Sun Country Airlines passengers who flew from the Twin Cities to New York on Saturday morning underwent special security screening after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Crew members noticed "irregularities" with a security seal covering a smoke detector in one of the lavatories, said Sun Country CEO Shaun Nugent.
Smoke detectors on the airline's Boeing 737 airplanes have tape seals, so it can be readily detected when someone tries to remove a smoke detector cover.
Flight 245, which had 43 passengers and six crew members on board, landed in New York without incident, but the plane was routed to an undisclosed location at the airfield for security reasons, Nugent said.
Passengers were taken off the plane, screened and released. "One passenger was temporarily detained by local authorities and the FBI and then released," Nugent said.
After airport and federal authorities searched the aircraft, it was released back to Sun Country.
The Mendota Heights-based carrier flies to New York and other major U.S. destinations. Those flights originate from the Humphrey terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Intelligence sources tell us several Americans — or at least people holding U.S. passports — were captured among the 6,000 Islamists fighting on behalf of the ousted Islamic Courts Union (ICU) during the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
The recent fighting by Ethiopian and transitional federal government forces against the partially ruling ICU forced thousands of Islamist fighters of the ICU to move south to Kismayo and Ras Kamboni, on the Kenyan border.
Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate intelligence committee in written testimony last week that Ethiopian forces were in hot pursuit of the Islamists.
"Ethiopia likely intends to eliminate as many of the radical Islamists and their camps as possible before withdrawing," Gen. Maples said. He said "multiple reports" from the region indicate "the presence of foreign trainers in Somalia from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula." "Al Qaeda is assessed to be assisting the radical Islamist elements of the [ICU] with leadership and training with hopes of establishing a future Talibanlike state," he said.
Excerpted
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070118-110938-8432r.htm
Five Algerian terror suspects agree to leave UK
Jan. 20, 2007
Five Algerian men being held without trial on suspicion of terrorism have agreed to be voluntarily deported from Britain, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday.
It said the men were part of a group of 27 foreign nations being held on the grounds they are a threat to national security, several of whom have been held in custody without trial for more than four years.
Britain's Home Office refused to confirm whether any suspects had agreed to voluntary deportation and said it would not comment on the status of the 27 being held.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467775462&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Four arrested with explosives in India
Sunday, January 21, 2007
MUMBAI: Four people were arrested with 6 kg (13.2 lb) of powerful explosives near a crowded railway station in Mumbai on Saturday, six months after a string of train bombings that killed 186 people in the financial hub.
The arrests were made near the Andheri station, one of the busiest halts on Mumbai’s suburban railway network, following a tip-off by intelligence agencies, police said.
“We can not say now if these people are just carriers of the explosives or they were planning any attack,” said a senior officer, who declined to be identified.
Excerpted
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/01/21/story_21-1-2007_pg4_12