Police are investigating after a man and a woman in their 20s were found shot to death in a New Jersey park Thursday night.

Cops discovered the victims at approximately 10 p.m. near a bench inside Montclair’s Canterbury Park, NBC New York reports.

The investigation is ongoing. Relatives of the dead told NBC that the woman was from East Orange.

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A Hofstra student and an armed suspect were shot dead early Friday morning during an apparent home invasion.

Police say a man wearing a ski mask forced his way into 213 California Ave. in Uniondale at approximately 2:30 a.m., the New York Post reports. Three women and one man were in the house at the time.

One of the women was allowed to leave the house, and she called 911, Nassau County Deputy Inspector Kenneth Lack said. The shooting that killed the suspect and the student occurred when police arrived at the home. It is not cleared who fired the deadly shots.

Police have not released any identities. The house is located near Hofstra’s campus.

Officials said at a press conference this morning that they suspect the motive was robbery. They said they are investigating and declined to provide further details.

The student killed was Andrea Rebello, 20, according to the Daily News.

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Communities around Boston were put on lockdown Friday morning as authorities searched for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. 

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  PHOTOS: Law enforcement searches for bombing suspects

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the man the FBI labeled “Suspect 1″ in the investigation, was killed by law enforcement officers during a shootout overnight, according Reuters.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, designated as “Suspect 2,” is still on the run and remains a serious threat. The two suspects were reportedly brothers from Chechnya.

Reuters was providing a live Twitter feed of developments in the case, as was Metro Boston.

Around 10:20 Thursday night, an MIT police officer was shot and killed on campus, the Middlesex County District Attorney said in a statement. An MBTA officer was critically hurt.

A short time later, police received reports of a carjacking by two men who kept their victim inside the car for about half an hour, the statement said.

Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and gunfire was exchanged, the statement said.

“During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time,” Col. Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.

The first suspect died at Beth Israel Hospital. Doctors said he had gunshot wounds and “blast injuries.”

Officials urged people who live in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and the Alston/Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay inside.

In Watertown, SWAT teams were conducting a door-to-door search. No vehicles were being allowed in or out of the community.

All MBTA service was shut down until further notice. Boston Public Schools and colleges were also closed for the day.

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A 28-year-old man was shot to death in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn on Monday night, cops said.

Police responded to the call of a male shot inside 9 Bradford St. shortly after 11 p.m. Officers found the victim suffering from two gunshot wounds to his torso and one to his arm. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.

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Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died this morning aged 87.

She had been ill for some time, but died following a stroke, according to a spokesman.

Thatcher was Britain’s first and only female prime minister and served in that capacity for 11 years.

She was dubbed The Iron Lady by diplomats in Russia and Europe over her tough, uncompromising stance in negotiations over the European Union and arms control in the Cold War.

She was also a staunch ally of the United States and had a close personal relationship with former President Ronald Reagan.

At home she was a divisive figure. Her tenure saw the U.K. develop from one of the economic “sick men of Europe” into a powerhouse of the European Union. She destroyed once-powerful unions, but her time in office also saw record unemployment in former industrial areas. 

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  PHOTOS: Remembering Margaret Thatcher

She came to office in 1979 and by 1982 was riding at historic lows in polls due to the tough economic measures she delivered to transform Britain.

The turning point in her fortunes came in May 1982 when Argentinian military forces invaded the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

Many observers, including the Argentinian forces and American diplomats, forecast that Britain would do nothing. Instead, Thatcher ordered Britain’s military to send a task force to retake the islands. The task force set sail within three days of being ordered to do so and within weeks had pulled off  a stunning military victory to eject Argentina from the Falklands.

The wave of patriotic fervor that followed fueled a general election victory in 1983.

Michael Howard, a successor of Thatcher as leader of the center-right Conservative Party said she “was a titan of British politics. I believe she saved our country.”

Five things we’ll remember about Thatcher

Britain’s First Female Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, when elected in 1979, became Britain’s first and so far only female prime minister and the West’s first female head of government. Her political dominance and leadership helped power on for three consecutive terms in office, and inspired countless women worldwide to break the glass ceiling of male-dominated politics.

Maggie clad in iron
She wasn’t called Iron Lady for nothing. Shaped by a hard-line political and economic stance, Thatcher shut down national coal mines, slashed social spending, refused to recognize Northern Irish political prisoners and introduced a widely unpopular poll tax.

