DRONE Strike (KILLS al-Qaida No. 2 MAN) SANAA, Yemen

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An airstrike killed al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Yemen along with five others traveling with him in one car on Monday, senior Yemeni Defense Ministry officials reported. If confirmed, Saeed al-Shihri's death would be a major blow to the militant group.

The officials said the missile that killed al-Shihri, a Saudi national, was believed to have been fired by a U.S. operated drone, but that couldn't immediately be confirmed. The U.S. doesn't usually comment on such attacks although it has used drones in the past to go after al-Qaida members in Yemen.

The Yemeni officials were elaborating on a brief Defense Ministry statement sent to Yemeni reporters on their mobile phones. A senior official at the Yemeni president's office confirmed the attack, but said DNA tests have yet to establish al-Shihri's identity. The officials all spoke on

condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she could not confirm al-Shihri's death.

Al-Shihri's death would amount to a major breakthrough for U.S. efforts to cripple the group in Yemen, which is considered a crucial battleground with the terror network. The impoverished nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia and fellow oil-producing nations of the Gulf and lies on strategic sea routes leading to the Suez Canal.

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch is seen as the world's most active, planning and carrying out attacks against targets in and outside U.S. territory. The group took advantage of the political vacuum during unrest inspired by the Arab Spring last year to take control of large swaths of land in the south. But the Yemeni military has launched a broad U.S.-backed offensive and driven the movement from several towns.

Taliban ( THREATEN to kill or kidnap Prince Harry) Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban said on Monday they were doing everything in their power to try to kidnap or kill Britain's Prince Harry, who arrived in Afghanistan last week to fly attack helicopters.

 

Queen Elizabeth's grandson is in Afghanistan on a four-month tour, based in Camp Bastion in the volatile Helmand province, where he will be on the front line in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.

"We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.

"We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him," Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he called the "Harry operations".

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was not worried about the Taliban threat against Prince Harry

CRAZY MAN (Breaks into Miley Cyrus's House) Armed with Scissors

Miley Cyrus (Twitter)Over the weekend, Miley Cyrus dealt yet again with one of the less-desirable aspects of fame … an unwanted (and potentially dangerous) person at her Los Angeles-area home. According to reports, early Saturday morning a man jumped the fence onto her property and knocked on her door, claiming he knew Cyrus, before repeatedly throwing himself against the exterior wall of the house. Someone at the home called 911 (Cyrus was out of town at the time) and the man was later caught hiding in the bushes at the pop star's property holding a pair of scissors. In footage obtained by TMZ, the suspect, who identified himself as Jason Luis Rivera, claimed he knew the 19-year-old. "I am a friend of Miley Cyrus. I am. She's my wife. Me and Miley have been friends for five years," he said during his arrest.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Rivera is being held on suspicion of burglary. "He thinks they were married," Lt. Brian Wendling of the Los Angeles Police Department told E! News. "And I would say delusional is a good characterization of him."

Mesa Arizona Man (DIES in Bicycle Race) LoToJa RACE

A bicyclist competing in a race from Logan, Utah, to Jackson Hole, Wyo., crashed on a bridge in Wyoming and fell about 35 feet to his death into the Snake River.

Robert Verhaaren, 42, of Mesa, Ariz., was participating in the annual LoToJa race when he swerved to avoid a pothole and crashed on Highway 89 about eight miles from the finish line Saturday afternoon, Teton County sheriff's deputies said.

The 206-mile race also was marred by serious accidents in Idaho and Wyoming that sent two bicyclists to the hospital and by flat tires experienced by roughly 200 cyclists early on, said race spokesman David Bern.

He said it's the first fatality in the 30-year history of the race, which is billed as the longest one-day bicycle race in the country sanctioned by USA Cycling. This year's event drew 1,500 competitors from across the nation.

Sheriff's deputies said when Verhaaren swerved to miss the pothole, he crashed into a guardrail and was catapulted over it into the river.

The victim was a highly experienced cyclist who had competed in the event at least twice before, organizers said.

