Alabama airport reopens after threat
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Birmingham airport reopened Sunday after a threat prompted an investigation by bomb technicians, flight diversions and a two-hour evacuation of hundreds of passengers.
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport officials said in a Facebook post around 6:30 p.m. local time that the airport was secured and normal operations were resuming.
Airport authority spokeswoman Toni Bast said an airport employee found a note containing the threat in a bathroom around 4 p.m. and turned it over to police. She said bomb squads swept the terminal but found nothing.
The airport was fully operational and flights were resuming Sunday evening. Bast said about a dozen flights were either delayed or diverted.
LAX gunman told police he acted alone
LOS ANGELES – The gunman charged in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport lay bloodied and handcuffed on the floor of Terminal 3 after being gunned down by police, but he replied to critical questions that helped authorities lock down the scene.
Paul Ciancia, 23, was hauled away moments later on a stretcher and later heavily sedated for medical reasons, but not before he told investigators he had acted alone when he opened fire in the terminal, a law-enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic who recently moved to Los Angeles from the small, blue-collar town of Pennsville, N.J., also told police a friend had dropped him at LAX on Friday just moments before he shot a Transportation Security Administration officer at point-blank range and wounded three other people, including two more TSA workers.
Officials do not believe that the friend knew of the shooter’s plans. Ciancia arrived at the airport in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger.
Egypt changes venue for deposed leader’s trial
CAIRO – Egyptian authorities on Sunday moved the trial of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, to a new location at another end of the capital, a move apparently aimed at thwarting mass rallies planned by the Muslim Brotherhood in his support when it opens today.
Facing charges of incitement of violence with 14 others in connection to clashes last December, Morsi has been held at an undisclosed location since his July 3 overthrow by the military. The trial will be his first public appearance since then, possibly inflaming an already-tense political atmosphere as animosity between Morsi’s Islamist supporters and Egypt’s security establishment steadily deepens.
“For (the Islamists) it will be like taking revenge on the police and the military,” said lawyer Khaled Abu-Bakr, representing three victims of the December clashes. “I really hope that no blood is spilled tomorrow,” he said.
The change of the venue was announced at a tumultuous news conference by appeals court judge Medhat Idris, who threw his statement in the air and stormed out of the room when Morsi supporters shouted in protest at the change.
Syrian: Jihadis said responsible for polio
DAMASCUS, Syria – A Syrian government minister said Sunday that foreign fighters who have come to the country to wage jihad are responsible for the outbreak of polio in the rebel-controlled north.
Last week, the United Nations health agency confirmed 10 polio cases in northeast Syria, the first confirmed outbreak of the disease in the country in 14 years, raising a risk of it spreading across the region. The confirmed cases are among babies and toddlers, all under 2, who were “under-immunized,” according to the World Health Organization. The agency is awaiting lab results on another 12 cases showing polio symptoms.
Associated Press