The Queen of the 1980s
With her fondness for the private sector, deregulation and big missiles, Maggie embodied the zeitgeist of the 1980s – bellicose, ultra-aggressive capitalism – and she was loved for it. The 1982 Falklands War boosted her popularity, while herself and US President Ronald Reagan looked quite the (super) power couple in the era’s anti-communist chic.

No sleep, no problem
Tireless Thatcher famously said while in power she could get by on just four hours a night. She joins the genetically blessed Sleepless Elite, a band of top historical figures and leaders (Napoleon, Da Vinci, Churchill and Florence Nightingale) that needed five hours or less of shut-eye.

‘Power dressing’ personified
Her sense of style was as powerful as her politics. Sporting a helmet of deep strawberry hair, broad Royal blue skirt suits, and the briefcase-esque handbag, Thatcher pioneered the bold “I’m shoulder to shoulder with men” look. Her taste for proud Britishness was reflected in her choice of classic heritage labels Asprey and Aquascutum.

Credit: Anthony Johnston, Metro World News in London

… And 5 facts you ought to know about Thatcher

Keen chemist: Before becoming an MP, Thatcher worked as a research chemist for British chemical companies Xylonite and Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream.

Infamous monikers: Worldwide people know the Iron Lady, but lesser-known nicknames include The Milk Snatcher (after she removed free school milk for over-7s), Attila the Hen, The She-Elephant and Brigitte Bardot with Caligula’s eyes (thank French president Francois Mitterand for that one.)

Lowering the tone: King George VI (from movie “The King’s Speech”) wasn’t the only British ruler to get voice therapy. Thatcher had her voice changed to sound more authoritative. After intensive training with a National Theatre tutor, Thatcher’s voice was lowered by 46 hertz and has became a cross between a typical male and female voice.

A perfect wife: Despite being Britain’s prime minister for 11 and a half years, Thatcher insisted on cooking for her husband every night and never had a personal chef while in office.

Troublesome children: Her son Mark received a four-year suspended jail sentence after funding mercenaries in a 2004 coup d’état attempt in Equatorial Guinea (British backers were allegedly keen on tapping into that country’s oil and gas reserves.) Mark’s twin sister Carol made some headlines when she won a British celeb reality show in 2005 but made many more in 2009 after uttering an off-air racist comment about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

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Shain Gandee, the former trash collector who found fame as the star of the MTV reality hit “Buckwild,” was found dead along with his uncle and an unidentified person in a truck in West Virginia Monday morning.  Shain was last heard from around 3 a.m. on Sunday at a local bar,  when he and his uncle told people they planned to go 4-wheeling. The truck where they were found was stuck deep in mud, leading investigators to think the three died of carbon monoxide poisoning. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” MTV said in a statement, saying Shain “touched everyone he met.”

“Glee” star in rehab
“Glee” star Cory Monteith, 30, has “voluntarily admitted himself to a treatment facility” his representative told People magazine. The reason for the rehab stay is unspecified. He reportedly checked in Monday morning. Monteith, 30, plays Finn Hudson on the hit Fox series. His girlfriend and costar on the series, Lea Michele, 26,  gave the following quote to People: “I love and support Cory and will stand by him through this. I am grateful and proud he made this decision.” Monteith has struggled with substance abuse in the past.  In a 2011 interview with Parade magazine, Monteith admitted to a rehab stay when he was just 19.  “I burned a lot of bridges,” he said. “I was out of control.” At the time, he said he had a “serious problem” and was using “anything and everything, as much as possible.”  “Glee” is currently filming their latest season and has two more episodes left to shoot. Deadline Hollywood reports that filming will continue and Finn’s absence will be explained through plot lines.

Tick-tock goes the Bieber
The clock is ticking on Justin Bieber‘s career, according to top music manager Peter Mensch, who reps acts like Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Mensch doesn’t see much of a future for the Canadian pop star after a month of hospitalizations, canceled concerts and dust-ups with the paparazzi. “His manager, Scooter Braun, is scared s—less. I don’t know what Bieber’s problem is. His career is over in three years anyway,” Mensch tells the Sun. “I’d take Bieber to the woodshed and spank him.”

