Kidnap suspect pleads not guilty

Kidnap suspect pleads not guilty

CLEVELAND

The Cleveland man accused of holding three women captive in his home for more than a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday on an expanded indictment charging him with 512 counts of kidnapping and 446 counts of rape, among other crimes.

The charges returned Friday by a grand jury against Ariel Castro expanded on a 329-count indictment filed earlier that covered only part of the time frame of the purported crimes. He previously pleaded not guilty to that indictment.

Castro, 53, has been jailed since his arrest May 6 shortly after the women escaped to freedom.

Taliban commander: I regret girl’s attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan

A prominent Pakistani Taliban commander has written a letter to a teenage girl shot in the head by the group, expressing regrets that he didn’t warn her before the assassination attempt that propelled her activism to the international stage.

The letter from Adnan Rasheed, however, didn’t apologize for the October attack that left Malala Yousafzai gravely wounded. Rasheed, who has close relations with Taliban leaders, said only that he found the shooting “shocking” and wished it hadn’t happened.

Rasheed said he would leave it up to God to decide whether the outspoken activist for girls’ education should have been targeted.

Queen Elizabeth OKs gay marriage

LONDON

The French like to make fun of the British, joking about their repressed ways in matters of the heart. But when it came time to debate same-sex marriage, it was France that betrayed a deep conservative streak in sometimes violent protests — while the British showed themselves to be modern and tolerant.

With little fanfare or controversy, Britain announced Wednesday that Queen Elizabeth II — hardly a social radical — had signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriages in England and Wales. France also has legalized gay marriages, but only after a series of gigantic protests attracting families from the traditional heartland that revealed a deeply split society.

Senate clears hurdle for Labor nominee

WASHINGTON

The Senate voted by the slimmest margin Wednesday to end a filibuster against President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Labor Department, as this week’s agreement averting a poisonous partisan clash over nominations and the chamber’s rules barely survived its toughest test so far.

By 60-40, senators rejected Republican objections and voted to halt delaying tactics aimed at killing Thomas Perez’s nomination to become labor secretary.

It takes 60 votes to end filibusters. With all 52 Democrats and both Democratic-leaning independents voting to halt the delays, Republicans supplied the minimum number of votes needed to keep Perez’s selection alive — six.

Missing man found buried in his yard

PELICAN BAY, Texas

A 62-year-old woman was charged with murder after her husband was found buried in the front yard of their rural North Texas home, which authorities had searched three years ago after he was reported missing.

Neola Robinson is charged in the death of her husband, Pleasant Ervin Robinson, 52, who was reported missing by his employer in May 2010 after he missed more than two weeks of work, according to documents filed in the case. The couple had been married about three years at the time.

Associated Press