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WASHINGTON - For hours after allegedly trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to blow up a Christmas Day flight to Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab talked and talked — to U.S. Customs officers, medical personnel, and FBI agents. He spoke openly about what he'd done and why, and provided valuable intelligence, U.S. officials told The Associated Press in a series of interviews that spell out for the first time the details of Abdulmutallab's arrest and questioning on Dec. 25. Badly burned and bleeding, the suspect tried one last gambit as he was taken from the plane: He claimed...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas acted alone and probably smuggled the explosives from Nigeria, the Dutch public prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Passenger films Northwest Flight 253 bomb attempt On Northwest flight 253 this past Christmas day as we all now know, a Nigerian man attempted to blow up the plane which thankfully failed. But with nearly 300 passengers and crew on board you would expect that someone with a camera or better yet a camcorder would be filming or taking pictures. These days most everyone has a cell phone with camera or video capabilities. Well there was at least one man that we know of that was filming the entire event, witness’s on board mentioned it during the various interviews that...

PASSPORT NUMBER ALSO REVEALED, ZUMUNTA ASSOCIATION USA CONDEMNS ACT Lagos (THEWILL)- THEWILL has continued to investigate the attempted terrorist attack in the United States by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. The Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren told journalists on Boxing Day that Umar bought his ticket at the airport office of KLM Airlines in Accra, Ghana without leaving any contact details then returned to Nigeria. "The ticket information revealed that the ticket was purchased in Accra, for $2, 831, with original routing for Lagos - Amsterdam- Detroit- Amsterdam- Accra, but was later re-issued...

The Nigerian suspected in the attempted attack on a U.S. airliner had stayed on in Yemen illegally after his visa expired three months ago and should have been stopped by authorities from leaving the country, Yemeni security officials said Thursday.

The U.S. government had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda there were talking about "a Nigerian" being prepared for a terrorist attack.

As some Houston leaders called on Sunday for measures to help guard against future terrorist attacks, others questioned why the Nigerian man charged with trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit spent time last year in Houston. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is believed to have traveled to Houston in 2008, but no details of the trip were available Sunday. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston declined to discuss any connection Abdulmutallab might have to the city, saying details of the investigation remain classified. U.S. government officials did confirm that they are looking into his travel itinerary, but the FBI...

HEADLINE ONLY. Article will be posted when available.

DETROIT — A prominent Nigerian banker said Saturday he feared his son was the man authorities say tried to blow up a plane as it prepared to land in Detroit before nearby passengers — who saw a glow and heard what sounded like firecrackers — tackled him. The suspect tried ignite the explosive device onboard a Northwest Airlines plane from Amsterdam just before it landed in Detroit on Friday, officials said. Travelers who say they smelled smoke and heard a popping noise said at least one man climbed over a seat and jumped on the man.

An al Qaida-linked suspect who allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic plane is studying at a UK university, it has been reported. The Nigerian is accused of trying to detonate a powdery substance on a plane from Amsterdam as it prepared to land at Detroit with 278 people on board. US sources said he was subdued by passengers and has since claimed to have been acting for al Qaida. He has been named by ABC News as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, an engineering student at University College London, with the broadcaster citing US government documents. The suspect, who has...

LOS ANGELES — A homeless man was arrested and charged with arson for starting a tiny blaze in August near the spot where a gigantic wildfire erupted several days later, killing two firefighters, homicide detectives said Monday. Babatunsin Olukunle, 25, is the strongest lead to date in the arson investigation stemming from a fire that destroyed 89 homes, burned 250 square miles of national forest and killed two firefighters when their truck plunged off a road. It was one of the largest fires in Southern California history.

The 25-year-old Nigerian national was reportedly seen tending a small blaze about six days before the Station fire started in the same area. Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives hope to question a man who was spotted tending a small fire in the vicinity of the Station fire almost one week before that deadly blaze erupted in the Angeles National Forest. At a news conference Monday, homicide detectives requested the public's help in locating a 25-year-old homeless man who was caught "feeding" a small, uncontrolled fire in the early afternoon of Aug. 20 -- six days before the start of the...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AFP) – Three top Nigerian militant leaders in the volatile oil hub of the Niger Delta gave up their weapons along with thousands of fighters on Saturday under a government amnesty. A senior commander of the main armed group MEND surrendered his weapons in the oil city of Port Harcourt, on the eve of the expiry date of the amnesty extended to rebels who have wrought havoc on Nigeria's oil industry in recent years. "I Farah Dagogo, overall field commander for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) accepts together with field commanders in...

July 26, 2009 News services report an early morning attack on a police station in Bauchi City, Nigeria, by the Nigerian Taliban, AKA Boko Haram. The initial attack was repelled, and the police evidently chased the attackers into the adjoining neighborhood. Total death toll includes one police officer and 40+- others - mostly Taliban, some civilians as well.

Tampa, Florida - A police officer who mouthed off while picking up his uniform at the cleaners has been indicted on a charge of threatening President George W Bush for allegedly saying he would shoot him and his father if someone gave him the bullets. Joseph Mazagwu, 35, surrendered on Friday on charges of threatening the president and lying to investigators. The rookie officer has been suspended from the force and could lose his job. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. He had no comment after his first court appearance and was released on $25 000...

Swindles in which someone overseas seeks access to a person’s bank account are so well known that most potential victims can spot them in seconds. But one man found success by tweaking the formula, prosecutors say: Rather than trying to dupe an account holder into giving up information, he duped the bank. And instead of swindling a person, he tried to rob a country — of $27 million. To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to...

SNIPPET: ""Spanish police suspect terrorism links in arrests," from the Associated Press, February 3 (thanks to all who sent this in): The Spanish police arrested 13 people on Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups. A police statement said the detainees — 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian — are suspected of belonging to an international criminal gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and the smuggling of people." SNIPPET: "The police statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand. The group allegedly stole passports in...

This landscape of change and fear has been shaped by a singular juxtaposition: One of Europe's biggest concentrations of African immigrants has risen in the heart of Camorra turf. "After the shooting, my wife said: 'Let's pack and leave this place,' " said Nsangu "Sammi" Kagutta, a Tanzanian father of three who owns a nearby Internet center. "They were just poor people trying to get their daily bread. If it was about drugs, they shot the wrong people." Most of the victims were illegal immigrant laborers, though one or two may have been low-level drug pushers, investigators say. The fusillade...

A woman from Sweet Home, Oregon is mired in debt after losing nearly $400,000 to Internet con men in a scheme called the Nigerian scam. Janella Spears, a nursing administrator in Lebanon and church volunteer, took the bait of the e-mail scammers in August 2005 by wiring them $100 on the promise she will get $20.5 million for helping straighten out the finances of a fake relative. Spears continued giving small payments despite warnings from banks because she thought the people communicating with her were honest and real relatives and representatives of banks, credit companies, the police and the FBI....

Woman out $400K to 'Nigerian scam' con artists  Story Updated: Nov 11, 2008 at 9:07 PM PST By Anna Song KATU News and KATU.com Web Staff SWEET HOME, Ore. – Janella Spears doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark. Besides her work as a nursing administrator, Spears – no relation to the well-known pop star – also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.So how did this otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a million dollars to a bunch...