Egypt

Abu Nidal behind Lockerbie bombing, former aide says

A one-time close aide to Abu Nidal claimed the elusive Palestinian terrorist, found dead in Iraq this week, was behind the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In a series of interviews published in the Arabic Al Hayat newspaper this week, Atef Abu Bakr claimed that Abu Nidal told a meeting his radical Fatah-Revolutionary Council was behind the bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

Abu Bakr is a former spokesman for the group and one of Abu Nidal’s closest aides between 1985 and 1989, when he split with him over management of the organization. Abu Bakr’s whereabouts were not known.

The attack has been blamed on Libya, and in March this year, a Scottish appeals court upheld the murder conviction of former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for the blast.

New York

TV host’s son arrested, let go in purse-snatching incident

The son of television’s Bryant Gumbel was arrested Thursday for allegedly mugging a woman on Manhattan’s upper East Side but the charges were later dropped because police apparently got the wrong man.

Bradley Gumbel’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, said early today that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was “declining to prosecute at this time” pending further investigation. He had insisted Gumbel’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

Police originally said Gumbel, 23, tackled the woman from behind and snatched her purse and a Tiffany bracelet as she walked on 71st Street near First Avenue.

The 31-year-old victim, who described her attacker as a tall black man with a shaved head, later fingered Gumbel, who is 6-feet-5 and has close-cropped hair, as he walked on a street corner.

But Gumbel, an event planner for a Manhattan media firm, said he was simply walking home to his apartment on East 72nd Street after dropping off a date.

Wisconsin

McDonald’s employee dies from hepatitis A infection

A McDonald’s restaurant employee infected with hepatitis A died Thursday evening, authorities said.

Jessica Van Straten, 19, died at University Hospital in Madison, hospital spokeswoman Tim Le Monds said. A liver had been identified for a transplant, but her condition deteriorated too much for the surgery to be done, he said.

Van Straten’s 18-month-old son and another employee’s child, also 18 months, were diagnosed with the virus as well. The children attend the same day care center. Their conditions were not immediately known.

There were no indications the virus was transmitted to anyone who ate at the restaurant.

Judy Friederichs, director of the Brown County Health Department, said McDonald’s closed voluntarily and was cooperating with the investigation. The health department found no current or past history of hygiene problems at the restaurant.

Symptoms of the disease include severe fatigue, poor appetite, fever, and vomiting. The virus is rarely fatal, and most people recover after several weeks, health officials said.