Trending
Subway bombing suspect faces charges from his hospital bed
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Bangladeshi immigrant accused of setting off a pipe bomb in the New York subway system had his first court appearance on Wednesday via video from the hospital room where he is recovering from burns sustained in the blast.
Akayed Ullah said little during the hearing, which lasted a little over 10 minutes. He could be seen on the video lying on a hospital bed with his head propped up on a pillow and his body covered up to his neck in sheets. Two assistant public defenders, who stood beside his hospital bed, did not request bail.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker, sitting in a federal courthouse in Manhattan, communicated with Ullah via video shown on several monitors in the courtroom. She read him his rights as he nodded his head several times, acknowledging that he understood.
Ullah didn't enter a plea but answered a few of the judge's questions, including answering "I can see you" when she asked if he could hear her and "yes I do" when he was asked if he understood his rights.
Ullah, 27, is accused of detonating a pipe bomb that was strapped to his body in a pedestrian tunnel linking two busy subway stations. He was the only person seriously injured.
Prosecutors said that after his capture he told interrogators he was on a mission to punish the U.S. for attacking the Islamic State group.
Officials in Bangladesh said Wednesday that Ullah, who lived in Brooklyn but was married to a woman in Bangladesh, had asked his wife to read the writings and listen to the sermons of Moulana Jasimuddin Rahmani, the imprisoned leader of a banned group called Ansarullah Bangla Team.
The group has been linked to killings and attacks on secular academics and atheist bloggers in Bangladesh. Rahmani is serving time in prison for his involvement in the killings.
The wife was questioned in Bangladesh and told investigators Ullah discussed Rahman's writings with her during his last visit home, said Monirul Islam, a top official of Bangladesh's counterterrorism department.
Investigators found bomb-making materials in Ullah's apartment. They said he carried out the attack after researching how to build a bomb a year ago and planned his mission for several weeks. The bomb was assembled in the past week using fragments of a metal pipe, a battery and a Christmas tree light bulb, along with the metal screws, authorities said.
Ullah had apparently hoped to die, taking as many innocent people as he could with him, prosecutors said. He was charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, use of a weapon of mass destruction and three bomb-related offenses. He could get up to life in prison if convicted.
Former 'Apprentice' figure Omarosa leaving White House staff
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Omarosa Manigault Newman -- one of President Donald Trump's most prominent African-American supporters -- plans to leave the administration next month, the White House said Wednesday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Manigault Newman's resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump's inauguration.
Manigault Newman's decision comes at the start of what's expected to be a round of departures heading into the new year.
The White House said last week that deputy national security adviser Dina Powell will leave the administration early next year.
Manigault Newman is a former contestant on Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice." She joined the administration as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, working on outreach to various constituency groups.
Expecting dad stages his own pregnancy photo shoot
PEABODY, Mass. (AP) -- An expecting father in Massachusetts has shown off his paternal glow with a pregnancy photo shoot.
Peabody resident Nick Roberts surprised his pregnant girlfriend with the photos at their gender reveal party in June before their son Logan was born. Some of the photos show Roberts posing at a beach in the town of Nahant, cradling his visible belly.
The couple's son has since been born.
Roberts said he and his friend, who is a photographer, grabbed some fast food before the shoot to "try to look a little pregnant."
Roberts' girlfriend, Brianna Magee, told WHDH-TV she flipped through the pictures and "just started laughing harder and harder."
Roberts said the photo shoot was "extremely difficult because we just kept laughing."