ARIZONA (Wildcats HAKA) SEE How to VIDEO

HOW TO " HAKA"

LOUISVILLE Ky (DOCTOR Kills man over fence) Homeowners meeting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Louisville man accused of opening fire at a homeowners association meeting, killing one and critically wounding another, was ordered held on a $1 million bond Saturday at an initial court hearing where a prosecutor called him "the epitome of danger to the community."

A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 55-year-old Mahmoud Yousef Hindi to charges of murder, assault and wanton endangerment in the Thursday evening shooting at a church.

Dressed in a blue jail outfit, Hindi showed no emotion and did not speak as he stood before a judge.

Afterward, defense attorney Todd Lewis called the case a "horrendous tragedy" and said the Hindi family's thoughts were with the victims' families. Lewis asked for patience in unraveling the case.
"We look forward to our day in court," he told reporters. "There's always another side to things."
What specifically sparked the attack wasn't clear.

Police say Hindi, a doctor educated in Jordan, had a history of disputes with the homeowners group revolving around a fence that the association said didn't meet its height or design requirements in the upscale neighborhood of Spring Creek.

The association's attorney says the organization brought the zoning violation charges to the city. Hindi wrote several letters to the attorney, expressing anger and contempt for the attorney.

In one letter that ranted about several neighbors, Hindi cited the Quran, the theory of creationism, the idea that America has gone to Communism, threatens to form his own homeowners association and accused neighbors of stealing his "no trespassing signs" in the dispute over the fence.

DOCTOR (ARRESTED) FOR Storage of HUMAN remains in his storage unit.

PENSACOLA, Fla. - A former medical examiner has been arrested on charges of keeping human remains in a rented storage unit in the Florida Panhandle.

Dr. Michael Berkland, 57, was arrested Friday on charges of improper storage of hazardous waste, keeping a public nuisance and driving with a suspended license. He was released from jail on $10,000 bail.

Berkland's attorney, Eric Stevenson, told the Pensacola News Journal (http://on.pnj.com/U1JQAg) that he and Berkland will start preparing their defence next week.

State Attorney Bill Eddins said more charges may be filed.

Crudely preserved brains, hearts, lungs and other organs and specimens were discovered in more than 100 containers last month in a Pensacola storage unit Berkland had rented for about three years. The unit was auctioned off after Berkland defaulted on his payments, according to an arrest affidavit.

Berkland had declared the contents to be household goods, furniture, boxes, sporting goods and landscaping equipment. A man who bought the unit's contents discovered the human organs after becoming overpowered by a strange smell while sifting through the items, authorities said.

Ten cardboard boxes stacked in a corner of the unit contained "numerous individual containers with ... human remains stored in a liquid substance," according to the affidavit.
Most of the containers were labeled. About half the containers were medical grade and the other half included soda cups and plastic food containers, according to the affidavit.
The organs were stored in a liquid solution containing formaldehyde and methyl alcohol, authorities said.
"The remains included tissue samples and dissected organs. (Investigators) also advised that there were numerous whole organs, including hearts, brains, a liver and a lung," according to the affidavit.

Berkland worked at the District 1 Medical Examiner's Office in Pensacola from 1997 to 2003, when he was fired for not completing autopsy reports. Berkland's license to serve as a medical examiner in Florida has been withdrawn.

Before coming to Florida, Berkland had been fired as a contract medical examiner in 1996 in Jackson County, Mo., in a dispute over his caseload and autopsy reports. His doctor's license was ultimately revoked there.

The medical examiner's office in Pensacola said the organs found in the storage unit appear to have come from private autopsies Berkland performed between 1997 and 2007 at funeral homes in the Florida Panhandle and in Tallahassee.

Jeff Martin, director of the medical examiner's office, said about 10 families have been notified that their relatives' remains were in the unit.

Improper storage of hazardous waste carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, and keeping a public nuisance, a misdemeanour charge, could mean a 60-day jail term, according to the state attorney's office.