Brussels - The offices of the chairman of the independent commission on the RUC and new EU Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, were yesterday evacuated after staff found an elaborate hoax bomb, Patrick Smyth reports.
A mystified Commission spokesman later said that Mr Patten had clearly not been targeted as the "bomb" - a clock, wires, circuit board and some plastic material - had been found in boxes of files and miscellaneous junk being transferred from outgoing Sir Leon Brittan's office. It may have "belonged" to one of Sir Leon's staff, he said.