Cross Fire

SAN'A, Yemen - The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the evils of al-Qaeda, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters. The talk worried residents, who feared it would bring retaliation from the extremists, and even the cleric's father wanted him to stop. In the end it wasn't al-Qaeda that killed Sheikh Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber - but a U.S. drone. Yemeni security officials confirmed that three extremists - along with Salem and his cousin, who were going to meet them apparently to discuss his sermons - were killed in a drone strike in August.

T he Pennsylvania State University child sex-abuse scandal has riveted the nation since criminal charges were announced Nov. 5. Requests for records that might reveal what school officials knew, and when, have placed the state's Office of Open Records in the cross fire - especially because Penn State, as a state-related and not state-run university, is exempt from the open-records law. On Monday, the office's executive director, Terry Mutchler, answered...

Two young children playing on the front porch of their Hunting Park home were shot and wounded last night in a heavy exchange of gunfire between a man on the sidewalk and two others in a van, police said. A two-tone beige van rolled up to the intersection of North Franklin and Pike Streets about 6:50 p.m., according to police. Moments later, a rapid series of shots was exchanged between two men inside the van and a man on Franklin Street. Alberto Santiago, 5, and his sister, Theresa Colon, 18 months, were struck by stray bullets while playing on the front porch of their home on Franklin Street, several doors north of the intersection, police said.

The Nov. 11 article "Medicare threatens doctor fees: Unnecessary care won't be paid for" made me lose my patience in this frustrating and endless war involving doctors, hospitals, patients and third-party payers. The tone of the article was set in the first paragraph, which talked of Medicare "taking aim at the pocketbooks of incompetent and greedy doctors. " Let me tell you who else gets caught in the cross fire of this destructive war. As an emergency physician, I am bombarded daily by problems that arise from the antagonistic mentality of these parties.

Two men - one in a wheelchair, the other using a cane - who were struck by cross fire in West Philadelphia remained hospitalized Saturday as police continued to investigate their shootings. Police said a young man on foot exchanged fire with at least one person in a moving car near 41st and Parrish Streets in the city's Belmont section about 9 p.m. Friday, striking the two men at locations about a block apart. "We have at least eight fired casings," Chief Inspector Scott Small said shortly after the shootings.

A SEPTA bus driver was injured by shattered glass during a shooting Tuesday night in the city's Cedarbrook section, only a week after another SEPTA driver was shot in South Philadelphia. Police said the shooting occurred at 9:38 p.m. in the 7600 block of Ogontz Avenue. The bus driver, a man, was transported to a hospital for treatment and was in good condition, police said. A 22-year-old man outside the bus was shot twice in the arm and taken by a medic unit to Albert Einstein Medical Center in stable condition.

An 89-year-old woman killed in a shootout between police and a Bucks County man has been identified as Marie Zienkewicz. Warminster police said Zienkewicz was in her apartment Tuesday night when she was hit by cross fire. Zienkewicz lived in the apartment below the man who was shooting at police, authorities said Wednesday. Police and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office did not say who shot Zienkewicz; the District Attorney's Office is still investigating. On Tuesday afternoon, Andrew G. Cairns, 49, began fighting with his girlfriend, authorities said.

It is not news that violence pervades some sections of Philadelphia. But though this reality is known, it is especially felt when young people - decent kids with prospects and dreams - are randomly struck and killed by stray bullets. Yvonne Hunter, 18, a recent graduate of Muriel Dobbins Technical High School who had plans to enter the Air Force, was celebrating the new year on the porch of a friend's house in North Philadelphia when her life came to a sudden and senseless end. A bullet, apparently fired in revelry, pierced her left ear and lodged in her brain.

NEIGHBORS packed onto a narrow block of Myrtlewood Street between Cumberland and Huntingdon in Strawberry Mansion Thursday night for a prom celebration. Children played in the street, with red, white and blue streamers overhead and gold balloons spelling out "2012" undulating in the evening breeze from their post on a rowhouse porch. But the peaceful scene was torn to shreds about 6 p.m. Two 13-year-old girls, who had been playing on the sidewalk, were left bleeding on the street after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout.

The front porch is the only part of the house that is intact, so that is where the Kesseih family gathered on the weekend for an impromptu Christmas toast with the neighbors. They sipped tiny cups of coffee, downed glasses of brandy, passed around the nargila water pipe burning fragrant apple tobacco, and reminisced about the days not so long ago when they had a home. "This is all we will do to celebrate. How can we enjoy ourselves at times like these?" asked Michelle Kesseih, 30, a mother of three who was forced to flee her house.