Schwarzenegger and Shriver: No drama?
There didn’t seem to be much tension between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver when the separated couple sat down this weekend an Easter brunch at a Santa Monica restaurant with their children, according to E! News. Dressed casually, Schwarzenegger and Shriver reportedly sat next to each other in a corner booth in Coast Cafe in the Shutters on the Beach hotel. While Schwarzenegger has admitted to hopes of a reconciliation with Shriver, he has reportedly been dating another woman, Heather Milligan, since the fall. Milligan was not present at the family brunch.

Adele might be fat, but you’re still old
Joan Rivers is doubling down on her criticisms of Adele‘s weight. Asked during a HuffPost Live chat to defend a joke she made at the British singer’s expense during a “Late Show with David Letterman” appearance, Rivers took things even further. “It’s not mean. She’s a chubby lady who’s very, very rich, and she should just calm down — or lose weight,” Rivers replied. “She wanted an apology, so I took an ad out on her ass. I said, ‘You are not fat.’ And then I had room for a lot of other ads. Adele is beautiful and successful and has what, $100 million? Let’s face reality: She’s fat!”

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Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths has died at age 65.

Richard Griffiths, the actor who played Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter series of movies, has died aged 65.

Mr Griffiths died Thursday from complications following heart surgery, according to friends who announced the news Friday morning.

The British actor had a long and successful career in TV but was also a Tony award winner.

He featured in all of the mega-successful movie adaptions of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.

Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, lead tributes to Mr Griffiths on Friday morning.

“Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career,” he said.

“In August 2000, before official production had even begun on ‘Potter,’ we filmed a shot outside the Dursleys’, which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous and he made me feel at ease.

“Seven years later, we embarked on ‘Equus’ together. It was my first time doing a play but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy.

‘In fact, any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence. I am proud to say I knew him.”

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A 17-year-old Bronx girl was found dead after cops responded to a call about a dispute inside her home Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Officers responded to the 911 call about the dispute at 452 Effingham Ave. in Castle Hill about 3 p.m. They discovered Khailaysha Bunch unconscious and unresponsive at the home. She was taken to Jacobi Medical Center where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation is ongoing.

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A 29-year-old man was shot to death in his own home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn early Sunday morning, police said.

Jonathan Emanus, 29, was shot numerous times inside 202 Pulaski St. just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday. He was taken to Woodhull Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.

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A 35-year-old man was found dead inside a Queens home after firefighters extinguished a one-alarm fire at the location Sunday morning, cops said.

Police and firefighters responded to the fire at 119-30 146th St. in South Jamaica about 9:36 a.m. They discovered the burned body in the basement. The man, who has been identified as James Minor of Poughkeepsie, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation is ongoing.

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A 48-year-old woman was found shot dead inside a Brooklyn apartment building Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Maryanne Rinato was found at 6713 19th Ave. in Bensonhurst just before 3 p.m. She had a gunshot wound to her head, cops said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

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Cops are investigating after a man was shot dead after an argument with a landlord turned violent in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Sunday.

Luis Martinez, 51, was found with a gunshot wound to his chest when police responded to a call about a shooting at 566 Shepherd Ave. at approximately 1 p.m., cops said.

A 63-year-old man was apprehended at the scene. The shooting may have been the result of a landlord-tenant dispute over unpaid rent between the suspect and another tenant, The Daily News reported. Martinez intervened and was shot by the suspect. The investigation is ongoing.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader’s 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech.

The flamboyant 58-year-old leader had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on December 11 and he had not been seen in public since.

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  PHOTOS: Hugo Chavez through the years 1954-2013

“It’s a moment of deep pain,” Maduro, accompanied by senior ministers, said, his voice choking.

Chavez easily won a new 6-year term at an election in October and his death will devastate millions of supporters who adored his charismatic style, anti-U.S. rhetoric and oil-financed policies that brought subsidized food and free health clinics to long-neglected slums.

Detractors, however, saw his one-man style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of opponents as evidence of an egotistical dictator whose misplaced statist economics wasted a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

Chavez’s death paves the way for a new election that will test whether his socialist “revolution” can live on without his dominant personality at the helm.

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Last summer Winner, best known in Britain in recent years for his newspaper columns, revealed that liver specialists had given him 18 months to live.

His personal assistant said she had no comment to make on the report.

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Phillips, whose twin sister Esther wrote the rival “Dear Ann” column, died in Minneapolis on Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

“I have lost my mother, my mentor and my best friend,” daughter Jeanne Phillips said in a statement released by the syndicator of the “Dear Abby” column, Universal Uclick.

