Death penalty for Ariel Castro? Official cites captives' miscarriages, 'torture'

Prosecutors may seek the death penalty in the case against a Cleveland man accused of kidnapping and holding captive three young women for years, on the basis of police reports that he allegedly forced miscarriages during the women’s detainment, officials announced Thursday.

Ariel Castro was arraigned Thursday morning in Cleveland Municipal Court, charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. He did not enter a plea at the hearing. He is being held on $8 million bail, which is higher than the $5 million requested by the prosecution.

Details about the conditions and abuse of the women – Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus – have emerged as the prosecution presented its case against Mr. Castro. The women were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004 when they were 21, 16, and 14 years old. Castro allegedly lured the victims into his car, promising to give them a ride home, but took them to his house, where he kept them confined for about 10 years.

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While in captivity, Ms. Berry gave birth to a daughter who is now 6 years old, said police reports. Ms. Knight said she had at least five miscarriages caused by Castro. The three women were repeatedly beaten and raped, police reported.

“The horrific brutality and torture the victims endured for more than a decade is beyond comprehension,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said during a news conference.

Ohio state law calls for the death penalty for the "most depraved criminals who commit aggravated murder during the course of a kidnapping," said Mr. McGinty, who will "engage in a formal process to evaluate" seeking the death penalty against the suspect.

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"I will seek charges for each and every act of sexual violence, rape, every day of kidnapping ... and each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies ... during this decade-long ordeal," he said.

Both McGinty and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson have asked residents and the media to respect the privacy of the three women and the young girl.

“The victims and their families have been overwhelmed by this response.... We need to give them room, space and time to heal," Mr. Jackson said during a press conference.

Jackson ordered Public Safety Director Marty Flask to instruct officials to not release information or details outside of the department out of respect for the victims.

“This is not for the sake of concealing any information,” he said. “It is to demonstrate compassion for the victims and their families and to ensure the credibility of the investigative process and allow us to arrive at a just conclusion to this difficult situation.”

Castro is currently being held in his own cell at the Cuyahoga County Jail under suicide prevention watch, officials told WEWS-TV. It is likely the suspect will face additional charges after a grand jury hearing within the next few weeks.

– Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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• Everyday heroes: 10 tales of American heroes
• Cleveland captives likened to prisoners of war. How can they recover?
• The Monitor's View: In Boston and Cleveland tragedies, a case for more neighborliness

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AP Interview: Iraq official cites excessive force

BAGHDAD (AP) — The head of a committee established to investigate deadly clashes that erupted at a Sunni protest camp in Iraq last week says excessive force was used by security forces.

Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq made the comments in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

He was named the head of a ministerial committee set up by Iraq's prime minister hours after clashes broke out between government security forces and some of the protesters on April 23.

The Defense Ministry said 23 people, including three members of the security forces, were killed in the clashes at the rally in Hawija last week.

But al-Mutlaq's office says investigators have found 46 people were killed among the demonstrators.

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Official: Arrested student entered US without visa

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of three college students arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings case was allowed to return to the United States from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Authorities charged the student — a friend and classmate of one of the men accused of setting off the deadly explosions — with helping after the attacks to remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect's dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

The government acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unaware that the student was no longer in school when he was let back into the United States.

The disclosure was another instance of possible lapses by the federal government in the months before the Boston bombings. The Obama administration earlier this week announced an internal review of how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information and whether the government could have disrupted the attack. Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings starting next week.

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a bombing suspect, including Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend and classmate of Tsarnaev's at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tazhayakov left the U.S. in December and returned Jan. 20. But in early January, his student-visa status was terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, the official told the AP.

The law enforcement official said information about Tazhayakov's status was in the Homeland Security Department's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS, when Tazhayakov arrived in New York in January.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss details of Tazhayakov's immigration history.

DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said when Tazhayakov arrived on Jan. 20, Customs and Border Protection officials had not been notified that he was no longer a student.

