JUDY WOODRUFF: Police in London found two car bombs today and said they could have killed hundreds of people. Both vehicles were Mercedes, filled with nails, gasoline and canisters of propane. The first was found in the wee hours, near Piccadilly Circus, the city's theater and entertainment district. Hours later, a second vehicle was identified at an impound lot in the Hyde Park area.
We have a report on how the day unfolded from Andy Davies of Independent Television News.
ANDY DAVIES, ITV News Correspondent: Dawn, central London, streets deserted. And, beyond the police tape, a glimpse of the back of a silver Mercedes stacked with explosive materials. Could this have been a massive car bomb intercepted just minutes before detonation?
PETER CLARKE, London Metropolitan Police of Anti-Terror Unit: Scientific analysis will tell us what the damage or injury could have been caused by this device. However, even at this stage, it is obvious that, if the device had detonated, there could have been significant injury or loss of life.
ANDY DAVIES: At 1:00 this morning, a London ambulance crew was called to attend a woman who'd become ill at the Tiger Tiger Club in London's Haymarket. They noticed that there was smoke rising from within a car parked outside the club. Immediately they called the police.
This is one of the gas canisters, "Patio Gas" written on the front. The canisters apparently had already been opened, hence the vapor, which others had noticed.
CHARLES CLARKE, Eyewitness: I came down here, and I was down that way. That was when I suddenly kind of saw from the back, you know, and the commotion started behind us. But some of my colleagues came out, and they were there when the paramedics noticed the smoke coming out of the footwell of the vehicle.
ANDY DAVIES: It's understood that the detonating device would have been operated remotely, possibly via a mobile phone. This was not the work, it seems, of a suicide bomber. The detonator would have triggered a small explosion in the car, which in turn would have combined with the petrol and gas to form a huge explosion, an explosion right next to the entrance of a club where hundreds of young people were enjoying Tiger Tiger's weekly ladies night.
A week away from the second anniversary of the 7th of July bombings in London, the center of the capital was once again transformed into a crime scene. As the Mercedes was taken away for forensic examination, a gradual crescendo of police sirens indicated further developments. And less than a mile away, explosive experts were inspecting another parked car.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This evening, the head of London's anti-terror police confirmed the second vehicle was also a car bomb and linked to the first. It had been parked illegally in the same area before it was towed to an impound lot.
In Washington today, the Department of Homeland Security said there were no signs of a threat in this country.
European Union nations agreed today on sharing data with the U.S. on transatlantic air passengers. The goal is to help fight terrorism. The agreement actually cuts down on the amount of information shared, but it lets U.S. officials keep that data for a longer period. E.U. member states must still give their final approval.
In Iraq today, the main Sunni political bloc began a boycott of cabinet sessions. It complained about attempts to arrest one of its members.
And the U.S. military reported that five Americans were killed Thursday in Baghdad, in a coordinated attack. The June American death toll now stands at 100. More than 300 U.S. troops have died in the last three months, the most for any quarter since the war began.
Democrats in Congress served notice today the Iraq policy over the war is far from over. They said, after the July 4th break, they will take up bills to pull combat troops from Iraq by next April. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Senate filibusters and presidential vetoes might stand in the way.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), Speaker of the House: The Republicans have the 60-vote barrier. The president has the pen, but we have the support of the American people who want this war to come to an end. And so, in July, in our House, we will be introducing legislation similar to what we sent to the president's desk before, which instructs the secretary of defense to begin the responsible redeployment of our troops to begin no later than 120 days.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added a warning. He said the August break might not happen if work on Iraq and other issues gets held up.
Later, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Congress should follow the timeline it approved in a war funding bill last spring.
ROBERT GATES, Secretary of Defense: That called for a report on July 15th of progress against the benchmarks, and it called for another report, this time by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, in mid-September. It seems to me that the Congress has laid out a sensible timetable, and we ought to adhere to it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The defense secretary also said he wants faster delivery of mine-resistant armored vehicles to troops in Iraq. He said the Pentagon bureaucracy and defense contractors have to understand lives are at stake. He told reporters, quote, "For every month we delay, scores of young Americans are going to die," end quote.
The Supreme Court agreed today to consider letting detainees at Guantanamo challenge their confinement in civilian courts. The case will be argued in the high court's fall term. The justices rejected that same request last April. They gave no explanation today for the turnabout. We'll have more on the Supreme Court's just-completed term right after this news summary.
On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 13 points to close at 13,408. The Nasdaq fell five points to close at 2,603. For the week, both the Dow and the Nasdaq gained about 0.5 percent.
