Amish-attacks suspect must pay for defense

Amish-attacks suspect must pay for defense

CLEVELAND

A judge says the purported ringleader in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio cannot rely on taxpayers to pay his legal tab.

Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland ruled Wednesday that 66-year-old Samuel Mullet Sr. can afford to pay for his defense. Mullet has an 800-acre farm near Steubenville with oil and gas leases.

Mullet and 11 followers are charged in five beard- and hair-cutting attacks on other Amish last year. They have pleaded not guilty.

NH lawmakers kill gay-marriage repeal

CONCORD, N.H.

New Hampshire lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have made their state Legislature the first one to repeal a gay-marriage law, handing gay-rights supporters a key victory in the Northeast, where same-sex marriage is prevalent.

The state House voted 211-116 to kill the measure, ending a push by its new Republican majority to rescind New Hampshire’s 2-year-old gay-marriage law.

US suspends recovery of remains in N. Korea

WASHINGTON

The United States said Wednesday it is suspending efforts to recover remains of thousands of fallen service members in North Korea, the latest sign that a recent thaw in relations is over.

The U.S. was in the process of resuming the hunt for remains missing from the 1950-53 Korean War that had been on hold since 2005, the only form of cooperation between the two militaries.

But North Korea announced plans last week to launch a satellite into space by rocket — a step the U.S. says would violate a U.N. ban. That knocked back recent progress in negotiations on the North’s nuclear program.

Doctors closer to foretelling heart attack

LOS ANGELES

Doctors are one step closer to a simple test that could predict whether a patient is about to have a heart attack — by using a blood sample to detect cells that have sloughed off of damaged blood-vessel walls.

The finding was published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Although physicians easily can detect a heart attack that’s already under way, every year, tens of thousands of patients walk away from the doctor’s office after passing a stress test, only to suffer a devastating heart attack within a few weeks.

NYC march honors teen killed in Florida

NEW YORK

The parents of a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood-watch captain in Florida marched in his memory in New York City with hundreds of other people.

Demonstrators chanted “We want arrests” during Wednesday night’s Million Hoodie March in Manhattan’s Union Square.

Trayvon Martin, 17, was fatally shot Feb. 26 while returning to a gated community in Sanford, Fla., after buying candy at a convenience store. The teenager was unarmed and wearing a hoodie.

Neighborhood-watch captain George Zimmerman hasn’t been charged in the shooting. He has said he shot the unarmed teen in self-defense.

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil-rights probe into the shooting.

Combined dispatches