"DHS has recently reformed the student visa system to ensure that CBP is provided with real time updates on all relevant student visa information," Boogaard said. "At the time of re-entry there was no derogatory information that suggested this individual posed a national security or public safety threat."

Tazhayakov and another student from Kazakhstan, Dias Kadyrbayev, were detained last month on immigration charges. They were arrested on federal criminal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Robel Phillipos, 19, was also arrested and charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation.

Questions about Tazhayakov's immigration status came up Wednesday during an immigration hearing in Boston when a judge questioned how he was able to return to the U.S. in January. A lawyer for Tazhayakov said he had re-enrolled in the university with a different major after returning to the country.

International students who aren't enrolled or are dismissed from a college or university generally have 30 days to rectify their status and re-enroll as long as they are already in the United States.

Lawmakers have questioned information sharing among U.S. law enforcement before the bombings. In 2011, Russian officials notified the FBI and CIA that they were concerned about now-deceased bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In early 2012 Homeland security was alerted of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's travel to and from Russia — information that was shared with Boston's joint terrorism task force. But the FBI investigation into him had closed and therefore he didn't warrant additional scrutiny, officials have said.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Pratt in Boston contributed to this report.

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AP Interview: Sunni Iraq official criticizes force

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Sunni head of a committee established to investigate deadly clashes that erupted at a protest camp in Iraq last week said Wednesday that he believes excessive force was used by security forces as they tried to make arrests among anti-government demonstrators.

The April 23 clashes in the town of Hawija, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Baghdad, sparked a wave of violence across Iraq that has killed more than 230 people, posing the most serious threat to Iraq's stability since the last American troops left in December 2011.

Sectarian attacks and clashes have been on the upswing in Iraq, raising concerns of a return to the bloody fighting in the last decade that approached a state of civil war. Many from Iraq's Sunni minority say they are marginalized by and discriminated against by the Shiite-led government.

Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni, was named the head of a ministerial committee set up by Iraq's prime minister hours after the clashes broke out between government security forces and some of the protesters in Hawija.

"We have found that extra and extensive force was used, and it was not needed," he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Al-Mutlaq has in the past clashed with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose Shiite-led administration has been the target of more than four months of anti-government demonstrations. Al-Mutlaq continues to serve in the government, unlike several other senior Sunni officials who resigned in protest or were forced out of office.

The Defense Ministry said after the crackdown that 23 people, including three members of the security forces, were killed in the clashes.

Al-Mutlaq's office countered that investigators found evidence that 46 demonstrators, including minors, were killed. Several were shot in the chest or above, he said.

Al-Mutlaq said members of the military told investigators that Iraqi troops opened fire after one of their officers was killed. While he did not cast doubt on that account, he suggested that the military response was excessive.

"In any military, someone has to be responsible," he said. "To lose one soldier, or one officer, that does not mean that you kill such a huge amount of people," he added later.

Al-Mutlaq stopped short of assigning blame for the killings, saying it would likely be several weeks before his committee makes its full findings public, if at all.

The clashes in Hawija erupted four days after a checkpoint run by the police and army near the town came under attack. Militants seized a number of weapons before retreating into a crowd of protesters, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Defense Ministry said its forces tried to warn protesters to disperse before moving on the site, and they came under heavy fire as they tried to make arrests. It said some of the dead included militants tied to al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, and weapons were recovered from the scene.

Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, a Defense Ministry spokesman, denied that excessive force was used at the Hawija camp.

"We gave them three days in order to allow us to search for wanted suspects and weapons, but our request was turned down. When our security forces advanced, they were attacked," he said when asked for comment Wednesday evening.

While the circumstances of what exactly happened at Hawija remain murky, international observers also question how the incident was handled.

"This was clearly a major fight in which many people died — not all of them armed," said a Western diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly and agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity.

"Bottom line, it looks like excessive force was used and a lot of unarmed people were killed. There were more people killed than there were arms," the diplomat added in an interview this week.

