Officials: Al-Qaida bomber was really spy
WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- The bomber in a foiled al-Qaida plot to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner was actually a spy who gave key information to the CIA, U.S. and foreign officials said.
The unidentified double agent, who works for the Saudi intelligence service, persuaded al-Qaida bomb makers in Yemen to give him a new bomb, designed to be undetectable at airport security checks, as well as vital inside information about the group's leaders, locations, methods and plans, officials told several news organizations.
The informant -- who U.S. officials said operated in Yemen with the full knowledge of the CIA but not under its direct supervision -- handed over the new bomb to the FBI, which was analyzing its properties at its Quantico, Va., laboratory, officials said.
The bomb is a more advanced version of an underwear bomb used in a failed 2009 Christmas Day attempt to take down a Northwest Airlines flight with 290 people flying to Detroit from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, officials said.
It is believed to have been designed by Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, reputed to be the top explosives expert in al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, who officials allege designed the Christmas Day bomb as well.
Asiri, 31, remains at large and is a CIA drone target in Yemen, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Former rebels attack Libyan headquarters
TRIPOLI, Libya, May 9 (UPI) -- The headquarters of Libya's interim government in Tripoli was attacked Tuesday by former Libyan fighters demanding to be paid, officials said.
At least one guard was killed and four people were injured in the attack, which lasted nearly two hours, officials said.
The fighters, who helped out former dictator Moammar Gadhafi were seeking unpaid stipends promised under a payment plan that was suspended last month, the Tripoli Post reported. The rebels are also seeking foreign medical treatment for those injured in last year's uprising
Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib was in the building at the time of the attack but was uninjured, an adviser told the BBC.
A government spokesman said the former rebels were armed with light to medium weapons, including machine guns and rocket launchers.
Witnesses said the fighters were part of a militia from Yafran, which is populated by the Berber ethnic minority.
Ukraine: Tymoshenko sent to hospital
KIEV, Ukraine, May 9 (UPI) -- Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former prime minister, has been transferred to a hospital where she will be treated by a German doctor, prison officials said.
Tymoshenko, who was jailed in December, was moved Wednesday from the Kachanivska prison in Kharkiv to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, Interfax-Ukraine reported. She traveled by train.
"Tymoshenko did not express complaints when she was being transported to the clinic. Doctors said her condition had not worsened compared to the previous days," the State Penitentiary Service was quoted as saying in a statement. "As planned, she will be treated by Dr. Lutz Harms of the Charite Clinic, Germany, jointly with Ukrainian medical personnel."
Expatica-Ukraine said Radio Liberty has confirmed reports that Tymoshenko was diagnosed with a spinal hernia.
Tymoshenko was sentenced last fall to seven years in prison for abusing her authority in the signing of gas contracts between Ukraine and Russia in 2009.
Two jailed in kidnapping of mom, daughters
GUNTOWN, Miss., May 9 (UPI) -- Police in Tennessee arrested the mother and ex-wife of Adam Mayes, the man suspected of kidnapping a mother and her three children, state authorities said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Mayes' mother, 65-year-old Mary Frances Mayes, and his ex-wife, Teresa Ann Mayes, were in jail after being arrested Monday, CNN reported Tuesday.
Teresa Mayes was charged with four counts of especially aggravated kidnapping and Mary Frances Mayes was charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping.
The bodies of Jo Ann Bain and her oldest daughter, 14-year-old Adrienne, were found last week at a home in Guntown, Miss., that has been tied to Adam Mayes, TBI officials said. Investigators still are searching for Mayes and Bain's two younger daughters, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8.
An arrest warrant indicated Teresa Mayes admitted driving a vehicle in which the mother and her three daughters were riding from Hardeman County, Tenn., to Union County, Miss.
At least 17 law enforcement agencies are involved and hundreds of people are working on the investigation, FBI Special Agent Joel Siskovic said.
Ministry: Probe finds no 'flesh pills'
BEIJING, May 9 (UPI) -- Chinese health officials said they will investigate so-called human flesh capsules even though no evidence of pills made of human remains has yet been found.
Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said the department was investigating claims the capsules made with aborted fetuses were smuggled into South Korea from China, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday.
Health officials across China will work with police, customs agencies and commerce authorities in the investigation, Deng said.
China has strict rules on the disposal of the remains of dead infants, aborted fetuses and placentas, which are categorized as human remains not medical waste, he said. Also, medical facilities and their staffs are barred from trading human remains, the spokesman said.
South Korean media reported the importing of "human flesh capsules" was first noticed in August. Since then, South Korean customs authorities reported uncovering 35 attempts to bring the human flesh pills into the country in luggage or by mail.
Heroic United Airlines pilot dies
ST. CHARLES, Ill., May 9 (UPI) -- A heroic United Airlines pilot who helped crash land a crippled Chicago-bound DC-10 aircraft in an Iowa cornfield in 1989 has died of cancer, his family said.
Denny Fitch, 69, of St. Charles, Ill. was a passenger aboard United Flight 232 from Denver to Chicago when it lost hydraulic power July 19, 1989.
The United pilot and DC-10 instructor pulled every aeronautical trick out of the book to help the pilots get the aircraft on the ground, the (Arlington Heights, Ill.) Daily Herald reported Wednesday. The crash killed 111 people but 184 survived.
United pilot Mike Hamilton said the landing was a legend in the aviation world.
"It became a case study in how a crew could work together in an emergency," Hamilton said.
After the crash Fitch became an international motivational speaker and a consultant who worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
"He had survivor's guilt after the crash because people died," his wife Rosa said. "It haunted him that he didn't save everyone."
