John Boehner 'Can't Imagine' His Gay Marriage Views Shifting

Hours after Sen. Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, bucked his party and came out in support of gay marriage, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, reaffirmed his position against it in a wide-ranging,exclusive interview with ABC News' Martha Raddatz for "This Week," that will air on Sunday.

Boehner told Raddatz that he could not envision a situation where his views would shift on same-sex marriage - even if one of his children came out as gay.

"Rob's a great friend and a long-time ally. And I appreciate that he's decided to change his views on this," Boehner said. "I believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. … It's what I grew up with. It's what I believe. It's what my church teaches me. And I can't imagine that position would ever change."

Portman, who Mitt Romney considered tapping as a running mate in last year's presidential election, changed his position on same-sex marriage after his son came out to him as gay. The Ohio senator is among a small, but growing number of prominent members of the GOP to express support for gay marriage.

Related: Republican Rob Portman Endorses Same Sex Marriage

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Woman killed, child raped in NY mall carjacking

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A man previously charged with having child pornography cut an electronic monitoring device off his ankle before carjacking a woman, fatally stabbing her and raping her 10-year-old daughter, authorities said.

David J. Renz abducted the school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay, about 150 miles west of Albany, on Thursday night, state police said Friday.

Renz bound both victims, raped the girl and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl escaped and was found by a passing motorist, troopers said.

The motorist told 911 dispatchers he saw a man running away from the scene, allowing police to quickly send in officers on the ground and a sheriff's helicopter in the air. Renz was caught a short time later near a wooded area.

It was unclear how the girl escaped or when her mother was killed, authorities said.

"We're still trying to piece the timeline together," Trooper Jack Keller said.

The girl was being treated at a hospital Friday. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds.

Renz, 29, had been charged in January with possession of child pornography and allowed to remain free under terms that included staying off the Internet and away from places including schools, parks and arcades. He lost his job at a supermarket, moved in with his mother and hadn't been able to find other work after his arrest, according to court documents. Federal authorities said he cut his electronic monitoring device off his ankle shortly before Thursday's attacks.

Renz was arraigned Friday on murder, rape and kidnapping charges and was held without bail. The lawyer assigned to his case, Ken Moynihan, didn't return a call seeking comment.

The Associated Press generally doesn't publish information that could identify potential sex crime victims and isn't naming the woman to protect the girl's identity.

According to an FBI criminal complaint, agents who went to the North Syracuse apartment where Renz was living in June found in his bedroom four computers that he told them he used to view adult pornography.

Agent Alix Skelton said Renz eventually admitted using the Internet for the past six years to download child porn to a drive on one of the machines, which he turned over to the agents. Technicians determined in November that it had an encrypted hard drive, and Skelton said Renz provided the encryption key. Agents reviewing the drive in December found about 100 gigabytes of child porn comprising more than 500 videos and more than 3,000 images, according to the complaint.

Among the images were two showing sex acts involving prepubescent girls, said Skelton, a member of a unit that targets people involved in online exploitation of children.

Renz was charged on Jan. 9 in federal court with possession of child pornography. On Jan. 29, a judge granted a prosecutor's request for an extension of the time required for grand jury action so investigators could continue going over "numerous items of electric media" for additional evidence.

Renz, who authorities said had no prior police record, was released after agreeing to stay at home at night with an electronic monitor and away from any place he might encounter children.

But Renz removed the monitor, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan said. Federal probation officials were investigating what happened, including whether Renz was able to get around an alert that is supposed to go off if the ankle bracelet is removed, he said.

Late Friday afternoon, state police turned Renz over to federal authorities, who will hold him for violating the terms of his release, court documents said.

Duncan said the cases against him will continue in federal and state courts.

Syria regime expands use of cluster bombs: report

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, an international human rights group said Saturday as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year.

In new violence, rebels detonated a powerful car bomb outside a high-rise building in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, setting off clashes with regime troops, state TV and activists said.

The blast came a day after Syrians marked the second anniversary of their uprising against President Bashar Assad. The rebellion had begun with largely peaceful protests but in response to a regime crackdown turned into an insurgency and then a civil war.

In recent months, the regime has escalated airstrikes and artillery attacks on rebel-held areas in the north and east of the country, rights groups have said.

On Saturday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrian forces have dropped at least 156 cluster bombs in 119 locations across the country in the past six months, causing mounting civilian casualties.

Two strikes in the past two weeks killed 11 civilians, including two women and five children, the report said. The group said it based its findings on field investigations and analysis of more than 450 amateur videos.

Cluster bombs open in flight, scattering smaller bomblets. They pose a threat to civilians long afterwards since many don't explode immediately. Most countries have banned their use.

The fighting in Syria has killed some 70,000 people and displaced 4 million of the country's 22 million people, according to U.N. estimates.

The conflict remains deadlocked, despite some recent military gains by the rebels.

On Saturday, rebels in Deir el-Zour detonated a car rigged with more than two tons of explosives next to the tallest building in the city, known as the Insurance Building, state TV said.

The TV said rebels entered the building after the blast but were pushed out by government forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, also reported clashes between rebels and regime troops following the explosion. Regime forces also shelled several areas of the city, the group said.