“My mother leaves very big high heels to fill with a legacy of compassion, commitment and positive social change. I will honor her memory every day by continuing this legacy,” Jeanne Phillips added

Phillips’ family announced in August 2002 that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Phillips had brought daughter Jeanne in to collaborate on the syndicated newspaper column in 1987 and in December 2002 turned over all responsibility for it to her.

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After nearly six hours of failed negotiations, police killed the gunman as he opened fire on them through a second-story window of a townhouse where he had barricaded himself, said Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.

It was unclear from police and media reports whether officers entered the home or shot the man through the window. KUSA television reported that he was killed after police fired tear gas and entered the home, where they found three more bodies.

The victims were believed to be related to the gunman, Carlson said.

Around 3 a.m. (1000 GMT), police notified neighbors of an emergency situation and evacuated several blocks, Carlson said in a news briefing outside the row of beige townhouses in this middle-class Aurora neighborhood, just outside Denver.

One person inside had escaped and alerted authorities, she said.

Around 8 a.m., the gunman fired on a police vehicle, leading to an exchange of gunfire, KMGH television said. At that time police saw the first body, the station reported.

Carlson said the gunman, whose name has not been released, died just before 9 a.m.

A neighbor, Michael Ignace, 46, said he had spoken to the gunman and “he seemed like a reasonable guy, and we talked about motorcycles.”

Police entered Ignace’s apartment during the night and alerted him, but he chose to stay in his house, he said.

The same Denver suburb was rocked by the mass shooting in July that had been the deadliest in the United States of 2012 until the December 14 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 28 died, including the shooter.

In Aurora, the gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Police identified former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes as the suspect in a crime that renewed debate about the sale of powerful semi-automatic rifles and extended capacity magazines.

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The incident occurred when Private First Class Isaac Lawrence Young, 22, came down with a case of the hiccups while the soldiers were watching a football game on television Sunday night in Killeen, Texas, home to the military post.

In an attempt to scare the hiccups out of his friend, Private First Class Patrick Edward Myers, 27, pointed a handgun at Young and fired once, according to an arrest affidavit. A bullet struck Young in his eye.

Police said Myers admitted to shooting Young, and told responders on the scene the shooting was an accident. Myers said he thought he had loaded the gun with dummy rounds, according to police.

The soldiers had been drinking, police said.

Young later died in an ambulance, according to Killeen Police spokesperson Carroll Smith. She said the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.

Myers was charged with manslaughter and is being held on $1 million bond.

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Williams, whose career spanned an impressive 75 years in show business, announced to fans on stage in November of 2011 that he had been diagnosed, but had every intention of beating cancer, according to People magazine.

Williams rose to fame in the 60s following his popular rendition of “Moon River.” He got his start in a quartet with his brothers Bob, Dick and Don. He went on to a successful solo career and a stint in television with NBC’s “The Andy Williams Show” from 1962 to 1971. Williams had 17 gold and three platinum records during his time in music.

He is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children from a former marriage with dancer Claudine Longet, Robert, Noelle and Christian.

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According to police, 1-year-old Mendi Altman, was transported to Maimonides Hospital by private means just before 1 a.m. on September 18. He was unconscious and unresponsive and pronounced dead upon arrival.

Police said the incident occurred on the second floor of 5813 11th Avenue in Brooklyn, though the boy’s address is listed as 4 David Ct., Monsey, New York.

The NYPD has not yet released any further details about his death.

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When the hurricane lifted the tides, the water washed across the marshy areas in Louisiana where the semi-aquatic rats live and forced them to ride the waves into Mississippi until they succumbed to exhaustion and drowned, said David Yarborough, a supervisor for Hancock County on the Gulf Coast.

The tides then deposited their bodies on the Mississippi shoreline, he said.

As of Tuesday, about 16,000 of the rodents have been collected in Hancock County, where a hired contractor’s clean-up efforts are expected to continue for another week, officials said.

In nearby Harrison County, officials decided to carry out the work themselves. Using shovels and pitchforks, workers have removed 16 tons of the dead rats from beaches since Saturday and taken them to a local landfill.

“We have an event called ‘Cruisin’ The Coast’ the second week of October with 30,000 to 40,000 people on the beach, and we didn’t want to wait” to clean up, said Kim Savant, president of that county’s Board of Supervisors.

Although they’re smelly and disgusting, the dead rats pose no health risk to humans, said Brigid Elchos of the Mississippi Board of Animal Health.

