Detonation

NEW YORK -- Safety investigators searching for the cause of the explosion on Trans World Airlines Flight 800 have tentatively ruled out two recently recovered fuel tank probes after finding that they showed no evidence that they produced an electrical spark that might have set off the explosion.In addition, Shelly Hazle, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said analysis of the probes also showed that damage found on the probes was consistent with what would be expected in a fuel-air explosion in the plane's center fuel tank.

A State Fire Marshal bomb squad and an Army team from Fort Belvoir, Va., disposed of several pieces of military ordnance - including a live 75mm armor piercing shell - that were found in a home in Westminster on Monday, July 16. Officials said the items, which included explosive training aids, were "rendered safe," after being transported to the Northern Landfill, in Westminster, so they could be handled in a safe environment. The Office of the State Fire Marshal said in a release that the explosive materials had been found in a home in the 700 block of Old Westminster Pike on Monday at about 9 a.m. Officials said the widow of an K-9 trainer who dealt with explosives was in the process of moving items inside the home when she located the materials and notified the Fire Marshal.

Howard County Police are warning of a spate of so-called "bottle bomb" pranks in which plastic soda containers are filled with chemicals and left to explode. County residents have reported five bottle bomb incidents to police this year. Nine incidents were reported in 2011, police said. Victims of the pranks risk injuries to the skin, eyes and lungs. Anyone who finds a suspicious container is advised to stay clear and call 911. Common instructions for the bombs found online call for a mixture of drain cleaner, water and aluminum foil.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore city and county.Parkville PrecinctRobbery: An undisclosed amount of money was taken in a robbery late Sunday at the High's store in the 1300 block of Long Green Pike. The robber -- a man in his 20s wearing black clothing -- acted as if he were buying a pack of cigarettes, then demanded money, implying possession of a handgun.Garrison PrecinctBurglary: Someone broke a window of a home on Still Forest Road on Monday evening and apparently took $500 from a closet.

BAGHDAD - A leading Sunni political party's headquarters in western Iraq was blown up early yesterday morning. And in southern Iraq, where Shiite factions are fighting one another, a powerful bomb was discovered on the road to an important Shiite shrine. Both episodes pointed to probable tensions in the months ahead of provincial elections in which factions are fighting hard to ensure that they have a place at the political table. The explosion of the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, happened about 6 a.m., according to witnesses, who said the American military had been near the site of the bombing until about an hour before the detonation.

In regard to Paul West's article in Sunday's Sun, "The battle is joined in Queen Anne's" (Jan. 17), I would like to add a few comments. As trustee of my family's farm, which borders the Hunt Ray farm where the proposed Foreign Affairs Training Center is proposed to be built, I am legally bound to protect the interest and value of our farm. Those interests are threatened by the proposed facility in the following ways. My greatest concern is for the safety of my two children who play outside of our back door only 500 yards from where ordinance will be tested.

The District Court in Elkton was evacuated yesterday while a robotic device removed a homemade explosive brought there by a couple telling of a neighbor's threats to blow up the town Police Department.Police said the incident led to the arrest of Duane Steven Crapo, 19, and the evacuation of an apartment complex where authorities seized more explosive material from Crapo's residence on East Main Street.Crapo was charged with the manufacture and possession of a Molotov cocktail, the assembly of an explosive device and three counts of reckless endangerment, police said.

An unannounced test yesterday at Aberdeen Proving Ground sent dozens of Harford County residents scrambling to call 911 after noise from the sizable explosion rumbled across neighborhoods from Aberdeen to Bel Air. "People have a heightened sensitivity because of terrorist activities," said APG spokesman George Mercer. "They heard this and said, `Oh, my God, something bad is happening.'" Emergency dispatchers in Hickory, Bel Air, Aberdeen, Edgewood, Havre de Grace and on the proving ground were flooded with calls, they said, with at least 50, Mercer said.

Maryland Transit Administration police have charged a 22-year-old Baltimore man in connection with the detonation of a homemade bomb on a city bus earlier this month, documents show. Alan Weeks, of the 5900 block of Radecke Ave., turned himself in Saturday after television stations broadcast closed-circuit surveillance footage of two men who were on the bus moments before the bomb went off, according to charging documents. Weeks said he was one of the men in the surveillance footage but denied any involvement in the incident.

NEW YORK -- When the global ban on antipersonnel land mines was concluded in 1997, President Clinton did not sign it, but committed the United States to do so this year if the Pentagon could develop alternatives to comply with the treaty in the meantime. It eventually came up with the Spider, designed to be detonated by command, which made it lawful to deploy under the treaty. Like most modern U.S. mines, the Spider combines anti-tank mines with anti-personnel mines to protect them from tampering.