2 killed clearing WWII bomb in Solomons BULGARIA COURT JAILS DUO FOR LIFE OVER 2012 ISRAELI BUS BOMBING

Wellington, Sept. 21: Two men from Britain and Australia who were working in the Solomon Islands to locate bombs left behind from World War II have died after one of the bombs exploded, authorities said Monday.

The Norwegian People’s Aid agency said the men were staff members who were working with the government to develop a database of unexploded bombs from the war. The agency identified the men as Stephen “Luke” Atkinson from Britain and Australian Trent Lee.

The Royal Solomon

Islands Police Force said the men died Sunday in the bomb blast at the office of their aid project, located in a residential part of the capital, Honiara. Police said they are still investigating but believe the men had several unexploded bombs at the office and may have been carrying out work to disarm them.

“We are concerned that they decided to conduct explosive ordnance disposal operations within a residential area,” Inspector Clifford Tunuki said in a statement.

Sofia, Sept. 21: A Bulgarian court on Monday sentenced two men to life in prison for their involvement in the 2012 bombing of a tourist bus that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver and injured nearly 40 people. Meliad Farah, a dual Lebanese-Australian national, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a dual LebaneseCanadian national, were sentenced in absentia as their whereabouts are unknown, said prosecutor Evgenia Shtarkelova.

On July 18, 2012, Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, a French-Lebanese national, blew himself up on a tourist bus at the airport in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Burgas. According to witness, the man was trying to put his backpack inside the luggage compartment of the bus along with the Israeli tourists when it exploded.