A Japanese newspaper apologized Saturday for a fatal explosion in Jordan’s main international airport that occurred when one of its journalists apparently tried to carry a battlefield souvenir from Iraq through a security checkpoint. A customs official was killed in the blast at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport on Thursday. The journalist, 36-year-old photographer Hiroki Gomi of the Mainichi newspaper, is being detained by authorities in Jordan. Three people were also injured in the explosion, which was caused when a “metal device” picked up by Gomi while he was covering the war in Iraq — identified by some media reports as a hand grenade — went off in his suitcase. The newspaper offered its “profound apologies” for the incident in a statement printed on the front page of its Saturday edition. “It appears that his carelessness led to this grave outcome,” the statement said. “Although the blame lies with the journalist himself, we are painfully aware of our responsibility as a newspaper.” A senior editor at the newspaper, Yoshiaki Ito, left Tokyo on Saturday for Amman to investigate the incident. Full Story
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