Canada: 'Al Qaeda Train Terror Plot' Foiled

Canadian police have foiled an al Qaeda-backed "major terrorist plot" to attack a passenger train on a railway line between New York and Toronto.

Two people have been arrested and charged with conspiring to carry out the attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group, police revealed at a news conference in Toronto.

The suspects - Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35 - had been under surveillance since August 2012 after authorities were tipped off about one of the men.

They will attend a bail hearing in Toronto today.

The pair were allegedly planning to target and derail a Via Rail passenger train in the Toronto area, and are alleged to have received "direction and guidance" from al Qaeda "elements" in Iran.

Police said there was "no indication that these attacks were state-sponsored" and declined to say where the suspects were from.

They confirmed they were not Canadian citizens but had been in the country "a significant amount of time".

The suspects' plans were "not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology," police said.

"This is the first known al Qaeda-planned attack that we've experienced in Canada," Superintendent Doug Best said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the claim that the men were backed by Tehran-supported al Qaeda was "ridiculous".

Canadian police hold a news conference to reveal details of the arrests

"This is the most hilarious thing I've heard in my 64 years," he said.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned later that the "arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada".

Canadian authorities, the FBI and US Homeland Security police and agents have been involved in a year-long cross-border operation that led to the arrests in Toronto and Montreal.

Assistant Commissioner James Maliza, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: "Had this plot been carried out it would have resulted in innocent people being killed, or seriously injured."

His colleague Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan added: "We are alleging that these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to initiate a terrorist attack.

"They watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto area. It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent."

Sky's US correspondent Amanda Walker said: "They are really hailing this as a successful operation, something that they have managed to prevent.

"It does seem they have treated this as a very serious and major threat which was certainly well on in the planning.

"But not far enough for the public or railway staff to be in any immediate danger.

"So obviously they had a difficult act here to actually balance the timing of when they made these arrests - getting enough intelligence, enough information, but not taking that up to the point when the public would have been in real danger."

The news comes one week after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded 180 - and as Canada's parliament debates a proposal to beef up anti-terror measures.

A US Justice Department official in Washington said there was no connection between the thwarted terrorist plot and last Monday's attacks in Boston.

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Injuries As French Embassy Attacked In Libya

The French embassy in Libya has been damaged after a car bomb attack in the capital of Tripoli.

Officials have confirmed that two security guards were injured in the attack.

"There was an attack on the embassy. We think it was a booby-trapped car," a Libyan official said.

The blast happened at 7am in an upmarket residential area of the city

"There was a lot of damage and there are two guards wounded."

The blast destroyed a security wall and severely damaged the building when the blast occurred at about 7am local time.

The French mission is located in a two-storey villa in the uptown Gargaresh area of Tripoli.

Journalist William Crisp, at the scene, told Sky News: "The engine block of the car landed quite a way from the embassy so it was quite a strong blast.

The unprecendented attack occurred in Tripoli

"The attack was in a sleepy, wealthy part of town. It was a middle-class neighbourhood."

The motive for the attack, the first assault launched on an embassy in the Libyan capital, was not immediately clear.

A French source confirmed an attack against the embassy and said one guard was seriously wounded and another lightly hurt.

Buildings opposite the embassy were also damaged in the attack and two cars parked near the embassy were destroyed.

The bomb appeared to have been detonated directly outside the embassy

Libyan foreign minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz condemned the attack on the embassy, calling it a "terrorist act".

"We strongly condemn this act, which we regard as a terrorist act against a brother nation that supported Libya during the revolution" of 2011 that ousted the regime of Moamer Kadhafi, Abdel Aziz told AFP at the scene of the blast.

In Paris, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius condemned the bombing, calling it an "abhorrent act."

In a statement, Mr Fabius said that his ministry was "in liaison with the Libyan authorities" and that France will "do everything it can to shed light on the circumstances of this abhorrent act and to quickly identify the perpetrators".

The embassy was daubed in anti-French grafffit in 2011

MR Fabius is expected to make a visit to the city to discuss the situation with both LIbyan officials and French diplomatic staff.

Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall added: "It is another indication of how things are not doing well in Libya.

"The French would be a target, along with Britain, as they spearheaded regime change from the Gaddafi era."

Two years after the country's civil war, Libya has struggled to maintain security, build a unified army and reign in its militias.

On the anniversary of the September 11 US attacks last year, armed men launched an assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, killing four US citizens including the ambassador to Libya.

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Boston Bomb Suspects 'Had Religious Motive'

The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam, but they do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, US officials have said.

