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[captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- shepard new evidence in that one of the most wanted terrorists in the world will never kill again. i am shepard smith. the news starts now. >> we have information. >> a taliban leader -- shepard: the taliban leaders targeted in an american air strike. new details about this top terrorist. what his death could mean for peace. who is in line to take over his taliban army? first, the evidence of the leader's debt. the foreign minister of pakistan says his people are pretty certain that the taliban boss is dead after an air strike. he is baitullah mehsud. it is confirmed to the associated press that he is dead. the white house says it is true. the people of pakistan are safer tonight. >> this is an individual whose title as a murderous thug was well-deserved. shepard: baitullah mehsud was deeply feared inside pakistan and blame for assassinating the former prime minister benazir bhutto. investigators linked him to last year's suicide attack on a marriott hotel in the capital. he was believed to be sending recruits across the border to hit targets in afghanistan. u.s. forces have been pounding his turf right on the border between afghanistan and pakistan. it looks like they finally got their killer. it is not yet 100% confirm. we cannot independently verify it. we are still looking for more evidence. if it is the case, it is a serious setback for the taliban. by definition, a hugely positive step for the rest of the world. we have team fox coverage tonight. jonathan pond has more on what the man has represented. first, jennifer graff and at the pentagon with more details. how will we know for sure? >> it dna would be the gold standard. the intelligence community is assuming right now that he is dead. they are not waiting for dna. they are waiting for signals intelligence, phone intercept from his followers when they choose a successor. shepard: how did this thing go down? >> it was basically done a in a position the missile strike with a predator unmanned aerial vehicle. this is the worst kept secret in washington that the cia runs the program. it is the largest bomb that a predator can drop. pakistani intelligence services help on the ground. shepard: we are led to believe this could have a much larger series of the implications when it comes to osama bin laden. true? >> absolutely. this will free up the badly stretched assets of these predator drones so that they can be full-time looking for bin laden. it is a step forward in terms of intelligence sharing with pakistanis. there is concern among the military that this strike could cause the pakistani military to have cold feet about going further, and that is a hotbed of activity in that area. they need them to continue. shepard: thank you. there's another big piece of the story. baitullah mehsud is believed to have controlled an army of taliban fighters up to 20,000 strong. all of them are now going to be looking for a new leader. jonathan hunt is with us. is there a ready-made replacement already waiting in the wings? >> there are several candidates. the successor will be chosen by a taliban executive council. according to some website we have monitored, that meeting could be taking place right now in a village. as you zoom in to the satellite picture, it is extraordinary to think a bunch of top terror leaders could be sitting in one of those buildings right now choosing their successor. that successor might be the right hand man to baitullah mehsud. shepard: how does he compare? >> he is dangerous. he is young. he is aggressive. he has schooled hundreds of suicide bombers. as a reporter told us today, the pakistani army is under no illusion. >> the army is preparing for the worst. they expect the successor will be just as bad, but maybe not immediately. they expect there will be a bit of all lull between now, the naming of the successor, and him getting into his new job. >> that depends on what the pakistani army does. does it press its advantage in what they believe will be a brief lull and use ground troops, or does the new taliban leaders inspire his followers to even greater violence? to quote an old saying, it depends which side of the camel sits -- side the camel sits. shepard: the jobless rate dropped a tiny bit down to 9.4%. we saw the smallest number of job losses this year, almost 230,000. analysts were expecting an increase. the president said we have rescued our economy from catastrophe. >> today, we are pointed in the right direction. we are losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when i took office. we have pulled the financial system back from the brink. the rising market is restoring values to those 401k's. shepard: the president said we still have a lot further to go. the white house is saying unemployment could hit 10% this year. major garrett is there tonight. unemployment would have gone up last month at the feds counted the people who have given up or stop looking for work, which is often the case. >> that is right. the labor department decided that about 797,000 americans stopped looking for work. that shrank the labour force and the percentage of those jobless became smaller, dropping 1/10. if you put that 797,000 discouraged workers back in, the rate would have been 9.8%. shepard: it may not seem to make sense, but they have done it that way for years. at least the measurement is consistent. >> the measurement is consistent. some people quibble. one of the top economist for the labor department in the bush years said there's nothing wrong with this approach. >> it is not funny. the labor department goes out and count the number of people who say they're in the workforce and looking for work. when people are discouraged, they drop out of the labour force. >> 5 million americans have been unemployed for 27 weeks. that is the highest number in u.s. history