Briefly World

Police say a German man was temporarily detained at Stuttgart airport after he repeatedly told security personnel that he had explosives in his underwear.

Man detained at Stuttgart airport after bomb hoax

BERLIN: Police say a German man was temporarily detained at Stuttgart airport after he repeatedly told security personnel that he had explosives in his underwear. The 42-year-old man,who was heading to Egypt with his family for a vacation,apparently was joking about the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit on Christmas. Police said a full body search of the German man on Tuesday did not turn up any explosives.

Pilot pleads guilty to pre-flight drinking

LONDON: A United Airlines pilot who was pulled from his trans-Atlantic flight to Chicago before takeoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to being above the alcohol limit for flying a plane. Erwin Vermont Washington,of Lakewood,Colorado,was removed from United Airlines Flight 949,which was to fly from Londons Heathrow Airport to Chicago last November,after a co-worker suspected him of being drunk and he failed a breath test.

Bangla parties to drop Islam in name

DHAKA: All religion-based political parties in Bangladesh will be forced to drop Islam from their names and stop the use of faith while electioneering following an apex court order,which would facilitate automatic restoration of the word secularism in the Constitution. The Supreme Court upheld a 2005 ruling by the High Court throwing out the fifth amendment of the Constitution,which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country.

Two killed in Las Vegas court shooting

LAS VEGAS: A man clad in black opened fire in the federal courthouse lobby here on Monday,killing a security officer and wounding a deputy United States marshal before he was fatally shot by federal officers as he fled. The gunman was identified by a Las Vegas Police Department official as Johnny L Wicks,66. Wicks had filed a complaint against the Social Security Administration in 2008 over a reduction in his benefit,according to a police official.

Iraqi militant linked to hostage freed

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials have released a Shia militant leader,an Interior Ministry official said on Tuesday,raising hopes that the last of five British hostages captured in Baghdad more than 2-1/2 years ago would be returned. Qais al-Khazali was released on Sunday,said Alaa al-Taii,head of the Interior Ministrys media division. Khazali is the leader of Asaib al-Haq,the Shia militia group believed to be behind the 2007 abduction of computer programmer Peter Moore and his four bodyguards.