The week at a glance...United States

Los Angeles

Dry ice bombs: A baggage handler at Los Angeles International Airport was arrested in connection with two dry ice bombs that exploded at the airport on two consecutive days this week. The first of the bombs—made of dry ice and water in a 20-ounce plastic bottle—exploded in an employee restroom, temporarily closing the airport’s Terminal 2; the second went off on the tarmac outside the international terminal, injuring no one but causing flight delays. Police said another two unexploded bottles containing dry ice were also found. Dicarlo Bennett, 28, an employee of Servisair, a ground crew company contracted by the airport to handle baggage and other ramp functions, was charged with possession of a destructive device. Investigators said some fellow employees knew that Bennett had taken the dry ice from a plane and planned to plant the bombs, but no further arrests have been made.

San Diego

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Ex-mayor pleads guilty: Bob Filner, the disgraced former mayor of San Diego, pleaded guilty this week to charges of false imprisonment and battery. The 71-year-old’s plea was part of a deal made with the City Council in August—amid allegations of sexual harassment by at least 17 women—in which the former mayor agreed to leave office in exchange for not getting jail time. He will serve three years of probation, including three months of home confinement. One former member of his staff said that Filner repeatedly demanded kisses, trapped her in a headlock, and asked her to come to work without panties. Other women made similar allegations. In his defiant farewell speech in August, he claimed he was the victim of a lynch mob and would eventually be vindicated. But Filner’s lawyer said that after coming to terms with his behavior in therapy, the former mayor is “a much more humbled man.’’

Lakeland, Fla.

Bullying arrests: Two girls were arrested this week after one of them allegedly posted a taunting confession on Facebook linking her to the suicide of a bullied classmate. “Yes IK [I know] I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self,” Guadalupe Shaw, 14, apparently wrote in the post, “but IDGAF [I don’t give a f---].” She and Katelyn Roman, 12, have been charged with felony aggravated stalking against Rebecca Sedwick, 12, who committed suicide last month by leaping off an abandoned cement plant. Shaw was allegedly the ringleader of a gang that repeatedly confronted Sedwick, calling her ugly and telling her to “drink bleach and die.” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his office acted after seeing the girl’s Facebook post, which her lawyers attributed to hackers. “We decided that, look, we can’t leave her out there,” said Judd. “Who else is she going to torment?”

Washington, D.C.

Affirmative action challenge: A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to look favorably this week on a case that challenges the constitutionality of affirmative action policies. The justices heard oral arguments on a case involving a 2006 Michigan voter initiative banning the use of racial criteria in college admissions. A federal appeals court concluded last year that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantees, but Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to side with other court conservatives who favor upholding the Michigan law. “Is it unreasonable for the state to say, ‘Look, race is a lightning rod...so why don’t we say we want you to do everything you can without having racial preferences?’” asked Roberts. Critics of the ban say it has reduced black and Hispanic enrollment at elite universities. “There’s been a precipitous drop,” said Shanta Driver, one of the attorneys representing opponents of the initiative.

New York City

‘Baby Hope’ confession: A cousin of the murdered toddler known as “Baby Hope” confessed this week to sexually assaulting and killing the girl, bringing the notorious 22-year-old case to a close. Investigators struggled for decades to identify the young victim, who was starved, sexually abused, and murdered in 1991 before being stuffed into a picnic cooler. But a tip this year led police to Margarita Castillo, who identified Hope as her 4-year-old daughter, Anjelica Castillo, and said she’d been snatched by the father. The ensuing round-the-clock investigation led police to Conrado Juarez, 52, who allegedly confessed during a marathon interrogation to sexually assaulting Anjelica before smothering her with a pillow. This week, Castillo said she had been too scared to speak out before. “I didn’t speak English,” she said. “You feel dumb going to the police station and asking for a translator.”

New York City

Libyan in court: Suspected al Qaida operative Abu Anas al-Libi pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges this week in a New York City courtroom. The 49-year-old Libyan, long one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, was captured during an audacious U.S. special operations forces raid in Tripoli earlier this month. Held under interrogation onboard a U.S. warship in the Mediterranean for a week, he had reportedly begun refusing to eat or drink before being brought to a military base just outside of New York City. Al-Libi, believed to be one of al Qaida’s early computer experts, is charged with helping to plan the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people.