Monday, February 18, 2013
Man with gun arrested at airport
NEWARK, N.J
Officials say a Pennsylvania man was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport after screeners noticed a loaded gun in his carry-on bag.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reports that 59-year-old Robert Kellerman of Long Pond was taken into custody just after 6 a.m. Sunday by Port Authority police. They were notified after Transportation Security Administration screeners saw the .22-caliber handgun at a checkpoint inside Terminal C.
Kellerman was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. Officials say Kellerman told police he forgot the gun was inside the bag.
Airline passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage. They must be stored properly and unloaded.
US lawmakers meet with Iranian exiles
PARIS
An Iranian opposition movement that the United States recently took off its list of terror organizations has hosted a U.S. congressional delegation for the first time.
Mujahedeen-e-Khalq — the militant wing of a France-based Iranian opposition group — gave a raucous welcome Sunday to the four American lawmakers. The meeting comes after a Feb. 9 rocket attack at the Camp Liberty refugee camp in Iraq that houses many of its members. MEK officials say seven people died and dozens were wounded.
U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, accused Iraq of breaking its promise to help protect the 3,100 refugees at the camp.
Iraq’s Shiite-led, pro-Iranian government considers MEK a terrorist group and wants the international community to speed up the resettlement of the refugees elsewhere.
3rd man booked in pre-Mardi Gras shooting case
NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans police say a third man has turned himself in to face charges from a shooting on Bourbon Street three days before Mardi Gras.
Officer Hilal Williams says 19-year-old Malcolm Hall was booked Saturday with four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
An online jail roster indicates that his bond had not been set Sunday.
Two Marrero men — 22-year-old Brandon Brown and 23-year-old Deron Bridgewater — turned themselves in earlier and were booked with the same charges. Their bonds are set at $1 million: $250,000 on each count.
It was not clear whether any of them has an attorney.
The shooting injured four people, one seriously, during the run-up to Mardi Gras. Police have not released the victims’ names.
Man charged with slapping toddler may be out of job
MINNEAPOLIS
A man charged with slapping a toddler on a flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta appears to be out of a job.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday that AGC Aerospace and Defense had suspended 60-year-old Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden, Idaho, as president of its Unitech Composites and Structures.
On Sunday, AGC issued a statement saying that, while not referring to Hundley by name, calls reports of an executive’s behavior on personal travel “offensive and disturbing” and says he “is no longer employed with the company.” The statement does not say whether the executive quit or was fired.
Hundley was charged with assault last week after he was accused of slapping a 2-year-old boy and called him a racial slur during the Feb. 8 flight. His attorney has said he will plead not guilty.
Associated Press