Authorities have interrogated and charged the surviving brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

The 19-year-old remains in a serious condition with a gunshot wound to his throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died on Friday after a fierce gun battle with police.

Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital bed with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people a week ago.

Tamerlan is seen here with little brother Dzhokhar and their sisters

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the US for about a decade, practised Islam.

Two US officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism but were apparently not involved with Islamic terrorist organisations.

Dzhokhar is said to have communicated with his interrogators in writing due to his injuries.

They said they were still trying to verify what they were told by Tsarnaev and were looking at such things as his phone and online communications and his associations with others.

In the criminal complaint outlining the allegations, investigators said Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a backpack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the marathon.

The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his mobile phone and lifting it to his ear just moments before the two blasts.

A silent tribute was held in Boston on Monday

After the first explosion, a block away from Dzhokhar "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm", the complaint says.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev "virtually alone of the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm".

He then quickly walked away, leaving a backpack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his mobile phone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying two foreign nationals arrested on Saturday in the Boston area on immigration violations are from Kazakhstan and may have known the two marathon bombing suspects.

The foreign ministry said US authorities came across them while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Their names have not been released.

The aftermath of the Boston Marathon blasts

On Monday, Boston residents observed a moment of silence exactly a week after the first of two bombs went off near the marathon finish line.

A private funeral was also held for Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant worker who was among the dead.

Later in the day, a memorial service was held at Boston University for another victim, Lu Lingzi, 23, a graduate student from China.

The youngest person to die was eight-year-old Martin Richard, while police officer Sean Collier was killed during a confrontation with the suspects in the early hours of Friday.

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Five Killed In Washington State Shooting

Five people have been killed in a shooting at an apartment complex in Washington State, including a suspect who was shot by officers.

Police say officers responded to a 9:30pm emergency call of shots being fired at the Pinewood Apartments complex in Federal Way, south of Seattle.

In addition to the possible suspect, the victims also include three other men and one woman.

Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock said: "When we arrived, there was a lot of gunfire already being fired and multiple calls, 911 calls of gunfire."

Police found two injured men on the ground in a parking lot and one of them reached for a gun as the officers moved in to assist them, she said.

At that point, other officers opened fire.

The suspect was killed but it wasn't immediately clear if it was from police gunfire.

The other man on the ground and a third man in the parking lot were found dead.

In a search of the complex, police found yet another dead man in one apartment and a dead woman in another.

Police flooded the scene and carried out searches of the area, and authorities said afterwards they did not think another shooter was on the loose.

It is not clear what set off the shooting, and police are trying to determine if the woman was accidentally hit by gunfire.

"We're gonna continue to go door to door in hopes that we can find some additional witnesses, and hopefully we won't be finding any more victims," Ms Schrock said.

Federal Way is about 20 miles (32km) south of Seattle.

More follows...

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Boston Bombs Suspect 'Awake And Responding'

The surviving Boston marathon bomb suspect is beginning to respond to questions from investigators, reports say.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in a critical but stable condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, where some of the 180 people wounded in the blasts are also being treated.

The 19-year-old is said to have a wound to his throat - reportedly caused by a gunshot through his mouth that exited the back of his neck - which prevents him from speaking.

Tamerlan died in a gunfight

But major US news networks say he is responding to questions in writing.

He is under armed guard in hospital and federal prosecutors are preparing to file criminal charges against him.

Dzhokhar is also reported to have been shot in the leg during a shootout with law enforcement the night before his arrest.

His older brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan, 26, died in that gunfight.

A lawyer for Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, said US authorities have also asked to speak with his client.

Amato DeLuca said Mrs Russell Tsarnaev did not suspect her husband of anything, and nothing seemed amiss after the bombings.

He said she had been working 70 to 80 hours a week as a home health care aide while her husband cared for their daughter.

Mr DeLuca said on the day he died, Tamerlan was home when his wife left for work.

She found out he was a suspect when she heard about it on TV, he added.

After Tamerlan was killed early on Friday, Dzhokhar escaped, triggering an hours-long manhunt that shut down Boston.

Dzhokhar leaves the boat he was hiding in

It ended with the teenager's capture in a boat parked in a backyard late on Friday night.

It has also emerged police chiefs believe the Tsarnaev brothers were planning further attacks.

Commissioner Ed Davis said officers found a large stockpile of weapons and more than 250 rounds of ammunition at the scene of the earlier gun battle.

"They had IEDS," he said, referring to improvised explosives devices. "They had homemade hand grenades that they were throwing at the officers.

"The scene was loaded with unexploded improvised explosive devices that actually we had to point out to the arriving officers and clear the area."

