Hand Grenade

Two men who attempted to board a British Airways jet yesterday with a bag full of novelty hand grenades were described as "surprised" when the devices triggered an evacuation that delayed hundreds of passengers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Authorities ordered the closing and partial evacuation of the International Terminal. Several arriving and departing flights were delayed for hours, and hundreds of passengers were stranded in their planes or in the terminal. No charges were filed against the two men, who caught their flight to London two hours late.

A Hyattsville man pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to possession of improvised hand grenades and ricin, listed as a possible biological weapon under federal law. Myron Tereshchuk, 43, could receive a maximum of 15 years in prison, said the U.S. attorney's office. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 18. He had pleaded guilty in June to extortion for attempting to force a business competitor to pay him $17 million. FBI agents searching his home in the case found weapons and chemicals.

Gunmen carrying automatic weapons and hand grenade opened fire on a wine-tasting party at a predominantly white golf club in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa over the weekend, killing four people and wounding 17.Police were working on the assumption that the incident was an act of terrorism. If so, it would be the first such attack on white civilians in the country since the late 1980s.The assault is certain to stir alarm in white communities around the nation, where the ruling minority lives behind eight-foot walls and loops of barbed wire.

A 39-year-old Stevensville man is being held for psychiatric evaluation after Queen Anne's County sheriff's deputies found an array of military explosives - including land mines - at his home following an alleged assault at a neighbor's home, the state fire marshal's office said yesterday. Investigators said Eugenio Augusto Giolitti, a former Navy SEAL with expertise in explosives, is being evaluated at Anne Arundel County General Hospital after an emergency committal. Police searched Giolitti's home in the 300 block of John Kallis Lane on Sunday night after being called to the waterfront community after a dispute between Giolitti and a guest at his next-door neighbor's home.

O.C. will be a great town if they ever get the sand to stay.U.S. politicians are breathing a sigh of relief about the North American Free Trade Area. It will never pass the Canadian parliament.Communist China is the only country where they riot FOR stock markets.Don't say nobody likes George. Yitzhak likes George.The Marines Corps is training female junior officers in assault rifle, hand-to-hand and grenade. These officers are not expected to participate in a Middle East landing but may be assigned to the next Tailhook convention.

Grenade unearthed in Annapolis proves to be nonexplosive An unexploded hand grenade was found by construction crews under a few feet of soil along Route 50 in Annapolis yesterday, causing traffic to be backed up for about an hour on the eastbound stretch as the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and the state's bomb squad investigated. The grenade was inert and officials "don't believe anything to be suspicious" about it, said Division Chief John Scholz, spokesman for the county Fire Department.

A Baltimore County judge dismissed yesterday part of a $40 million suit against Maryland Public Television filed by an Idaho company that alleges an MPT report was unfair in portraying their automotive product as dangerous and showing an exploding car to make its point. Oz Technology Inc. of Rathrum sued MPT in February after a report on MotorWeek, a consumer-oriented weekly automotive show produced by the Owings Mills-based network. The suit by Oz alleges the MotorWeek report about the company's automotive refrigerant HC-12a was "untrue, false and defamatory."

Et cetera Blast's Neto named MISL Player of Week The Major Indoor Soccer League announced Tuesday that Blast forward Adauto Neto has been named Player of the Week. Neto scored five goals and added two assists as the Eastern Division-leading Blast earned a pair of victories last week. It is the second time this season that Neto has won captured the weekly honor. Navy football: Senior offensive tackle Ryan Basford , senior center Brady DeMell and junior outside linebacker-safety Tra'ves Bush were named All-East by the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

The holding pattern for Howard County pilots awaiting a local airport has been extended to at least a year and possibly 18 months.That's how long it will take the Army to clean Tipton Army Airfield and sign it over to Howard and Anne Arundel counties, Joseph W. Rutter Jr., director of the Howard County Planning and Zoning Department, told the County Council yesterday."

Four hours after a student found what looked like a hand grenade in a third-floor boys bathroom at Parkville High School yesterday - prompting the evacuation of the school and the cancellation of classes - police blew up the object on the soccer field and found it contained no explosives. Investigators are trying to determine who brought what Cpl. Vickie Warehime, a Baltimore County police spokeswoman, called a "dummy grenade" into the school. The student noticed the grenade about 8:16 a.m., during the first period, and told a teacher, who pulled the fire alarm to get teachers and all 1,800 students out of the Putty Hill Avenue building.