Man charged with threatening flight

Man charged with threatening flight

TORONTO

A 25-year-old man charged for purportedly making threats on a flight from Toronto to Panama City is being released on $1,000 bail.

Ali Shahi appeared in a Brampton, Ontario, court Saturday.

Sunwing Airlines says its plane turned around about 45 minutes into the flight Friday morning after an “agitated passenger directly threatened the aircraft.”

Two U.S. F16 fighter jets from Ohio were scrambled and escorted the plane out of U.S. airspace.

Sunline Airlines spokeswoman Janine Chapman said the plane, carrying 183 passengers and six crew members, landed safely at Toronto’s Pearson airport and no one was injured.

Shahi has been charged with uttering threats and endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Food workers vow civil disobedience

VILLA PARK, Ill.

Comparing their campaign to the civil-rights movement, fast-food workers from across the country voted Saturday to escalate their efforts for $15-an-hour pay and union membership by using nonviolent civil disobedience.

More than 1,300 workers gathered in a convention in center in suburban Chicago to discuss the future of a campaign that has spread to dozens of cities in less than two years. Wearing T-shirts that said “Fight for $15” and “We Are Worth More,” the workers cheered loudly and said they would win if they stuck together.

UK man released by Yemen kidnappers

LONDON

A British man kidnapped in Yemen has been released safely after five months in captivity, the U.K. government said Saturday.

Mike Harvey, a teacher, was abducted in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Feb. 12 after leaving an educational institute.

Harvey “is being supported by staff at the British Embassy and will be reunited with his family soon,” a Foreign Office spokesman said, adding that Harvey was released after efforts between Yemen’s government and tribal intermediaries.

In Yemen, a security official and a tribal leader said Harvey was freed after a ransom was paid to kidnappers. Other tribal leaders said that he was held by militants linked to al-Qaida.

Cops: Drunken man ran over friend

SETAUKET, N.Y.

Police in New York say an inebriated man ran over and killed a friend who had climbed out of his car and started walking home because she was worried he was drunk.

The accident happened about 4 a.m. Saturday in Setauket on Long Island.

Suffolk County police say 23-year-old Lawrence Pagano called 911 after his car struck 21-year-old Krystal Berkowitz.

Police determined that Berkowitz had gotten out of Pagano’s car and had begun walking home. Police say Pagano tried to pull over to talk to Berkowitz but instead hit her with his vehicle.

Pagano was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

FBI: Scam targets minor migrants’ kin

HOUSTON

Scammers have been preying on the relatives of unaccompanied young migrants being held at two U.S. military bases by conning them into paying nonexistent fees to be reunited with their loved ones, officials said.

The FBI is trying to determine how many people have been victimized by the scheme, in which con artists use private information about the children to contact their family members and demand payment for bogus processing and travel expenses needed to reunite the kids with their relatives.

Associated Press