Pakistan: Chief suspect tells court American journalist is dead

The chief suspect in kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl told a court today in Karachi that American journalist Daniel Pearl was dead.

There was no independent confirmation of the statement.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh has been in custody since Tuesday in the disappearance of Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped three weeks ago.

Afghanistan: Accident kills U.S. soldier

An Army soldier based at Bagram airfield, 40 miles north of Kabul, died Wednesday of injuries he suffered when the heavy equipment he was working on fell on him. The soldier, whose name was being withheld until his family has been notified, was pronounced dead by doctors at a local medical facility where he was taken for emergency surgery.

In a separate accident, eight U.S. soldiers were injured Tuesday evening when their Air Force transport plane crashed in a remote part of Afghanistan, said Maj. Brad Lowell,a spokesman for U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force in Tampa, Fla. None of the eight aboard the MC-130P that went down in a remote part of Afghanistan sustained life-threatening injuries, and seven could still walk, said Lowell.

The cause of the crash was unknown but it did not appear to be the result of hostile fire, Central Command said.

Yemen: Suspect blows himself up

A suspected al-Qaida member blew himself up Wednesday evening after being cornered by security forces in a Yemeni suburb, police said.

Yemeni security forces were chasing Sameer al-Hada, 25, and had stopped him for questioning when he threatened police with a hand grenade, police said in a statement. The grenade exploded in his hand, killing him instantly. No police were injured.

The incident, which happened in a suburb of the capital, San’a, came two days after the FBI issued a warning of more terrorist attacks  either the United States or on U.S. interests in Yemen.

That warning Monday was accompanied by a list of 17 suspects; al-Hada’s name is not on that list.

California: Teddy bears raise suspicions

The FBI said Wednesday it was looking for a man who purchased several small propane canisters, Valentine’s Day teddy bears and BB gun pellets last month from a Wal-Mart store in Santa Clarita, a Los Angeles suburb.

Although the purchase could be harmless, the FBI said, the items could be assembled into small bombs.

The agency received an anonymous tip last week that a man between the ages of 22 and 35 and possibly of Arab descent paid cash for the items on Jan. 15 and left the Santa Clarita store in a white delivery truck.

According to the FBI, the man purchased seven twin-pack propane fuel canisters, each 8 inches tall; 12 packs of BB pellets, each containing about 350 BBs; and nine white Valentine’s Day teddy bears, each about 20 inches tall.