Engineer guilty of sale of secrets to China

Engineer guilty of sale of secrets to China

HONOLULU

A federal jury in Hawaii on Monday convicted a former B-2 stealth-bomber engineer of selling military secrets to China.

Noshir Gowadia was convicted on 14 counts, including conspiracy, violating the arms- export-control act and money laundering. He was found not guilty on three counts of communicating national defense information to aid a foreign nation.

Gowadia faces life in prison when he is sentenced in November.

Flight attendant arrested after ruckus

NEW YORK

Police say a JetBlue flight attendant who got into an altercation with a passenger on a plane arriving in New York City and deployed an emergency exit slide so he could flee has been arrested.

They say 39-year-old Steven Slater was arrested on charges including criminal mischief and reckless endangerment after Monday’s incident at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police say Slater was working on a JetBlue Airways Corp. flight from Pittsburgh when he got into a heated argument with the passenger about baggage. They say as the plane was landing, Slater used the public-address system to berate the passenger. They say he then activated the slide, slid down and went to his car.

He was arrested at his Queens home.

Study: Large waist can be dangerous

CHICAGO

If your pants are feeling a bit tight around the waistline, take note: Belly bulge can be deadly for older adults, even those who aren’t overweight or obese by other measures.

One of the largest studies to examine the dangers of abdominal fat suggests men and women with the biggest waistlines have twice the risk of dying over a decade compared with those with the smallest tummies.

Surprisingly, bigger waists carry a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is “normal” by the body-mass index, or BMI, a standard measure based on weight and height.

To check your girth, wrap a tape measure around your waist at the navel. No fair sucking in your bulge. Men should have a waist circumference no larger than 40 inches. For women, the limit is 35 inches.

Israel threatens to pull out of flotilla inquiry

JERUSALEM

Israel threatened Monday to pull out of a U.N. inquiry into a deadly raid on a Turkish flotilla heading for Gaza, after the U.N. chief said there is no agreement that the panel would refrain from calling Israeli soldiers to testify.

Last week, Israel agreed to participate in the U.N. probe into the May 31 raid, when nine pro- Palestinian activists were killed after Israeli naval commandos boarded a Turkish vessel aiming to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

The surprise development came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified before his country’s own inquiry into the raid. He charged that Turkey refused to exert its influence to stop the flotilla. A Turkish official rejected that as “ridiculous.”

Associated Press