Domestic briefs: Friends of Boston Marathon suspect plead not guilty to obstruction charge Two college friends of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations that they conspired to obstruct justice by agreeing to destroy and conceal some of their friend's belongings as he evaded authorities. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19-year-old nationals of Kazakhstan who shared an apartment in New Bedford, Mass., became friends with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect, when all of them started school at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2011. Tsarnaev is accused of setting off two bombs near the race's finish line that killed three and wounded hundreds on April 15. He has pleaded not guilty. Authorities say he was working with his older brother, Tamerlan, who died days later during the manhunt for the suspects. On April 18, Tsarnaev's friends took his laptop from his dorm room, along with a backpack that had fireworks with explosive powder and a jar of petroleum jelly, federal authorities alleged in an indictment last week. They say Kadyrbayev had gotten a text from Tsarnaev suggesting that he go to his dorm room and "take what's there." Kadyrbayev later put the backpack with the fireworks and jelly in a trash bin outside the New Bedford apartment. Attorneys for the two men have said their clients did not knowingly take evidence from the dorm. Both face up to 25 years in prison. San Diego mayor rejects recall drive San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, in his first public statement since taking a leave of absence to enter sexual harassment therapy, refused to bow to a campaign seeking his ouster through a recall election, touting his accomplishments in office instead. "Now is not the time to go backwards," Filner declared in a formal answer to opponents" notice of their intention to file a recall petition with the city clerk's office. We need to continue to move forward. The letter was released by his private attorneys Monday just before the midnight deadline for a formal rebuttal to the bipartisan recall drive, spearheaded by a Republican activist and a Democratic publisher of a newspaper for gay men and lesbians. Filner's statement did not explicitly mention the sexual harassment scandal that has engulfed the 70-year-old Democrat and former congressman eight months after he took office as mayor of California's second-largest city. It was Filner's first public comment since he announced July 26 that he was taking a break from office to undergo two weeks of intensive behavioral counseling to deal with what he called a pattern of disrespectful and "intimidating" treatment of women. Court: Non-English speakers can be jurors The New Mexico Supreme Court has cautioned trial courts and lawyers in the heavily Hispanic state that citizens who don't speak English have the right to serve on juries - a right enshrined in the state constitution even if people are non-English speakers. The court issued the admonition Monday in a unanimous ruling that upholds an Albuquerque man's convictions for murder and other crimes in the 2004 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and a subsequent armed robbery and stabbing. Michael Anthony Samora's appeal argued that his convictions should be reversed because a Bernalillo County judge excused a Spanish-speaking prospective juror who had trouble understanding English. The Supreme Court said it agrees with that argument but also said that the defense should have objected during the trial but didn't. New Mexico was part of Mexico before becoming part of the United States in the mid-19th century, and many residents spoke only Spanish then. The state's constitution, drafted in 1911, gave protections to Spanish speakers. Today, just under half of New Mexico's population is Latino, making it the nation's most Hispanic state. Fuel pipeline explodes in Illinois: A fuel pipeline exploded beneath a western Illinois cornfield, sending flames hundreds of feet into the sky and leaving a 15-foot-deep crater before pipeline crews were able to stem the flow of fuel and bring the fire under control, authorities said. Nobody was injured in the explosion, which was reported about 11:15 p.m. Monday near the town of Erie. Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes as a precaution, officials said. Most residents were allowed to return by early Tuesday.