Thursday, April 3, 2008

Man Says Explosives at Airport Are Just for Show

ORLANDO -- A man accused of trying to check a bag containing pipe-bomb-making materials onto a plane told the FBI he wanted to show friends how to build explosives the way he saw in Iraq, according to documents released Wednesday.

The FBI was still trying to determine whether Kevin Brown was ever in Iraq. Investigators noted he told them he wanted to detonate the materials on a tree stump in Jamaica.

Brown did not speak at a court hearing where he was ordered held without bail while prosecutors reviewed his mental health records. Brown is charged with one count of attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft.

Brown, 32, was arrested Tuesday at Orlando International Airport after checking luggage for an Air Jamaica flight. Transportation Security Administration behavior experts saw him acting suspicious in the ticketing area, so investigators searched his baggage and found the unassembled bomb-making materials, authorities said.

The FBI said TSA officials searched Brown's luggage before it was put on the plane. It had two glass vodka bottles containing nitromethane, a colorless liquid used as a fuel for drag racing, in manufacturing and as a cleaning solvent. Brown said he had hoped the liquor bottles would disguise the nitromethane, the FBI said. The baggage also had a model rocker igniter, galvanized pipes, end caps, two small containers containing BBs, batteries, a laptop and instructions on how to make bombs, the court papers said.

Brother of Indicted La. Lawmaker Is Charged With Giving Payoffs

NEW ORLEANS -- The eldest brother and political strategist of indicted Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) has been charged with giving payoffs to a school-board president -- a bribery case apparently unrelated to the one against the congressman. In a federal indictment handed up, Mose Jefferson is accused of giving $140,000 to help secure about $14 million in contracts to bring a computer-based teaching system to Orleans Parish schools. He is charged with bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Families of Dead Miners Are Suing Utah Mine Owners

SALT LAKE CITY -- The families of six men killed at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine are suing the mine's owners, asserting that the deaths were caused by an unsafe plan to harvest coal. The lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court contends that Murray Energy Corp. and its affiliates continued to mine using a risky technique last summer.

Death Row Inmate in North Carolina Is To Be Released

RALEIGH, N.C. -- After 14 years on death row, an inmate whose murder convictions were thrown out because investigators withheld evidence, will soon be freed, his attorney said. Lawyer Frank Goldsmith said prosecutors have dropped murder charges against Glen Edward Chapman, 40, whose convictions were thrown out last year.

-- From News Services