Belarusians are struggling to explain the explosion in the subway station - BBC News

April 12, 2011 updated 23: 19 GMT lament gathered in a Memorial by a Belarusian underground station entrance are groping to find an explanation for the massive explosion that tore a Minsk metro stationkilling 12 people and injuring more than 200, earlier this week, reports David Stern.

The Belarus is on high alert, after what officials now believe was a terrorist attack.

According to them, that a bomb exploded close to 1800 local time, at rush hour, in the Oktyabrska?a - one of the most popular of Minsk station.

The explosive device, which was filled with nails and ball bearings and was equivalent to 5 kg of TNT, was placed under a bench on the platform, they add. It may have been triggered by remote control.

The Minister of the Interior, Anatoly Kuleshov, said that the purpose of the assailants was to "kill as many people as possible."

Memorial

On Tuesday, lament gathered by the entries in the Metro station, where a spontaneous Memorial had arisen.

Each time someone would be advanced to wear a flower on one of the many rapid rise of piles, or in the light of a votive candle.

People stood as if anchored to the ground, to the Metro station

In a niche in the street, there was a more formal sanctuary - six white tables with the names of those who were killed simply printed on them. The front was a small, red platform where pushing an even larger bunch of flowers.

The crowd, who sometimes grew to hundreds, has been largely silent.

People stood as if anchored to the ground, to the monument fortune, their faces etched with disbelief.

"I'm in shock," said Lidiya Vintskevich, a journalism student who works at a local radio station. "I can't believe that something like this could happen in our city, we are so small."

Belarusian security, which are still known by their acronym for the Soviet era, the KGB, said that possible a composite photo of the author is now distributed.

"Man is Slavic, up to 27 years and rationale in appearance." He was dressed in a brown coat and a wool hat, "of the KGB Chairman Vadim Zaitsev said, adding that the suspect was hired to the bomb."

Assistant Attorney General of the country also stated that several people had been arrested, but gave no further details.

"No meaning".

Belarus came to political and economic pressure in recent months.

The United States and the European Union slapped sanctions on the Government of Belarus, after he took measures on the opposition of the country after the presidential elections last year.

President Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible for

President Alexander Lukashenko and other senior officials were forbidden to travel to the West.

Meanwhile, Central Bank of the country runs currency, and many analysts predict a strong devaluation of the currency, the ruble.

President Lukashenko already governs what is regarded as more strict authoritarian Europe State. Many Belarusians support him, however, in part, in gratitude for stability and law and order that it provides.

Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible.

In the comments just after the explosion, he also said that he could be an attempt to destabilize the country and that it was perhaps an "existing abroad."

Many Belarusians are nevertheless difficult to imagine who would benefit from such an attack.

"I can't imagine why anyone would do this," said Stepan, a local businessman who asked not to use his family name. "I can't imagine what they would or that they hope to achieve." There is absolutely no logic. ?

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11 killed in the explosion at the Belarus Metro station - Los Angeles Times

People help a man wounded by an explosion in a subway station in downtown Minsk. (Anton Motolko, AFP/Getty Images / April 11, 2011)A powerful blast rocked the Minsk metro during evening rush hour Monday, killing 11 passengers and injuring 126 others in a crowded downtown subway station. Right of Belarus agencies said the explosion, on a platform at the station Oktyabrska?a as a train arrived, was an act of terrorism.

The explosion shattered windows, injuring people in the train and the platform of the station, located near the presidential headquarters in the Centre of the capital of the Belarus.

"I just entered the station to pick up our daughter of my mother-in-law, when I felt a growing odour of and has seen many people rushing, some of them screaming,"Ivan Kaplun, an engineer who lives near the station. "said in a telephone interview.

Kaplun said he helped achieve a woman wounded, former body and pools of blood.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, often called the last dictator, placed flowers on the site of the explosion and rushes to his Office for an emergency meeting, after which he announced that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had offered to send a team of researchers.

"I must confess that we have been very seriously challenged," Lukashenko said in a speech televised late Monday. "It must be an adequate response and this answer must be found."

Lukashenko also expressed the desire to seek the assistance of the public to help "find these freaks".

The attack was the first in Minsk since July 3, 2008, when dozens of people were injured in a public park, as they celebrated independence day. The authors were not, although Lukashenko ordered every adult male in the digital country.

