Pittsburgh: Canadian teen arrested for lighting shoe on plane

A 17-year-old Canadian passenger on a US Airways flight from Toronto was arrested for using a lighter on his shoe, authorities said.

The teen told police he was burning loose material off his tennis shoes as the plane taxied into Pittsburgh International Airport Saturday. The boy’s father was seated next to him.

Authorities said the teen would not be identified because of his age. He was cited for disorderly conduct and released into the custody of his father, said Allegheny County Police Sgt. Robert Clark.

Police said the boy and his father were connecting in Pittsburgh on a flight to California, but US Airways asked them to make other travel arrangements.

New York City: WTC proposal gains ground

Top Port Authority officials say they are eager to talk about a swap that would give the New York City control of the World Trade Center site in exchange for the land beneath JFK and LaGuardia airports.

Strict design requirements by the Port Authority, which has owned the World Trade Center site since the 1960s, played a pivotal role in the six rebuilding proposals released last month. The Port Authority insisted on replacing all of the office, retail and hotel space that had been destroyed by the Sept. 11 terror attack.

Proponents say the beauty of the land swap proposal is that it would eliminate the Port Authority from the downtown planning process. In return, the Port Authority would no longer have to make rental payments for the right to operate the airports.

Washington, D.C.: Bush administration defends review of al-Qaida threat

The Bush administration said Sunday it moved as swiftly as possible to develop a plan on how to eliminate al-Qaida a process that took eight months and wasn’t complete until one week before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Clinton administration had handed off to the incoming Bush team detailed assessments of the threat, and offered ideas on how to counter al-Qaida.

But Bush officials took issue Sunday with a report in the Aug. 12 issue of Time magazine that said the current administration’s review of its predecessor’s briefings became bogged down in bureaucracy.

The current White House denied receiving any firm plans for dealing with al-Qaida.

“The Clinton administration did not present an aggressive new plan to topple al-Qaida during the transition,” said White House spokesman Sean McCormack. “We were briefed on the al-Qaida threat and what the Clinton administration was doing about it. These efforts against al-Qaida were continued in the Bush administration.”

Washington, D.C.: U.S. makes loan to Uruguay

The Bush administration announced Sunday it was providing an emergency $1.5 billion loan to Uruguay to help stabilize the small South American nation rocked by financial troubles in the region.

It marked the first time the Bush administration has provided direct economic support to a country in financial crisis. The action served to underscore the administration’s growing concern about the widening economic troubles in Latin America.

Those problems include financial market turmoil last week in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, and a deepening recession following a record government debt default in December by Argentina.