Explosives

A social studies teacher in the Lower Camden Regional School District who was accused of firing a small signal rocket at a passing car in August was indicted yesterday on charges that she stored a small arsenal of military explosives in her home. Marjorie J. Lorsbach, 42, of the first block of West Taunton Avenue in Berlin Borough, was arrested Aug. 29 by police who were responding to a report that someone on the block had fired at a passing car. The officers went to Lorsbach's home, apparently because she was known to police as "an unusual person," investigators said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan security forces have arrested five extremists with 22,000 pounds of explosives that they smuggled in from Pakistan to carry out a huge attack in Kabul, as well as another three suspects allegedly planning to assassinate the vice president, an official said Saturday. The reports of new planned attacks in the Afghan capital came a week after extremists said to be part of the Pakistan-based Haqqani group launched coordinated assaults in the heart of Kabul and in three other cities.

A 38-year-old Warminster man on parole in Bucks County has been charged with the possession and assembly of explosives in his apartment. Timothy D. Bryson, of the first block of Norristown Road, is awaiting a preliminary hearing for violating parole and is charged with risking a catastrophe, reckless endangerment, possession of an instrument of crime and possession of offensive weapons, after Warminster police discovered explosives used for...

A police officer unknowingly brought a cache of suspected explosives to the 14th District parking lot yesterday and forced the evacuation of the district building and nearby homes in Germantown, police said. There were no explosions and no one was injured during the two-hour incident on Haines Street near Germantown Avenue, 14th District Lt. Samuel Lynch said. The suspicious container was carted off by the Ordnance Disposal Unit. Lynch said the incident began at 4:30 p.m., when an unidentified man handed "a container with unknown objects" to a patrolling officer on Shedaker Street near Wakefield.

Mailboxes in Pennsauken and Merchantville were damaged on Sunday when explosives were dropped into the mail slots. Although the type of explosive has not been identified, police said the force of one blow was as powerful as a quarter-stick of dynamite. In Merchantville, an off-duty police officer reported the first damaged mailbox, at 12:24 a.m., in front of the post office on Centre Street, said police dispatcher Lawrence Holtz. The door was blown open and some mail was mutilated, Holtz said.

A former Army ranger has been arrested after a cache of firearms, explosive devices, bogus identification cards, and badges was discovered in his Brewerytown home, Philadelphia police said yesterday. Andre Brown, 39, was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses after police were called to his home in the 3000 block of Oxford Street shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday by a woman who alleged that Brown, her boyfriend, had pointed a shotgun at her head, police said. Officers Anthony Ricci and William Forbes of the 23d District entered the house to help the woman remove clothing and discovered six firearms, explosive devices that appeared to be military detonators, and a collection of photo IDs, police said.

Like most rational people, when Michael Towle finds what he thinks is a live practice grenade lying in a barrel next to 3,000 others, he panics. He calls out the cavalry and he runs for cover. On Monday, the cavalry consisted of the Caln police, the local fire marshal, West Caln Township supervisors, Chester County Emergency Services technicians and the bomb squad from Delaware County. In this particular case, Michael Towle needn't have bothered. "We originally thought there was a danger," said Towle, an investigator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Delran Township council last night voted 5-0, with one abstention, to give tentative approval to an ordinance prohibiting the storage of "destructive devices, explosives and weapons" in storage facilities within the township. The council is seeking to prevent incidents such as last month's discovery of a weapons cache, including explosives and Soviet-made submachine guns, at a self-storage facility on Route 130. New Jersey State Police discovered the arsenal while investigating leads from a drug arrest made in Winslow Township.

A Japanese student arrested Sunday as he was about to board a plane with explosives in his luggage was ordered yesterday to remain in custody after a prosecutor contended that he might try to flee the country. U.S. Magistrate Richard A. Powers 3d ordered Yoshino Kosugi, 18, held until a bail hearing scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Kosugi, who completed his freshman year at Drexel University last week, was taken into custody at Philadelphia International Airport. He is charged with the federal crime of attempting to board an aircraft with firearms, explosives or incendiary devices.

CHICAGO - Two more men have been charged with planning to make explosives to be used during the NATO summit. Police would not say whether they are connected to three men in their 20s who were arrested in a raid earlier in the week and charged under the state's anti-terrorism statutes with planning to use Molotov cocktails during the summit. Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, was arrested Thursday afternoon without incident at his home, according to a police report. He was charged Saturday afternoon.