in the last 61 years, since they began counting. shepard: thank you very much. keeping kids safe from the h1n1 virus after they go back to class after the summer. even if schools get hit hard, principle should make sure the doors of the school stay open. what's new from ziploc? you know all the little things you do to help the environment? here's one more... ziploc evolve. ♪ an ultra-light bag designed to keep food fresh... made with 25% less plastic. and made with wind energy. ♪ new ziploc evolve. better for the environment. still ziploc fresh. all at no extra cost. designed with you in mind. s.c. johnson. a family company. are more than words here. it's personal. i have diabetes. rodney's kid too. so we're so proud to manufacture... the accu-chek® aviva meters and test strips... here in the u.s.a. plus, we've proven you'll waste 50% fewer strips... when you use our meter, which means greater savings... for people with diabetes, like me. now that's a true american value. accu-chek® aviva. born in the u.s.a. shepard: new developments in the case against the newlywed accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband. there is word that her lover, yes, there was another man in her life, told the police about the murder plot. the cops say it went down like this. the white sent everything up with the hit man, an undercover cop. the police told the husband her woman -- told the woman and her husband was dead. her reaction was caught on tape. 90 minutes later, the police arrested her, and charged her with solicitation to murder. we spoke to the police sergeant who broke the fake news to the woman today. >> there's no question that it was rehearsed. she was hanging on my word, waiting for the timing of the word "killed" to break into what you see on the video. there was not a single tear all the way to the police station and after. shepard: according to a lawsuit filed by the husband, the woman told the lover about the plot the same day she was granted ownership of the town home. a lawyer for the husband says there was no indication of any love triangle. >> there are unanswered questions in this case. my client is in a state of shock. he had no idea. he had no idea his wife was plotting to kill him. we are trying to piece the puzzle pieces together. shepard: the husband is not filing for the sort -- for divorce. h1n1. an update from the cdc. 436 people in the united states have died of the virus. more than 6500 have been sent to the hospital. unlike a rational -- a rationalflu, -- a reseasonal flu, this one remains active during the summer. >> we know where there was h1n1, there were explosive outbreaks in schools. we also know that in the spring, we have less information than we have today. we know more how it behaves. we know more how to control it, what it does and does not do. it is clear that closure of schools is rarely indicated, even if h1n1 is in the school. shepard: specific guidelines were released in case about break. we are following this from atlanta. what are schools supposed to do when kids start getting sick? >> these new federal guidelines advise schools not to shut down during an outbreak because it is disruptive for students and their parents. instead, they say they should do everything they can to try to stay open by taking steps right now to make sure that happens, like setting up rooms for quarantining and also working with parents of they can make arrangements in case they have kids they need to keep at home. the decision whether or not to close a school will be in the hands of school administrators at the local level who work with their health officials to make the best decision. shepard: we reported that one schooled in north carolina is already dealing with the possible operate. any new information? >> we did hear from them. i talked to officials. we are about to show you the school where this outbreak occurred. 49 students they say called in sick. another 13 went home on thursday with flu like symptoms. state and local officials are treating it as h1n1 because it is not flu season. the school will be closed on monday and tuesday of next week so it can be thoroughly cleaned so that when students return, there's less of a chance of the flu spreading further. shepard: what is the ctc saying in terms of the guys? >> they are saying a vaccine will be the best way to prevent swine flu. they are saying it will take at least two shots. it will not be available until october. it will take two shots. you need to get your seasonal flu shot. we are talking about three shots there sang people will need to get. shepard: you mentioned a swine flu. that is what we first called it. that name confused many people into thinking they could get the virus from eating pork. combine that with a recession and the pork industry is facing very tough times. governors from nine pork- producing states are asking the president for a $50 million rescue to help the industry recover. the governors are saying pork producers have lost more than $300 million in profit since the outbreak surfaced in april. they're predicting losses that could reach more than $1 billion. for more on h1n1, visit our homepage. foxnews.com. it is not an ivy league school, but one new ranking says it is the number one college in america. we will take you there. i've been growing algae for 35 years. most people try to get rid of algae, and we're trying to grow it. the algae are very beautiful. they come in blue or red, golden, green. algae could be converted into biofuels... that we could someday run our cars on. in using algae to form biofuels, we're not competing with the food supply. and they absorb co2, so they help solve the greenhouse problem, as well. we're making a big commitment to finding out... just how much algae can help to meet... the fuel demands of the world. ♪ take me home ♪ take me home ♪ to my family ♪ ♪ i need to be surrounded by ♪ the ones who care for me