Free Republic

A video camera, which is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post, shows the two arriving in the holding area between two courtrooms, according to a law enforcement official who viewed the tape. The video shows Hall guiding Nichols, whose hands are still handcuffed behind his back, face-first into one of two open cells. Hall releases one cuff and turns Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff, which is dangling from his wrist. She uncuffs him so he can change from a jail jumpsuit into street clothes. The muscular, 33-year-old Nichols then lunges at Hall, knocking...

A pilot and his first officer have been grounded after the tail of a plane carrying 145 passengers hit the runway at Auckland International Airport on takeoff. The "tail strike" happened as the Cathay Pacific Airbus A340-300 left the ground too steeply when it took off from the airport last week on its way to Hong Kong. The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating. Cabin crew and passengers felt the plane shudder as the bottom of the tail scraped along the runway. Crew alerted the pilot, a junior captain and one of the airline's first Chinese pilots to be promoted to...