Pickaway County prosecutor Judy Wolford says Randall Turner entered the plea Friday. The 53-year-old Turner faces two to eight years in prison.

A tractor operator told sheriff’s deputies Aug. 4 he’d been confronted by an angry man with a handgun while he mowed the edge of Turner’s property in Ashville, 20 miles south of Columbus.

Turner says he fired the shots to disable the tractor. The operator wasn’t hurt, but a bullet ricocheted and grazed Turner’s forehead.

Turner sued the county in 2007, saying his property had been damaged by the mowing. The lawsuit was dismissed last week.

Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years.

The second employee’s case is pending.

The park’s dispatch center was called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4.

The geyser was not erupting at the time.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts general manager Jim McCaleb says the former concession workers were hired at the Old Faithful Inn and that such incidents were rare.

Rove met with prosecutor Nora Dannehy at the office of his lawyer, Robert Luskin. Rove did not speak to reporters as he entered the downtown Washington law office and neither did investigators who arrived about a half hour later.

Rove has said he will cooperate with the investigation, which is being conducted to determine whether Bush administration officials or congressional Republicans should face criminal charges in the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Rove and other Republican officials refused to be interviewed in an earlier Justice Department inquiry, which concluded that despite Bush administration denials, political considerations played a part in the firings of as many as four prosecutors.

U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, but cannot be fired for improper reasons. Bush administration officials at first claimed the attorneys were let go because of poor performance.

The internal Justice Department investigation recommended a criminal inquiry, saying the lack of cooperation by Rove and other senior administration officials left gaps in their findings that should be investigated further. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey responded by naming Dannehy, the acting U.S. attorney in Connecticut, as special prosecutor in September.

Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers also have agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee under oath about the firings in closed depositions. As president, Bush had fought attempts to force them to testify.

In July, U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected Bush’s contention that senior White House advisers were immune from the committee’s subpoenas, siding with Congress’ power to investigate the executive branch. The Bush administration had appealed the decision. The agreement for Rove and Miers to testify ended the lawsuit.

Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.

Police vehicles guard the site where a woman was found dead inside a car, two blocks away from a police station in Tijuana, Mexico, on Thursday.

TIJUANA, Mexico – The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The victims, ages 19 to 23, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.

U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims – two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas – were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general’s office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican.

Their deaths are the latest in a string of violence in Tijuana that authorities blame on a bloody turf war between drug cartels.

“I just don’t think kids should be going to Tijuana right now,” Chula Vista police Lt. Scott Arsenault told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “They ran into the wrong people, obviously.”

Bernard Gonzales, a spokesman for the Chula Vista Police Department, said a friend told the women’s parents they were headed to nightclubs in Tijuana on Thursday night. They were reported missing the next day when they did not answer their cell phones.

A plainclothes police officer, wearing a face mask, stands near a house where a methamphetamine lab was found on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico, on Wednesday.

The sailors from the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg also seized eight assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher when they boarded the pirates’ vessel Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, said the Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The Gettysburg launched the operation with the help of the Korean Destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great after the pirates fired at the Egyptian-flagged Motor Vessel Amira about 75 miles south of Yemen’s al-Mukalla port, the Navy said. Both ships dispatched helicopters during the mission.

The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, connecting Europe and Asia via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is used by 20,000 ships a year and has become the world’s hot spot for pirate attacks.

The 17 pirates seized were taken aboard the Gettysburg for further questioning, said the Navy. They were operating from a “mothership” — a larger vessel pirates often use to resupply the small speedboats that attack ships far offshore. The Navy did not say what happened to the mothership after the operation.

Also Thursday, Iranian state television said the country will send two warships to join an international flotilla protecting cargo ships from pirates off the Somali coast.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei, made the commitment in a letter he sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, according to a report on the Web site of Iran’s press TV.

The ships will leave within the next two days for a five-month assignment and will join vessels from the U.S., Denmark, Italy, Russia, China and other countries.

