Five held for Pope threat

LONDON (AP):

British police arrested five London street cleaners over an alleged threat to Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, the second day of a papal trip to Britain that has brought both a warm welcome from Catholics and renewed anger over the clerical sex abuse scandal.

The Vatican said the pope was calm despite the predawn arrests and planned no changes to his schedule.

Acting on a tip, police detained the men, aged 26 to 50, under the Terrorism Act at a cleaning depot in central London after receiving information about a possible threat. The men are being questioned at a London police station and have not been charged. Police said an initial search of that business and other related properties has not uncovered any hazardous items.

The pope's visit has divided opinion in officially Protestant, highly secular Britain. The trip has been overshadowed by disgust over the Catholic Church's clerical abuse scandal and opposition from secularists and those opposed to the church's stances against homosexuality and using condoms to fight AIDS.

The detained suspects worked for a contractor on behalf of Westminster Council, the authority responsible for much of central London. The pope addressed British politicians, businessmen and cultural leaders in Westminster Hall, part of the Houses of Parliament, late yesterday.

The depot were the men were arrested is responsible for cleaning another part of London that the pope is not due to visit, police said.

Police confirmed that some of the men were thought to be from outside Britain but declined to comment on press reports they were of Algerian origin.

Veolia Environmental Ser-vices, the cleaners' company, had no immediate comment on the arrests.