WORLD NEWS

  Updated at: 1201 PST,  Sunday, May 02, 2010
 NEW YORK: Police found a suspected car bomb in a smoking sport utility vehicle Saturday evening in Times Square, then cleared the streets of thousands of tourists milling through the landmark district so they could dismantle the device.

A white robotic police arm broke windows of the black Nissan Pathfinder to remove any explosive materials while heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, teeming with taxis and theatergoers on one of the first summer-like days of the year.

Investigators removed bomb-making materials, including propane tanks, explosive powders and a crude timing device, top police spokesman Paul Browne said.

"There were explosive elements, including powder, gasoline, propane and some kind of electrical wires attached to a clock," Browne said early Sunday. "No motive has been identified."

An officer noticed smoke coming from the SUV around 6:30 p.m. and cleared the streets. The area remained closed more than seven hours later.

Police are investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes, Browne said. The Nissan Pathfinder's license plates do not match the car's registration, he said.

Police evacuated several residential and commercial buildings and cleared the streets of people. Police were deployed around the area with heavy weapons on empty streets in the heart of busy midtown Manhattan.

Some tourists reported hearing a small explosion hours after the car was first located.

Shelly Carlisle, of Portland, Ore., said police crowded into her Broadway theater after the curtain closed on "Next to Normal," a show on the same block where the SUV was found.

"At the end of the show, the police came in. We were told we had to leave," Carlisle said. "They said there was a bomb scare."

The car was parked on 45th Street, and the block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution, police said. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.

FBI agents are on the scene with the New York Police Department, and the matter is being taken seriously, said Paul Bresson, head of the FBI's public affairs office at bureau headquarters in Washington.

The Homeland Security Department is aware of the situation, but the NYPD has it under control and is investigating, said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.

The block that was closed is one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "Billy Elliot" and "Lend Me a Tenor."

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.

Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds.

"It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said.

Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent's dinner Saturday night. A news conference was planned in New York for early Sunday.

President Barack Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.

Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said.

In December, a van without license plates parked in Times Square led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside.

NEW YORK: New York's Times Square was reopened to the public early Sunday after police removed a sports utility vehicle used in what authorities have described as a failed bombing attempt. Television images showed the dark green Nissan Pathfinder being pulled onto a flat-bed truck and moved to a police location where it will be examined by bomb experts for additional evidence. "The vehicle will be examined for DNA and fingerprint evidence," city police commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters earlier. Kelly said the device, discovered inside the car at about 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) Saturday, consisted of three propane tanks, consumer-grade fireworks, two gasoline containers, wires and two clocks. Police are hunting the car's driver.

NEW YORK: A car bomb that threatened a "very deadly event" failed to go off Saturday in the heart of New York's Times Square, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.

"We are very lucky... (to) avoid what could have been a very deadly event," Bloomberg said at an impromptu press conference.

"The bomb squad confirmed that the suspicious vehicle indeed did contain an explosive device."

WASHINGTON: The White House said President Barack Obama has been briefed on the apparent car bomb found Saturday in New York's Times Square. In a statement, the administration said that the president, who attended an annual dinner for White House news correspondents Saturday night, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department. Obama has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support. The White House says that Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation.

 NEW YORK: New York City police have removed bomb-making materials from a parked sports utility vehicle in Times Square, including propane tanks and a clock suspected to be a timing device.

Top police spokesman Paul Browne says investigators have also removed gasoline and explosive powders from the vehicle. An officer noticed smoke coming from the sport utility vehicle around 6:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) and cleared the streets of thousands of theatergoers and tourists from the landmark.

Browne says police are investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes. He says the Nissan Pathfinder's license plates do not match the car's registration.

Updated at: 0723 PST,  Sunday, May 02, 2010  CAIRO: The Arab League on Saturday said it backed indirect peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, despite what it called a lack of Israeli conviction in the process, a statement said. Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told a Cairo news conference that a final decision to resume indirect talks with Israel will be taken by the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee. He also said that building in the disputed east Jerusalem neighbourhood that first torpedoed earlier planned proximity talks will stop the Palestinians from indirectly negotiating. "If they build one unit out of the 1,600, we will not go to the talks," Erakat said of Israeli plans to build more settler homes in the holy city. In March the Palestinians, with Arab backing, reluctantly agreed to indirect US-brokered talks for a period of four months, but those plans collapsed days later when Israel said during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem. The Arab League decision to endorse so-called proximity talks was taken by a committee of foreign ministers after "guarantees" by US President Barack Obama in a letter to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. "Despite the lack of conviction of the Israeli side in achieving peace, the committee affirms what was agreed on the 2nd of March 2010 in regards to the time period for the indirect negotiations," the statement said. It was referring to a decision by Arab foreign ministers in March to back one last round of indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians within a four-month deadline. But the committee insisted that the indirect talks should "not be immediately succeeded by direct talks," Saturday's statement said. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a news conference that the time period for indirect talks was two months, adding: "If these negotiations go well, we will extend the period." The League statement said it reaffirmed that the negotiations must "demand a complete end to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem." US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she expected the Israelis and Palestinians to begin indirect talks next week. Israel's March announcement of new settlements for annexed east Jerusalem angered the Arabs and infuriated the United States and the international community.