In brief: U.S. drone attacks kill eight in Yemen

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni military officials say eight people have been killed in two suspected U.S. drone strikes in Abieda valley in central Marib province.

Residents contacted by the Associated Press say that at least two of the eight people killed in Saturday evening’s strikes were known al-Qaida militants of Saudi nationality. They identified one as Ismail bin Jamil.

Security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Residents spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.

Hundreds gather to honor Swartz

NEW YORK – Hundreds of friends and supporters of Aaron Swartz gathered in New York City to pay tribute to the free-information activist and online prodigy who killed himself last week.

The 26-year-old Swartz hanged himself in his apartment in Brooklyn months before he was to go on trial in Boston.

Federal prosecutors accused him of breaking into a computer wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010 and tapping into the university’s computer network to get millions of paid-access scholarly articles.

Swartz’s family has blasted prosecutors’ handling of his case, saying overreaching led to his death.

David Segal of the activist group Demand Progress said Swartz “was trying to hack the whole world, in the best way.”