Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/5712
Television show helped in arrest of suspect accused in 4 Thanksgiving Day killings MIAMI (AP) — A secretive motel guest in the Florida Keys checked in under a fake name, paid in cash, stockpiled canned food and insisted on cleaning his own room. He even covered his car — all an attempt, authorities said, to elude police after he was accused of gunning down four relatives at Thanksgiv- ing dinner. But Paul Merhige's cover was blown when the motel owners recognized him in a preview for the television show ''America's Most Wanted'' on Saturday night. Melinda Pfaff told The Associated Press on Sunday that she and her husband, Paul, rarely saw Merhige dur- ing his four-week stay at their Edgewater Lodge on Long Key. He had checked in Dec. 2, a few days after the shootings, using the name ''John Baca'' and a false address. His request for privacy didn't seem odd on an island chain known for its eccentric residents, she said. ''He said he would wash all his own sheets and tow- els. He said I didn't need to go in there,'' she said. ''That's happened before.'' US, Britain close Yemen embassies over al-Qaida threat SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — The U.S. and Britain locked up their embassies in Yemen on Sunday after fresh threats from al-Qaida, and the White House expressed alarm at the terror group's expanded reach in the poor Arab nation where an offshoot apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, cited ''indications al-Qaida is planning to carry out an attack against a target'' in the capital, possibly the embassy, and estimated the group had several hundred members in Yemen. Security rea- sons led Britain to act, too; it was not known when the embassies would reopen. The U.S. is worried about the spread of terrorism in Yemen, a U.S. ally and aid recipient, Brennan said, but doesn't consider the country a second front with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. As to whether U.S. troops might be sent to Yemen, Brennan replied: ''We're not talking about that at this point at all.'' He pledged to provide the Yemeni gov- ernment with ''the wherewithal'' to take down al- Qaida. Britain and the United States are assisting a coun- terterrorism police unit in Yemen as fears grow about the increasing threat of international terrorism originat- ing from the country. Obama counterterror chief cites lapses, errors in sharing of data on bomb plotter WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss a ''smoking gun'' that could have prevent- ed an alleged attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, President Barack Obama's top coun- terterrorism adviser said Sunday. White House aide John Brennan cited ''lapses'' and errors in the sharing of intelligence and clues about the Nigerian man accused in the foiled attempt. ''There is no smoking gun,'' Brennan said. ''There was no single piece of intelligence that said, 'this guy is going to get on a plane.''' Brennan is leading a White House review of the incident. Obama has said there was a systemic failure to prevent the attack, which he said was instigated by an affiliate in Yemen of the al-Qaida terrorist network. Obama ordered a thorough look at the shortcomings that permitted the plot, which failed not because of U.S. actions but because the would-be attacker failed to set off a deadly detonation. The president has sum- moned homeland security officials to meet with him in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday. Roadside bombs kill ex- minister, 5 others in Pakistan PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — Roadside bombs struck two vehicles in Pakistan's volatile northwest Sunday, killing a former irrigation minister and three others in one attack and two anti-Taliban tribal elders in the other. Public officials and private citizens combatting the growing Taliban-led insurgency in Pakistan have been frequent targets in a wave of violence that has killed more than 600 people in the past two-and-a-half months. A single attack two days ago killed nearly 100 peo- ple when a suicide car bomber struck a sports event near a meeting of tribesmen who supervise an anti-Tal- iban militia near Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area. The Pakistani army invaded South Waziristan in mid-October in an attempt to neutralize the Pakistani Taliban's main stronghold in the country, but many mil- itants fled the offensive and have been launching attacks elsewhere in the northwest. More spending is certain, more jobs are not in Democrats' new jobs bills WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Senate takes up a jobs bill later this month or early in February, the debate will center on whether it really will create jobs and be worth plunging the government tens of billions of dollars further into debt. Republicans scoff at the ''Jobs for Main Street Act'' title that House Democrats put on their $174 billion package last month. They refer to it as ''son of the stim- ulus,'' the $787 billion economic recovery plan of near- ly a year ago that they say was ineffective at producing jobs. In its last vote of 2009, the House narrowly passed the bill, 217-212, without a single Republican supporter. Democrats tick off the job prospects from the House bill's $75 billion in infrastructure and public sector spending: tens of thousands of new construction jobs, 5,500 more police officers, 25,000 additional Ameri- Corps members, 250,000 summer jobs for disadvan- taged youth, 14,000 part-time jobs for parks and forestry workers. ''Why don't we just put everyone in the United States on the federal government payroll and call it a day?'' counters Rep. 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