CHICAGO - Two more men have been charged with planning to make explosives to be used during the NATO summit. Police would not say whether they are connected to three men in their 20s who were arrested in a raid earlier in the week and charged under the state's anti-terrorism statutes with planning to use Molotov cocktails during the summit. Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, was arrested Thursday afternoon without incident at his home, according to a police report. He was charged Saturday afternoon.

Maybe he was just trying to put together a big surprise for Mother's Day. John Grzyminski found himself behind bars Thursday, a day after cops confiscated three pipe bombs from his Warrington home — including one discovered in the kitchen by his mother. Grzyminski, 50, had "some sort of domestic verbal dispute" with his mom, Catherine Wilson, before she found that small explosive device in the house, on Saddle Drive near Carriage Way, said Special Agent Steve Bartholomew, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

KOMODO ISLAND, Indonesia - Coral gardens that were among Asia's most spectacular, teeming with colorful sea life just a few months ago, have been transformed into desolate gray moonscapes by illegal fishermen who use explosives or cyanide to kill or stun prey. The site is among several to have been hit inside Komodo National Park, a 500,000-acre reserve in eastern Indonesia that spans several dusty, tan-colored volcanic islands. The area is most famous for its Komodo dragons - the world's largest lizards - and its remote and hard-to-reach waters also burst with staggering levels of diversity, from corals in fluorescent reds and yellows to octopuses with lime-green banded eyes to black-and-blue sea snakes.

CLEVELAND - Five men described by federal authorities as anarchists angry with corporate America and the government were charged Tuesday with plotting to bomb an Ohio bridge linking two wealthy Cleveland suburbs. The men were arrested Monday night after unknowingly working with an FBI informant for months, a strategy that federal investigators have used repeatedly in recent years to nab alleged terrorists. "They talked about making a statement against corporate America and the government as some of the motivations for their actions," U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said in announcing the arrests with the head of the FBI in Cleveland, Stephen Anthony.

Bombings kill seven in Nigeria ABUJA, Nigeria - A suicide bomber and a man armed with explosives attacked two Nigerian newspaper offices on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding at least 26. The radical Islamic sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility. Boko Haram said it coordinated the attacks on Nigeria's major daily newspaper ThisDay in the capital, Abuja, and an office building it shares with two other newspapers in the city of Kaduna. It threatened to target other journalists in the future, alleging inaccurate coverage.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan security forces have arrested five extremists with 22,000 pounds of explosives that they smuggled in from Pakistan to carry out a huge attack in Kabul, as well as another three suspects allegedly planning to assassinate the vice president, an official said Saturday. The reports of new planned attacks in the Afghan capital came a week after extremists said to be part of the Pakistan-based Haqqani group launched coordinated assaults in the heart of Kabul and in three other cities.

Houses trembled a half mile away when a natural gas explosion rattled a compressor station near Springville, a hotbed of Marcellus Shale development in northern Pennsylvania. Just two hours after the March 29 blast, a gas safety inspector from the state Public Utility Commission was on the scene to begin an investigation into possible violations of gas safety rules. But he did not get far. The PUC shut down its examination last week after determining the station was in a rural area - and thus outside its regulatory reach.

A Northeast Pennsylvania man arrested last week at Philadelphia International Airport after attempting to carry fireworks onto a plane was released on bail Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Hey released Joseph A. Picklo, 29, of Dallas, on $25,000 bail and 24-hour house arrest with an ankle bracelet at his mother's residence in Bridesburg. Hey said Picklo tested positive for an unspecified substance and was also ordered to undergo drug testing by Pre-Trial Services. If approved in advance by Pre-Trial Services, Picklo, a musician who plays guitar and piano, would also be permitted to leave his mother's home for music jobs for specified hours in the evening.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An explosion struck near a Syrian government security building in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing two, while a security crackdown prevented opposition rallies marking one year since the first nationwide protests of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian state news agency called the Aleppo explosion a terrorist bombing and said one policeman and one female civilian were killed, while 30 were injured. It was the second attack in two days on regime strongholds.

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo - International experts fought Monday to prevent fire from reaching a second arms depot and exploding more munitions a day after a blaze set off blasts so violent they flattened buildings, killed hundreds, and trapped countless others under debris. Small detonations continued to shake the country's capital, Brazzaville, on Monday. The blasts Sunday buckled a number of buildings, including two churches and a hospital. "For the time being, there are Russian, French, and Congolese experts in the field who are trying to put out the fires.