Britons Honor Victims of London Bombings
the english often impress me with their rezilliance. go here and look at these photos. i don't think new yorkers ever did anything like this, but a lot is still a blur from back then.
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By MICHAEL McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago
Office workers wordlessly filled the streets, construction workers removed their hard hats and London's famous black cabs pulled to the side of the
road as Britain silently paid tribute to the victims of four terrorist bombs that struck a week ago Thursday.
Queen Elizabeth II stood motionless outside Buckingham Palace, and a crowd filled Trafalgar Square, where many could be seen wiping away tears and
hanging their heads in prayer during the two-minute tribute that began at noon.
The silence was broken only by the tolling of Big Ben.
In the northern city of Leeds, the home of at least two of the four suicide bombers, young Muslims wearing prayer caps paused in silence before a
series of speeches by local imam, a minister and community leaders.
Earlier, police searched yet another Leeds address in their hunt for anyone who aided the July 7 subway and bus attacks that killed 52 and injured
700. Authorities suspect the bombers didn't work alone and that their collaborators or leader are likely still at large.
Prime Minister Tony Blair marked the silence in the garden of his official resident at 10 Downing St., where he hosted a reception for police officers
receiving bravery awards not related to the bombings. In the House of Commons and the House of Lords, lawmakers broke off debates to join in the
silence.
During the tribute, the usually thronging hordes of tourists outside Westminster Abbey also fell silent. Vehicles came to a standstill in the usually
busy Parliament Square, as taxi drivers and other motorists ignored the green signals on traffic lights.
"As we stand together in silence, let us send a message to the terrorists ? you will not defeat us and you will not break us," said George Psaradakis,
who was driving the double-decker bus that was bombed, killing 13 passengers.
Trucks, cars and mounted police all paused along the busy Euston Road outside King's Cross station, where a memorial garden has been a focus of the
city's grief. Mayor Ken Livingstone laid a wreath there, and hundreds stood silently at the station near the worst of the attacks ? a subway train
bombing that killed at least 21 people.
At the British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland, an airhorn signaled suspension of play and Tiger Woods took off his hat, closed his eyes and bowed his
head at the 14th hole.
British television interrupted normal broadcasting to show photos of the aftermath of the bombings: soot-faced commuters fleeing in fear and
paramedics tending to the injured.
People across Europe also paused. In Madrid, Spain, which was hit by al-Qaida-linked train bombings that killed 191 people last year, Mayor Alberto
Ruiz Gallardon and other officials observed the silence in a plaza outside town hall.
Sirens wailed across Paris, with French President Jacques Chirac and visiting Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva standing at attention
outside the Elysee Palace.
Pope Benedict XVI prayed for the victims at his holiday retreat in the Italian Alps, the Vatican said.
Hundreds of people in Leeds gathered in silence outside the Hamara Living Center, where one suspect counseled disabled youths. With heads bowed, they
faced the center and marked the moment.
"We condemn these terrorists and what they have done," said Munir Shah, the imam of the Stratford Street mosque near the Leeds neighborhood that
police were searching. "We refuse to call them Muslims. They are not. Islam does not agree or teach about the killing of innocent people."
A military bomb squad cordoned off half a block of the Beeston area of Leeds as unit members in camouflage fatigues expanded their systematic search
of the neighborhood.
One police officer, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press the officers were going block-to-block to try to speak with anyone who
might have known the suspects. Police were also making a quick examination of select homes, looking around for anything they might find suspicious.
London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said Thursday that detectives have identified the four suicide bombers who carried out the
attacks. It was the first time police said publicly that the attackers were suicide bombers.
"We are as certain as we can be that four people were killed and they were the four people carrying bombs," he said.
"We don't know if there is a fifth man, or a sixth man, a seventh man."
The Times of London, quoting unidentified police sources, said detectives were interested in locating Magdy el-Nashar, 33, an Egyptian-born academic
who recently taught chemistry at Leeds University. The Times said he was believed to have rented one of the homes being searched in Leeds.
A spokesman at North Carolina State University said Thursday that el-Nashar studied chemical engineering there, beginning in January 2000.
Saad Khan, the chemical engineering department's director of graduate programs, said he remembered that el-Nashar applied for admission while living
in Egypt.
But by the end of the spring semester, el-Nashar had changed direction and decided to pursue a doctorate at Leeds instead, Khan said.
Neighbors reported that el-Nashar had recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem, The Times reported.
The Daily Telegraph said police were trying to identify a man seen standing near the four suspects on the platform at Luton railway station, where
they apparently boarded a train for London on July 7.
The Evening Standard reported that police had spotted a fifth man on closed-circuit tape showing the group at King's Cross about 20 minutes before the
explosions.
Late Wednesday, Scotland Yard said anti-terror police had raided a residence northwest of London.
Officers carried out a forensic examination, but police would not say why they targeted the house in a quiet residential street in Aylesbury, about 40
miles from London and 20 miles from Luton ? where a vehicle thought to be linked to last week's attacks was towed away Wednesday.
News reports have identified three Britons of Pakistani descent as suspects in the attacks.
A U.S. government official confirmed that Shahzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Mohammed Sidique Khan are believed to have been three of the bombers. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity because British investigators have not publicly released the identities of the suspected attackers.
The fourth man was identified in the British media as Jamaica-born Briton Lindsey Germaine.
Surveillance cameras captured the four as they arrived in the capital 20 minutes before the rush-hour explosions began.
A British security official told the AP on Thursday that Britain's intelligence and security services were cooperating closely with their Pakistani
counterparts because of the suspects' links with the country.
British media said Tanweer was a 22-year-old cricket-loving sports science graduate; Hussain, a 19-year-old; and Khan, the 30-year-old father of an
8-month-old baby.
The BBC reported a fifth suspect is being sought. Police refused to comment.
Britain's top law-enforcement official, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, said authorities were looking closely "at the relationship between the people
who may have committed the offenses and the wider network around them."
Several officials, including Foreign Minister Jack Straw, have said the attacks bore the "hallmark" of al-Qaida. Two claims of responsibility
purportedly from militant Islamic groups have surfaced.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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