook Inc evacuated a few buildings at its headquarters campus in Menlo Park following a bomb threat, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

Everyone is safe and the company is looking into the incident, the spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

A building at 200 Jefferson Drive has been evacuated and the bomb units are on the scene going through the building, Menlo Park Police Department said.

Authorities did not specify which Facebook building in Menlo Park was evacuated.

YouTube was another Silicon Valley company that faced a security threat in the recent past. In May, a woman opened fire at YouTube's headquarters in San Francisco, wounding 3 people before she shot herself dead.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CNN offices evacuated after bomb threat, says network

NEW YORK - CNN's New York offices were evacuated Thursday night after a bomb threat, the network said, recalling a similar evacuation in October after an explosive device was discovered.

Fire alarm bells rang inside the newsroom to signal an evacuation shortly after 10:30 pm, CNN said on its website, as the network went to pre-taped programing.

An hour later the network was broadcasting from Skype.

"People just tuning in wondering why you're seeing me on Skype, why there's such technical difficulties, it's because we have been taken off the air because a bomb threat was called in to CNN," said host Don Lemon.

"We were evacuated and we know as much as you do."

"Due to a police investigation at Columbus Circle, West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic," the New York Police Department tweeted, referring to the address of the news organization's offices. "Please avoid this area. Update to follow."

The bureau was previously evacuated in October after a package with an explosive device was discovered.

ia/dw

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Robert De Niro urges Americans to vote after bomb plot

Actor Robert De Niro, one of the intended targets of a bomb plot and an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump, urged Americans on Friday to get out and vote.

"I thank God no one's been hurt, and I thank the brave and resourceful security and law enforcement people for protecting us," De Niro said in a brief statement.

"There's something more powerful than bombs, and that's your vote," the 75-year-old Hollywood star said. "People MUST vote."

The United States is to hold mid-term elections on November 6.

US law enforcement is engaged in a frantic search for the person or persons who sent explosive devices in the mail to De Niro and other people.

Since Monday, crude homemade bombs have been addressed to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the CNN television network, liberal billionaire donor George Soros and other figures loathed by Trump's supporters.

Packages have been intercepted in New York, Maryland, Florida, Delaware and Los Angeles. So far, no one has been hurt, but the bomb spree has frayed nerves and raised tensions ahead of mid-term elections in less than two weeks.

A suspected explosive device was sent to double Oscar-winner De Niro at his Tribeca Productions company in New York.

De Niro has been a frequent critic of Trump and used an expletive to condemn the president at the televised Tony Awards last June, receiving a standing ovation.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airliner escorted by fighter jets back to Singapore after bomb threat

Two Singapore fighter jets escorted a commercial airliner back to Singapore on Thursday due to a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, according to Singapore police.

Flight TR634 carrying 173 passengers and six crew and operated by the Singapore-based low-cost airline Scoot landed safely at Changi Airport about two hours after departing on a flight to Hat Yai, Thailand.

Singapore police said in a statement that a 41-year-old man had been arrested for making a false bomb threat.

"Preliminary investigations indicated that the suspect had claimed to crew that he had a bomb in his hand-carry baggage," the police statement said.

Authorities conducted a thorough search of the plane and the baggage of the suspect and his two male traveling companions but did not find any bomb, the statement said.

The suspect has been arrested under legislation that makes it crime to threaten to commit a terrorist act and carries a fine up to $500,000 and possible imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Singapore is on heightened alert against terrorism, as it believes it could be targeted due to its close relations with the United States and Israel.

The Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report 2017, issued last June by the Ministry of Home Affairs, said Islamic State militants "were considering carrying out an attack in Singapore in the first half of 2016," while Indonesian authorities had foiled a plot by terrorists "acting on the instructions ... of an Indonesian ISIS militant based in Syria ... to launch a rocket attack against the Marina Bay Sands" resort in Singapore.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Harvard University sounds all clear, no bombs found after threat

BOSTON - Harvard University said on Monday that a search of four campus buildings targeted by an "unconfirmed" bomb threat had turned up no explosives and that the buildings had reopened for normal business.

"Nothing to substantiate the emailed threat has been found and the investigation regarding the source is ongoing," the Ivy League school, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, said on its website.

Three classroom buildings - The Science Center, Sever and Emerson Halls - and one dormitory, Thayer Hall, were affected, Harvard said.

The threat comes three days after coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people in Paris.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Bomb threat prompts Alaska airport evacuation

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Officials say a terminal at Alaska's main airport has been evacuated over a bomb scare.

The manager of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport says the main terminal was cleared after a male passenger early Sunday made a reference to a bomb in a bag that had been checked into luggage.

John Parrott says travelers were evacuated to another airport terminal, while police and others search the luggage. So far, no explosive has turned up.

He says the man who made the comment and two male companions are being interviewed by authorities. Anchorage was the point of departure for the three, but Parrott didn't have details on their destination.

He says agents with FBI and Transportation Security Administration are taking part in the investigation.

Meanwhile, aircraft have been landing but Parrott says no passengers have been allowed to board any aircraft.

source: thenewstribune.com