Texas: Airport employee wounded when gun in luggage goes off

A gun inside a checked bag accidentally discharged Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, injuring an American Airlines employee, officials said.

The worker was shot in the foot when the gun went off at a ramp area, an airport spokeswoman said. The worker was treated at a hospital and released.

The Transportation Security Administration is reviewing the incident, which appears to be a violation of federal law, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melen said.

The bag with the gun had been properly screened for explosives, Melen said.

The FBI took a 50-year-old Key West, Fla., woman into custody at Kansas City International Airport in connection with the incident. The woman, who was flying from Key West to Kansas City, Mo., was scheduled to have an initial court appearance on Monday.

Yemen: Suspects in Cole bombing escape from Yemeni prison

Ten key suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole escaped Friday from a Yemeni prison, dealing a major blow to the investigation into the bombing blamed on the al-Qaida terror network.

Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack.

A massive manhunt is under way for the men, including two that U.S. counterterrorism officials say played key roles in the attack — chief suspect Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd Muhammad Ahmad al-Quso. Al-Badawi allegedly bought the dinghy packed with explosives and rammed by suicide bombers into the anchored destroyer refueling in the southern Yemeni port of Aden.

The fugitives were jailed inside the tightly guarded central intelligence building in Aden.

An Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity that the fugitives escaped through a hole in a bathroom wall inside the room they were being detained in.

Berlin: Police shoot bus hijacker, free hostages unharmed

Police stormed a city bus to end a 4 1/2-hour standoff Friday, wounding the gunman who commandeered the yellow double-decker bus and freeing his two captives unharmed.

Police said the suspect, a 46-year-old German ex-convict, was shot in the shoulder but not critically wounded as police commandos smashed through windows to reach the hijacker.

“He said he was ready for a shootout with police and was ready to be shot to death himself,” Martin Textor, the police operation’s commander, said in explaining the decision to end the standoff by force.

The drama began when two masked men, one armed with a pistol, robbed a Berlin bank Friday morning. They made off with about $5,400, but dropped the loot during the getaway, police said.

The armed robber then commandeered the bus near the Commerzbank branch in the busy Steglitz shopping district. Police were investigating what kind of weapon he brought onto the bus, but said he also grabbed a policewoman’s gun.