World in brief: Sheehan marches for prison’s closure
Cindy Sheehan marched with the mothers of a Guantanamo prisoner, a New York firefighter killed on Sept. 11 and other peace activists Thursday to demand the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay be closed five years after the first terrorism suspects arrived.
The protest in Cuba came as demonstrators in Washington and London, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, called for the prison’s closure.
Critics say the camp, where most of the prisoners face indefinite incarceration, is an affront to democratic values. Allegations of abuse have fueled worldwide outrage.
The military says the detention center is vital to the fight against terrorism and that instances of abuse have been investigated and the perpetrators disciplined.
Army Col. Lora Tucker, a spokeswoman for the detention center, said the military had no plans to acknowledge the protest Thursday or increase security at the outside gates.
LONDON
Possible radiation cases investigated
British authorities are working with officials from 48 countries to evaluate about 450 people who were in London around Nov. 1 and fear they might have been exposed to the radioactive polonium-210 that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Britain’s Health Protection Agency declined to identify the countries, but the United States is among them, according to U.S. health officials. People who think they might have been exposed are invited to submit urine samples and consult with doctors. For most, the exposure appears to have been harmlessly small.
Litvinenko died Nov. 23 at a London hospital of polonium-210 poisoning. Police have since found traces of polonium at 17 locations in London.
The Health Protection Agency announced Thursday that urine tests indicated that 103 people in Britain had “probable contact” with polonium-210 but that their levels were so low it was “no health concern to the individual.”
ATHENS, Greece
None hurt in attack on U.S. Embassy
Police cordoned off streets around the U.S. Embassy in Athens early Friday after an explosion inside the embassy compound that a senior police official said was an “act of terrorism.”
The blast smashed glass in the front of the building near the U.S. emblem of the embassy.
“This is an act of terrorism. We don’t know where from,” Attica Police Chief Asimakis Golfis said. “There was a shell that exploded in the toilets of the building … It was fired from street level.”
Authorities searched nearby apartment buildings and a hospital amid reports that an explosive device may have been fired at the building.
“I heard a loud bang; I didn’t realize what was going on,” said Giorgos Yiannoulis, who runs a kiosk near the embassy.
Police did not report any injuries.
Traffic came to a standstill across parts of central Athens, as police and emergency services scrambled to the embassy building.
The U.S. Embassy – a heavily guarded building – is a frequent destination for protest groups but American officials have not been targeted in more than a decade.