Somali pirates have significantly stepped up their attacks in recent years. They hijacked a cargo ship operated by Iran off the Somali coast in November, the second in the past six months.

At least 19 ships and over 250 sailors are now being held hostage by Somali pirates. Last year, 42 ships were seized and pirates earned an estimated $1 million or more in ransom each time they freed a ship.

The pirates operate freely because Somalia has had no effective central government in nearly 20 years. Nearly every public institution has crumbled, and the U.N.-backed government controls only limited territory and is fighting an Islamic insurgency.

An unidentified survivor of a boat sinking, upper left, is helped off by U.S. Coast Guard personnel as the Coast Guard vessel pulls up to a dock in Phil Foster Park Wednesday.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – At least 10 people are dead after an overloaded boat apparently carrying Haitian migrants sank off the Florida coast, the Coast Guard said Wednesday.

Coast Guard Capt. James Fitton said 17 people had been rescued, but a search was under way for more and expected to last through the night. Authorities weren’t sure how many were aboard the boat, but they believed around 30 were dumped into the sea.

The sinking fits the profile of migrant smuggling, officials said, but they were not sure if the boat capsized or crashed into something. The boat has not been found, and is thought to have sunk because it hasn’t been spotted from the air.

“The boat was obviously overloaded,” Fitton said. “It’s a tragedy that someone would be so callous with human life.”

The boat apparently left Bimini in the Bahamas on Tuesday night. It was believed to have flipped at about 2 a.m. but officials didn’t learn about it until another boater called more than 10 hours later. The boater reported pulling three people from the water and said about 25 others were awaiting rescue.

Fitton said all those rescued were expected to recover. Children and women were among those aboard, including a pregnant woman.

Two helicopters, a jet and three boats were helping in the rescue effort about 15 miles off the shore of Miami Beach where water temperatures by the afternoon were in the high 70s.

Since October, the Coast Guard says that it had stopped 1,377 Haitians, up from 972 during the same seven-month period last year.

The Rev. Luke Harrigan, a Fort Lauderdale pastor who ministers to the Haitian-American community, was working with the Coast Guard to help the victims. He said Haitians, who live in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, are known to pay $2,000 to $4,000 to be smuggled into the U.S.

Four tropical storms and hurricanes battered the country during last year’s harvest season, killing 793 people, crippling agriculture and causing $1 billion in damage to irrigation, bridges and roads.

In January, United Nations-sponsored groups said more aid was urgently needed to stave off famine in several areas of the country.

“The economic conditions in Haiti are deplorable, and I don’t see them getting any better any time soon,” said Andy Gomez, a University of Miami expert on Caribbean migration. “And the Haitian-American community has developed a pretty good network here in the last five or 10 years, just as the Cuban-Americans have done, so there’s more of a reason to come.”

The Coast Guard said it was not known whether the boat’s captain and any crew members were among those found and survivors haven’t indicated who may have organized the trip.

“We haven’t even asked those questions yet,” Fitton said.

Video from TV news helicopters showed the driver speeding the wrong way down a street in an eastern area of the county. He then crashed into an oncoming vehicle, got out of the car and ran into a residential backyard.

Surrounded by high garden walls and apparently realizing he had nowhere to go, the suspect got face down on the grass with his arms outstretched.

Moments later, an officer from the El Monte Police Department ran up to the suspect and delivered what appeared to be one sharp kick to the head or neck, a scene that was broadcast by KNBC-TV and KTTV. A second officer arrived soon after and used what appeared to be a baton or a flashlight to deliver several blows to the suspect’s side.

After the suspect was handcuffed, the officer who kicked him high-fived a colleague who was tending to a police dog. It was not clear whether the colleague had seen the kick.

El Monte police Chief Tom Armstrong said he had not yet seen the video and could not comment.

“Before coming to any conclusion, I want to look at all the facts,” Armstrong said. “I don’t know what was in the mind of the officer.”