Mississippi also dealt with dead rats after Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, but officials said the current situation seems especially bad.

The beaches are closed to the public, but Yarborough said people have come anyway to see the littered beaches. The visitors usually don’t stay long, possibly because the odor is intense on the shore and discernible from up to three miles away, he said.

In addition to the rats, workers also found dead hogs, deer, coyotes, snakes and rabbits on the beaches.

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His official website posted a memoriam, and media reports cited his Los Angeles nephew Burr Steers as confirming the legendary American writer’s death.

“Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia,” Steers told the Los Angeles Times.

Vidal’s literary legacy includes a series of historical novels – “Burr,” “1876,” “Lincoln” and “The Golden Age” among them – as well as the campy transsexual comedy “Myra Breckenridge”.

He started writing as a 19-year-old soldier stationed in Alaska, basing “Williwaw” on his World War Two experiences. His third book, “The City and the Pillar,” created a sensation in 1948 because it was one of the first open portrayals of a homosexual main character.

Vidal referred to himself as a “gentleman bitch” and was as egotistical and caustic as he was elegant and brilliant.

In addition to rubbing shoulders with the great writers of his time, he banged heads with many of them. Vidal considered Ernest Hemingway a joke and compared Truman Capote to a “filthy animal that has found its way into the house”.

His most famous literary enemies were conservative pundit William F. Buckley Jr. and writer Norman Mailer, who Vidal once likened to cult killer Charles Manson.

Mailer head-butted Vidal before a television appearance and on another occasion knocked him to the ground.

Vidal and Buckley took their feud to live national television while serving as commentators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Vidal accused Buckley of being a “pro-crypto-Nazi” while Buckley called Vidal a “queer” and threatened to punch him.

Vidal seemed to make no effort to curb his abundant ego.

In a 2008 interview with Esquire magazine Vidal said people always seemed impressed that he had met so many famous people, such as Jacqueline Kennedy and William Burroughs.

“People always put that sentence the wrong way around,” he said. “I mean, why not put it the true way – that these people got to meet me, and wanted to?”

NEPHEW OF SENATOR

Eugene Luther Vidal Jr. was born on October 3, 1925 in West Point, New York, and eventually took his mother’s surname as his first name. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where his grandfather, Democratic U.S. Sen. Thomas Gore of Oklahoma, had a strong influence on the boy. The young Vidal developed an interest in politics as he read to the blind senator and led him about town.

He went to exclusive private secondary schools but did not attend college.

After his parents divorced, Vidal’s mother married Hugh Auchincloss, who later also became the stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy. That connection gave Vidal access to the Kennedy White House before a falling out with the family.

After early success, his literary career stalled – perhaps because of the controversy of “The City and the Pillar” – and he concentrated on television and movie scripts.

Vidal got back on track in the 1960s with “Julian,” about a Roman emperor; “Washington, D.C.,” the tale of a political family; and “Myra Breckenridge.” Bigger success followed with recreations of historical U.S. figures – such as Aaron Burr and Abraham Lincoln – that analyze where Vidal thought America fell from grace.

Vidal also was known for his sharp essays on society, sex, literature and politics. He was especially fervent about politics and what he considered to be the death of “the American Empire”.

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return,” he once said.

In 1960 Vidal, a distant cousin of former vice president Al Gore, ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in New York and in 1982 failed in a bid for a California Senate seat.

He once described the United States as “the land of the dull and the home of the literal” and starting in the 1960s lived much of the time in a seaside Italian villa. He moved back permanently in 2003, shortly before Howard Austen, his companion of more than 50 years, died of cancer.

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Ride, a physicist, blasted off in the U.S. space shuttle “Challenger” on June 18, 1983.

“Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name,” Sally Ride Science said in a statement.

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A dead dolphin was found floating in the water, according to DNAinfo. The discovery comes just days after several people reported seeing a dolphin splashing around in the Hudson River.

Officials from the Riverhead Foundation said they will not be able to determine whether the dolphin found dead this morning is the same one seen swimming a few days ago until its dorsal fin is examined.

A cause of death has not yet been determined.

This isn’t the first time dolphins have been spotted around NYC. In 2008, 12 to 15 dolphins were seen swimming in the Navesink River. Soon after, a dolphin was found dead near the riverbank.

