Kentucky: Airport evacuation case handed to federal agents

Federal authorities on Monday took over the prosecution of a Kansas man whose statements to security screeners at Cincinnati’s airport led to a shutdown of the terminal May 12.

Police at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport had charged Charles Cowsert, 40, of Council Grove, Kan., with misdemeanor offenses of having marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Those charges were dropped on Monday in Boone County Circuit Court in Burlington to allow federal authorities to take over.

Cowsert was being transferred to federal custody. He awaits an initial appearance this morning in U.S. District Court in Covington.

Lebanon: Car bomb kills son of radical Palestinian

A bomb placed under the driver’s seat of a car exploded Monday, killing Jihad Jibril, a senior military chief of a group the United States lists as terrorist. He was the son of radical Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed Jibril.

The Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate. The PLO faction, which has long opposed the Israel-Palestinian peace process and is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations, has focused its efforts on attacking Israel from bases in Lebanon in recent years.

Jihad Jibril, 38, who commanded the group’s military operations in Lebanon, was driving his Peugeot sedan down a street off the busy Corniche Mazraa in west Beirut when the bomb detonated at noon, Lebanese police said.

A police officer at the scene said a bomb of high-explosive plastic had been placed under the driver’s seat.

Boston: Shoe bomb suspect asks judge to suppress statements

A man accused of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with plastic explosives hidden in his shoes asked a federal judge Monday to suppress statements he made after his arrest.

Court papers filed by lawyers for Richard C. Reid claim that authorities ignored Reid when he invoked his right to remain silent and denied him medical attention.

Reid, 28, a British citizen, is charged with trying to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22. Flight attendants and passengers restrained him after Reid allegedly tried to light a fuse protruding from his shoe. The flight was diverted to Boston.

Vatican City: Pope prepares for trip

Despite his frail health and advancing years, Pope John Paul II departs Wednesday for Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, a five-day trip intended to improve relations with Muslims and Orthodox Christians.

The pope will spend two days in Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim country of 7.5 million people on the Caspian Sea with 120 only Catholics by Vatican count, the smallest Catholic flock of any country on his foreign tours. With no church facility fit for a pope available, John Paul will be staying for the first time in a hotel.