In the wake of the Hawija incident, gunmen have battled security forces in a number of towns, and attackers have detonated bombs in both Sunni and Shiite areas.

The violence continued Wednesday. A series of attacks claimed 14 lives.

A parked car bomb went off early in the morning in the Shiite-dominated Baghdad suburb of Husseiniya, killing four civilians, police said. Twelve people were wounded.

Around noon, another parked car bomb exploded near a group of anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters near the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad.

The pro-government militiamen had gathered outside a military post to receive their salaries. The explosion killed three fighters and one civilian, wounding 15, police said.

In the evening, gunmen in five pickup trucks attacked Tarmiyah police station, sparking a half-hour gunbattle. Six policemen were killed, including the police station chief, and 10 other policemen were wounded, according to police. The gunmen withdrew after security reinforcements entered the town, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The violence that escalated after the Hawija clashes sharply raised Iraq's death toll last month. It hit 402 in April, according to an AP count, up from the previous month's toll of 254.

___

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin, Mohannad al-Saleh and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

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Britain's job market weaker than official data suggest - study

LONDON (Reuters) - A sharp rise in the number of people working less than they would like helps explain the apparent resilience of Britain's job market while the economy stagnates, according to a study published on Thursday.

British unemployment has risen from 5 percent in 2007 to just under 8 percent, well below the double-digit rates scaled during recession in the 1990s.

The study, co-authored by labour market economist and former Bank of England rate-setter David Blanchflower, shows nearly 10 percent of British workers wanted more hours than their employers would provide in 2012. In 2007, that figure stood at 5 percent, the same as the unemployment rate.

"The United States has suffered twice the increase in unemployment seen in Britain for half the drop in output," Blanchflower said. "The rise in underemployment in the UK is a big part of that puzzle."

The United States publishes a measure of underemployment which is seen as a useful indicator of slack in the economy.

Simon Kirby, UK economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research think-tank which published the study, urged Britain to do the same.

"Underemployment figures could be calculated easily from the existing Labour Force Survey," he said.

Britain's job market indicators may come under increasing scrutiny if the Bank follows the Federal Reserve in providing "forward guidance" on monetary policy.

The Fed has specified that rates will remain low until unemployment falls below a certain level. Chancellor George Osborne has asked the Bank to report back to him in August on the merits of adopting Fed-style guidance.

(Reporting by Christina Fincher; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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Official: Pakistani quake death toll rises to 34

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

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Albania sacks poll official despite international warnings

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA (Reuters) - Albania's parliament sacked an election official on Monday despite warnings from the country's international partners that the move could damage domestic and overseas confidence in June parliamentary elections.

The fresh political row came after Prime Minister Sali Berisha saw his main coalition ally jump ship to join the opposition ahead of the June 23 elections, but its representative in the seven-member Central Election Commission (CEC) stay put.

Berisha's government survived last week with the votes of three disgruntled opposition lawmakers and their votes again helped sack the election official and bring the commission back under the effective control of his ruling Democratic Party.

"You are asking to destroy the current balance. This is wrong, agreements should be respected," Berisha told the opposition Socialist Party before thanking its three breakaway lawmakers for voting with the government.

During the vote, one opposition lawmaker unsuccessfully tried to prevent a colleague voting for the government move by pulling him out of the chamber.

The Socialists called it a Pyrrhic victory for Berisha and said neither he nor Albania would gain by "staining" the process.

The CEC certifies the results of elections administered by party militants who often show less regard for the law than for party orders, leading to charges of manipulation and fraud.

The marathon parliamentary session started in the morning and ended before midnight as lawmakers from both sides debated whether the CEC and its members were effectively non-partisan after election by the parties.

Members of the CEC are nominated by the main parliamentary parties and their smaller allies, with four nominated by the government and three by the opposition. Most votes in the routine management of the election need a simple majority and some major ones a five-to-two majority.

