May 6, 2013 ( MINNEAPOLIS) -- FBI officials said Monday that they foiled a terrorism attack that was being planned in a small western Minnesota town, but they offered no details about the exact targets of the attack - or the motive of the man accused of having a cache of explosives and weapons in a mobile home.


The FBI said "the lives of several local residents were potentially saved" with the arrest of Buford Rogers, 24, who made his first appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Rogers, of Montevideo, was arrested Friday after authorities searched a mobile home he's associated with and found Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, according to a court affidavit.

"The FBI believed there was a terror attack in its planning stages, and we believe there would have been a localized terror attack, and that's why law enforcement moved quickly to execute the search warrant on Friday to arrest Mr. Rogers," FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said Monday.

He said agents are looking at the case as one of domestic terrorism.

Violence erupted across Bangladesh on Monday as Islamist fundamentalists demanding passage of an anti-blasphemy law clashed with security forces, leaving a trail of property damage and at least 22 people dead after a second day of unrest.

The skirmishes began Sunday when thousands of Islamic activists staged a march on Dhaka, the capital, followed by speeches and a mass demonstration. The authorities say several hundred shops were vandalized, and local television channels showed fires in the central part of the city. Later, when protesters refused to leave, security officers unleashed tear gas and fired rubber bullets to drive them out of the capital.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had called on Islamic hard-liners to postpone their planned march — described as Siege Dhaka by supporters on social media — but they refused. The march was organized by Hefajat-e-Islam, a group of Islamic hard-liners who have called for Bangladesh’s Constitution to be drastically amended with a 13-point program that would ban intermingling between men and women and punish by execution Bangladeshi bloggers accused of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad.

Later on Monday, the authorities detained Junaid Babunagari, Hefajat-e-Islam’s secretary general, in Dhaka for interrogation, though the group’s spiritual leader, Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, was allowed to leave the capital for Chittagong. Supporters of the Islamic movement accused security officers of staging an unjustified assault — claiming that numerous protesters had been killed — and contended that the government was persecuting members of their movement.

Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim nation with a Constitution that defines the country as a secular democratic republic. Ministers in the governing Awami League have criticized the Islamic hard-liners, accusing them of conspiring with opposition political parties in an attempt to destabilize the government. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, the home minister, told reporters on Monday that Hefajat would be prohibited from staging future demonstrations.

Hundreds of survivors of last month's collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh protested for compensation Tuesday, as the death toll from the country's worst-ever industrial disaster passed 700.

The police control room overseeing the recovery operation said the death toll stood at 705 on Tuesday afternoon as workers pulled more bodies out of the wreckage of the eight-story building that was packed with workers at five garment factories when it collapsed on April 24. The factories were making clothing bound for major retailers around the world.

The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012. It is also one of the deadliest industrial accidents ever.No one knows what the final toll will be, as the exact number of people inside Rana Plaza at the time of the collapse was unknown. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive.

Bangladesh rescuers look for survivors and victims at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, April 25, 2013.Hundreds of garment workers who survived the disaster blocked a major highway near the accident site in a Dhaka suburb on Tuesday to demand the payment of wages and other benefits. No violence was reported, although traffic was disrupted for hours.

Local government administrator Yousuf Harun said they are working with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to ensure the workers get paid.

The workers, many who made little more than the national minimum wage of about $38 per month, are demanding at least four months in salary. The workers had set Tuesday as the deadline for the payment of wages and other benefits.

pacino wrote:The plant in Texas had a million dollars in insurance. Are we going to arrest this bastard of an owner for malfeasance or something???? the entire town and government should sue him for everything he's worth, because now WE will have to work on this cleanup at our expense when this ahole caused it by not bothering to enact ANY safety measures or properly ensure a freaking fertilizer plant

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

pacino wrote:The plant in Texas had a million dollars in insurance. Are we going to arrest this bastard of an owner for malfeasance or something???? the entire town and government should sue him for everything he's worth, because now WE will have to work on this cleanup at our expense when this ahole caused it by not bothering to enact ANY safety measures or properly ensure a freaking fertilizer plant

They'll try. Texas has a very aggressive environmental agency (believe it or not) due to the prevalence of oil facilities that is extremely savvy at collecting remediation costs. To the extent that they can pierce the corporate veil, they'll try. And obviously the feds will be involved as well.

The problem is that the remediation costs (as opposed to the fines and penalties) can be discharged in bankruptcy. Still, a rich dude going through an 11 or a 7 has a much different outcome for creditors than a dude earning $50K.