NATIONAL BRIEFS

OHIO: New charges in Amish feud

Ten men and six women pleaded not guilty Thursday in beard- and hair-cutting attacks against fellow Amish. The 16 and their attorneys overflowed defense tables and the jury box as they entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland in response to an updated indictment. It added new allegations that the suspects tried to hide or destroy evidence, including a disposable camera, shears and a bag of hair from the victims. A feud over church discipline allegedly led to attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, an act considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.

MARYLAND: Vatican rebukes U.S. nuns

The Vatican has ordered an overhaul of the most important group of nuns in the United States after Roman Catholic Church officials investigated "radical feminist themes" about homosexuality and the ordination of women. In a bluntly worded report, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said it found "serious doctrinal problems" with some of the comments and actions by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, based in Silver Spring, Md. The conference, which says it has 1,500 members representing more than 80 percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States, said it was "stunned." The Vatican's actions come at a time when Rome appears to be reasserting its conservative vision, particularly in the United States.

FLORIDA: Mystery crash in Gulf

A pilot flying a Cessna across the Gulf of Mexico stopped responding to radio calls including those from two F-15 airmen who flew alongside for hours as it made a corkscrew path before crashing Thursday. There were no signs that the pilot, the lone person aboard, survived. The Cessna 421C, headed from Slidell, La., to Sarasota, sank about 120 miles west of Tampa. There was no information about what may have gone wrong.