Two homemade bombs ripped through cafeterias at China’s two most famous universities at lunchtime today, leaving nine injured and shattering a long-held sense that campus life in this country is immune from violent attack. Fashioned from what police called “homemade charcoal gunpowder,” the first bomb exploded at 11:55 a.m. during the lunch rush at Tsinghua University, sometimes referred to as China’s MIT. Flying glass injured five professors and a student. About 90 minutes later, a second blast blew out dining hall windows and a door at Beijing University, known as China’s Harvard, injuring three. China’s state-run media issued brief reports on the explosions. Hundreds of policemen descended on the leafy campuses, cordoning off the sites and forbidding Chinese journalists to provide information to foreign media outlets. Police fanned out across the city tonight, stopping cars at random and checking identification. No group immediately asserted responsibility for the bombings, which came a day after a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and a week before China’s legislature opens its annual session. Full Story
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