Both the United States and the European Union have told all parties the election must be free and fair if the former communist country is to advance its bid to join the European Union.

An EU statement said it was the responsibility for all political sides to ensure a non-partisan electoral administration.

"The EU expresses concern and shares the preoccupations of other partners over the possible repercussions of a vote in parliament on the people's confidence in the electoral process," it said ahead of a visit to Tirana on Tuesday by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A NATO member, Albania has lagged behind its Balkan neighbors in stepping closer to the EU due to a lack of compromise between its main parties and the need for far-reaching reforms.

The United States said the independence of the CEC should be respected, even by parliament, and U.S. Ambassador Alexander Arvizu said changing the rules did not inspire confidence in the ballot.

"I don't think anyone wants a decision or action that is going to put Albania on a collision course with the U.S. and the international community," Arvizu told reporters.

(Reporting By Benet Koleka, Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Body of Nevada state official found, 4 arrested

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A sheriff says a body believed to be that of Nevada's chief insurance examiner was found Saturday in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in his disappearance.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says while a positive identification and cause of death haven't been officially established, investigators believe searchers found the blanket-wrapped body of William McCune in the Carson River.

He says all four suspects are from the Carson City area, but detectives were unsure of their relationship to the 62-year-old McCune or the motive for the slaying.

Investigators suspected foul play after finding evidence Thursday of a violent struggle in McCune's apartment in Carson City.

Twenty-three-year-old Michael Evans and 20-year-old Anthony Elliot were booked on murder charges, while 20-year-old Makyla Blackmore and 22-year-old Raul Garcia were arrested on burglary charges.

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U.S. official puts onus on Iran in upcoming nuclear talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Progress in this week's nuclear talks between Iran and six major powers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, depends on how Tehran responds to a proposal put forward by the six, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters the powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - hoped "positive" Iranian rhetoric would be matched by concrete responses and actions by the Iranians.

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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US Drone Strikes in Pakistan Are Illegal, Says UN Terrorism Official

Following a three-day fact-finding visit to Pakistan, the United Nations terrorism and human rights envoy issued a statement calling the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan a violation of international law.

"The position of the government of Pakistan is quite clear: It does not consent to the use of drones by the United States on its territory and it considers this to be a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity," said Ben Emmerson, U.N. special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.

"As a matter of international law, the U.S. drone campaign in Pakistan is … being conducted without the consent of the elected representatives of the people or the legitimate government of the state," said Emmerson, who is British and has been investigating the impact of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas on the civilian population.

He is expected to issue a final report to the United Nations in October.

The CIA-administered program targets al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal areas near the border of Afghanistan. The areas are largely self-governed with a porous border and known to have extremists easily crossing between the two countries.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland would not comment directly on the legal implications of the strikes, citing classified intelligence, but told ABC News on Friday that the U.S. has seen Emmerson's statement and will await a final report before commenting further.

"We have a strong ongoing counterterrorism dialogue with Pakistan, and that will continue," she said.

Pakistan has been very vocal in its opposition to the program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed there have been at least 330 drone strikes within Pakistan since 2004 that have killed at least 2,200 people and seriously injured 600 more. However, the government has not been able to report how many of those killed have been civilians, confirming at least 400 as non-combatants but estimating the number is likely much higher.

Pakistan's ambassador the United States, Sherry Rehman, told reporters last month that even within Pakistan's partisan and fractured politics there is one issue all Pakistani politicians agree on: Drone strikes cross a red line.

"We don't see drones as productive at all," she said, arguing that, in fact, the attacks have had the opposite effect of their intention - sparking anger that has fueled extremism in the tribal areas rather than rooting out terrorists.

While Rehman said that the United States and Pakistan will continue to cooperate on combating terrorism, she dismissed the idea that Pakistan is collaborating or turning a blind eye to the U.S. campaign.

