Free Republic

CNN) -- An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to London was diverted to New York early Thursday after a crew member became suspicious of one of the passengers, an airline spokeswoman said. The crew member aboard Flight 136 -- scheduled to fly nonstop from Los Angeles International Airport to London Heathrow Airport -- questioned a passenger whom the employee had seen bypassing security by traveling on an employee-only bus from the parking lot to the LAX airport, according to spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon. Following that conversation, the decision to divert the Boeing 777 was made, Whitemon said. The plane landed...

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, Newfoundland (AP) — An Egypt Air passenger flight carrying more than 300 passengers was diverted to Newfoundland on Monday after smoke was detected in the cockpit, an airport official said. The Boeing 777 that departed from Cairo for New York City made a safe emergency landing in Goose Bay, said Kevin Aylward, CEO of Goose Bay Airport Corp. The passengers stayed on the plane while maintenance workers repaired the problem. "It's something they were able to fix very quickly," said Aylward. He said he didn't know what the exact cause of the smoke. No fire was found...

CHICAGO - A former Chicago transportation foreman was sentenced to a year in prison for taking $15,000 in bribes to divert city-owned asphalt to private construction projects. "I really do understand how wrong this all was," Patrick Stillo, 51, told U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo during his sentencing Tuesday. Stillo is the 18th person sentenced and one of 24 who have pleaded guilty to charges in the federal investigation into Chicago's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program. The program spent millions to outsource hauling jobs to private truckers. Stillo, who had pleaded guilty to mail fraud and bribery, was one of five...

Arafat 'diverted $300m of public money to Swiss bank account' By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem (Filed: 09/11/2003) More than $300 million (£176 million) of Palestinian Authority funds were diverted by Yasser Arafat into a previously undisclosed Swiss bank account and the money can no longer be traced, according to a damning American television report to be broadcast today. The CBS network's 60 Minutes, a respected investigative programme, claims that missing Palestinian funds were held in Switzerland in an account set up in the name of a British Virgin Island company. The account has since been closed. The revelation follows the...