NEW YORK — New York City has positively matched another Sept. 11 victim to long-held human remains after retesting DNA. The city medical examiner’s office said 54-year-old Manuel Emilio Mejia has been identified from remains found at the World Trade Center site in the months after the 2001 terrorist attack. Mejia was a kitchen worker at Windows on the World, the restaurant on top of the trade center’s north tower. Nearly 2,800 people are on the city’s Sept. 11 victims list, but more than 40 percent of them have never been identified from remains.
Maine: Emergency landing
A United Airlines Boeing 767 carrying 178 passengers and 11 crew members from London to Washington, D.C., has made an emergency landing because of mechanical problems. A spokeswoman at Bangor International Airport said the jet landed there Wednesday morning after pilots reported smoke in the cockpit and the failure of one of its two engines. She said Flight 923 landed without incident and passengers were preparing to board another plane to continue their flight to Dulles Airport.
Georgia: Jet fleet grounded
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a unit of SkyWest Inc. and one of nine regional carriers for Delta Air Lines Inc., said Wednesday it grounded 60 of its 112 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 jets after an internal audit raised safety concerns. The groundings represent nearly 40 percent of ASA’s total fleet. The paperwork audit raised questions about whether the engines on Bombardier CRJ200 jets had been properly inspected according to the guidelines provided by the engines’ manufacturer, the company said.
Wyoming: Gray wolf change
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has filed a formal rule to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered list in Montana and Idaho while leaving them on the list in Wyoming. The agency filed the rule Wednesday, a day ahead of today’s publication of the delisting in the Federal Register. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he would uphold the decision to leave the Wyoming protections in place. A separate rule also calls for removing protections for wolves in the western Great Lakes.
Minnesota: Craigslist killer
A man convicted of murdering a woman he had lured to his home with a Craigslist baby-sitting ad was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the chance of parole. The sentence was mandatory for 20-year-old Michael John Anderson, who was convicted Tuesday of first-degree premeditated murder and other charges in the October 2007 shooting death of Katherine Ann Olson, 24. Prosecutors said Anderson, of Savage, ran the ad in order to lure a woman to his home so he might experience what it felt like to kill.
Michigan: Biker club arrests
The national president of a motorcycle club was arrested Wednesday on federal charges that include being a violent felon in possession of body armor, federal prosecutors said. The U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit said Jeff G. “Fat Dog” Smith of the Devil’s Diciples illegally possessed two body armor vests, and that he and 16 other members of the gang also were charged with using a telephone for drug trafficking. Federal authorities say they seized 55 pounds of marijuana, 1 ½ pounds of methamphetamine, Vicodin and OxyContin pills, firearms, ammunition, bulletproof vests and 15 casino-style slot machines.
Venezuela: Oil exports rise
Venezuela increased oil shipments to the United States in January, despite President Hugo Chavez’s anti-U.S. rhetoric and a promise to OPEC to cut output, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday. Crude shipments from Venezuela to the U.S. rose to an average 1.2 million barrels a day in January, up 14 percent from December, according to data from the department. Venezuela had promised to cut exports to the U.S. by 16 percent starting Jan. 1 to comply with OPEC cuts.
Jamaica: ‘Ganja granny’ guilty
Police said a 71-year-old Canadian woman has pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges after customs officials found 8 pounds of marijuana hidden in her luggage at a Jamaican airport. Montego Bay police on Wednesday identified the woman as Margueritta Lancaster-Reid of Ontario. Police said the elderly woman — dubbed “ganja granny” by local media — pleaded guilty Tuesday to concealing the marijuana in her luggage She is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
From Herald news services
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