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Westchester County police said 66-year-old Andrew Manesis of Animal Clinic & Surgery Of Throggs Necks PC bagged at least 35 dead pets and tossed their bodies into the woods off the Hutchinson River Parkway. This after police said he told owners their animals would be cremated or buried in an area designated for pet remains.

Department of Transportation workers made the grim discovery on April 5 while they were cutting grass in dense brush. Most of the remains were decomposed, police said.

Manesis, a resident of New Canaan, Conn., was charged Friday with two counts of petit larceny, scheme to defraud and violation of environmental conservation law.

Police tracked him down using a bar code from a shoe box containing the body of a cat. Officers subpenaed the shoe company to obtain the name of the person who made the purchase. That customer turned out to be the owner of the cat, who told police she put the animal in the box after it died of natural causes and brought it to Dr. Manesis for a “group cremation.”

Manesis’s mug shot

A photo of a smiling Manesis appears on the website for the animal clinic, along with a pledge: “At Animal Clinic & Surgery Of Throggs Necks PC, we understand that your pet is more than just an animal – your pet is a part of your family and we are committed to providing them the quality care they deserve and you expect.”

Calls to the clinic went unanswered Tuesday.

Pet owners paid the animal clinic as much as $315 to euthanize and/or properly dispose of their pet’s remains. Instead, he dumped the bodies of cats, dogs and a lizard, on the side of the road, a spokesman for Westchester County Police said.

“Most of the detectives that worked on this case are pet owners themselves so they understood that any pet has a special place in their family and that these animals and owners deserved better that what we found under the circumstance,” Westchester Public Information Officer Kieran O’Leary told Metro.

Police are still trying to track down some of the owners of the pets that were found. Anyone who asked Animal Clinic & Surgery Of Throggs Necks PC to euthanize or dispose of an animal, can call Westchester County detectives at 1-877-220-3560.

More photos of the animals below. [Warning, they are mildly graphic.]

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Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison in 2009 and returned to Libya because he was suffering from terminal cancer, had been in and out of hospital for weeks and was taken for an emergency blood transfusion in April.

Megrahi’s health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his brother Abdulhakim told Reuters. “He was surrounded by his family and died in his house,” he said. He was 60.

“He was too sick to utter anything on his deathbed,” Abdulhakim said. “We want people to know he was innocent.”

Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of bombing Pan Am flight 103 as it flew to New York from London on December 21, 1988. All 259 people aboard the aircraft were killed and 11 people in the Scottish town of Lockerbie died from falling wreckage.

He was jailed in Scotland but sent back to Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya by the Scottish authorities on compassionate grounds in 2009 because he was only expected to survive for months.

The decision angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and was criticized by the U.S. administration. A number of U.S. politicians pressed for his extradition to the United States.

Megrahi, an intelligence agent during Gaddafi’s rule, was jailed in the town of Greenock in western Scotland after he was convicted for the bombing under Scottish law at a trial held in the Netherlands.

Megrahi told Reuters in October his role in the attack had been exaggerated and the truth about what really happened would emerge soon.

An intelligence agent during the rule of Gaddafi, Megrahi denied any role in suspected human rights abuses in his home country before the Libyan dictator’s fall and death in a popular uprising last year.

Libya’s now-ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) has said it would work with the Scottish government over the possible involvement of others in the 1988 bombing, an attack the country’s new rulers are eager to distance themselves from.

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The singer, who was born LaDonna Gaines in Dorchester, Mass. was known as the “Queen of Disco” because of her string of mega hits in the 1970s, which included “Hot Stuff,” “Love to Love You Baby” and “Last Dance.” In a little more than a year she charted four No. 1 singles.

Though she reached superstardom and earned most of her five Grammy awards in the disco era, Summer’s success stretched into more contemporary times. She landed No. 1 singles in the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s and even this decade: “To Paris With Love” topped the Billboard Dance Charts in October of 2010.

The singer will probably best be remembered for not only her contribution to disco, but her help in inventing the genre with producer Giorgio Moroder. The songs were often long symphonic suites with relaxed funky back beats and Summer’s sexy coo breezing on the top layer.

But as the trend faded, Summer was able to distance herself from disco. She had one of her strongest hits in 1983 with “She Works Hard For the Money,” an anthem of female empowerment that showed Summer was ready for the MTV age.

The singer had been diagnosed with cancer but had reportedly been well enough to work on an album in Florida until her health took a turn for the worse.

