AI
Saturday, May 29, 2004 11:31:34 AM
Blast rocks train in southern Russia
Comments:
A bomb blast derailed a section of a passenger train in southern Russia on Saturday morning; the bombs were detonated by remote control, according to preliminary investigations. This could signify a cell phone rigged to detonate explosives by remote control or some such other remote device.
Of the rumors that plague the North Korean train blast the sealing off the area around Ryongchon and the key border route to China -- was not true. Another report that has made the rounds of Asian capitals is that the train blast killed a dozen Syrian weapons technicians who were there working on a North Korean missile shipment to Pyongyang's important Middle East arms client. "But that is all speculation and there's not an ounce of informational proof of that," the diplomatic source said.
What is true is that people had been told to turn in their mobile phones and mobile phone service was limited.
Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North had confiscated and banned mobile phones after security agents determined that the blast was triggered by the phones in a botched attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim's train had passed through Ryongchon from China nine hours before the explosion.
Without commenting on the Kim assassination theory, several diplomats in the region said they heard local people had been told to turn in their mobile phones. The capital Pyongyang and several border cities have limited mobile phone service.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SEO97320.htm
This would indicate that the North Koreans suspect a terrorist attack was the cause of the deadly train explosion.
Cell phones found during the investigation of the recent terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia were rigged to detonate explosives by remote control, the FBI said Wednesday, urging U.S. law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for such devices. June 11, 2003
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/11/attack/main558210.shtml
Terrorists used cell phones to detonate explosives March 11 in railway bombings in Spain.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1136589/posts
Blast rocks train in southern Russia
www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-29 20:54:57
MOSCOW, May 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A bomb blast derailed a section of apassenger train in southern Russia on Saturday morning, but no one suffered serious injuries.
Two bombs went off when the train was traveling from Moscow to Vladikavkaz, capital of Russia's North Ossetia near Chechnya, and derailed 10 out of the 18 carriages, Interfax news agency reported,citing a local official source.
None of the derailed carriages overturned, and some 300 passengers have been evacuated, Interfax said.
The bombs were detonated by remote control, according to preliminary investigations.
The blast did not cause victims mainly because the train was moving quite slowly, said the experts working at the scene.
Another unexploded device was found near the site and neutralized. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/29/content_1497631.htm
Rebuilding, rumours robust 5 weeks after N.Korea blast
27 May 2004 10:14:48 GMT
By Paul Eckert and John Ruwitch
SEOUL/BEIJING, May 27 (Reuters) - North Korean workers are rapidly rebuilding the town destroyed by a deadly train blast last month, but the rumour mill about the explosion is working just as fast.
Aid workers and diplomats who assessed rumours and sketchy reports about the cause of the April 22 explosion at Ryongchon and about draconian North Korean responses say it is hard to draw firm conclusions in the atmosphere of secrecy.
The explosion, which North Korea said was caused by sparks from an electric cable setting off two train loads of explosives and petroleum, levelled a large swathe of the town and injured 1,300 people, including many children.
The communist state has not updated the death toll of 170 since early May -- perhaps to avoid drawing attention to the dire state of hospitals in the country, one diplomat suggested.
One persistent rumour -- that North Korea has sealed off the area around Ryongchon and the key border route to China -- was not true, foreign aid workers and diplomats told Reuters.
Richard Ragan, the U.N. World Food Programme Country Director for North Korea said he visited Ryongchon last weekend.
"I drove up and then I drove across the border into Dandong and then drove back through," he said by telephone. Dandong is a Chinese city on the North Korean border near Ryongchon.
"There are a fair amount of aid workers coming and going along that main road and I haven't heard anybody say that it's closed or that there is more security around there," added a diplomat who covers the region.
MOBILE PHONE BAN?
Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North had confiscated and banned mobile phones after security agents determined that the blast was triggered by the phones in a botched attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim's train had passed through Ryongchon from China nine hours before the explosion.
Without commenting on the Kim assassination theory, several diplomats in the region said they heard local people had been told to turn in their mobile phones. The capital Pyongyang and several border cities have limited mobile phone service.
Another report that has made the rounds of Asian capitals is that the train blast killed a dozen Syrian weapons technicians who were there working on a North Korean missile shipment to Pyongyang's important Middle East arms client.
Japan's Sankei Shimbun early this month quoted a military source who said North Korean soldiers removed traces of the missile equipment, and that the bodies of the Syrians were flown home by a Syrian plane which had delivered aid to the North.
"It's very unusual for the Syrians to be offering humanitarian aid, and so speculation was that the plane came in just to repatriate the bodies," said a diplomatic source.
"But that is all speculation and there's not an ounce of informational proof of that," the diplomatic source said.
Aid workers and diplomats confirmed a rapid pace of reconstruction work at Ryongchon by some 10,000 workers.
"There's a lot of work going on," said the diplomat. "Some people who were there just a few days ago said the foundations of a new school had already been laid," the diplomat said.
Many of the badly wounded children who were photographed after the explosion were being discharged from hospital.
"One of the kids, who was an older kid that I remembered vividly because I thoughT he was going to lose his sight in both eyes, was sitting up," said the WFP's Ragan.
"He could see out of both eyes," he added.
John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman in Beijing, voiced concern about some 450 families still homeless and said he feared that not all housing would be ready before winter. He said the reconstruction was straining the meagre resources of North Korea and depleting international relief supplies as well as water.
