Despite intervention from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team had to miss the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England because the British Consulate would not issue them visas. Though they already had to forfeit their Thursday night game, there was hope that they would be issued visas in time to play a game today against Japan. But the British refused to honor their Haudenosaunee passports, and now they have run out of time. One player told the Times, “I felt it was coming, but I didn’t want to believe it until I actually heard it." more ›

Early yesterday morning, a person riding a bicycle was caught on surveillance video throwing a brick at a window of the Greek Consulate—and spray painting on the East 79th Street building. And police are investigating whether this incident is linked to the bombings outside the British and Mexican consulates, as well as outside the Times Square recruiting booth. more ›

Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered. more ›

Two explosive devices detonated outside the Mexican Consulate at 39th St. near Madison Ave. in Manhattan early this morning, breaking several windows but not injuring anyone. The devices were believed to be replica hand grenades of the sort that are normally sold as novelties, but in this instance were packed with gunpowder. The explosions occurred around 3:30 a.m. and a resident on the block called the police reporting them. It wasn't until employees at the consulate arrived for work this morning, however, and found the windows of their building shattered that the damage was connected with the earlier report of an explosion. At that point, the bomb squad and the FBI were called in to investigate. more ›

It's time for the tabloids to make a number of bada-boom puns, as the police confirmed that it was a pipe bomb that was set off yesterday morning outside the West 29th Street building owned by Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli and his wife. The NYPD said there no known threats to the Imperiolis and during a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said, "While there certainly is no evidence that this was terrorism, we are taking this and every act of violence extremely seriously, and we'll take every step to identify and apprehend whoever set this explosive device off." more ›

The Post's Braden Keil reveals that Madonna has been scoping out townhouses on the Upper East Side. With three children and probably many helpers, the Madonna has probably grown out of her 6,000 square foot duplex at 41 Central Park West's Harperley Hall. more ›

Reading is a necessary part of many airplane trips. And books haven't made the list of prohibited items - yet. But for some reason, airport security at one of the area airpots (probably JFK) gave Harry Potter author JK Rowling a hard time about her manuscript for the seventh book in the series. On her website, she writes:

The heightened security restriction on the airlines in August made the journey back from New York interesting, as I refused to be parted from the manuscript of book seven (a large part of it is handwritten, and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the U.S.). They let me take it on, thankfully, bound up in elastic bands.

Every so often, Gothamist gets email from readers in Midtown asking if we've heard any news of a bomb threat, as their building is being evacuated or they can see the bomb squad headed across the street, but as we're still waiting for our police scanner, we usually don't know unless we see it on NY1. The NY Times has an article about the bomb squad's Midtown visit freguency: 350 suspicious packages, with only 10 getting "dynamically disrupted" by a nonexplosive device. Most recently, the bomb squad "disrupted" a package next to the Starbucks at 295 Madison Avenue. No!! Not the Starbucks at 9:30AM in the morning! The package turned out to be an electronic switch. Doh! Someone was screwed when he got to work in the morning. more ›

During the morning rush hour, a series of explosions have blasted in downtown London, killing at least two people and casualties (which include both the wounded and dead) were hovering near a hundred. The front of a double decker bus was sheared off in one explosion, while a number of explosions (anywhere from three to seven) hit between six Underground stations (Edgware Road, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Russell Square, Aldgate East, Moorgate). People may still be trapped underground near the King's Cross station (here's an evacuation picture), which sounds awful as the London Underground tunnels are incredibly narrow and very deep underground. Prime Minister Tony Blair feels it's "reasonable" to suspect the explosions are terror-related, and he will be leaving the G8 conference in Scotland to check on the scene; the conference, however, will go on. Here's more from BBC News, and Londonist's breaking news updates show that the Underground explosions were related to "power surges" at first. more ›

Last week's bombing outside the British Consulate in Midtown East still has police puzzled, but the NY Post reports that a biker seen on a surveillance tape is now a suspect. The bike rider, seen around 3AM, was found on tapes from "from Sixth Avenue and 48th Street to 845 Third Ave., the site of the bombing, and on to East 53rd Street between Park and Lexington avenues," as the NYPD expanded the area of the investigation and are considering the possibility the biker threw the grenade while riding. Gothamist, like many others, is actually more curious about the female jogger from 3-3:30AM - what the hell was she doing out so late? The police are still unsuccessful in identifying the biker (will the push for bike license plates gain more momentum?), but are continuing to look at tapes. more ›

The police and other law officials are still investigating yesterday's mysterious explosion at the British Consulate. The explosion, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning, seems to have come from two devices, one in a concrete planter and one on the sidewalk outside 850 Third Avenue, or they were both possibly planted in the planter. The grenades themselves are being described as "crude" and "clumsy," but still powerful, so many are feeling lucky that no one was hurt. Third Avenue was closed until 11AM yesterday, amid a phalanx of investigators, local media, and even a, as the NY Times put it, "possibly inebriated Dutch employee of the United Nations" who was questioned when he wouldn't leave the crime scene (Newsday says he was released and issued a desk appearance ticket). The problem with the investigation is that there are few clues - speculation about motives ranges from it being a message sent to Britain (the IRA?) or to the Caterpillar company, which has supplied Israel with equipment - a board member has offices in the building. Police Commissioner Kelly expressed the NYPD's hopes that someone, such as the female jogger, a bicyclist and a taxicab seen in surveillance tapes, might be able to help: "This is New York. It's 3:30 in the morning, yet there are still people out in the street." more ›

On 845 Third Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, two small explosions went off at the nondescript Midtown building that houses the British Consulate. The explosions went off around 3:30AM (which is when Britain was voting, though there was no voting at British consulates overseas). The AP reports that the building was slightly damaged, but various officials say no one was injured; more details:

After piecing together the shrapnel, police determined the devices were toy grenades that had been filled with gunpowder. Officers estimated that one was the size of a pineapple; the other the size of a lemon. more ›