Mandela ‘unchanged’

Mandela ‘unchanged’

JOHANNESBURG

Nelson Mandela was in serious but stable condition in a Pretoria hospital for the third day Monday with a recurring lung infection, and a foundation led by retired archbishop Desmond Tutu described the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero as an “extraordinary gift” to South Africa.

As family members visited South Africa’s first black president in the hospital, the government announced — in only the second communication on Mandela since he was hospitalized Saturday — that his condition was “unchanged.”

WikiLeaks trial continues for soldier

FORT MEADE, Md.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s court-martial for giving hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks entered its second week Monday in a fresh spotlight cast by a brand-new leak by another low- level intelligence employee.

Like Manning, Edward Snowden could find himself hauled into court by the U.S. government after he unmasked himself Sunday as the leaker who exposed the nation’s secret phone and Internet surveillance programs to reporters.

Legal experts closely following both cases said they were shocked to find out young, low-ranking people had such access to powerful government secrets. Manning was 22 when he turned over the military and diplomatic cables about three years ago; Snowden is 29.

First-flight fight

HARTFORD, Conn.

Connecticut’s leading role in aviation has never been disputed, but legislators have passed a bill insisting that a Connecticut aviator flew two years before the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

The measure is the latest twist in an effort to credit the first successful airplane flight to German-born aviator and Bridgeport resident Gustave Whitehead.

The bill honors what it calls the first powered flight by Whitehead in 1901, “rather than the Wright brothers.” Whitehead is credited by some for the first flight in August 1901. The Wright brothers lifted off from North Carolina in December 1903.

Feds to comply with judge’s pill ruling

NEW YORK

The federal government told a judge Monday it will reverse course and take steps to comply with his order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.

The Department of Justice, in the latest development in a complex back-and-forth over access to the morning-after pill, notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling.

Plane diverted

PHOENIX

A “telephonic bomb threat” against a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas, resulted in the plane’s being diverted to Phoenix on Monday afternoon, the FBI said.

Laura Eimiller of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office said the flight left Los Angeles International Airport at 2:12 p.m. before the threat was received by telephone. She didn’t provide further details.

Flight 2675 landed safely at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport about 3 p.m., and authorities in Los Angeles asked Phoenix police to check out the possible threat.

The plane’s crew and 143 passengers got off the plane and boarded several buses. All of the passengers were being interviewed by investigators, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Associated Press