"If you look at how Ryongchon illustrated the poor state of medical infrastructure and the poor state of water, the disaster just underlined the needs in (North Korea) but at the same time placed more pressure upon us," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SEO97320.htm
Comments:
A bomb blast derailed a section of a passenger train in southern Russia on Saturday morning; the bombs were detonated by remote control, according to preliminary investigations. This could signify a cell phone rigged to detonate explosives by remote control or some such other remote device.
Of the rumors that plague the North Korean train blast the sealing off the area around Ryongchon and the key border route to China -- was not true. Another report that has made the rounds of Asian capitals is that the train blast killed a dozen Syrian weapons technicians who were there working on a North Korean missile shipment to Pyongyang's important Middle East arms client. "But that is all speculation and there's not an ounce of informational proof of that," the diplomatic source said.
What is true is that people had been told to turn in their mobile phones and mobile phone service was limited.
Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North had confiscated and banned mobile phones after security agents determined that the blast was triggered by the phones in a botched attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim's train had passed through Ryongchon from China nine hours before the explosion.
Without commenting on the Kim assassination theory, several diplomats in the region said they heard local people had been told to turn in their mobile phones. The capital Pyongyang and several border cities have limited mobile phone service.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SEO97320.htm
This would indicate that the North Koreans suspect a terrorist attack was the cause of the deadly train explosion.
Cell phones found during the investigation of the recent terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia were rigged to detonate explosives by remote control, the FBI said Wednesday, urging U.S. law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for such devices. June 11, 2003
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/11/attack/main558210.shtml
Terrorists used cell phones to detonate explosives March 11 in railway bombings in Spain.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1136589/posts
Blast rocks train in southern Russia
www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-29 20:54:57
MOSCOW, May 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A bomb blast derailed a section of apassenger train in southern Russia on Saturday morning, but no one suffered serious injuries.
Two bombs went off when the train was traveling from Moscow to Vladikavkaz, capital of Russia's North Ossetia near Chechnya, and derailed 10 out of the 18 carriages, Interfax news agency reported,citing a local official source.
None of the derailed carriages overturned, and some 300 passengers have been evacuated, Interfax said.
The bombs were detonated by remote control, according to preliminary investigations.
The blast did not cause victims mainly because the train was moving quite slowly, said the experts working at the scene.
Another unexploded device was found near the site and neutralized. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/29/content_1497631.htm
Rebuilding, rumours robust 5 weeks after N.Korea blast
27 May 2004 10:14:48 GMT
By Paul Eckert and John Ruwitch
SEOUL/BEIJING, May 27 (Reuters) - North Korean workers are rapidly rebuilding the town destroyed by a deadly train blast last month, but the rumour mill about the explosion is working just as fast.
Aid workers and diplomats who assessed rumours and sketchy reports about the cause of the April 22 explosion at Ryongchon and about draconian North Korean responses say it is hard to draw firm conclusions in the atmosphere of secrecy.
The explosion, which North Korea said was caused by sparks from an electric cable setting off two train loads of explosives and petroleum, levelled a large swathe of the town and injured 1,300 people, including many children.
The communist state has not updated the death toll of 170 since early May -- perhaps to avoid drawing attention to the dire state of hospitals in the country, one diplomat suggested.
One persistent rumour -- that North Korea has sealed off the area around Ryongchon and the key border route to China -- was not true, foreign aid workers and diplomats told Reuters.
Richard Ragan, the U.N. World Food Programme Country Director for North Korea said he visited Ryongchon last weekend.
"I drove up and then I drove across the border into Dandong and then drove back through," he said by telephone. Dandong is a Chinese city on the North Korean border near Ryongchon.
"There are a fair amount of aid workers coming and going along that main road and I haven't heard anybody say that it's closed or that there is more security around there," added a diplomat who covers the region.
MOBILE PHONE BAN?
Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North had confiscated and banned mobile phones after security agents determined that the blast was triggered by the phones in a botched attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kim's train had passed through Ryongchon from China nine hours before the explosion.
Without commenting on the Kim assassination theory, several diplomats in the region said they heard local people had been told to turn in their mobile phones. The capital Pyongyang and several border cities have limited mobile phone service.
Another report that has made the rounds of Asian capitals is that the train blast killed a dozen Syrian weapons technicians who were there working on a North Korean missile shipment to Pyongyang's important Middle East arms client.
Japan's Sankei Shimbun early this month quoted a military source who said North Korean soldiers removed traces of the missile equipment, and that the bodies of the Syrians were flown home by a Syrian plane which had delivered aid to the North.
"It's very unusual for the Syrians to be offering humanitarian aid, and so speculation was that the plane came in just to repatriate the bodies," said a diplomatic source.
"But that is all speculation and there's not an ounce of informational proof of that," the diplomatic source said.
Aid workers and diplomats confirmed a rapid pace of reconstruction work at Ryongchon by some 10,000 workers.
"There's a lot of work going on," said the diplomat. "Some people who were there just a few days ago said the foundations of a new school had already been laid," the diplomat said.
Many of the badly wounded children who were photographed after the explosion were being discharged from hospital.
"One of the kids, who was an older kid that I remembered vividly because I thoughT he was going to lose his sight in both eyes, was sitting up," said the WFP's Ragan.
"He could see out of both eyes," he added.
John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman in Beijing, voiced concern about some 450 families still homeless and said he feared that not all housing would be ready before winter. He said the reconstruction was straining the meagre resources of North Korea and depleting international relief supplies as well as water.
"If you look at how Ryongchon illustrated the poor state of medical infrastructure and the poor state of water, the disaster just underlined the needs in (North Korea) but at the same time placed more pressure upon us," he said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SEO97320.htm
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