"There is no policy of quiet complacency. No wink and nod," she said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter told the The Daily Beast last year that his concerns were not over the drone program's validity, but its implementation.

"The use of drones is a good way to fight the war. But you're going to kill drones if you're not using them judiciously," Munter said.

"The problem is the political fallout," he told the Daily Beast, citing examples where Pakistani civilians would come to him with bodies of little girls who they said were killed by drone strikes. "Do you want to win a few battles and lose the war?"

Munter is not the only current or former U.S. official to question the legality of the strikes. During CIA director John Brennan's confirmation hearing last month, several senators on the Foreign Relations Committee questioned whether the Obama administration was overstepping its bounds by launching drone strikes, including against American citizens, without any congressional or judicial oversight.

Brennan admitted that the administration could be more transparent about the number of civilians killed during a strike, but defended the program.

"We only take such actions as a last resort, to save lives when there is no other alternative," he told the committee.

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Taxpayer Dollars Spent on Official Government Portraits

David Kerley, Jennifer Abbey, and Betsy Klein contributed to this report:

Long before cameras were invented, our founding fathers kept their images alive with painted portraits. Paintings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are part of American history.

But what began as official documentation of early leaders is now a formality, a tradition, a sign of prestige - and, some say, a burden on taxpayers.

Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense argues that it's time for a change. "You really have to really wonder, is it worth the cost?" Ellis said. "It certainly strokes their ego but at a cost to taxpayers, and we can't afford just ego strokes when we've got a trillion-dollar deficit and $16 trillion in debt."

Ellis and other watchdogs haven't been able to stop government spending on portraits of cabinet secretaries and generals. As the Washington Times first reported, the latest portrait for outgoing EPA administrator Lisa Jackson cost $38,350. Air Force Secretary Michael Donnelly's portrait cost $41,200.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson's portrait cost $22,500, the paper said. He served President Obama for eight months.

In the past two years alone, the Obama administration has spent almost $400,000 on oil portraits. The administration turned down ABC News' request to enter a building to see some of the portraits hanging. But the White House told ABC News it is spending less than previous administrations did.

Some of the oil portraits are commissioned while secretaries are still serving.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had a $22,500 portrait made, but when asked if we should stop doing oil portraits of former secretaries, he avoided the question.

"Honestly, you know, there are so many questions I'd be happy to answer about our budget, I just think that is a really small ball kind of question," he told ABC News.

Ellis disagreed.

"It just shows how Washington has become immune to the cost of things and the actual price," he said. "Twenty thousand dollars on a portrait, that's real money and that's real waste."

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Iraqi Sunni official announces resignation

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Sunni finance minister announced Friday during a protest in the western city of Ramadi that he will resign from the government, heightening the country's political crisis nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.

The arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi in late December was the spark that set off a more than two month-long wave of Sunni protests against the Shiite-led government.

Al-Issawi's announcement marks the first resignation of a senior Sunni member of government since the protests began.

"I am presenting my resignation in front of you. I do not care about a government that does not respect the Iraqi blood and its people," al-Issawi told thousands gathered to protest against what they see as unfair treatment and discrimination against their sect by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

The protesters cheered in approval of al-Issawi's decision.

However, the resignation has to be formally endorsed by al-Maliki, leaving al-Issawi's status in government unclear for now.

Earlier Friday, two car bombs struck a livestock market south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing five and wounding dozens, the second such attack in as many days.

The twin bombing targeted the market in the Shiite city of Diawaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, at the height of trading when many people pour to the market at the start of the weekend.

The head of the provincial council, Jubair al-Jabouri, said five people were killed and 70 were wounded in the attack. He blamed the blasts on al-Qaida, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A day earlier, a similar attack tore a crowded livestock market in the town of Aziziyah, also south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding eight people.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but deadly attacks are still frequent. On Thursday, bombings in Baghdad, Aziziyah and another town south of the Iraqi capital killed at least 22 people.

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