USA
A London-to-New York United Airlines flight was diverted to Boston Tuesday by fighter jets when a passenger caused a disturbance after reportedly taking out a screwdriver, matches, Vaseline, and a note referring to Al Qaeda.
Update (8/16 4:35pm): According to the Associated Press, officials now deny reports that the passenger, a Vermont woman, was carrying a screwdriver, matches, and a note referring to Al Qaeda. According to the AP report, the woman was apparently suffering from claustrophobia.
Consumer prices rose by 0.4 percent last month, twice as fast as in May when energy prices fell, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. In other economic news, factory output slowed from 0.8 percent in June to 0.4 percent, and new home construction slid 2.5 percent, the fifth decline in the past six months.
Opponents of hard-line town ordinances aimed at barring illegal immigrants from their communities filed lawsuits Tuesday to stop the spread of such laws, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Coalition of Latino Clergy, respectively, directed suits at Hazleton, Pa., and Riverside Township, N.J., claiming that local governments shouldn't intrude in immigration matters.
New York fire officials said they regretted the delay that has turned up more than 1,600 undisclosed Sept. 11 emergency calls, which the city released on Wednesday. Through "misinterpreted instructions," officials said, the recordings of firefighter dispatches made from and around the World Trade Center had not been made public.
Federal officials said they consider Elvira Arellano, a prominent advocate for illegal immigrants who faces deportation in Chicago, a fugitive who could be apprehended "at a time and place of our choosing." Arellano has taken refuge in a church in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. She said Wednesday that she doesn't wanted to return to Mexico and leave behind her 7-year-old son, a US citizen.
In a conservation initiative that could be a model for other states, California established a network of 29 marine reserves off the state's central coast, according to the Los Angeles Times. The reserves will ban or severely restrict fishing in order to rebuild fish populations.
US Senate candidate Jack Carter, the son of former President Carter, easily won a Nevada primary Tuesday to advance to November's general election against Republican incumbent John Ensign.
