Los Angeles

Package prompts evacuation at airport

Hundreds of travelers were evacuated Monday from Los Angeles International Airport terminals after baggage screeners spotted the outline of a hand grenade on a security scanner.

The object turned out to be an inert replica of a military hand grenade but it had the potential of being turned into an explosive device, police Commander Gary Brennan said.

The baggage was screened because the owner, a passenger on Alaska Airlines, “was identified as someone we needed to take a closer look at,” said Ron Pelayo, manager at LAX for the federal Transportation Security Administration.

Officials did not identify the passenger, who was placed in federal custody for questioning. A government official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the grenade appeared to be a gag gift.

Washington, D.C.

Reaction simulates tabletop nuclear fusion

In a tabletop experiment, researchers created a reaction like nuclear fusion the energy source of the sun.

Using a device described as the size of three stacked coffee cups, they zapped tiny dissolved bubbles with sound waves, triggering a flash of light and super-high temperatures.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute say the phenomenon was like nuclear fusion in a bottle, but they are uncertain if it could be used as a source of energy.

The study appears this week in the journal Science and was released for publication by the journal on Monday.

Yugoslavia

Kosovo lawmakers choose president

Moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova became Kosovo’s first president Monday, claiming the right to govern beside the United Nations and NATO and promising to push for independence.

In one round of open balloting, the province’s lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a power-sharing deal that sealed the election of president and government in the southern Yugoslav province after a monthslong deadlock.

“We will jointly work for a free, democratic, peaceful, prosperous and independent Kosovo,” Rugova said. He also promised to integrate all ethnic groups into the province’s social and economical life during his three-year mandate.

Kosovo’s political leaders consider the elections a milestone in the establishment of self-rule for the province, shattered by years of political repression, war and ethnic tension.

Western leaders and many civilians in Kosovo hope a democratic government will bring a measure of reconciliation to bitterly divided communities. However, the president and legislature have limited powers, and the U.N. administrators have the right to veto all decisions by local institutions.

Afghanistan

Quake toll surges

A powerful earthquake sent a cliff tumbling onto a village in northern Afghanistan, crushing houses and killing at least 100 people, officials said Monday.

The 7.2-magnitude quake struck Sunday afternoon, rattling buildings across six countries of Central and South Asia. Dozens were injured in Afghanistan and Pakistan but early reports had put the death toll at only one in Kabul.

However, communications in northern Afghanistan are primitive and it can take days for reports to emerge.

Survivors in this remote community in the Hindu Kush mountains north of Kabul pointed to the sheered-off cliff that had roared down on their valley minutes after the earth stopped rocking. The landslide buried some 100 homes and blocked a river, causing flooding that swallowed hundreds of other homes.