USA: Suspicious packages spark security alert in Washington.

Washington police were on Tuesday (December 5) investigating reports of suspicious packages at the White House and two other locations in the U.S. capital. Authorities blocked off some streets by the White House after a package was thrown over the fence into the courtyard of an office building adjacent to the presidential mansion, the Secret Service said. "A homeless lady threw an object over the fence" that landed in the courtyard of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House and where government officials have offices, said Darrin Blackford, spokesman for the Secret Service. "The object is being investigated, we don't know what it consists of right now," Blackford said. "The woman is being detained and questioned." The other locations were by Union Station, where Amtrak and commuter rail services operate, and by a Coast Guard facility and bomb squad teams were responding, Washington, D.C. police spokesman Josh Aldiva said.

ITN Source | December 5, 2006

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