Big Boi arrested for drug possession

BIG BOI was arrested for drug possession. TMZ .com reports the Outkastrapper was leaving a cruise ship in Miami when Border Patrol and search dogs discovered a cornucopia of pharmaceuticals in his bags, including Ecstasy pills, MDMA powder, and Viagra. Yes, you heard right! Apparently Big Boi didn’t have a prescription for the erectile dysfunction drug. He was released on $16,000 bail.

Anthony trial enters 30th day

The trial of a Florida mother charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter resumes in an Orlando courtroom, a day after her attorneys sought a mistrial and a judge ruled that she was competent to continue the trial.
Testimony resumes Tuesday morning, a day after Casey Anthony's attorneys asked the judge to select a new jury. The attorneys sought the mistrial based on a ruling by a federal judge in Miami last week. It declared Florida's death penalty unconstitutional.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if convicted of that charge.
The trial judge ruled Anthony is competent after her attorneys asked that she get a mental evaluation.

Miami imam, 2 sons charged with supporting Taliban

MIAMI - A 76-year-old Miami imam and two of his sons have been arrested on federal charges they provided some $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban, while three others in Pakistan have been indicted on charges of handling distribution of the funds, authorities say.

Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, was arrested Saturday at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, where he is an imam. One of his sons, Izhar Khan, 24, an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in nearby Margate, Fla., was arrested there. Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was detained at a Los Angeles hotel. The men are U.S. citizens. Their mosques are not suspected of wrongdoing, officials said.

Also named in the indictment are three others at large in Pakistan - Hafiz Khan's daughter, grandson and an unrelated man, all three charged with handling the distribution of funds, authorities said. The Pakistani Taliban are designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

Attempts to reach the men's attorneys and families were unsuccessful on Saturday. However, another son of Hafiz Khan, Ikram Khan, told The Miami Herald that his father was too old and sick to be involved in the plot.

"None of my family supports the Taliban," he told the newspaper. "We support this country."

If convicted, the South Florida men face 15 years in prison for each of the four counts listed in the indictment. All three are expected in court Monday.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said suspicious financial activity triggered the investigation three years ago. "This is based on the defendant's words, actions and records," Ferrer said at a news conference Saturday.

The indictment lists about $50,000 in transactions.

According to the indictment, the funds were used to buy guns, support militants' families and promote the cause of the Pakistani Taliban. It also alleges that Hafiz Khan owns a madrassa, or religious school, in his native Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan that shelters members of the Pakistani Taliban and trains children to become militants.

The indictment recounts recorded conversations in which Hafiz Khan allegedly voices support for attacks on the Pakistani government and American troops in the region, officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban is a wing of the terrorist group that originated in Afghanistan. It claimed responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings Friday that killed 87 people in what it said was vengeance for the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. The group has also been linked to the Times Square car bombing in New York in May 2010.

The Pakistani militant group is allied with al-Qaida, is based in the northwest of Pakistan near the Afghan border and has links to that country's Taliban insurgency.

The Miami Mosque - a small, white house in a crowded residential area - was founded in 1974 and is the oldest mosque in the city, according to Mohammad Shakir, a local Muslim community leader. Hafiz Khan has been leading prayers at the mosque for about 14 years, Shakir added.

Hafiz Khan has been suspended indefinitely as imam, said Asad Ba-Yunus, a spokesman for the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida, which runs the mosque. He said his organization is not aware of any attempts to raise funds for illegal activity that took place on its properties.

Nezar Hamze, executive director of the South Florida chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, described the father and son imams as "very quiet individuals" who seemed pious. He said he never heard them preach extremism.

"I was very shocked, just as others in the community were shocked," Hamze said. "We absolutely don't support terrorism or support of terrorism."

Muslim leaders said they were reluctant to speculate about whether the alleged financial support to the Pakistani Taliban did in fact take place and whether it was intentional.

"I think it's important to get all the facts before any decisions or statements are made," Hamze said.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, said in a statement late Saturday that the indictments show the U.S. must be vigilant in dealing with extremist threats.

