Nation in brief

Flight to Morocco lands in Maine

BANGOR, Maine - Federal officials are trying to sort out the chain of events that triggered the diversion of a Moroccan-bound jetliner, an incident that apparently began when a passenger called home from the plane.

FBI spokesman Ross Rice said Friday there was no terrorist threat against the Royal Air Maroc flight, which took off from New York on Thursday evening and landed in Bangor four hours later, shortly after 11 p.m.

But Yolanda Clark, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said her agency learned about 10:30 p.m. that night that "a male passenger phoned his wife from the plane and stated he was going to blow it up."

The Boeing 767 resumed its flight Friday and landed safely in Casablanca. Two men stayed behind in Maine to be questioned by federal authorities.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz identified one of the men as Zubair Ali Ghias, a 27-year-old investment banker. Ghias was cooperating with authorities, she said, and no charges had been filed Friday.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official identified the second man who was detained as Ahmed Bhiksi, a Moroccan who was in the process of being deported from the United States.

A Prince William County, Va., judge declined on Friday to overturn John Allen Muhammad's murder conviction and ruled that the sniper is not eligible for a new trial.

Circuit Judge LeRoy Millette denied a series of legal motions from Muhammad's attorneys, ruling that Muhammad received a fair trial and that the evidence against him was convincing. Millette's decision clears the way for him to sentence Muhammad March 9.

A scientist who works in a maximum containment laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., has been placed in isolation after she accidentally stuck herself with a needle while working with mice infected with a weakened form of the Ebola virus.

The woman, whom officials at the Army base declined to identify, has shown no symptoms, said Army spokesman Chuck Dasey. He said she was exposed Feb. 11 to the Zaire strain of Ebola, the deadliest of the three types of the virus.

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