Police comb the UK and put airports on alert for an escaped prison inmate awaiting terrorism trial

LONDON (AP) — British police are hunting across the country and have put airports on alert for a former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Daniel Abed Khalife managed to slip out of Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday. Opposition politicians want to know why he was not being held at a maximum-security facility. Khalife is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act. He is due to stand trial in November. Police said Khalife was dressed in a kitchen uniform of white T-shirt and red checkered trousers when he escaped from the overcrowded Victorian prison in south London.