Al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan

The man described by counterterrorism officials as al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan, a spokesman for his group, the jihadist Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, said.

Pakistani and U.S. officials, however, said they have not confirmed Kashmiri's death.

Kashmiri was killed, along with some aides, in a strike at 11:15 p.m., spokesman Abu Hanzla Kashar said.

"The oppressor U.S. is our only target and, God willing, we will take revenge on the U.S. soon with full force," he said.

A senior Pakistani military official said that in all, nine were killed by the drone strike. The official reiterated that they had not confirmed Kashmiri's demise.

Kashmiri, who was known to operate in North Waziristan, had moved to South Waziristan and was seen at the site of the attack on Friday, the official said.

If confirmed, his death would be the first major kill or capture since Osama Bin Laden, and the highest profile drone target since Beitullah Mehsud in 2009.

It could also be seen as an embarrassment for Pakistanis, who have twice in just over one month, had a major al Qaeda figure killed on their territory without their participation.

U.S. drones now operate entirely autonomously in Pakistan. Whereas before the United States cooperated with Pakistan and used their intelligence, today, the Americans have an intelligence network that allows them to go after terrorists unilaterally.

Kashmiri, a veteran jihadist, is considered one of the most dangerous men in the world by counterterrorism officials on three continents.

He was commander of "Brigade 313" of Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, which has formed a close relationship with al Qaeda.

Kashmiri is also said to have ties with David Coleman Headley, the U.S. citizen who confessed to helping scout

targets for the Mumbai attack in November 2008. After his arrest, Headley said he had twice met Kashmiri.

During questioning by India's National Intelligence Agency, which was given access to him in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2010, Headley said he'd been taken to Pakistan's tribal territories to meet Kashmiri early in 2009.

A copy of the interrogation obtained by CNN reveals that Kashmiri sent Headley on another trip to survey targets in India. One place he said he videotaped was a bakery that was later attacked in Pune in February 2010.

Kashmiri in his early years fought the Indians in the disputed territory of Kashmir and the Russians in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye.

He famously escaped from an Indian jail and went to fight with a unit of Pakistan's special forces. Eventually, he fell out with his sponsors in the Pakistani military, and moved his operations to North Waziristan.

At one point, he was arrested in connection with an attempt to assassinate Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in 2003. For reasons unknown, Kashmiri was released a short time later.

Sikhs will no longer have to remove turbans in Italy

Sikhs travelling to Italy will no longer have to remove their turbans at the airport during security screening. This was officially announced by the Italian interior ministry after bilateral discussions between foreign minister SM Krishna and his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, in Rome on Friday. 

The turban will be accepted as a symbol of religion when Sikhs are photographed for identification cards at local police stations in Italy. Official sources said this was a "big achievement" for Indian diplomacy. 

Krishna, who is in Rome to participate in the 150-year celebrations of Italian unification, made a strong case for Sikhs to be treated more respectfully. He told Frattini that even the European Union accepts Sikh turbans as a religious symbol, so Italy should not discriminate against them either. He pointed out better practices in the UK which had started a more equitable system -- let a man touch his own turban and run it through an explosives check. 


A decree by the Italian interior ministry later said there would be no more checks of Sikh turbans at airports, except if they set off any "alarms". The decree said there would be "respect of privacy protection and fundamental freedoms including those related to the expression of religious beliefs''. The new instructions have been issued after the talks with Krishna. 

Krishna had made the turban issue the main point on his agenda -- more respectful treatment for Sikhs entering Italy as well as those getting photographed for ID cards. On March 15, Amritinder Singh, the coach of ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, was asked to remove his turban while he was about to board the flight to Sicily. That led to protests in India. The government had then taken up the matter very strongly with the Italian authorities. 


During the discussions, Frattini and his officials said as a first step Sikhs would not be expected to remove their turbans in a public place, but would be given a separate room with a mirror for the purpose. Earlier this was even done in washrooms which is not acceptable to Sikhs. In an attempt to assuage sentiments, Frattini said Sikhs were a highly respected community in Italy. The Italian side said they would accord "full consideration to the respect of cultural and religious beliefs and to their safeguards when related to minority communities like Sikhs''. 

