Police Van

A police van carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan was bombed today, killing at least nine people. No one immediately claimed responsibility, though police said militants were the likely culprit. The attack took place as the van crossed a bridge in Bannu, said Waqas Ahmad, a police chief. The dead included police officers and prisoners, said Jalil Khan, a police official. Hours earlier, security forces drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Police face possible murder charges in South Africa for allegedly handcuffing a man to a van and dragging him along a road, after the popular tabloid the Daily Sun posted a video of the incident online. Commuter mini-bus driver Mido Macia allegedly was accosted by several officers Tuesday evening after blocking traffic with his white Toyota Avanza minivan. The video footage showed the 27-year-old Mozambican resisting the police as they muscled him toward the police van, while a crowd of people watched and shouted.

The Police Department has bought a van with sophisticated communications equipment that can serve as a command post during a hostage situation, a natural disaster or a community event. Police Chief James Cook said the van, which was purchased with federal money, has television monitors, radios, cellular phones and a fax machine. A video camera can be mounted on the roof of the van to receive and send signals to officers inside the van or to police headquarters, he said.

Former Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon has been named chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police Department, officials said. The 34-year LAPD veteran, whose assignments included running South Bureau Operations and Detective Bureau, will now oversee the fourth-largest law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County, with more than 1,100 law enforcement, security and staff members. The agency is responsible for policing the Los Angeles International, L.A./Ontario International and Van Nuys airports, as well as the city of Los Angeles' Palmdale aviation property.

A police van ran over a curb and into a crowd gathered for a holiday parade downtown Friday night, killing a woman and injuring nine other people. The van was picking up intoxicated parade-goers when the van somehow accelerated, smashing into the back of a squad car and then into the crowd, police said. A 35-year-old woman was dead at the scene. The injured included several children. A baby was in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.

Poland said senior officials have been assigned to investigate the death of an honors student who was severely injured after the police detained him in the northern city of Olsztyn. The youth, Marcin Antonowicz, 19, was a chemistry student at Gdansk University. Lech Walesa and other leaders of the banned Solidarity union have cited the youth's death as an example of police brutality.

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details. It's been a busy 24 hours in Chicago as protests against the NATO summit continued for a second day. Two more activists faced terror-related charges on Sunday, a police van apparently struck a protester Saturday night, and activists said police drew guns on a group of citizen journalists. Activists charged Police said Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, "had been planning/conspiring with more than two other individuals in the building of explosives, including molotov cocktails which were to be used/detonated during the NATO summit," according to the Chicago Tribune . Mark Neiweem, 28 - whom authorities also believe to be from Chicago - "engaged in dialogue with a subject, during which time he provided same subject with a list of ingredients that are used in the construction of an explosive device," according to a police report cited by the Tribune.

Police investigator Rich Cook said the hardest part about arresting two suspected auto thieves Thursday night "was trying not to laugh." Cook and his partner Jim Hulsey were conducting an undercover surveillance for a burglar from the back of an unmarked police van about 6:40 p.m. when two men walked up to the vehicle, shook it, and tried to open the doors. "We just sat there while they tried to get in," Cook said. "They tried steal it three times."

Last Wednesday my wife and I, along with a friend, drove 60 miles to see Bob Dylan in concert at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. My friend's wife is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and her health didn't allow her to use the fourth ticket. "No problem," I thought. At the venue I quickly walked about trying to sell her ticket for less than face value. Upon showing one person the ticket and the lesser price I was selling it for, she showed me her badge. I was handcuffed, escorted by two officers to a police van, searched and loaded into the van with three others.

A man yelling pro-communist Vietnam slogans threw a bottle through a car window in Little Saigon late Sunday, shattering a daylong peaceful demonstration and triggering a violent scuffle. About two dozen protesters attacked the man they believed was responsible, punching him in the face and kicking him as he ran across Bolsa Avenue to a strip mall where some protesters held him for police. The man, who was detained by officers, was not identified.

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details. It's been a busy 24 hours in Chicago as protests against the NATO summit continued for a second day. Two more activists faced terror-related charges on Sunday, a police van apparently struck a protester Saturday night, and activists said police drew guns on a group of citizen journalists. Activists charged Police said Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, "had been planning/conspiring with more than two other individuals in the building of explosives, including molotov cocktails which were to be used/detonated during the NATO summit," according to the Chicago Tribune . Mark Neiweem, 28 - whom authorities also believe to be from Chicago - "engaged in dialogue with a subject, during which time he provided same subject with a list of ingredients that are used in the construction of an explosive device," according to a police report cited by the Tribune.

A police van carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan was bombed today, killing at least nine people. No one immediately claimed responsibility, though police said militants were the likely culprit. The attack took place as the van crossed a bridge in Bannu, said Waqas Ahmad, a police chief. The dead included police officers and prisoners, said Jalil Khan, a police official. Hours earlier, security forces drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said Wednesday.

Six Esperanza High students were injured Tuesday in front of the campus when their sport utility vehicle collided with a van driven by a police officer assigned to patrol the Anaheim school. According to police, the six students were in a Ford Explorer heading west as they left a parking lot at the high school about 2:55 p.m., the end of the school day for many of the 2,800 students enrolled there.

Last Wednesday my wife and I, along with a friend, drove 60 miles to see Bob Dylan in concert at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. My friend's wife is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and her health didn't allow her to use the fourth ticket. "No problem," I thought. At the venue I quickly walked about trying to sell her ticket for less than face value. Upon showing one person the ticket and the lesser price I was selling it for, she showed me her badge. I was handcuffed, escorted by two officers to a police van, searched and loaded into the van with three others.

An Orange County man with a van full of suspected illegal immigrants was arrested Thursday after leading authorities on an early morning chase from Riverside County to Anaheim, police said. The driver of the van, identified as Orlando Pineda Cruz, 24, had been pursued by California Highway Patrol officers and Border Patrol agents after he drove through an immigration checkpoint in Temecula early Thursday. Shortly before 2 a.m.

A stolen sport utility vehicle being pursued by police smashed into a van occupied by a family of five at Tobias Avenue and Nordhoff Street on Friday night, injuring six people. The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m., according to Sgt. Mike Long of the Los Angeles Police Department. Police said officers tried to pull over the driver of the SUV after a check indicated it had been reported stolen. But the driver kept going, running a stop sign at Tobias and Nordhoff and crashing into the van.

Two people were found dead in a burned-out post office, and a member of the British Cabinet was pelted with bricks and bottles Tuesday as police fought running battles with black youths for the second day in a slum neighborhood of the industrial city of Birmingham. More than 30 police officers and firemen have reportedly been injured since violence erupted late Monday in Birmingham's Handsworth district, a predominantly immigrant community of West Indians, Pakistanis and Indians.

A man yelling pro-communist Vietnam slogans threw a bottle through a car window in Little Saigon late Sunday, shattering a daylong peaceful demonstration and triggering a violent scuffle. About two dozen protesters attacked the man they believed was responsible, punching him in the face and kicking him as he ran across Bolsa Avenue to a strip mall where some protesters held him for police. The man, who was detained by officers, was not identified.

A police van ran over a curb and into a crowd gathered for a holiday parade downtown Friday night, killing a woman and injuring nine other people. The van was picking up intoxicated parade-goers when the van somehow accelerated, smashing into the back of a squad car and then into the crowd, police said. A 35-year-old woman was dead at the scene. The injured included several children. A baby was in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.