WORLD
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
East Oregonian
Blast on Russian subway kills 11
By IRINA TITOVA
and JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press
ST.
PETERSBURG,
Russia — A bomb blast
tore through a subway train
deep under Russia’s second-
largest city Monday, killing
11 people and wounding
more than 40 in a chaotic
scene that left victims
sprawled on a smoky plat-
form. Hours later, anguish
and fear rose again when
police found and defused a
shrapnel-packed explosive
device at another St. Peters-
burg station.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility for
the attack, which came while
President Vladimir Putin
was visiting the city, his
hometown. In the past two
decades, Russian trains and
planes have been frequent
targets of terrorism, usually
blamed on Islamic militants.
News reports initially said
police were searching for
two suspects, and Russian
state television showed
a photo of one suspect
wearing what appeared to
be a skullcap characteristic
of Russia’s Muslim regions.
However, the Interfax news
agency later cited unspeci-
fied sources as saying police
now suspect the blast was
the work of a suicide bomber
linked to radical Islamists.
The National Anti-Ter-
rorism Committee said it
was looking for the “perpe-
trators and organizers of the
terror attack.”
St. Petersburg, a major
tourist destination famed
for its imperial palaces and
lavish art museums, had
been spared previous attacks.
“From now on, I will be
scared to take the subway,”
said Marina Ilyina, 30, who
brought flowers to the station
where the train stopped
after the bombing. “We in
St. Petersburg thought we
wouldn’t be touched by
that.”
The explosion occurred
in midafternoon as the train
traveled between stations on
one of the city’s north-south
lines.
The driver chose to
DTP&ChP St. Peterburg via AP
Blast victims lie near a subway train hit by a explosion at the Tekhnologichesky
Institut subway station in St.Petersburg, Russia, Monday.
continue on to the next stop,
Technological
Institute,
a decision praised by the
Investigative Committee as
aiding evacuation efforts
and reducing the danger
to passengers who would
have had to walk along the
electrified tracks.
The National Anti-Ter-
rorism Committee said
the death toll was 11, with
another 45 people being
treated for wounds in hospi-
tals.
Amateur video broadcast
by Russian TV showed
people lying on the plat-
form of the Technological
Institute station, and others
bleeding and weeping just
after the damaged train
pulled in.
“Everything was covered
in smoke. There were a
lot of firefighters,” Maria
Smirnova, a student on a
train behind the stricken
one, told independent TV
station Dozhd.
Within two hours of the
blast, authorities had found
and deactivated another
bomb at another busy
station, Vosstaniya Square,
the anti-terror agency said.
That station is a major
transfer point for passengers
on two lines and serves the
railway station to Moscow.
Russian law enforcement
agencies confirmed the
device was loaded with
shrapnel, and the Interfax
news agency said it
contained up to 2.2 pounds
of explosives.
Interfax cited an uniden-
tified law enforcement offi-
cial saying that investigators
think the suspected suicide
bomber left the bomb at the
Vosstaniya Square station
before blowing himself up
on the train.
The agency said author-
ities believe the suspect,
a 23-year old who came
from ex-Soviet Central Asia
and was linked to radical
Islamist groups, carried the
explosive device onto the
train in a rucksack.
Asked about the report,
Putin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov wouldn’t comment,
saying it’s up to law enforce-
ment agencies to comment
on details of the probe.
The entire St. Petersburg
subway system was shut
down and evacuated, but
partial service resumed after
about six hours.
Security was immedi-
ately tightened at all of the
country’s key transportation
sites, Russia’s National
Anti-Terrorist Committee
said. Moscow officials said
that included the subway in
the Russian capital.
Putin, who meeting with
the president of Belarus at
the Constantine Palace on
the city’s outskirts, offered
condolences on national
television.
“Law
enforcement
agencies and intelligence
services are doing their
best to establish the cause
and give a full picture of
what happened,” a somber-
looking Putin said.
He later laid flowers
outside the Technological
Institute station, where the
damaged train arrived after
the explosion.
Some residents of St.
Petersburg, a city of 5
million, responded with both
dismay and determination.
“They won’t succeed in
breaking up our country.
We are all citizens of one
country despite various
political views and religious
beliefs,” said 24-year-old
Alexander Malikov, who
brought flowers and candles
to an improvised memorial
outside one of the stations.
Page 7A
Swedish employees
get microchip implants
STOCKHOLM
(AP)
— The syringe slides in
between the thumb and index
finger. Then, with a click, a
microchip is injected in the
employee’s hand. Another
“cyborg” is created.
What could pass for
a dystopian vision of the
workplace is almost routine
at the Swedish startup hub
Epicenter. The company
offers to implant its workers
and startup members with
microchips the size of grains
of rice that function as swipe
cards: to open doors, operate
printers, or buy smoothies
with a wave of the hand.
The injections have
become so popular that
workers at Epicenter hold
parties for those willing to
get implanted.
“The biggest benefit I
think is convenience,” said
Patrick Mesterton, co-founder
and CEO of Epicenter. As a
demonstration, he unlocks a
door by merely waving near
it. “It basically replaces a lot of
things you have, other commu-
nication devices, whether it be
credit cards or keys.”
The technology in itself
is not new. Such chips are
used as virtual collar plates
for pets. Companies use
them to track deliveries.
It’s just never been used to
tag employees on a broad
scale before. Epicenter and
a handful of other companies
are the first to make chip
implants broadly available.
AP Photo/James Brooks
Jowan Osterlund holds a
small microchip implant
at the Epicenter digital
innovation business cen-
tre in central Stockholm,
Tuesday.
And as with most new
technologies, it raises secu-
rity and privacy issues. While
biologically safe, the data
generated by the chips can
show how often an employee
comes to work or what they
buy. Unlike company swipe
cards or smartphones, which
can generate the same data, a
person cannot easily separate
themselves from the chip.
“Of course, putting things
into your body is quite a big
step to do and it was even for
me at first,” said Mesterton,
remembering how he initially
had had doubts.
“But then on the other
hand, I mean, people have
been implanting things into
their body, like pacemakers
and stuff to control your
heart,” he said. “That’s a
way, way more serious thing
than having a small chip that
can actually communicate
with devices.”
Tillerson to chair UN meeting
on North Korea’s nukes
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
— U.S. Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson is coming to the
United Nations for the first
time later this month to chair
a ministerial meeting of the
Security Council on reining
in North Korea’s nuclear
program, a top priority of the
Trump administration.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki
Haley made the announce-
ment Monday, saying the
April 28 meeting will be an
important follow-up to this
weekend’s talks between
President Donald Trump and
China’s President Xi Jinping
at the U.S. leader’s resort in
Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump said ahead of the
meeting that China has great
influence over North Korea
and he wants Xi to help
the U.S. denuclearize the
reclusive northeast Asian
nation. If the Chinese leader
won’t, Trump said he can
handle the problem without
Beijing.
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