Italy has the second biggest Sikh population in Europe after UK. There are more than 70,000 Sikhs living and working in Italy. There are over 20 gurdwaras across the country, the oldest in Reggio Emilia in central Italy. Sikhs in Italy are largely engaged in agriculture and dairy and animal farming. 

Teen Sells His Kidney for an iPad 2. Teen Now Regrets It

There's a lot of reasonable things I would trade for an iPad 2. 500 bucks, Pepsi, a stack of clothes, basically anything my life wouldn't miss. A 17-year-old kid from China was a little unreasonable—he traded his kidney.

It's a sad story but the kid, named Zheng from Huaishan City in China, wanted an iPad 2 but couldn't afford it. He said:

"I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it. A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan."

20,000 yuan is about $3,000, so he got a little more than just an iPad 2 but he's starting to feel ill as his health is deteriorating. His mother, who had no idea what her son was planning, tried to get in contact with the kidney broker but to no one's surprise, has been unable to reach him.

Now I love my iPad 2 very much but I appreciate the heck out of my kidneys more. The stakes are a little higher on who I'll give my kidneys away for and it's pretty much mother, father, sister, girlfriend. Hopefully, Zheng can bounce back from this and live a healthy life. 

Spurs complete Friedel deal

Friedel, 40, first moved to the Premier League in 1997 when he joined Liverpool from Columbus Crew, and he then established himself as one of the league's top goalkeepers during an eight-year spell with Blackburn.

The USA international left to join Villa in 2008 and remained first-choice despite the presence of compatriot Brad Guzan and, in February, Friedel became the club's oldest ever player.

With his contract due to expire this summer, he has now agreed a move to Tottenham, which is likely to increase speculation over the future of Spurs' current No. 1, Heurelho Gomes.

Manager Harry Redknapp said on the club's official website: "Brad is a top goalkeeper of real quality who has great experience. It is good to have three such experienced top goalkeepers at the club in Gomes, Carlo [Cudicini] and now Brad and it means we have competition for places particularly with the number of games we will hopefully face next year both domestically and in Europe as well."

Gomes, who signed from PSV in 2008, has come under fire after a series of errors during the run-in.

Arizona man kills 5 before taking own life

Arizona: A 73-year-old man's shooting rampage in towns near the Arizona border left six people dead Thursday, including the suspect and the attorney who represented his ex-wife in their divorce.

Police said Carey Hal Dyess also wounded one person in the shootings around Yuma, a city of about 91,000, before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound nearly six hours after the first shots were fired.

The lawyer was killed while packing up his office on his last day of work.

"This is not a random act," Yuma Police Chief Jerry Geier said. "These victims were targeted."

Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said the first shooting was reported shortly after 5am in Wellton, about 25 miles east of Yuma. The woman was in critical condition at a Phoenix hospital.

He said Dyess then fatally shot four people around town before driving to Yuma and killing prominent attorney Jerrold Shelley at about 9:20am. The bodies in Wellton were found between 8:20 and 9:45am.

Police believe Dyess drove back toward Wellton, pulled over and fatally shot himself. His body was found at 10:47am inside a vehicle.

Neither police nor the sheriff would identify the other four dead.

Shelley was killed in his downtown law office. Shelley represented Dyess' ex-wife in their 2006 divorce, which was Dyess' fifth.

Vida Florez, a Yuma attorney who knew Shelley, said she learned of the shooting after leaving court. She said she heard from a witness who spoke to the police about what happened inside the office.

"They said the shooter came in and told the secretary to 'Get out of here,'" Florez said. "She did, and he shot Jerry Shelley and he left."

Shelley also was one of the lawyers representing seven young men - three sets of brothers - who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson after accusing a priest of repeatedly raping them when they were children.

A man and woman were found dead in a small farm house outside the nearby town of Wellton, said Yuma police Sgt. John Otero. The tree-shaded home was set back about 100 feet from a highway, with a cow pasture in front.

The downtown shooting prompted officials to block off a street and to lock down the nearby county courthouse and some schools. Those buildings were later reopened.

