NY bombing threat

NEW YORK - Two calls threatening a bomb attack in New York in late January from people claiming to represent the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were received by the US embassy in Algeria, the FBI said yesterday, writes Peter Pringle.

The calls were being investigated as part of the inquiry into the bomb blast at the World Trade Center last Friday that killed at least five people and injured more than 1,000. The callers to the embassy said a bomb would be set off unless all the Palestinians deported by Israel late last year were allowed to return immediately.

However, James Fox, the FBI chief in New York, said that the inquiry into last Friday's bomb blast was not targeting any particular Middle East terrorist group. Among the other Middle East groups under examination was Hamas, which opposes the Middle East peace talks. Hamas supporters made up most of the recent Palestinian deportees.

As investigators continued to sift through the debris caused by the bomb, the Mayor of New York, David Dinkins, announced the city was offering a dollars 100,000 (pounds 71,000) reward for information leading to capture of the bombers.