Miami Heat will need Dwyane Wade’s best on the road

The explanation from Dwyane Wade made perfect sense.

His numbers through the first two games of the series against Philadelphia — 15.5 points per game on 42 percent shooting — were a result of the Sixers’ defensive game plan. He did, after all, average better than 30 points against Philly in the regular season, so it stands to reason that Doug Collins would make every effort to slow him down.

Here was the problem with that concept:

Regardless of which member of the Big 3 that Philly singled out as a top priority, the Heat was going to need Wade to produce his usual playoff-type numbers.

It sounds rather simplistic to say that Dwyane Wade needs to score for the Heat to win games. But it’s not always true. The Heat can and has won with Wade having poor shooting games this season, and Miami won two games to start this series without Wade at his best.

What is true, though, is that if the Heat is going to get through the playoffs with a handful of road wins — and what team can march through the playoffs without a few of those? — Dwyane Wade needs to be at or near his best in just about every one of those games. For most of this season, LeBron James has been the savior on the road. But that tune changes in the playoffs. The Heat can’t afford to wait for James to get hot from the perimeter, which is what most of his huge scoring road games have been built on.

Miami needs Wade’s consistent pressure, his ability to collapse the defense regularly, his uncanny ability to finish in traffic and his unique talent for slithering through the tiniest of cracks for anything from a simple layup to an impressive offensive rebound. The Heat got that Thursday. All of that.

And, surprising as it might have been given the one-sidedness of Monday’s Game 2 win, the Heat needed exactly that from Wade to escape with a 100-94 victory in Game 3. Wade offered up quite the scare when, after a first-quarter turnover, he winced in pain, grabbed at his surgically repaired left shoulder and looked at it to make sure nothing appeared out of place.

But once he shook that off, he put the fear back in Philly fans’ hearts.

In the second quarter, when the Sixers threatened to distance themselves from Miami, it was Wade who reeled Philadelphia back in with 12 points in the period, including a sick three-point play that included a reverse layup and a quick word for the crowd just before the half ended.

“Dwyane is so mature as a player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “[Thursday night] was different. He understood we needed something a little bit more.”

It wasn’t just the obvious plays, either, even though there were more than a few of those.

Wade simply has an understanding of what it takes to succeed in this setting.

Example: In a tight third quarter, Wade hit Joel Anthony with a no-look pass. Then, understanding Anthony’s hands and finishing skills are… umm… let’s call them questionable, Wade was in position to slam home the offensive rebound on the opposite side of the rim. Tie game, 68-68.

“All of those things were relief points when we started to struggle with our execution,” Spoelstra added.

Look, LeBron James can stumble upon an impressive stat line no matter where he plays or what the setting.

Heck, he stumbled into a gorgeous play Thursday night.

With 4:33 left in the third and the Heat trailing by six, James tried a crazy behind-the-back dribble on the break, only to stagger as he tried to get to the rim. On his way to the floor, though, he shoveled a laser right-handed pass to Wade for a two-handed dunk.

But it was a relentless Wade who officially quieted the Sixers crowd.

“I think Dwyane Wade can get a good shot any time he wants to,” Collins said.

Wade also had a few more of those “relief points” in him down the stretch to seal the win.

Mario Chalmers airballs a three? Wade’s there for the putback.

All the attention’s on Wade as he drives? He finds Anthony for an easy layup. That’s an easy layup for Anthony, which means something.

LeBron misses a three? Wade’s there for a one-handed putback that might have been the official Sixer spirit-breaker. The Heat doesn’t need Wade to be at his best to beat the Sixers in this series. Philadelphia is a team with a massive superstar void, which means the Heat, and its surplus of stars, can coast to a series win in five or six games without the Finals MVP-version of Wade.

But in future series, it’ll take this Wade for Miami to advance. Nights like this one — 32 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists — might have to become commonplace if the Heat is going to roll into other buildings and exit with a win. Thursday night’s performance was a healthy reminder that he’s still more than capable — no matter what the opposition’s game plan is.