Deliveries halted over Greek mail bombs

GREECE stopped all airborne parcels headed overseas and screened thousands of packages yesterday in an attempt to stop a spate of bombings blamed on Greek militants targeting diplomatic missions and European leaders.

A 48-hour ban on all outgoing parcel deliveries abroad took effect after mail bombs reached the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and halted flights for hours at Italy’s Bologna airport, where a package addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi caught fire.

The attacks, which followed an unsuccessful Yemen-based mail bomb plot, highlighted the difficulty of keeping bombs out of the international delivery system.