Yemen: Extradition sought for al-Qaida suspect

Yemen has asked Pakistan to extradite a suspected al-Qaida leader wanted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of a U.S. warship, a Yemeni official said Saturday.

The foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity that Waleed bin Attash was on Yemen’s most wanted list for his role in plotting the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole. Yemen was awaiting Pakistan’s response, he said.

U.S. officials also suspected Attash coordinated the activities of two plane hijackers who crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Attash, a Yemeni, and five others allegedly involved with al-Qaida were arrested Tuesday in Karachi.

Pakistan: Police arrest two carrying explosives

Police have arrested two Pakistani men suspected to have ties to al-Qaida as they drove into Karachi with 300 pounds of high explosives in their van.

The men, whose names were not released, were coming from Hyderabad, about 100 miles east of Karachi, and were stopped on Friday as part of a routine security check, said Kamal Shah, police chief in southern Sind province.

Police said the arrests were unrelated to the arrests of six al-Qaida suspects during Tuesday raids in Karachi.

Los Angeles: Cruise ship ‘brat’s’ mom would refuse to post bail

The mother of a 20-year-old woman accused of making a terrorist threat aboard a cruise ship said she wouldn’t post bail for a “brat” even if a judge had granted it.

“She is going to have to stay in jail and learn her lesson,” Debra Ferguson told the Los Angeles Times.

Kelley Marie Ferguson, 20, remained jailed without bail Saturday at a federal detention center in Honolulu, according to Officer Lewis Gardner.

The cruise ship Legend of the Seas was diverted April 23 to Honolulu after two threatening notes were found. The notes prompted the FBI to search for weapons and interrogate 2,400 crew members and passengers.

Kelley Ferguson was accused of planting the notes so she could get home to her boyfriend. She was charged with two counts of threatening acts of terrorism.

Egypt: Cairo building collapses

A seven-story building collapsed late Saturday, injuring four residents and trapping at least 10, police said.

The building — situated in the crowded, working-class southern Cairo suburb of Rod el-Farag — collapsed after 9 p.m. local time. Police had no explanation for the incident.

Police said initially that four people were injured and at least 10 more were trapped in the rubble. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

Rescue and fire crews were sifting through the rubble at the scene. No further details were immediately available.

Building collapses are not unusual in Egypt and often are caused by shoddy construction or the unauthorized addition of extra stories.

San Diego: Child’s convicted killer says he was set up

In letters from his death-row cell, the convicted killer of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam claims he was framed, prompting a denial from police.

“From the second that the police said that they found dvd’s (Danielle’s) blood on my jacket, I knew I was being set up by one of two groups of people,” former engineer David Westerfield wrote to a friend. “1 the police or 2 the parents.”

The letters were given to The San Diego Union-Tribune by the recipients on condition of anonymity.

Westerfield was convicted in August 2002 of Danielle’s kidnapping and killing, and was sentenced to death in January.