Pop America

Jeep Rams Into Glasgow Airport

GLASGOW -- A four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into the main terminal at Glasgow airport on Saturday and exploded in flames, a day after police foiled a possible al Qaeda plot to detonate two car bombs in central London. A Glasgow police spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of any injuries and said the blaze was under control. Witnesses told the BBC that the vehicle, a Land Rover or a Jeep Cherokee, had exploded shortly after crashing into the glass front doors of the terminal, and said there was a heavy stench of petrol. "It raced across the central reservation and went straight into the building," said taxi driver Ian Crosby outside the terminal. Crosby said a stocky Asian man had got out of the car and was quickly wrestled to the ground by bystanders. "It would appear to me to have been a deliberate attack. I think this was a terrorist attack," Crosby said. In London, police scoured hours of CCTV footage and extra squads were deployed on the streets, particularly around landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament after Friday's failed car bomb attacks in the centre of the city.

Read more at Reuters

Car Bomb Attacks Thwarted In London

LONDON (CNN) -- A vehicle containing fuel, gas canisters and nails found early Friday near Trafalgar Square is "clearly linked" to another explosives-packed car found outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus, Metropolitan Police said.

A "considerable" amount of fuel and gas canisters, along with a "substantial quantity of nails," was found in the blue Mercedes 280E, said Peter Clarke, Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner.

He called the discovery of the second bomb "troubling," but urged the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious behavior to authorities.

The second vehicle was ticketed about 2:30 a.m. Friday (9:30 p.m. Thursday ET), Clarke said. It was near Trafalgar Square, roughly a half-mile from where the first vehicle -- also a Mercedes -- had been found about an hour earlier.

About 3:30 a.m., Clarke said, the Mercedes was taken to an impound lot in Hyde Park. Security sources earlier told CNN that workers who towed it thought the car smelled of gasoline, and became suspicious because of the reports that gasoline was among the explosive materials found in the first vehicle.

Clarke said the second device, like the first, was "potentially viable" but was rendered safe by police explosives officers.

"These vehicles are clearly linked," he said.

Read more at CNN

GMA Film Critic Joel Siegel Dead At 63

NEW YORK -- Good Morning America movie critic Joel Siegel, known for his knowledgable and engaging reviews and his personable reporting style, died Friday afternoon after a long battle with colon cancer, ABC News and WABC-TV announced. He was 63.

Siegel passed away in New York surrounded by family and friends, according to his longtime employer.

"For 31 years, Joel Siegel has given Channel 7 viewers his honest opinion on entertainment," said Dave Davis, president and general manager of WABC-TV. "His reviews of movies and plays were written and delivered in Joel's clever style—revealing, refreshing and always filled with his smart humor.

"No one had more fun writing about a bad movie than Joel. His dedication to work while he has battled cancer with strength and dignity has been an inspiration to all of us."

The Los Angeles native and UCLA graduate got his start in radio and writing, reviewing books for the Los Angeles Times and freelancing for publications such as Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated.

Read more at E!

"Massive" Explosive Device Found In Popular London Tourist District

LONDON -- Police have thwarted a major terrorist attack in the heart of London's West End after a "massive" explosive device was found in a car.  Eyewitnesses said a man crashed the vehicle into bins near a nightclub and then ran off.  The foiled attack was in The Haymarket, close to the popular shopping area of Regent Street.

A member of the public alerted police to the suspicious vehicle shortly before 2am this morning.

The area was cordoned off by officers who examined the car, outside an American Express foreign exchange.

They discovered what appeared to be a potentially explosive device, which was then made safe by specialist teams.

It is believed that the vehicle was a silver Mercedes which also contained two propane gas canisters and a large number of nails.

The Haymarket is in the heart of London's theatreland.

An investigation has been launched by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

From SkyNews

Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train In Middle Of Woods

WILLIAMS, AZ (POP America)  --  Authorities in Arizona are searching for a 65-year-old man who was kicked off an Amtrak train in the middle of nowhere.  Roosevelt Sims retired from his job as a factory worker in St. Louis last week and had decided to ride out to see family in Los Angeles.  But Williams, Arizona was as far as he would get.  KPHO-TV reports Amtrak personnel dropped Sims off at an abandoned railroad crossing five miles outside Williams in the middle of an 800-thousand-acre national forest.  The train's conductor said Sims had become unruly and believed he was drunk.  However, the man's family has another explanation for his behavior.  They say Sims is a diabetic and was probably going into shock.  Amtrak officials say train personnel were simply following company policy for handling drunk or unruly passengers, and that the abandoned crossing had been used as a drop-off site in the past. 