There was a big manhunt for Dzhokhar who escaped after the first gun battle

He said one IED was found in a Mercedes the brothers had abandoned. "This was as dangerous as it gets in urban policing," Commissioner Davis said.

The city's residents have been asked to observe a moment of silence at 2:50pm today, exactly a week after the first of two bombs went off within seconds of each other near the marathon finish line.

Mr Davis said federal authorities were trying to track down how and where the two suspects obtained the firearms and explosive devices.

Three people were killed in the twin bombings

The two were ethnic Chechens who had been living in the United States for a decade.

Dzhokhar became a US citizen in 2012, while his older brother's application was reportedly held up.

Tamerlan began posting militant videos on social media sites in recent years, and travelled to Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, in 2012. Both Russian regions host separatist rebel groups.

The brothers' social media pages appeared to express sympathy with the struggle in Chechnya, which has been ravaged by two wars since 1994 between Russia and increasingly Islamist-leaning separatist rebels.

Three people died and more than 180 others were injured in the twin blasts at the marathon, the worst bombing to take place in the US since 9/11.

The Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball and several affiliated organisations have contributed more than £400,000 to One Fund Boston, established to help people most affected by the blasts last Monday.

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Dutch Schools Closed After Shooting Threat

Schools in the Dutch university city of Leiden have been closed after police said they had received a "serious threat" of a shooting.

In a statement, police said they did not know who had made the threat, which was posted on a website, or which school had been targeted.

The statement added: "Police have received mention about a possible school shooting (being planned) in Leiden.

"In light of this serious threat, it has been decided not to take any risk and therefore all middle schools will remain closed on Monday."

There are 22 schools affected by the threat in the city

Pupils and their parents have been warned to stay at home and an investigation is underway, police said.

Middle schools in the Netherlands cover the 12 to 16 age group and in Leiden there are at least 22 - some of them international.

The city, which is home to the country's oldest university, lies just northeast of The Hague.

In April 2011, a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed six people and injured at least 10 others when he opened fire on shoppers in a shopping centre in the nearby town of Alphen aan de Rijn.

The gunman, 24-year-old  Tristan van der Vlis, then killed himself.

In 1999, four students and a teacher were injured when a student fired 10 shots in a computer room at a school in the southern town of Veghel.

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Colorado Avalanche: Five Snowboarders Killed

Five snowboarders have been killed after apparently triggering an avalanche in Colorado, authorities have said.

Search and rescue crews recovered the bodies several hours after Saturday's slide, according to Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger.

A sixth snowboarder caught in the avalanche has been rescued.

The person's condition was not immediately known.

The avalanche occurred on a busy winter weekend as many skiers and snowboarders took advantage of late season snowfall in the Rocky Mountains.

The area is also popular among photographers and tourists seeking some of the most expansive views in Colorado.

Colorado Avalanche Information Centre forecaster Spencer Logan said there have been weak layers in the snowpack since early January.

"Our last series of storms made them more active again," he said.

US avalanche deaths climbed steeply after 1990, averaging 24 a year, as new gear became available for backcountry travel.

Until then, avalanches rarely claimed more than a handful of lives each season in records going back to 1950.

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China Quake: Over 11,000 People Injured

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

The death toll in the Chinese earthquake is expected to rise above 200 today as rescuers find more bodies under rubble.

More than 11,000 people are confirmed to have been injured after the earthquake struck China's Sichuan province.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua said the quake, measured at varying magnitudes between 6.6 and 7.0, struck at 8.02am local time on Saturday close to the city of Ya'an in Lushan county.

The epicentre had a depth of a little less than eight miles (13km).

The quake triggered landslides and destroyed buildings. A major rescue operation involving emergency services and more than 6,000 troops has worked through the night to reach trapped people in various communities across the region.

The rescue effort is understood to have been hampered by aftershocks. Some of the tremors that followed the main quake have been almost as strong.

In one area, about 50% of buildings have been destroyed

According to local media reports, a vehicle carrying 17 soldiers fell off a cliff and into a river as it travelled to the epicentre. One soldier was killed and seven more injured, three seriously.

But extraordinary stories of survival are already emerging. According to one local media report, a mother managed to lift concrete weighing 50kg to rescue her son from the rubble.

Another report described how a woman gave birth at a bike shelter just a few hours after the quake hit.

And remarkable TV footage from one collapsed building shows rescue workers pulling a tiny baby alive from the rubble. The child's mother was also saved.

Tremors were felt in neighbouring provinces and in the provincial capital city of Chengdu. Users of Weibo, China's microblogging service, have posted images of damaged buildings and described scenes of panic as residents rushed outside.

Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 6.6.

The USGS said "significant" casualties were likely and "extensive damage is probable and disaster is likely widespread."

A Chinese general, flying over the region in a helicopter, told local media that as many as 50% of buildings in one area had collapsed.

Thousands of rescuers have been deployed

China's new Premier Li Keqiang has visited the region to survey the damage.

The quake is the first big test for the new Chinese leadership. Their ability to respond to it is likely to be scrutinised on an ever growing social media forum.

The epicentre is close to the location of the 2008 earthquake which killed 68,000 people. That quake had a greater magnitude of 7.9 but its epicentre was further underground.

The 2008 disaster destroyed large swathes of the province along with areas of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. The government faced significant criticism for allowing badly constructed buildings to be erected and for covering up their failings.

This time, early indications suggest a much better level of preparedness.

Cai Jing, the Deputy Secretary-General of Sichuan's Provincial Government, attempted to reassure people at a late news conference last night.

"The main road sections in Lushan County have been reopened," he said.

"Hospitals in the province are ready to receive and transport the injured. A total of 28,971 rescuers from 95 professional rescue teams with 933 sets of equipment have been dispatched," he told reporters at the briefing in Chengdu City.

"At present, about 13,466 rescuers have arrived at the epicentre and 2,058 others are heading to the area. In addition, 13,547 rescuers are put on standby."

Better technology is also helping the authorities. For the first time, unmanned drones are being used over the disaster zone to send back pictures and assess damage.

But new technology is also putting increased pressure on the authorities. This is the first natural disaster in China in the "Weibo era". The twitter-like social media phenomenon has allowed "netizens" to openly criticise the government for failings.

International offers of assistance have already been received.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague sent the condolences of the nation.

"My thoughts are also with the Chinese authorities and the emergency services as they continue their rescue efforts. We are in contact with local authorities through our Consulate-General in Chongqing and will continue to follow the situation closely," he said.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin sent China's President Xi Jinping a telegram expressing his condolences and offering help.

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Boston Bombing: Suspect Still Unable To Speak

Boston Marathon Blasts: Timeline

Updated: 11:14am UK, Saturday 20 April 2013

Here is a timeline of events from the Boston Marathon bombings to the death of one of the suspects and another one being taken into custody.

Monday, April 15 (Times are local)

2.50pm: An explosion takes place near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Around 10 seconds later, there is another blast about 100m further back down the same road, Boylston Street, also on the marathon route.

The explosions occurred four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner had crossed the line, but thousands of runners were still on the course.

2.57pm: The Boston Globe's Twitter feed reports a witness hearing "two loud booms" near the finish line.

4.02pm: Two people have died and 23 injured in the explosions, Boston Police confirms via Twitter.

6.12pm: President Barack Obama addresses the nation, saying: "The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight."

8.49pm: At a news conference, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announces the FBI has taken over the investigation.

It is confirmed three people died as a result of the bombings and at least 100 others were hurt. The injury toll was later put at over 180.

Tuesday, April 16

Two victims of the blasts were identified as Martin Richard, eight, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell.

Martin was waiting with his family to give his father a hug at the finish line when he died.

Restaurant manager Ms Campbell had gone with her best friend to take a picture of the friend's boyfriend crossing the finish when the bombs went off.

Wednesday, April 17

The third victim is identified as 23-year-old Chinese graduate student Lingzi Lu.

Boston University confirmed Ms Lu was studying mathematics and statistics there and was due to receive her degree in 2015.

It said she and two friends had been watching the marathon near the finish line. One of the friends, also a Boston University student, was injured while the other was unharmed, it added.

There are reports a suspect has been detained in connection with the explosions and is due to appear in court - but authorities said there had been no arrests.

The federal court in the city is evacuated due to a bomb scare but people are later allowed to return.

Thursday, April 18

Afternoon: Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic cathedral in Boston to remember the bombing victims. The president vows the attackers will face justice.

Evening: The FBI releases photos and video footage of two bombings suspects at the scene before the attacks.

One is pictured wearing a black baseball cap and a second had a white baseball cap on back to front.

Police say the suspects tried to rob a supermarket in Cambridge, across the river from Boston, on Thursday evening.  

10.20pm: Officers receive reports of shots fired on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge.

10.30pm: A police officer at MIT is found with gunshot wounds in his vehicle after being shot several times. He died in hospital.

The bomb suspects are suspected of carrying out the shooting.

They are then thought to have stolen a Mercedes car at gunpoint and later release its driver unharmed.

