Detonation

Aberdeen Test Center plans to conduct a large test detonation today at Aberdeen Proving Ground that is expected to generate sound and loud vibrations outside the installation boundaries, post officials said yesterday. If weather conditions become unfavorable, the test will be rescheduled, officials said. Information: 410-278-1147 or 800-688-8705.

The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to conduct test detonations, which may be heard or felt outside the installation boundaries, through Sept. 22 (excluding Sunday). These detonations will be in no way hazardous to residents of surrounding communities and are a necessary part of ATC's vital test mission. Questions may be directed to 410-278-1147or 800-688-8705.

Prompted by concerns from area residents, officials at Aberdeen Proving Ground have postponed the scheduled detonation of hundreds of pounds of munitions -- including some containing chemical agents.Army officials had planned to blow up 14 chemical rounds and 112 nonchemical rounds at the Edgewood area of APG from Tuesday to mid-May, and planned to announce it through an advertising blitz.But after word got out early and prompted an outcry, base officials began organizing a meeting with elected officials to discuss educating residents in nearby communities in Harford, Cecil, Kent and Baltimore counties about the detonation.

Recently the media reported on a story about dangerous homemade bottle bombs that were found in Baltimore County ("'Bottle bombs' dangerous pranks - and possible felony," May 13). Unfortunately this problem is but the tip of a much larger problem in the county, namely the routine detonation of loud, explosive fireworks in residential communities for personal entertainment, especially on summer weekends around dusk. Otherwise peaceful communities, including my community just north of Parkton, are repeatedly bombarded with what sounds like shotgun blasts and exploding mortar shells.

Air monitoring after Tuesday's explosion of seven chemical rounds at Aberdeen Proving Ground found trace amounts of a nerve agent, but not enough to halt detonations scheduled for today, officials said.Col. Roslyn M. Glantz, deputy installation commander at the proving ground, said 48 sensitive monitors near the detonation site displayed low levels of the nerve agent Tabun on Tuesday. Hand-held monitors did not pick up traces of the agent, she said.Only three of the monitors detected traces after overnight testing, and monitors placed in homes five miles away in Kent County showed no presence of the agent, Glantz said.

Land mines are a land mine for the administration, the Nobel Peace Prize to the would-be banners being merely the first detonation.Awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to a Communist jokester was radical because it legitimizes, not Party lines, but jokes as literatoor.If they won't let you land your chopper in the valley, buy the valley.Pub Date: 10/15/97

In Baltimore City Madison Street ramp to JFX to shut down starting this evening The Madison Street access ramp to the northbound Jones Falls Expressway will be closed for several nights starting tonight. The ramp off Madison Street, north of downtown, will be closed from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. tonight through Wednesday night. It will be open during the day. Also, St. Paul Street will be closed between Madison and Centre streets from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. today. In Anne Arundel Tractor-trailers' crash causes backup on U.S. 50 ANNAPOLIS - A crash involving two tractor-trailers on the Bay Bridge yesterday morning caused a three-mile backup on U.S. 50 and tied up Eastern Shore-bound traffic for more than three hours, according to Maryland Transportation Authority Police.

BEIJING --Talks between the United States and North Korea hit a significant obstacle yesterday, as diplomats said the two sides sharply disagreed over whether relaxing an American-led crackdown on the Pyongyang regime's financial transactions should be part of any deal to roll back its nuclear program. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said yesterday that North Korean negotiators were determined to link the two issues, and that the United States is equally determined not to. The new difficulties were the latest turn in an up-and-down week of talks given new urgency after North Korea's test detonation of a nuclear device Oct. 9, the country's first.

IN AUGUST of 1989, a terrifying explosion ripped apart the Al Qaqaa munitions plant in Iraq.Sound waves carried the fact of the non-nuclear disaster for hundreds of miles, but news of what had happened remained Saddam Hussein's most closely guarded secret.Farzad Bazoft, a journalist for a British publication, disguised himself as a medical technician and went to take a look. He was caught, and despite pleas from civilized capitals (Bush's White House, in its appeasement mode, remained mute)

Recently the media reported on a story about dangerous homemade bottle bombs that were found in Baltimore County ("'Bottle bombs' dangerous pranks - and possible felony," May 13). Unfortunately this problem is but the tip of a much larger problem in the county, namely the routine detonation of loud, explosive fireworks in residential communities for personal entertainment, especially on summer weekends around dusk. Otherwise peaceful communities, including my community just north of Parkton, are repeatedly bombarded with what sounds like shotgun blasts and exploding mortar shells.