SAN'A, Yemen - The cleric preached in his tiny Yemeni village about the evils of al-Qaeda, warning residents to stay away from the group's fighters. The talk worried residents, who feared it would bring retaliation from the extremists, and even the cleric's father wanted him to stop. In the end it wasn't al-Qaeda that killed Sheikh Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber - but a U.S. drone. Yemeni security officials confirmed that three extremists - along with Salem and his cousin, who were going to meet them apparently to discuss his sermons - were killed in a drone strike in August.

An 89-year-old woman killed in a shootout between police and a Bucks County man has been identified as Marie Zienkewicz. Warminster police said Zienkewicz was in her apartment Tuesday night when she was hit by cross fire. Zienkewicz lived in the apartment below the man who was shooting at police, authorities said Wednesday. Police and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office did not say who shot Zienkewicz; the District Attorney's Office is still investigating. On Tuesday afternoon, Andrew G. Cairns, 49, began fighting with his girlfriend, authorities said.

Robin Cook was sitting down to watch TV when she heard the shots outside. "I heard 'pow, pow, pow,' " she said Friday, standing on her doorstep on Wyalusing Avenue in West Philadelphia, caution tape draped across the block just feet from her front door. "I thought, that ain't no BB gun. " Up and down the block, neighbors threw open their doors. Schoolchildren screamed in the street. At the corner of 54th Street and Wyalusing, a man slumped to the ground. About 8:40 a.m., police said, the man had entered the 54th and Wyalusing Food Market, brandished a 9mm pistol, and demanded money from the female employee behind the counter.

ATLANTIC CITY - For this resort, struggling to keep gamblers - and their money - coming, May 21 was one of the worst days in years. That morning, two Canadian tourists, an 80-year-old woman and her daughter, 47, were knifed to death on a sidewalk across from one of the casinos, allegedly by a schizophrenic homeless woman from Philadelphia. The stabbings of Po Lin Wan and Alice Mei See Leung of Scarborough, Ontario, were among 15 homicides in the city so far this year, though they were the only two involving tourists.

Facing a courtroom packed with top police brass and about 70 Southwest Philadelphia residents, a Philadelphia judge today resentenced Kevin Pickard to 17 to 34 years in prison for a 2010 vendetta shooting that wounded a drug rival and two young children caught in the cross fire. Common Pleas Court Judge Lisette Shirdan-Harris did not refer to the overflow crowd in the courtroom in vacating her Aug. 10 sentence of 5 to 10 years for the 26-year-old Pickard. The judge simply restated the factors justifying the new sentence under state sentencing guidelines and mostly cited the recklessness of opening fire on the hot summer Saturday afternoon of Sept.

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a man in the Strawberry Mansion section last Nov. 16, police said. Saleem Evans was 14 when Timothy Hansberry, 25, was shot in the chest and back on the 3200 block of West Cumberland Street, police said. Evans was arrested Tuesday at his home on the 3200 block of West Huntingdon Street, not far from the crime scene. Police have not yet disclosed a motive in the slaying of Hansberry, who lived on the 2300 block of North 31 Street, also in Strawberry Mansion.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trucks on Wednesday, cutting off a vital supply line to the embattled nation as fighting stretched into its fifth day in the commercial capital of Aleppo. Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said that deteriorating security was behind the closure. "We have serious concerns over the safety of Turkish trucks regarding their entry and return from Syria," Caglayan said, noting that there had already been an 87 percent drop in trucks traveling to Syria this year.

NEIGHBORS packed onto a narrow block of Myrtlewood Street between Cumberland and Huntingdon in Strawberry Mansion Thursday night for a prom celebration. Children played in the street, with red, white and blue streamers overhead and gold balloons spelling out "2012" undulating in the evening breeze from their post on a rowhouse porch. But the peaceful scene was torn to shreds about 6 p.m. Two 13-year-old girls, who had been playing on the sidewalk, were left bleeding on the street after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout.

Stephanie Thompson wanted justice for the death of her 4-year-old son Brandon. The energetic, happy, and loving child was playing near his uncle in August 2008 in Camden when he was killed instantly, caught in cross fire between his uncle and another man fighting a petty feud. On Wednesday, the gunmen — Martin Pierce, 23, and Donnald Lindsey, 24 — left the Camden County Hall of Justice with lengthy sentences issued by Superior Court Judge Michele Fox. The justice meted out, however, was not exactly what Thompson wanted.