Court records show Dyess was involved in two civil court cases, one in Yuma and one in Wellton. A judge issued an order of protection against Dyess in one of the cases in 2006, and a court clerk said it stemmed from Dyess' divorce. No information was immediately available on those cases.

Court records also show the 2006 divorce was Dyess' fifth, with the previous four divorces all in Washington state.

The divorce file showed that Theresa and Carey Dyess were married in Tombstone in May 2002 and the couple filed for divorce in 2006. Theresa Dyess alleged there had been domestic violence and she asked for and received an order of protection. No details of that incident were immediately available in the court file.

Carey Dyess later took out a protection order against Theresa Dyess, records showed.

The divorce was granted and the couple later agreed on a property split that gave Theresa Dyess the couple's home in Wellton once she bought out her former husband's share.

A lawyer for Carey Dyess filed a brief in October 2008 that said Carey Dyess had not been paid more than a year after the divorce became final.

"Mr Dyess is sick and believes (his ex-wife) is 'holding out,' waiting for him to die, Yuma attorney Gregory Torok wrote in a court petition. The file shows the issue led to a final settlement two months later.

Dyess also took out an order of protection against a man he identified as 'my wife's boyfriend," who he alleged was harassing him by driving by his home every day.

Yuma attorney Amanda Taylor described Shelley as a good man who was dedicated to his Mormon beliefs. She said Shelley's wife also worked in the office, and that they have two grown children.

"This is very frightening" she said. "You know, family law, that's some of the most dangerous law to practice because it's so emotional, but it's usually the younger ages when it's about custody issues."

She said Shelley was wrapping up a long career. He was retiring. He literally was packing up his office today," Taylor said. "He was an excellent family man. Well-respected in this community. Very kind. I'm just sick. I've lost such a good friend."

Others in Yuma expressed similar feelings of grief, with Mayor Al Krieger calling the shootings a tragedy for the victims and their families. "It's one of those things where someone went and did something very, very foolish," Krieger said. "I'm sorry for the loss of life."

Yuma County Presiding Judge Andrew Gould issued a statement through the Arizona Supreme Court saying officials were "thankful that those within the courthouse are safe," but shocked and saddened at the violent acts that occurred in the close-knit community.

Gov. Jan Brewer said she was "horrified" at the news and expressed sympathy for the victims' families.

"Many questions remain unanswered at this point, but I know that law enforcement and investigators will be working to piece together this tragedy in the days ahead," she said in a statement. "In the meantime, this cruel violence has left a void in our hearts."

To address unemployment, Georgia governor proposes farm work

Are you out of work? Are you looking for a job? Do you live in Georgia?

If the answer to those questions is "yes," Gov. Nathan Deal has an idea for you: Become a farm worker.

"We still have an unemployment level here that is unacceptably high, whether or not we can provide some way of transitioning some of those individuals," Deal said last week.

"Perhaps it requires some relocation in some cases for them to be able to fill some of these jobs. We're going to explore all of those things."

Deal is looking for ways to fill a farm worker gap after some areas lost more than 50% of their laborers, the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association said. Many workers left Georgia after the governor signed an Arizona-inspired immigration law allowing local police to identify and detain illegal immigrants, the group said.

Other countries have tried similar ideas to stimulate growth. Japan has a program to put young underemployed workers on farms during the summer. The program was moderately successful until a tsunami hit the country in March.

In Colorado, 1,799 U.S. citizens applied for farm jobs in 2009, according to the state's Department of Labor and Employment. That was up from 39 in 2008, although state officials say the number again fell in 2010 to the "low hundreds."

With a 9.6% unemployment rate in Georgia, University of Georgia Economist Jeff Humphries thinks the governor's plan could work.

"Employers have the upper hand, and people looking for jobs are more desperate than ever before," Humphries said. "Given that unemployment benefits are starting to run out for an increasing number of workers...this is the best time to try it out."

For some unemployed Georgians, however, the idea is not so appealing.

Marci Mosley, who lives in Atlanta, has been out of work for more than a year. She said she would only work on a farm as a last resort.

