Washington – A bill that would have given District of Columbia residents their first-ever member of Congress died in the Senate on Tuesday.
Senators voted 57-42, just three votes short of the 60 needed to move the measure forward. The bill would have created two new House seats: one for the city of about 600,000 people and one for Utah, which narrowly missed out on a fourth seat after the last census. Utah had argued that the census failed to count the thousands of residents who are doing missionary work overseas.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
ST. LOUIS
Man accused of taking boys pleads not guilty
A former pizza delivery manager accused of abducting two boys pleaded not guilty to 71 charges after waiving arraignment, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Michael Devlin was to be arraigned today on charges of forcible sodomy and kidnapping in the abductions of Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck.
Attorney Ethan Corlija asked to waive the formal hearing at which the charges would have been read to Devlin.
Corlija said he would not speculate on whether his client would accept a plea deal or go to trial.
BEAUFORT, S.C.
Man pleads guilty to raping 14-year-old
A man accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and raping her in an underground bunker pleaded guilty Tuesday, moments before his trial was to begin.
The girl was rescued after more than a week when she talked her abductor into letting her play games on his cellphone and instead sent a text message for help.
Vinson Filyaw, 37, could spend the rest of his life in prison. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and all 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct, one for each day prosecutors said he held the girl captive.
WASHINGTON
Craig on Senate floor 1st time since sting
Sen. Larry Craig returned to the Senate floor Tuesday for the first time since public disclosure of his guilty plea in a restroom sex sting.
The Idaho Republican voted on several bills and lunched with his GOP colleagues but said there is no change in his plans to resign, barring a court reversal of his guilty plea.
Of his return to the Capitol, he told reporters: “It always feels good to be back.”
A Republican who attended the lunch said Craig apologized to his colleagues for embarrassing them.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
Ruling party OKs Zimbabwe reforms
Zimbabwe’s ruling party agreed Tuesday to modest democratic reforms ahead of elections, including slashing the presidential term by a year, ending presidential appointment of legislators and expanding the lower house of parliament.
The reform package, however, left intact the sweeping powers wielded by President Robert Mugabe and failed to address the southern African nation’s flawed electoral rolls.
Although some hailed the accord as an important step toward strengthening democracy, others viewed it as a cynical concession by a ruling party confident it can beat a fractured opposition in March elections.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
Marchers want case of missing man solved
Thousands of protesters marched through Buenos Aires on Tuesday, demanding authorities solve the case of Jorge Julio Lopez, 77, who disappeared a year ago.
Lopez, a construction worker who was tortured during the 1976-83 military regime, vanished Sept. 18, 2006. Family members believe he was kidnapped in reprisal for his testimony against former police chief Miguel Etchecolatz, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison the next day.
CHICAGO
Scientists treating TB in less time
New research gives hope for treating tuberculosis in a few months rather than the six months or more currently needed, Johns Hopkins University scientists reported Tuesday. Adding the antibiotic moxifloxacin to the usual TB drugs shortened the time to cure to an estimated four months in one study, while a second study cured mice of TB in 10 weeks.