Police identified the suspect as Richard Rodriguez, 23, of El Monte. Rodriguez, a member of a street gang, was on parole, Lt. Chuck Carlson said. He was booked for parole violation and for investigation of felony evading and obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties. He was taken to a county jail.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called for the immediate suspension of the officer and urged the Los Angeles County district attorney to conduct an investigation.

“That kick served no law enforcement purpose,” said Ramona Ripston, the group’s executive director. “It was unlawful punishment, apparently for leading the police on a pursuit.”

Sandi Gibbons, a district attorney spokeswoman, had not seen the video and did not know if her office would conduct an independent review.

The foot pursuit followed a high-speed car chase that lasted more than 30 minutes and saw the suspect lead a chaotic drive through El Monte, Whittier and other parts of eastern Los Angeles County.

The car sped through several intersections without stopping and at one point drove along a short stretch of sidewalk when it was hemmed in at a junction.

Carlson said the occupants of the car flashed gang signs at pursuing officers.

The chase started in El Monte around 1:30 p.m. after the driver failed to stop for an officer, he said. The sedan drove away at speeds of up to 80 mph in a 30 mph zone.

The car had two passengers, Carlson said. One was detained after leaping out when the car stopped in traffic, and the other was arrested after the crash, he said.

No one was seriously injured, Carlson said.

Fort Wayne police Sgt. Mark Walters says 36-year-old Jermaine Askia Cooper told officers he “knew he was going to jail for a while” and wanted to get one last burrito. He did not get the burrito, police said.

Cooper was held without bail on four counts of dealing cocaine, one count of resisting arrest by fleeing and other charges.

A voicemail mailbox for a listing for a Jermaine Cooper in Fort Wayne was full and not accepting messages.

Police say the chase began Tuesday after officers spotted Cooper, who was wanted on other charges. The chase ended in nearby Decatur.

Myanmar activists shout slogans during a rally demanding the immediate release of their pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi near the Myanmar Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday. Suu Kyi was charged Thursday with violating terms of her house arrest in a bizarre case involving an American man who swam across a lake to sneak into her home, her lawyer said.

YANGON — Myanmar’s Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced new charges Thursday less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after an American man swam across a lake to enter her home, her lawyer said.

Supporters accused the military government of using the incident to keep her in detention ahead of general elections scheduled for next year.

Suu Kyi, whose detention was set to end May 27, could face a prison term of up to five years if convicted, said lawyer Hla Myo Myint. The trial is scheduled to start Monday at a special court at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned Thursday.

She is accused of breaking the terms of her detention by harboring the visitor for two days, even though another of Suu Kyi’s lawyers said she told the man to leave her home.

“Everyone is very angry with this wretched American. He is the cause of all these problems,” lawyer Kyi Win told reporters. “He’s a fool.”

The junta appears eager to ensure that general elections scheduled for next year are carried out without any significant opposition from pro-democracy groups that say the balloting will merely perpetuate military rule under a democratic guise.

Human rights groups said they feared the trial would be used to justify another extension of Suu Kyi’s yearslong detention despite international demands for her release. The 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years — including the past six — in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy in Myanmar, also called Burma.

The motives of the American, John William Yettaw, 53, remained unclear. State television on Thursday said he had served two years in the military and listed his occupation as “student, clinical psychology, Forest Institution.”

“I know that John is harmless and not politically motivated in any way,” his stepson, Paul Nedrow, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “He did not want to cause Suu Kyi any trouble.”

Nedrow said he was concerned over his stepfather’s health because he was a diabetic and the ailment “could cause him to become disoriented and confused and be unable to make wise choices for himself.”

A pro-government Myanmar Web site earlier said that after arriving at Suu Kyi’s house, Yettaw told her two female assistants — a mother and daughter who are her sole allowed companions — that he was tired and hungry after the swim and has diabetes.

It said the two women, supporters of Suu Kyi’s party, gave him food.