Lukashenko was re-elected in December, winning approximately 80% of the vote in a controversial election. Observers from the European Union refused to accept the results and inauguration of Lukashenko in January has been ignored by the more Western diplomats.

The tainted vote has also led to a protest from night election brutally crushed by the police, who arrested dozens of protesters, including several presidential candidates.

Lukashenko accused the West of funding opposition. "We might today be awakened in a different country," Lukashenko said during a Conference of press at the end of December, accusing the opposition of attempting to storm Government, encouraged by Western assistance and funding.

"When they say the West I absolutely do not trust them as probably they were trying to lull us… but now we see their true face."

Human rights activists warn of serious political repercussions after the explosion Monday. "Something tells me that the authorities can take advantage of the situation and repress the opposition with renewed vigour," said Valentin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Vyasna, a centre for human rights.

About 30 activists of the opposition, including ex-presidential candidates Nikolay Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov, are still in detention and face up to 15 years in prison despite the protests of night of the elections.

"That which is behind this mysterious barbarous and inhuman act has nothing to do with the opposition," Svetlana Kalinkina, editor of the independent newspaper "Narodnaya Volya", said in an interview with the Times. "But I am sure that the application of the Act will address the perpetrators among the opposition, as they always do."

Sergei.Loiko@LAtimes.com

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Nigerians begin voting; Blast hits polling station in the town of North - CNN International

People holding a poster with portraits of candidate presidential retired Major-General Mohammadu Buhari and listier Pastor Tunde Bakare during a rally in Lagos on April 6.New: No deaths have been reported in the explosionThere have been riots, bombings and assassinations before the electionsNigerians attacks are voting Saturday for the House and the seatsThe elections put the legitimacy of Nigeria on the line

ibadan, Nigeria (cnn) , an explosion shook polling in a town in northeastern Nigeria as Africa's most populous nation began Saturday to vote in elections marred by violence and delays.

The explosion occurred at Maiduguri, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency Yushau Shuaib said. No deaths have been reported. the number of injuries was yet unknown.

Also Shuaib in Maiduguri, armed youths has defined a bright Government building, said.

A new head of election promised "free and fair" elections this year, but the election has already been ruined by attacks in bombings, murders and the logistical problems that have delayed the vote. Concerns are that continued violence could derail the vote total.

Nigerians began to vote Saturday for 360 seats in house of representatives and 109 seats in the Senate. Voting structure offset will make their return to the polls Saturday next to vote for a President and the following Saturday for a vote of Governors.

Despite domestic and international pressure, Electoral Commission of Nigeria was forced to delay the elections by a week after a logistical disaster of the country - of many materials to vote was not yet in the country until the day of the election and party logos were missing from ballots.

This is a huge setback, reminiscent of the problems of Nigeria's 2007 election, described by the European Union as the worst he had seen anywhere in the world with rampant vote-rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation.

The legitimacy of the country now stands on the three towers of polling stations.

On the eve of the vote, a bomb exploded in the Office of the independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja, in central Nigeria, officials said.

An official of the Government, which was not authorized to speak on the record, said on CNN eight people died in the attack.

Shuaib said that more than seven people were seriously injured.

"We condemn this cowardly and despicable, action which seems designed to instill fear in the Nigerians and paralyze their aspirations for a peaceful and credible election," the President of the electoral commission, Attahiru Jega, said in a statement. "Continue our deep sympathy to the families of all these young Nigerians who lost their lives or were injured."

Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 85 people have been killed in political violence so far.

As the country's most populous of Africa and its largest oil producer, Nigeria is important. Yet, despite its huge oil wealth, 80% of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day, according to the United Nations.

"Make no mistake: the test of honour is inevitably collective for all Nigerians,"the independent National Electoral Commission, said in a recent statement. "It is our national honour in the game and our relevance in the Affairs of the modern world, renamed. ?

Separately Friday, one man was killed and another seriously injured in an explosion in the city of Kaduna North, state news reported.

Police rushed to the scene and found not unexploded dynamite, according to the Commissioner of Police John Haruna Kaduna State, voice of Nigeria reported. They found more dynamite in a house belonging to he injured man, said the point of sale.

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