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In brief: Call alleging explosives on passenger proves false

Two anti-terrorism police officers, center, secure a passenger as a Pakistan International Airlines plane is evacuated at Stockholm’s airport Saturday. (Associated Press)
From Wire Reports

Stockholm, Sweden – Canadian police are investigating whether a phoned-in hoax caused a Pakistani jet to be diverted to Stockholm for several hours Saturday for fear that one of its passengers was carrying explosives.

Police evacuated 273 people from the jet and briefly detained a Canadian man after an anonymous caller in Canada tipped off authorities that the suspect was carrying explosives.

However, no explosives were found on the man, who was released after questioning by police, or on the Boeing 777 from Pakistan International Airlines, which had been bound from Toronto to Karachi, Pakistan.

The passengers were allowed back on the plane at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport nine hours later.

Swedish police described the suspect as a Canadian citizen born in 1982. Initially they said he was of Pakistani background but later said they were not sure.

A spokesman for state-owned Pakistan International Airlines said the suspect was a 25-year-old Canadian national.

“He was calm but irritated,” said police spokesman Erik Widstrand.

Storm that killed six also destroys tents of homeless

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – The sudden, powerful storm that ripped through Haiti’s battered capital destroyed thousands of tents in the homeless camps where more than 1.3 million people live eight months after the earthquake destroyed their homes, shelter officials said Saturday.

The death toll from Friday afternoon’s storm stood at six people, with nearly 8,000 tents damaged or destroyed, according to a statement from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration. The organization said it had distributed 5,000 tarps.

The storm’s effect was exacerbated by the flimsiness of tarps and tents that have been baking, soaking and flapping in the Caribbean elements after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed at least 230,000 people and left millions homeless.

Hundreds of thousands of families continue living on the streets of the capital waiting for temporary housing or money to find new apartments.