In the past Myanmar’s junta — which regards Suu Kyi as the biggest threat to its rule — has found reasons to extend her periods of house arrest, bending the letter of the law.

“The Burmese regime is clearly intent on finding any pretext, no matter how tenuous, to extend her unlawful detention. The real injustice, the real illegality, is that she is still detained in the first place,” said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who wrote a chapter about her in his book “Courage.”

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith described Suu Kyi’s arrest as “gravely concerning” and urged her immediate release.

Yettaw, who was arrested last week, was charged at Thursday’s hearing with illegally entering a restricted zone, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and breaking immigration laws, which is punishable by up to one year in jail, said Hla Myo Myint.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Mei said Yettaw had no legal representation at his arraignment but that the embassy was trying to find him an English-speaking lawyer.

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as the country’s government-in-exile, said the junta was using the incident to extend Suu Kyi’s detention.

“It is nothing more than a political ploy to hoodwink the international community so that it can keep (Suu Kyi) under lock and key while the military maneuvers its way to election victory on 2010,” the group’s prime minister, Sein Win, said in a statement.

Suu Kyi has recently been ill, suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure. Her condition improved this week after a visit by a doctor who administered an intravenous drip, said Nyan Win, the spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, who is also part of a team of three lawyers hoping to represent her.

“Please tell them (reporters) I am well,” Kyi Win quoted Suu Kyi as saying. But he added: “I am very concerned about Suu Kyi’s health, even though she said she is well.”

An overturned car sits in the lot of Jim Robertson's car dealership after it was hit by a tornado on Wednesday in Kirksville, Mo. Multiple tornados hit the area as severe storms tore through the state.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Violent storms tore through four Midwestern states, killing three people in northern Missouri, damaging dozens of homes and leaving thousands without power.

Kirksville apparently took the hardest hit Wednesday night. Police Detective Sgt. Ron Celian said the storm damaged 30 to 40 homes and flipped cars and shattered windows at a car dealership. One home was destroyed.

“It just tore everything up,” said Don Williams, who rode out the storm in his basement with his wife and four children. “It was just a blur. Insulation and trees blowing everywhere. I could see stuff just flying through my house.”

Sullivan County Emergency Management director Rick Gardner said a woman was killed Wednesday night when what appeared to be a tornado struck a mobile home east of Milan in Sullivan County.

Two other people died in a neighborhood near the car dealership, said Adair County coroner Brian Noe. Authorities did not release the victims’ names pending notification of family members.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Brent Bernhardt said the Adair County sheriff flew over the area to inspect the damage and said in some places the tornado was only 500 feet wide.

“It was not wide,” Bernhardt said. “It would be on the ground and then come back up and be on the ground again.”

In Gillespie, northeast of St. Louis, school was canceled Thursday because much of the town was without power and some school buildings were damaged.

In Caddo County in southwest Oklahoma, where a possible tornado tore roofs off homes and businesses in Gracemont and Anadarko, school officials canceled classes for the day because of widespread power outages.

Dozens of inmates were evacuated from the Caddo County jail because of a gas line break, said Caddo County Emergency Management Director Larry McDuffey.

In northeast Oklahoma, a 100 mph wind gust was recorded west of the Bartlesville airport in Washington County, authorities said. The high winds downed trees and power lines, temporarily cutting power to thousands.

Central Indiana saw wind gusts of up to 60 mph and street flooding was reported in Vincennes, Linton and Rockville, authorities said. Utilities reported 8,000 were without power in and around Indianapolis early Thursday.

In Illinois, a range of windy storms dumped as much as 3 inches of rain within 50 minutes. National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon called the accumulation “unbelievable,” comparing it to heavy rainfall in the tropics.

The storm was continuing in southern Illinois early Thursday, with lightning, heavy rain and strong wind gusts, Shimon said.

The latest storms come less than a week after another batch of severe weather, including at least a dozen confirmed tornadoes, ravaged parts of southern Missouri. Those storms killed four people and damaged or destroyed several hundred homes.