Friday, April 19

1am: Witnesses in Watertown near Boston report hearing multiple gunshots and explosions. The suspects reportedly threw explosives from the vehicle as police followed it into the area.

The suspects and police exchange gunfire, during which an officer is hurt.

Police say one of the two suspects in the MIT officer shooting, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is dead. But his younger brother, Dzhokhar, remains at large. The pair are suspected of carrying out the bombings.

An extensive manhunt takes place in the Watertown area for Dzhokhar, who is said to be armed and dangerous.

Almost a million residents in Boston are warned to stay indoors and public transport is stopped as armed police search for Dzhokhar.

The two suspects are said to be from a Russian region near Chechnya and have lived in the US for at least one year.

6.60pm: Massachusetts Governor Patrick Deval announces the "stay indoors" order is being lifted, even though Dzhokhar remains in hiding.

Around the time the order is lifted, a flurry of gunfire breaks out in the community that is being searched. Law enforcement officials locate Dzhokhar in a boat parked behind a home.

8.45pm: Dzhokhar is taken into custody by police.

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Texas Plant Explosion: Search For Survivors

Rescue teams are searching the rubble of homes for survivors after a massive explosion ripped though a nearby fertiliser plant in Texas.

Up to 15 people are feared to have been killed and more than 160 others were injured in the blast in the small town of West, near Waco.

The Dallas Fire-Rescue department has confirmed one of its firefighters, 52-year-old Captain Kenny Harris, died as he helped fight the initial blaze.

Police have warned of a "very volatile situation" because of ammonium nitrate found at the plant. The chemical compound is commonly used a fertiliser but can also be used in explosives.

Hundreds of worshippers prayed for the victims at a church service on Thursday.

The explosion caused the roof of a school gym to cave in

Firefighters had been tackling a blaze at the factory for about 20 minutes when the explosion rocked the area on Wednesday evening.

Three to four volunteer firefighters are among the missing, said Sergeant William Patrick Swanton.

Capt Harris, who lived in West, was off duty when the fire broke out but decided to help the town's volunteer crew. He was described as a married father of three grown sons.

The blast destroyed as many as 80 houses and reduced a complex of 50 apartments to a "skeleton standing up", according to one official.

The wreckage of an apartment building destroyed by the explosion

It also struck a nearby school and nursing home, where an evacuation saw 133 patients taken out of the building, some in wheelchairs.

The explosion at the West Fertiliser Company could be heard 45 miles away. It sent flames shooting into the night sky and rained burning embers, shrapnel and debris down on shocked and frightened residents.

Sgt Swanton said the number of dead was estimated to be between five and 15, and emergency crews were moving from house to house in a search and rescue operation.

More than half of the 2,700 population of West had been evacuated and people were still being pulled from damaged buildings.

The explosion had a magnitude of 2.1 - equivalent to a minor earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.

A victim from the explosion is wheeled into hospital

A man filmed the initial fire, and captured the moment of the explosion on camera.

His child is heard shouting: "Dad, I can't hear, let's get out of here. I can't hear anything." The dad says simply: "Oh my god."

Waco Assistant Fire Chief Don Yeager said it was an anhydrous (without water) ammonia explosion.

Anhydrous ammonia is a nitrogen-hydrogen gas widely used as a fertiliser, but it is also a key component of many explosive devices.

Residents in West have been urged to remain indoors because of the threat of new explosions or leaks of ammonia from the plant's ruins.

US Geological Survey graphic shows blast ground waves (L) and sound waves

The town's mayor Tommy Muska, who is part of the team of local volunteer firefighters, compared the blast to a nuclear bomb going off.

In a statement, President Barack Obama offered the prayers of the nation to the people of West.

"A tight-knit community has been shaken, and good, hard-working people have lost their lives," he said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry described "a nightmare scenario for that community," as he announced he was seeking a federal disaster declaration which would make additional funds available.

Debby Marak said she noticed a lot of smoke coming from the area across town near the plant.

She said she drove over to see what was happening, and when she got out of her car two boys ran towards her screaming that officials told them to leave because the plant was going to explode.

This image shows the initial blast Pic: KWTX-TV

Moments later the blast happened.

"It was like being in a tornado," the 58-year-old said. "Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield. It was like the whole earth shook."

The cause of the fire remains unknown and it is being treated as a crime scene, which is standard procedure, Sgt Swanton said.

But he added there was no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident.

The explosion came on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Waco siege - a deadly confrontation between federal authorities and heavily armed locals.

The Dallas Morning News said that the fertiliser company previously reported to the US Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that there was no risk of fire or explosion at the plant.

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