The Aberdeen Test Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to conduct several large detonations next week which are likely to generate sound and/or vibration outside the installation's boundaries, the post announced. The detonations are scheduled to occur between Monday, March 26 and Friday, March 30. If weather conditions are not favorable, firing will be rescheduled. Questions should be directed to the Aberdeen Proving Ground Public Affairs Office, 410-278-1147 or 800-688-8705.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office and the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office are investigating the detonation of two homemade bottle bombs at a home near Aberdeen early Christmas morning. Fire investigators were called to the home in the 2000 block of Carsins Run Road northwest of Aberdeen at about 5 a.m. Dec. 25 by the homeowner following the explosions. A notice of investigation from the fire marshal's office says that "a suspect detonated two improvised devices commonly known as a soda bottle bomb on the owner's property.

HAGERSTOWN — Fire officials say one of two soda-bottle bombs placed in a hotel parking lot exploded, but did not cause any injuries or damage. It happened about 1:45 a.m. Monday at Spring Hill Suites hotel on Valley Mall Road near Hagerstown. The State Fire Marshal's Office says two devices were placed in the parking lot, but only one exploded. Officials tell The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown that bottles contained a volatile mixture of tin foil and toilet-bowl cleaner and were extremely dangerous.

Lemuel O. Warfield, a former naval fighter pilot and reservist who later became an oil company manager, died Nov. 15 at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center from complications of a fall he suffered at his Annapolis home. He was 80. Mr. Warfield was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1945, he enlisted in the Navy. He was designated a naval aviator in 1948 and commissioned an ensign. He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 23 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea in the Pacific Theater.

BAGHDAD -- A female bomber blew herself up yesterday in front of a building used by former Sunni Arab insurgents now allied with U.S. forces, one of three attacks that killed at least 24 people in Diyala province during the day. It was the latest in a string of bombings that have targeted groups dubbed "concerned local citizens," or CLCs, which aid American efforts to combat the insurgency. The U.S. military has been working with about 60,000 volunteers, including some former insurgents, to help police their areas in central and northern Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- Citing "credible specific information" about terror tactics, Transportation Security Administration officers nationwide stepped up their scrutiny of passengers carrying remote-control toys aboard airplanes yesterday. The move was not motivated by a specific terror plot, said Kip Hawley, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in charge of aviation security. But there is concern in the United States and internationally that common remote-control toys could be used to detonate a bomb as part of a terror plot.

Ban Nanou, Laos -- The bomb disposal team I'm accompanying heads for Ban Nanou in Laos after word is received that villagers there have found bombs they want destroyed.Five Lao technicians and an ordnance disposal expert hired by the British Mines Advisory Group (MAG) converge on the site in )) an open truck. To stay warm, the technicians are wearing their flak jackets and helmets with blast shields. It looks like an invasion as we drive down the rutted lane in the village. People stare at us.The United States dropped an estimated 580,000 plane-loads of bombs on Laos during the Vietnam from 1964 to 1973.

WASHINGTON - Government forensic investigators examining how militants manufacture improvised explosives have found indications of a global bomb-making network, and have concluded that Islamic militant bomb builders have used the same designs for car bombs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, government officials said last week. "Linkages have been made in devices that have been used in different continents," said one forensic expert involved in the intelligence effort. "We know that we have the same bomb maker, or different bomb makers are using the same instructions."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Red Mosque became a flashpoint for renewed violence yesterday as authorities attempted to reopen it for Muslim prayers, with militants battling police and an apparent suicide blast nearby killing at least 13 people. The mosque in the heart of the capital was the scene just over two weeks ago of a raid by commandos who seized the compound from the heavily armed followers of a pair of radical clerics. More than 100 people died, and a wave of reprisal attacks by militants in subsequent days left another 180 people dead.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Suicide bombers sent another chilling message to Sunni tribal leaders who have rebuffed al-Qaida, blowing up three trucks loaded with chlorine-laden explosives in Anbar province, the military said yesterday. At least two people were killed, and more than 350 were sickened by the noxious clouds, including seven U.S. troops. Since January, suspected Sunni insurgents have waged six attacks involving a combination of explosive devices and chlorine, killing a total of 26 people.