Police find explosives on rail line in Spain

Police find explosiveson rail line in Spain
MADRID, Spain -- Police found a bomb on a high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found 22 to 24 pounds of dynamite today under a track about 40 miles south of Madrid on the rail line running to Seville, Acebes said.
The explosives were connected to a detonator with a 430-foot cable, the minister told a news conference. He said it was not known who placed the bomb.
The bomb scare came less than a month after 10 backpack bombs ripped through commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring more than 1,800.
On Thursday, police in northern Spain defused three letter bombs addressed to journalists in Madrid.
Mailbox bomb suspectincompetent for trial
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- A former college student accused of planting pipe bombs in a "smiley face" pattern across the Midwest nearly two years ago was declared incompetent to stand trial Thursday by a federal judge.
Luke Helder, 22, was ordered to return to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where he will undergo another round of psychological evaluation to determine if he is a risk to others. U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett could free him if he is found not to be a significant risk.
Helder was caught after a nationwide manhunt in May 2002, when 18 pipe bombs and anti-government letters were placed in mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. Six pipe bombs exploded in Iowa and Illinois, injuring four letter carriers and two residents.
After his arrest outside Reno, Nev., Helder told authorities that by scattering the bombs across the country, he was trying to draw a "smiley face" on the map.
Judge Bennett found Helder incompetent based on three forensic reports prepared by government doctors. The reports have been sealed by Judge Bennett, who did not elaborate on Helder's diagnosis.
Death penalty is possiblein highway shootings
COLUMBUS -- Attorneys for a man charged in half of the 24 highway shootings that terrorized central Ohio drivers for months say they're not surprised prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the only slaying.
Charles A. McCoy Jr., 28, also was indicted by a grand jury Thursday with numerous other offenses, including attempted murder, assault and vandalism. He faces both murder and aggravated murder charges in the case of the only person hit. Gail Knisley, 62, of Washington Court House was shot Nov. 25 on Interstate 270 while riding with a friend taking her to a doctor's appointment and shopping trip.
McCoy also was charged with attempted murder and felonious assault on the driver, Mary Cox.
The aggravated murder charge says the offense was committed "as part of a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of or attempt to kill two or more persons."
McCoy's attorneys say there are differing legal interpretations on how much time can pass between separate instances to establish that pattern.
The attorneys would not comment on strategy and said they expected the case to go to trial.
Authorities hunt suspectsin Uzbekistan terrorism
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Uzbek security forces searched the capital and countryside for at least eight terror suspects in a series of attacks and explosions this week. State-backed religious leaders condemned the militants as evildoers who should be "eliminated."
A high-ranking Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that authorities were still hunting for suspects today and that he couldn't rule out more attacks, which have killed 44 people in Uzbekistan since Sunday.
The official said the bloodshed was linked to alleged terrorists who have sought refuge in lawless regions in nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ilya Pyagay, the Interior Ministry's deputy anti-terrorism chief, contended Thursday that those behind the unrest were followers of the strict Wahhabi strain of Islam and belonged to one of the branches of Al-Qaida.
The border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been the scene of recent offensives by Pakistani troops who last month said they had injured the political leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yuldash. The IMU has been blamed for 1999 attacks that killed at least 16 in Tashkent.
An explosion Sunday marked the start of a series of suicide bombings and other attacks in this tightly controlled country that is the closest U.S. ally in the region.
Associated Press