Hand Grenade

County police have arrested two men in connection with the attempted robbery of an Odenton carryout shop and also charged one of them with robbing an Odenton bank in December and attempting to rob an Odenton gas station Thursday, authorities said.Jeffrey Alan Potter, 23, of the 1300 block of Farrara Drive in Odenton and Johnny Ray Barnes, 22, of the 1100 block of Reece Road in Severn were charged with assault with intent to rob in the incident Friday afternoon at the C & M Carry-Out in the 400 block of Higgins Drive.

Union Pacific Corp. offered yesterday to acquire Santa Fe Pacific Corp. for $3.4 billion, in a move that could scuttle the previously announced merger of Santa Fe and Burlington Northern Inc.Because of the overlap of Union Pacific and Santa Fe on many routes, the surprising offer by Union Pacific is expected to raise antitrust problems that could block its approval.Thus, industry analysts said, Union Pacific may be playing the role of the spoiler to the proposed Santa Fe-Burlington Northern merger, which would have displaced Union Pacific as the nation's largest railroad.

It was just an $8 souvenir innocently stuffed into a suitcase by a Japanese businessman headed home, but it inconvenienced thousands of people yesterday morning and delayed flights out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport for three hours.The souvenir was a hand grenade.Sho Matsunaga, 49, of Takasago, Japan was making his way through security at BWI's Pier C at 5: 30 a.m. when the grenade was seen in the X-ray machine, said Betsey Sanpere, the airport's public information officer.

Baltimore County police are searching for a man believed to have been part of a Pikesville home invasion robbery earlier this month. Police said that two men forced their way into a residence in the 6800 block of Westridge Road on Aug. 19, accompanied by two women. The victim told police the two men asked for money and guns and then assaulted him; he eventually told them where he kept the guns. Guns and gold chains from around the man's neck were taken, authorities said. The investigation led police to obtain an arrest warrant for armed robbery, first-degree assault, and theft against Lavar Maurice Rich, 32, of the 7200 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore, who goes by Maurice.

A Mass of Christian burial for J. Paul Buchheit Jr., who owned businesses in the Glen Burnie area, will be offered at 9:30 a.m. today at St. Jane Frances de Chantal Roman Catholic Church, 8499 Virginia Ave., in Riviera Beach.Mr. Buchheit, who was 64 and lived on Lake Drive in Bayside Beach, died Sunday at North Arundel Hospital of heart failure.Since 1978, he owned Fancy Tees, a T-shirt shop in the Harundale Mall with his son. For the past two years, they also operated Teezing, a gift shop there.

Police officers serving an arrest warrant on a Hampden man yesterday stumbled across several weapons and suspicious chemicals that prompted authorities to close a city block and evacuate several houses. The incident began about 7:45 a.m. when Howard County police officers, accompanied by city police, attempted to serve an arrest warrant charging a man with felony theft. The officers entered a rowhouse in the 3400 block of Roland Ave. and discovered items in the house that concerned them, according to a county police spokeswoman.

Richmond C. Laney, a former candidate for Howard County sheriff who was indicted on explosives charges in September, is asking that his case be moved to another jurisdiction. Yesterday, Laney's public defender, Louis P. Willemin, noted pretrial publicity and Howard County judges' involvement in Laney's divorce and child support cases as reasons for the request. Assistant State's Attorney Keith Cave said he had not filed a response to Laney's request and could not comment on the state's position.

LONDON - On the third day of one of Britain's biggest security alerts, authorities closed part of a major London airport and suspended flights yesterday after a 37-year-old Venezuelan arrived from South America with a hand grenade in his luggage. The explosive was found when the man's bags were searched after his British Airways flight from Colombia landed at Gatwick Airport, south of London, police said. After the discovery, flights from Gatwick's North Terminal were suspended. Also yesterday, two men were arrested near Heathrow Airport, police said.

WHAT DOES yesterday's horrifying arson attack on a South Korean subway train have to do with Saturday's anti-war protests by several million people around the world? Just this: If a mentally unbalanced man can kill upwards of 100 people with nothing more than a drink container full of flammable liquid, then maybe the Bush administration's obsession with Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is a little misplaced. An attack on that same subway train with nerve agents would probably not have killed any more people than the arson did. There are, in other words, all sorts of garden-variety tools of death available to terrorists.

CARACAS, Venezuela -In the final days before a referendum that will determine whether President Hugo Chavez can run for re-election indefinitely, the campaign has an ugly edge. Anti-government protests have intensified in some cities, despite government pressure, and pro-Chavez vigilantes have attacked institutions such as the Caracas mayor's office and the Vatican's diplomatic mission. The chief of a leading opposition party, Democratic Action leader Henry Ramos, said a hand grenade exploded late Saturday, shattering windows and damaging the facade of its Caracas headquarters.