Suspect in Wisconsin teen’s abduction ordered to stand trial
BARRON, Wis. – A man accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl and killing her parents waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday, telling his family, “I love you,” moments after he was ordered to stand trial. Jake Patterson, 21, is accused of killing James and Denise Closs on Oct. 15 and kidnapping their daughter, Jayme Closs, from their Barron home. Jayme escaped Jan. 10, after 88 days. About 20 members of the Closs family attended. They left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
BOSTON – A young woman who as a teenager encouraged her boyfriend through dozens of text messages to kill himself is responsible for his suicide, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Wednesday in upholding her involuntary manslaughter conviction. The Supreme Judicial Court said in a unanimous decision in the novel case that Michelle Carter’s actions caused Conrad Roy III to die in a truck filled with toxic gas nearly five years ago. Carter, 22, was sentenced to 15 months, but has remained free while she appeals.
MOSCOW – The U.S. has promised to withdraw half its troops from Afghanistan by the end of April, a Taliban official said Wednesday, but the U.S. military said it has received no orders to begin packing up. Taliban official Abdul Salam Hanafi, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Moscow between the Taliban and other Afghan figures, said U.S. officials promised the pullout will begin this month. Hanafi said the U.S. and the Taliban will each create a committee that “will work on a timetable for the withdrawal of remaining troops.”
UNITED NATIONS – International terrorist groups carried out more attacks in Iraq and Syria in the past six months of 2018 than in any other country, and Islamic State extremists were primarily to blame, according to a new U.N. report Wednesday. U.N. experts said in the report to the Security Council that IS and its affiliates “continue to pose the main and best-resourced international terrorist threat, while al-qaida remains resilient and active in many regions and retains the ambition to project itself more internationally.”