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ROME. — An Italian journalist who reports on the construction of a highly contested new high-speed rail line has been sent a flash drive filled with explosives, Italian media reported yesterday.Bomb disposal experts have deactivated the device and were quoted by the reports as saying it was packed with 120 grammes of explosive material and would have detonated if inserted into a computer.

The flash drive was sent on Thursday to the journalist from La Stampa daily, based in the city of Turin in northern Italy near where the Lyon to Turin line is being built through the Alps.

In April, a letter bomb was sent to La Stampa but failed to detonate because it malfunctioned.
“There is a real risk,” said Giancarlo Caselli, the chief prosecutor in Turin, adding that there were criminal elements “on the fringes of the opposition movement” against the rail line.

The No-TAV (No to High Speed Rail) movement denied any involvement but accused the journalist of working for what it called the “corrupt and mafia interests” behind the construction project.

The project was launched in 1991 but has been delayed several times because of resistance. Supporters say it would take a million trucks off the road every year and greatly shorten travel times between France and Italy, while opponents say it is useless and too expensive. —AFP.