Bombings Italy

A letter bomb blew up in the hands of a police officer Monday, seriously wounding him and fueling fears of violence at a summit that will bring world leaders to Genoa this week. Hours later, a second mail bomb blast ripped another policeman's arm off and wounded a third officer in Avezzano, hundreds of miles to the southeast, state television reported. But police said that blast was part of a local vendetta and unconnected to the summit.

An explosion damaged an office of the right-wing Northern League party in northeastern Italy but caused no injuries. Police in Vigonza, northeast of Padua, said the blast was heard two miles away. Television pictures showed the explosion had sent debris flying across a busy road. Northern League Secretary Gianpaolo Gobbo said the strength of the blast suggested that it had been caused by a bomb.

While Italians wondered Saturday whether terrorists had joined their national debate on political reform, investigators probing the rubble of a major bombing in the heart of Rome found more potential culprits than solid clues. International terrorists, the Mafia trying to kill a TV talk show host nearly claimed by the blast, and "dark forces" seeking to destabilize Italy at a trying political moment were all listed among the might-be bombers Saturday in a city stunned by the attack.

A bomb blast rocked a courthouse near the scenic Rialto Bridge in the heart of this lagoon city Thursday, further raising tensions throughout Italy after last month's violence-marred Group of 8 summit in Genoa. The explosion, which injured a police officer on routine patrol and damaged the courthouse wall and nearby stores, occurred 12 hours before a scheduled visit by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Investigators expect to find links soon between the bombing of a USO club in Naples, Italy, apparently by Japanese terrorists, and Tuesday's arrest in New Jersey of a Japanese man carrying three powerful explosive devices, sources familiar with the cases said Saturday.

A list supplied by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence of artworks destroyed or damaged Thursday. Paintings Destroyed: Gerrit Van Honthorst (also known as Gherardo Delle Notti) "Adoration of the Shepherds." Bartolomeo Manfredi, "Card Players" and "Concert." Paintings Damaged: Sebastiano del Piombo, "Death of Adonis." Peter Paul Rubens, "Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry," "Portrait of Philippe IV of Spain." Claude Lorrain, "Port With the Villa Medici." Gianlorenzo Bernini, "Head of an Angel."

An Italian court convicted seven people, including five organized crime figures, in a 1984 train bombing that killed 16 Christmas travelers and wounded more than 200. A panel of judges in Florence acquitted two people after ruling there was insufficient evidence to tie them to the Dec. 23 bombing of an express train traveling between Florence and Bologna. Five of the defendants were sentenced to life in prison, including Giuseppe (Pippo) Calo, an alleged Sicilian Mafia crime figure.

A car bomb exploded Thursday night in front of a club for U.S. military personnel in Naples, killing a U.S. Navy enlisted woman and four Italians and injuring at least 17 people, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast that happened shortly after 8 p.m. at the USO club. A Pentagon spokeswoman said the American woman was stationed at the Naval Communications Area Master Station in Naples. Lt.

Italian police hunted a wanted Japanese terrorist Friday and warned that the bomb he is believed to have planted outside a USO club in Naples could signal a new round of attacks against American targets. "We must be alert," said Ansoino Andreassi, chief of Italy's anti-terrorist police. "This kind of attack comes in an international context. There have been anti-U.S. attacks in other countries. We can't say we have heard the last word." Four Italian passers-by and a U.S.

Terrorists exploded a car bomb near the U.S. Embassy in Rome and fired rockets into the American and British embassy compounds Tuesday, apparently to protest the economic summit conference here.

Parcel bombs exploded Wednesday in the offices of clothing giant Benetton and at a TV station owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, heightening fears of violence at the upcoming Group of 8 summit in Genoa. No serious injuries were reported from the package that blew up at the Benetton office in Treviso, near Venice. The device was contained in a book that exploded when it was opened, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

A letter bomb blew up in the hands of a police officer Monday, seriously wounding him and fueling fears of violence at a summit that will bring world leaders to Genoa this week. Hours later, a second mail bomb blast ripped another policeman's arm off and wounded a third officer in Avezzano, hundreds of miles to the southeast, state television reported. But police said that blast was part of a local vendetta and unconnected to the summit.

Three men were sentenced to life in prison for the 1969 bombing at a bank in Milan, Italy, that left 16 people dead and opened a two-decade wave of terrorism in the nation. Delfo Zorzi, Carlo Maria Maggi and Giancarlo Rognoni, members of the neo-fascist New Order group, were convicted in the blast, which injured more than 80 people. Zorzi lives in Japan, which has refused to extradite him.

An explosion ripped through the Rome offices of the communist daily Il Manifesto, injuring the suspected bomber, said Italy's interior minister. The blast shook the building, located in an area packed with shoppers. Interior Minister Enzo Bianco said the suspect, Andrea Insabato, 41, was known to authorities as a veteran right-wing extremist. The blast raised concerns of a return to political violence four months before a general election.

A gasoline bomb was thrown at a McDonald's restaurant here early Wednesday, and two U.S. military vehicles were set ablaze outside an air base in what police suspect were protests against NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia. A Molotov cocktail was thrown outside the McDonald's in a residential area of the capital. The incident came after three similar attacks on outlets of the same U.S. chain since the start of the bombing campaign in March, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Two dozen reputed mobsters were found guilty of car bombings in 1993 that killed 10 people and damaged important buildings, including the well-known Uffizi Gallery in Florence. A three-judge panel in the Tuscan city sentenced 14 of the 26 defendants to life in prison, the maximum penalty in Italy. Among those were two alleged "Cosa Nostra" bosses. Two defendants were acquitted.

The terrorist bombing of the Uffizi Palace in Florence, Italy, first engenders panic in the heart and mind. Then, slowly, the blood turns to ice. The panic comes from a sudden jamming of the mental circuits. Which beloved works of art in this most extraordinary museum might have been damaged or destroyed? Among the countless masterpieces of the Uffizi, which would you grab first, in any unthinkable emergency, to rush to safety? The task of choosing is impossible.

Interior Minister Nicola Mancino warned Italy's police chiefs of the danger of new acts of subversion after bombs in Rome and Milan killed five people. Authorities have mainly pointed a finger at the Mafia as being responsible for the five bombings since May 14, but have said former members of the secret services could also be involved. A new success was reported in the hunt for the killers who blew up Mafia-busting judge Paolo Borsellino in July, 1992.

Interior Minister Nicola Mancino warned Italy's police chiefs of the danger of new acts of subversion after bombs in Rome and Milan killed five people. Authorities have mainly pointed a finger at the Mafia as being responsible for the five bombings since May 14, but have said former members of the secret services could also be involved. A new success was reported in the hunt for the killers who blew up Mafia-busting judge Paolo Borsellino in July, 1992.

Angry and bewildered, Italians are finding it easier to understand the intent than to guess the identity of the new breed of terrorists striking at the heart of their national, cultural and religious heritage. Bombs that irreparably damaged two of Rome's landmark churches Tuesday "struck a blow at the heart of Christianity," in the words of Pope John Paul II.