Plot

''Hudson Hawk,'' the newest Bruce Willis film, began as a song Willis used to sing. He's responsible for the story. The script came about when he became a big enough star to have scripts written for him.It's a very expensive movie. You can see that. Most of the money, however, must have gone into location filming. Apparently, not too much went into the script. Maybe the producers should have paid the writers a little more. ''Hudson Hawk'' is a very funny film, but plot, it hasn't got.If you saw the very recent ''If Looks Could Kill,'' you've already seen what little plot there is in ''Hudson Hawk.

MINNEAPOLIS -- In a flurry of legal motions filed late yesterday, attorneys in the murder-for-hire case against Qubilah Shabazz profiled an indecisive woman who talked bluntly about murder, then backed out of an alleged plot just weeks before she was indicted on charges of conspiring to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.The release of transcripts from FBI wiretaps and a purported confession from Ms. Shabazz, 34, the second eldest daughter of Malcolm X, provided the first inner details of a case that has flared into renewed controversy over the government's reliance on criminal informants.

SUN SCORE *** Every holiday season needs a pleasant surprise, and this year it's Drumline. This entertaining and enthusiastically told tale shrewdly energizes its way-familiar plot line by setting it amid one of the greatest and least-known spectacles in American sports. That would be the world of show-style marching bands, which is a football season way of life during halftimes at such predominately black Southern colleges and universities as Florida A&M and Grambling. Although the film's story of a brash kid who needs to come to terms with authority has seen umpteen formulaic reincarnations, writers Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps and director Charles Stone III (of Paid in Full and the "Whassup?"

LONDON -- The detectives who rounded up 23 suspects accused of conspiring to bomb U.S.-bound planes in midair knew their quarry well: They had been tracking their every move for months. Despite all the evidence amassed through surveillance of the men's travel, phone calls and Internet communications, however, police still must answer key questions about the masterminds, international connections and potential ties to previous plots here, British officials said yesterday. Investigators have focused on one potentially significant lead, officials said: suspected links between the airline plot and the suicide bombings of four subway trains that killed 52 people July 7, 2005.

MANILA, Philippines - A notorious Islamic militant arrested in May has confessed to police that he plotted to attack the Philippine presidential palace using Arab suicide bombers, according to a confidential police report of his interrogation. Mukhlis Yunos, a suspect with links to Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asia terror network, said he was on his way to Manila to prepare for the attacks when he was arrested with a co-conspirator, an Egyptian businessman, according to a copy of the report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

HOUSTON -- A 37-year-old woman was convicted yesterday of plotting to kill the mother of her daughter's chief rival in a cheerleading competition.After nearly six hours of deliberations, the jury announced guilty verdicts against Wanda Webb Holloway on charges of solicitation of murder. The disposition of the second charge, solicitation of aggravated kidnapping, was not clear last night.Under Texas law, the jury of eight men and four women will return for the punishment phase of the trial to determine her sentence.

LOS ANGELES -- Eight people have been accused of a white supremacist plot to incite a race war by bombing a South Central Los Angeles church and killing Rodney King and other blacks.During raids across Southern California yesterday, federal agents and police arrested six adults and two juveniles and seized machine guns, pipe bomb parts and Nazi paraphernalia, including a picture of Adolf Hitler.Besides Mr. King, authorities say the group also plotted to assassinate other prominent blacks, among them Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, New York City activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, heads of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Urban League and rap music stars.

NEW YORK -- Federal investigators said yesterday they had disrupted a plot by Islamic extremists to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, another plan to take aim at America's air travel system and a landmark in its largest city. The arrests of a U.S. citizen from Guyana and alleged accomplices in Trinidad underscored what counterterrorism officials have described as the global spread of the terrorist threat beyond the Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia associated with al-Qaida and other groups.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian police have arrested one of the most hunted terrorist suspects in Southeast Asia, Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who is accused of having been involved in plots to attack U.S. facilities in the region. Kastari was arrested Sunday, on the Indonesian island of Bintang, just off Singapore, the Indonesian police announced yesterday. Singaporean authorities have said that Kastari is the leader of the Singaporean cell of Jemaah Islamiyah, the radical Islamic group based in Indonesia.

LONDON -- Citing evidence that includes "martyrdom videos," suicide notes and bomb-making equipment, authorities filed criminal charges yesterday accusing 11 suspects of involvement in a plot to smuggle explosive devices onto airliners bound for the United States. The first public disclosure of the results of a months-long investigation offered only a brief overview of evidence but hinted at a trove of material and leads yet to be examined. "The scale is immense. Inquiries will span the globe.