News In Brief

Hijacker seized in Geneva; all on Air France jet safe

Swiss police posing as airport caterers overpowered the knife-wielding hijacker of an Air France Boeing 737 Wednesday and freed the 61 passengers and crew unharmed.

The hijacker, believed by Swiss security officials to be of Arab origin and apparently armed only with a knife, took over the aircraft during an early-morning flight from Frankfurt, West Germany, to Paris.

The man, claiming to have explosives in a backpack, forced the pilot to land at Geneva's Cointrin Airport, where he demanded the plane be refueled and flown to Libya.