NEWARK, N.J.
Detained fliers posed no threat, FBI says
Five men detained Saturday after an American Airlines flight landed at Newark Liberty International Airport were found to pose no threat and were released, an FBI spokesman said.
The men – identified only as four Angolan military personnel and an Israeli – were traveling back to their home countries after attending helicopter- training school in Texas, said Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the FBI’s Newark office.
Fellow passengers on Flight 1874, which had departed from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, became suspicious of the men because they were speaking in foreign languages and had “aircraft flight materials” with them, Siegel said. A federal marshal on the plane notified authorities at Newark Liberty about the men’s behavior.
PHOENIX
FBI puts sect leader Jeffs on wanted list
The fugitive leader of a polygamous sect wanted on charges in Arizona and Utah was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list Saturday.
Warren Jeffs has not been seen publicly in nearly two years and is wanted on criminal charges of sexual conduct with a minor.
He is accused of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. Federal authorities also have added a charge of unlawful flight.
Authorities on Saturday raised the reward amount from $50,000 to $100,000.
Jeffs’ brother, Seth Jeffs, pleaded guilty Monday in Denver to harboring his fugitive brother. Seth Jeffs, 33, who was arrested in Pueblo in October, will be sentenced July 14.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.
Ex-war captive Lynch yearns for normalcy
Three years after her capture and dramatic nighttime rescue in the early days of the Iraq war made her a celebrity, Jessica Lynch yearns for the ordinary.
She’s just finished her first year at West Virginia University, where she’s become an anonymous college student on a campus of thousands.
“I think people recognize who I am; they just don’t make it obvious,” Lynch, 23, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “That’s good for me because it gives me the opportunity to blend in and not stick out and really experience the college life just like they are.”
BOSTON
Governor to return campaign donations
Massachusetts’ governor intends to return campaign contributions from employees of a concrete supplier at the center of a federal criminal fraud case tied to the multibillion-dollar Big Dig highway project.
The Boston Globe reported that Gov. Mitt Romney was set to return $3,850 in contributions, including $750 received from Robert Prosperi, one of six Aggregate Industries NE Inc. employees accused of falsifying records to hide the delivery of inferior concrete to the Big Dig.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y.
Cabbie charged with hate crime in assault
A Long Island taxi driver was arrested and charged with a hate crime after police said he shouted racial epithets while hitting a man with his cab outside a convenience store.
Robert A. Rossetti Jr., 56, of East Quogue, N.Y., pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of second-degree assault and second-degree aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He was ordered held on $5,000 bail.
Police said Rossetti argued with the victim, whom they identified as Cesar Cedillo, outside a 7-Eleven early Thursday, then got into his cab and struck him twice, shouting slurs throughout the encounter.
Police said Cedillo, a 21-year- old of American Indian and Mexican-American descent, told them he was a day laborer who was outside the store looking for work.
