USA
Alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid will face federal charges of attempted murder and attempted destruction of an aircraft - among others - when he appears today in US District Court in Boston. A nine-count indictment handed up by grand jurors also said Reid underwent training from the Al Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan. The British national and convert to Islam was overpowered Dec. 22 by fellow passengers after he threatened to blow up an American Airlines flight.
Airlines will meet today's deadline to implement tougher luggage-screening rules by matching all bags with passengers boarding flights, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. House minority leader Dick Gephardt (D) criticized the plan as flouting the intent of a law passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. It requires airlines to screen bags for explosives, but allows bag-matching as an alternative. And, in what opponents say is another flaw, connecting flights would not be subject to bag-matching.
A professional oversight panel to keep tabs on corporate accountants was among the "broad concepts" Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt was expected to pitch as part of the agency's response to bankrupt Enron Corp. and the practices of its auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP. An SEC spokeswoman said the panel might include accountants as well as nonaccountants, who could examine ethical and competence issues related to the securities industry. The SEC, Justice Department, and Congress all are investigating Enron's collapse.
A law student who went on a shooting spree after being told he flunked out said he was ill and needed help, as he arrived for arraignment in Buchanan County District Court in Grundy, Va. Peter Odighizuwa, a naturalized US citizen from Nigeria, fatally shot the dean, a professor, and another student at the Appa-lachian School of Law. He was ordered held without bond until a preliminary hearing March 21. (Story, page 1.)
Claiming a security strip-search amounted to discrimination, a Muslim woman and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against guards at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and the Illinois National Guard. Samar Kaukab (above) of Columbus, Ohio, said she was singled out because she wears a headscarf. The suit seeks a federal injunction to require airport guards to be trained not to base searches solely on religion or ethnicity, plus unspecified financial damages.
The sale of the Boston Red Sox for a record $660 million was approved by Major League Baseball team owners. It's the first step in a complex deal that also involves sales of the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos, aimed at reducing the number of major league teams from 30 to 28. One of the buyers, John Henry, currently is a partner in the ownership of the Marlins.