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Despite the setback, he continued to play a part on the annual televised New Year’s Eve celebration he began hosting in 1972.

“New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” was just one of the many TV shows he hosted, including the “Pyramid” game shows, “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes” and most famously, “American Bandstand,” which he hosted from 1952 through 1989.

“Bandstand” will be Clark’s most enduring legacy, as the show was one of the first to bring rock ‘n’ roll into the homes of families across the country when the music was generally considered to be dirty and rebellious. Clark put a clean face on the emerging genre and showcased new acts and clean-cut-looking American teens dancing to the latest sounds. The importance of “Bandstand” can’t be overstated. It was a barometer of the trends with some of music’s most legendary performers appearing on the show, including Michael Jackson, the Beach Boys, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Prince and R.E.M.

Clark is survived by his three children and his third wife Kari Wigton.

Clark used to famously sign off from “Bandstand” by giving a military salute and saying, “For now, Dick Clark … so long,” a sadly appropriate sentiment now.

To see some of our favorite “Bandstand” clips, click here.

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Senior U.S. officials and NATO’s top commander in the country, U.S. General John Allen, moved quickly to condemn the pictures even before they were published by the Los Angeles Times, which received the photos from another soldier.

“The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of International Security Assistance Force or the U.S. Army,” Allen said in a statement, adding an investigation into the incident was underway.

The appearance on the LA Times website of some of the 18 pictures, taken in 2010, comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Afghan relations, following release of a video in January that showed four U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan insurgent corpses.

The inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a major NATO airbase also triggered a week of riots that left 30 dead and led to the deaths of six Americans.

And in March a U.S. Army sergeant went on a nighttime shooting rampage in two southern Afghan villages, killing 17 civilians and prompting Afghan President Hamid Karzai to demand foreign soldiers confine themselves to major bases.

Taliban insurgents launched suicide attacks in Kabul and three other provinces at the weekend, claiming the assault was launched in retaliation for all three incidents.

In one of the pictures a paratrooper posed next to an unofficial patch placed beside a body that read “Zombie Hunter”, while in another soldiers posed with Afghan police holding the severed legs of an insurgent bombers.

Two soldiers in another frame held a dead insurgent’s hand with the middle finger raised.

The LA Times said the 82nd Airborne Division soldiers had been at a police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010, and revisited several months later. The pictures were taken on both occasions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement released by departmental spokesman George Little that publication of the pictures could prompt further attacks against security forces ahead.

“The danger is that this material could be used by the enemy to incite violence against U.S. and Afghan service members in Afghanistan,” Panetta said. “U.S. forces in the country are taking security measures to guard against it.”

The U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan Ryan Crocker also condemned the photographs, calling the actions of the soldiers “morally repugnant” and saying they “dishonor the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers and civilians who have served with distinction in Afghanistan”.

The Times defended the distribution of the photos, which U.S. military officials asked the Times not to publish.

“After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan,” Times Editor Davan Maharaj said in the newspaper’s article.

The photos are likely to stir up more anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan as NATO combat troops look to exit the country in 2014 and strengthen fragile security in the country.

Such incidents have complicated U.S. efforts to negotiate a strategic partnership agreement to define its presence once most foreign combat troops pull out by the end of 2014.

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Meanwhile, Rogers testified that it is highly unlikely that the singer administered the lethal dose of Propofol to himself.

Murray’s defense has said MJ gave himself the drug and stopped breathing during the two minutes that it took Murray to go to the restroom and return.

Rogers said he doubts that would have been enough time for the singer to inject himself and have the drug take effect.

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He was 42 years old.

Police said Irabu’s body was found at 7:25 p.m. EST Wednesday night.

“He was found dead of an apparent suicide,” Los Angeles county sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Arriaga said.
Irabu was signed to much fanfare by the Yankees in 1997. His rights were purchased from his Japanese team by the Padres, but he refused to sign. The Yankees executed a sign and trade, bringing in the pitcher on a four-year, $12.8 million contract.

Irabu was largely a bust. He went 29-20 with a 4.80 ERA?in three seasons in New York. While he was on two World Series champions, he pitched in only one postseason game. He later pitched for Montreal and Texas.

The Yankees released a statement Thursday.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hideki Irabu.  Every player that wears the Pinstripes is forever a part of the Yankees family, and his death is felt throughout our organization.  Our sympathies and support go out to his wife, Kyonsu, his two children, and all of his friends and loved ones.”

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