Atlanta: A suspicious package addressed to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters was intercepted on Monday morning, the network said, five days after one of 14 pipe bombs sent to some of US President Donald Trump’s leading critics forced the evacuation of CNN’s New York office.

The latest package was intercepted at an Atlanta post office, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker said in a post on Twitter.

The FBI’s Atlanta bomb squad and other law enforcement personnel responded after being notified by the US Postal Inspection Service, Kevin Rowson, an FBI spokesman, said in a statement.

Zucker said there was no imminent danger. Since a pipe bomb turned up at CNN’s New York office in the Time Warner Centre on Wednesday, all mail to the network has been screened offsite, he said.

News of the latest package surfaced with just over a week before highly charged Nov 6 elections, in which the Democrats are battling to seize control of a Congress now held by Trump’s Republican Party.

Last week’s bombs were sent to a range of prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, and other frequent targets of Trump’s scorn.

Cesar Sayoc, a former male stripper and part-time pizza deliveryman accused of mailing those bombs, was scheduled to make his first appearance before a federal judge on Monday afternoon.

Sayoc, 56, is charged with five felony counts: interstate transportation and illegal mailing of explosives, threatening a former president, making threatening interstate communications and assaulting federal officers.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2018