In an amateur video said to be showing Deir el-Zour, heavy gunfire was heard in the background and a cloud of smoke was visible.

Late Friday, rebel fighters from the al-Qaida-linked group Jabhat al-Nusra and other Islamist factions seized a military base and munitions depot in the town of Khan Touman in the northern province of Aleppo, the Observatory said.

It quoted witnesses as saying rebel fighters drove off with truckloads of ammunitions and weapons. The Khan Touman base is only a few kilometers (miles) from a military engineering academy that is considered a key government stronghold in the province, the Observatory said.

Despite rebel advances, Assad has been digging in, particularly in the densely populated western part of the country. He has armed and mobilized loyalists, and repelled rebel attacks on his seat of power, the capital Damascus.

The rebels have appealed to the West for military aid, including anti-aircraft weapons, to help them break the stalemate.

On Friday, a European Union summit heard an appeal by Britain and France to lift the EU ban on arming the rebels.

The 27 national leaders were unable to reach a consensus and asked their foreign ministers, who will meet late next week in Dublin, to try to hash out a common position.

Samir Nashar, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the main opposition group in exile, said he hoped France and Britain would defy the EU if the embargo remains in place.

"I prefer that there is a consensus and a joint resolution," he said Friday in Istanbul. "But if there's no consensus, I still think France and Britain will act unilaterally."

The French foreign minister suggested earlier this week that his country might arm the rebels even if the EU disagrees.

___

Missile plan changes may provide opening for talks

US to Add More Missile Interceptors to Counter North Korean Steps

Concerned by North Korea's long-range missile advances, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced today that the United States is bolstering its missile defense system by adding 14 more ground-based missile interceptors.

The additional missiles will be in place by 2017 and will bring the number of long-range missile interceptors from 30 to 44, an almost-50-percent increase. Currently, 26 interceptors are based at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four more at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Hagel cited recent North Korean actions as a motivator behind today's announcement and said theUnited States wants to "stay ahead" of any missile threats posed by North Korea and not have to react to North Korean developments.

PHOTOS: North Korea Daily Life

Adding the 14 missiles "gives our country the security it needs and the people need to be reassured that that security is there," he said.

North Korea, he said, "recently made advances in its capabilities and is engaged in a series of irresponsible and reckless provocations."

He noted North Korea's third nuclear test in February, December's launch of a long-range missile that placed a satellite in orbit, and last year's public display of a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile known as the KN-08.

He expressed confidence in the ground-based missile interceptors that have been operational for more than eight years but have had some problems during tests.

"We are sure that we have the complete confidence that we will need," said Hagel. "But the American people should be assured that our interceptors are effective."

Hagel told reporters that the rationale for "advancing our program here for homeland security is to not take any chances, is to stay ahead of the threat and to assure any contingency. And that's why we've made the decisions that we have."

He added that the United States did not want to be in a position to react to North Korean missile development timelines but "that we're ahead of any timelines of any potential threat."

Deploying the additional missiles will cost less than $1 billion and will likely begin after another missile test that is scheduled for the fall.

Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the U.S. has been watching North Korea's missile developments "very, very closely " and that the U.S. missile defense program could always be tweaked, if needed.

"So we have continually built this hedge, a set of tools from which we can select if the threat either goes faster or slower than we thought," he said. "And so the Korean threat went just a little bit faster than we might have expected. [We] very simply pulled the tools off the shelf, and those four tools are what we're announcing today."

In addition to 14 more missile interceptors, Hagel also included a previously announced move to send an additional TPY-2 early warning radar to Japan. He added that there would be a two-year delay in the roll-out of the SM3-IIB missile as part of the European missile defense shield designed to counter a potential threat to Europe posed by Iranian long-range missiles.

Hagel also announced that the Pentagon would be begin environmental impact studies to add more ground-based missile sites in the United States. The administration has not made a decision about an additional site, but Congress inserted language in this year's defense authorization bill that required the placement of such sites along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

The KN-08 mobile missile has been of particular concern to U.S. officials since six of the missiles were first displayed on mobile transports during a parade in Pyongyang last April. The mobility offered by such a launcher system concerns U.S. intelligence and military officials because it makes tracking the missiles more difficult, especially if they are being prepared for a potential launch.

Though U.S. officials were uncertain as to whether the displayed North Korean missile may have been a fake, Winnefeld said it "probably does have the range to reach the United States." He could not provide additional details because, he said, the intelligence assessment of where the North Koreans are in their development of the missile's launch capabilities remains classified.

On Monday, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told the Asia Society that the U.S. will not "stand by while [North Korea] seeks to develop a nuclear-armed missile that can target the United States." He said the U.S. remained committed to ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula and, "this means deterring North Korean aggression and protecting our allies."

Donilon said the international community "has made clear that there will be consequences for North Korea's flagrant violation of its international obligations."

Last week, in fact, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions on North Korea after the nuclear test.

Winnefeld cited Donilon's comments about deterrence in explaining today's announcement.

"I think the national security adviser made it very clear in his speech on Monday that we not only intend to put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objectives to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs upon them if they do," said Winnefeld. "And we believe that this young lad [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] ought to be deterred by that. And if he's not, we'll be ready."

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