Local police say there's no train station or running water at the crossing and whether Sims was drunk or not, no one should ever be dropped off there.  On Thursday, search crews turned up a man's ball cap they believe may have belonged to Sims.  Family members say they're not mad at anybody involved in the incident.  They just want to find him.

Immigration Reform Bill Dead In Senate

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Opponents effectively killed President Bush's long-fought and emotion-laden Senate immigration bill Thursday when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation.

The tally was 46 to 53, 14 votes shy of the 60 needed to end debate.

The president, who visited the Capitol this month to push hard for overhauling the nation's immigration laws, delivered a brief statement shortly after the vote saying he was "sorry" Congress could not reach agreement, calling its "failure to act" a "disappointment."

"Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues," Bush said.

Read more from CNN

Spice Girls Announce World Tour

(POP America)  --  "Girl power is back and stronger than ever!"  That's the statement posted on the Spice Girls website confirming that the group is reuniting.  It's been 10 years since Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Emma Bunton first hit the music scene with their hit "Wannabe."  Now the girls say they're planning a world tour for December 2007 and January 2008.  The tour will kick off December 7th in Los Angeles and then the girls will hit Las Vegas and New York before heading overseas. 

Bald Eagle No Longer Endangered

WASHINGTON  --  The bald eagle is about to come off the Endangered Species List, marking the apparent success of a conservation campaign that began in earnest 40 years ago -- when it was almost too late.

The Bush administration is expected to announce today the full delisting of the national bird, which was declared endangered in 1967 when barely more th an 400 breeding pairs were left in the continental United States. There now are about 11,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states.

Read more at The Times-Picayune

Paris Does Larry: The Blow-By-Blow

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- In her first interview since being released from jail, Paris Hilton told CNN's Larry King on Wednesday that she has never used drugs, isn't a big drinker, and although she feels her incarceration was unwarranted, God had a reason for putting her there.

"Don't serve the time; let the time serve you," Hilton said. "I have a new outlook on life."

The 26-year-old hotel heiress was released from jail early Tuesday after being sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving on a license that was suspended after she pleaded no contest in January to alcohol-related reckless driving. Her jail term was cut almost in half for good behavior. (Watch Hilton talk about her new outlook on life )

Being incarcerated, Hilton said, provided "time to get to know myself" and she has emerged from the jail cell with a determination to eliminate the bad elements, and bad friends, from her life. She also promised King, "I'm just going to follow all the laws."

Grilled about the friends she had to sacrifice, she replied, "I've gotten rid of a lot of people." Asked for names, she said, "I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but they know who they are."

During her 23 days in jail, she said she meditated, read letters from fans, talked to other inmates through the vents, wrote in her journal and read the Bible, though she couldn't cite a favorite passage when asked. It was also nice to have a little privacy, she said, and to "be away from all the flashes for a while."

Her imprisonment also reversed a mental disorder she said she had suffered from all her life. Asked by King if her time in jail cured her claustrophobia, she said, "Now that I'm out of there, yes."

Read more at CNN

Good Reviews - So Far - For Apple's iPhone

(POP America)  --  Apple's new iPhone might not go on sale for another 48 hours, but that's not stopping some from waiting in line to get first dibs at the innovation.  All over the country, there are reports of Apple enthusiaists camping out at retail stores.  It's like a scene, well, like the day after Thanksgiving.  Except most of these people are wearing pocket protecters and won't be walking away with the latest Elmo. 

Meanwhile, newspapers are already weighing in with their reviews of the iPhone.  Here's a sample.

We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer.  --  Wall Street Journal

The phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese. The glass gets smudgy -- a sleeve wipes it clean -- but it doesn't scratch easily. I've walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there's not a mark on it.  But the bigger achievement is the software. It's fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate. You can't get lost, because the solitary physical button below the screen always opens the Home page, arrayed with icons for the iPhone's 16 functions.  --  New York Times