Bombs Explode in France, Turkey and Lebanon : Terrorism: Australians expel an Iraqi diplomat for ‘security reasons.’ A plot to hijack a plane to Iraq is uncovered.

A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Paris newspaper office early Saturday, slightly injuring three people in what police said may have been a Persian Gulf-related terrorist attack.

Other bombings possibly linked to the Gulf War were reported in Turkey and Lebanon. In Australia, authorities expelled the Iraqi charge d’affaires for “security reasons” and said they uncovered a plot to hijack a U.S.-bound airliner. Amid concerns about terrorism, U.S. military personnel were put under curfew in South Korea.

Late Saturday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein issued a new call for worldwide “commando” attacks on the United States and its allies, saying anyone who died would be a martyr in the “mother of all battles.” Radio Baghdad, in a broadcast monitored in Cyprus, appealed to Iraq’s supporters overseas for “tangible acts” that would “echo across the battlefield.”

The Paris blast, which police said involved about 300 grams of explosive, wrecked the first-floor interior of the newspaper Liberation, located on the Right Bank. Three people, including a security guard, suffered minor injuries.

A political tract was left outside the offices of Liberation, a moderate left-wing daily tabloid favored by intellectuals and young professionals. The tract did not mention the war but accused Liberation of abandoning its leftist roots and joining the “ignoble consensus.”

The words “Fed Up!” appeared at the top of the crudely worded statement composed of photocopied newspaper characters. Specifically, the tract attacked the newspaper for its “silence” after a recent coup in Chad, when it contended that American CIA agents had kidnaped captured Libyan soldiers for the purpose of turning them into “anti-Kadafi commandos,” referring to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

However nebulous the gulf connection, the newspaper bombing caused teams of police to scramble about Paris, which has been in a high state of terrorist alert since the outbreak of the war between Iraq and the U.S.-led multinational forces, which include France.

The newspaper has been less supportive of French participation in the war than many other French publications, including its main rival Le Monde, the staid, left-leaning national newspaper of record.

In Adana, Turkey, one bomb damaged a car outside the U.S. Consulate and another blew the door off a Turkish-American club, authorities said Saturday. No injuries were reported.

The attacks on U.S. targets were the first reported in Adana, which is near the Incirlik base being used by U.S. warplanes in the war on Iraq. No one claimed responsibility.

In Lebanon, a bomb exploded at a Saudi-affiliated bank near Beirut, shattering windows but causing no injuries in a wave of what observers call pro-Iraqi attacks.

The explosion rocked the entrance of the Saudi Bank in a village in the Druze-controlled Shouf Mountains 18 miles southeast of Beirut, police said. They did not say who planted the bomb.

A court in Sydney, Australia, was told Saturday that an undercover police operation exposed a plot by a Lebanese-born Australian to hijack a U.S.-bound airliner.

Hamid Taoube, 27, a Muslim, was arrested Friday and charged with threatening to endanger the safety of an aircraft, police said.

Prosecutor Raff del Vecchio said Taoube telephoned the Iraqi Embassy in Canberra and offered his services, suggesting that he hijack an aircraft, Australian Associated Press reported.

At a meeting with an undercover officer Friday evening, Taoube outlined a plan to make a bomb and take it aboard an American-bound aircraft that he would hijack to Iraq, Del Vecchio said.

Also Saturday, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans announced the expulsion of Iraq’s top-ranking diplomat in Australia for “security reasons.” Charge d’affaires Saad Omran was given 72 hours to leave.

A department spokesman refused to say whether there was a link between Taoube’s arrest and Omran’s expulsion.

Omran said last week that if Australia increases its involvement in the war, Iraq could ask Muslims and Arabs around the world to hit U.S. and allied interests.

In South Korea, the U.S. military tightened security and said its personnel must stay at their installations during a 12-hour curfew that began Saturday.