"I have a phobia of snakes," Mosley said. "I hate spiders...You have to get up early in the morning, and it's hot."

Mosley, an African-American, said she used to work on her grandfather's farm in Texas, where he stressed the importance of a good education to get off the farm. Mosley believes Deal's plan would be a tough sell for many other African Americans, who saw their older relatives struggle farming.

"It could be a setback for people," Mosley said. "The only people that would even think about doing that are people who have nothing else left...An educated black person does not have time for that. They didn't go to school to work on a farm, and they're not going to do it."

As for unemployed white Georgians, they're not showing up for agriculture jobs either, farm managers said.

In Peach County, more than half of residents are white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 26% are out of work, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. The county is kept afloat by agriculture jobs.

One of the biggest employers is Lane Packing, where workers there pick, package and ship peaches. It's hard, dirty work that few people will do, especially U.S. citizens, Lane Packing CEO Mark Sanchez said.

To find workers, Lane Packing has participated in a U.S. Department of Labor guest worker program. Sanchez explained the vast majority of the workers here are legal immigrants.

"We're required to pay a minimum wage of $9.12 an hour," Sanchez said. "Plus free housing, free transportation from their home and back. Also, most of the workers are paid on a piece rate production basis."

That adds up to a weekly paycheck of about $230, more than the average Georgia unemployment check.

While putting the unemployed to work on farms is a novel idea, the workers in Georgia who will benefit most from the farm shortage are legal immigrants, said Humphries, the University of Georgia economist.

"There's less competition for the kind of jobs legal immigrants are going after," Humphries said. "Legal immigrants are from the same countries as illegal immigrants, they are used to the same types of jobs, and the good news for the legal immigrant is they might be able to demand a little more pay."

New H1B visa can be 'gamed' by Indian IT firms

The Obama administation is seeking to change the filing and acceptance of H1B visa petitions, to an electronic format, a move which it says will reduce the burden and on government, and save $23 million over next 10 years for US employers. But immigration lawyers the new system can be twisted, to one's favour by stuffing it with a large number of applications, and thus increasing chances of selection.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed an advance registration process via an electronic system that would seek to minimize administrative burdens and expenses related to the H-1B petition process. The USCIS says it will reduce the need for employers to submit petitions for which visas would not be available under the statutory visa cap.

Under the new proposed rule, employers seeking to petition for H-1B workers would register electronically with USCIS-a process that would take an estimated 30 minutes to complete.

Before the petition filing period begins, USCIS would select the number of registrations predicted to exhaust all available visas. Employers would then file petitions only for the selected registrations.

The registration system would thus save employers the effort and expense of filing H-1B petitions, as well as Labor Condition Applications, for workers who would be unable to obtain visas under the statutory cap.

USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas invited a 60-day comment period, till last month, on the proposed rule, which is likely to be effective for 2012 period, if passed.

"The proposed rule would create a more efficient and cost-effective process for businesses interested in bringing workers in specialty occupations to the United States," he said.

USCIS is likley to set aside a two week registration period in March each year.

But some immigration lawyers say that the new rules may make IT companies game the system. Indian IT companies such as Infosys , TCS, Mahindra Satyam , Microsoft , Wipro are the major users of H1B visas. Immigation lawyers say some companies might game the system by filing a large number of applications, and thus increase their chances of getting considered by the e-system, by sheer probability ratios.

In an interview to Computerworld, Cleveland based Brian Halliday, an immigration lawyers likened the new registration system to music fans that may buy all the front row tickets to a rock concert.

"How will this electronic system be safeguarded from potential abuses such as 'stuffing' the electronic registration system with huge numbers of speculative H-1B cases to hedge their bets for a number; or other unfair 'gaming' of the H-1B registration process system?," he was quoted as asking in the report.

A final version of the rulem after due deliberations, is expected to be published by January 2012, and the USCIS could implement the proposed registration system for the fiscal year 2013 H-1B season, which opens in April 2012.

By statute, H-1B visas are subject to an annual numerical limit, or cap, of 65,000 visas each fiscal year.

The first 20,000 petitions for these visas filed on behalf of individuals with US master's degrees or higher are exempt from this cap.