Bomb made safe with just minutes to spare

ONE of two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week was disarmed just 17 minutes before it was set to go off, the French interior minister said yesterday.

Brice Hortefeux provided no other details in an interview on France’s state-run France-2 television, or say where he got the information about the timing.

“One of the packages was defused only 17 minutes before the moment that it was set to explode,” he said. The French Interior Ministry would not elaborate on Hortefeux’s comment.