Football coach pleads no contest in rape

Football coach pleads no contest in rape

STEUBENVILLE, OHIO

A volunteer football coach whose house was the scene of an underage drinking party that preceded the rape of a girl by two high school football players in 2012 pleaded no contest to two charges Tuesday, the Ohio attorney general’s office said.

Defendant Matt Belardine entered no contest pleas in Jefferson County court to one count of making a false statement and one count of enabling underage drinking. Charges of obstructing official business and contributing to the delinquency of a child were dismissed.

Special Judge Patricia Ann Cosgrove sentenced Belardine to 10 days in jail, one year of supervision and 40 hours of community service. She fined him $1,000.

Sub records images of WWII wreck

BOSTON

An unmanned submarine has recorded some of the most detailed images of two American ships that sank off the coast of England during World War II, according to the Massachusetts company that surveyed the wreckage to mark the disaster’s 70th anniversary.

Bourne, Mass.-based Hydroid says they are the first high-definition sonar images of two ships sunk by German forces during Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D-Day invasion. The torpedo attack on April 28, 1944, claimed the lives of 749 U.S. soldiers and sailors.

NY hospital warns after e-cigarette fire

SYRACUSE, N.Y.

A New York hospital is reinforcing its ban on electronic cigarettes after a patient on oxygen was burned by a fire that erupted while she was puffing on one of the devices.

Syracuse Fire Department officials say the exact cause of last month’s fire at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center has not yet been determined. However, hospital officials say the patient had a battery-powered e-cigarette, which uses a heating element to vaporize nicotine.

Hospital officials say the victim, who has not been identified, suffered first- and second-degree burns across her face, but is home and doing well.

Ukraine’s leader: Resume operations

KIEV, UKRAINE

Ukraine’s acting president ordered security forces to resume operations in the country’s east on Tuesday after the bodies of two people reportedly abducted by pro-Russia insurgents were found and a military aircraft was reportedly hit by gunfire.

The developments — just hours after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden left the Ukrainian capital — raised fears that last week’s international agreement on easing Ukraine’s crisis was unraveling.

The accord calls for all sides to refrain from violence and for demonstrators to vacate public buildings.

Fugitive killed had ‘moveable dungeon’

portland, ore.

Authorities say a man fatally shot by a Portland officer last month had been stalking young women in a van that he converted into a “moveable dungeon” with chains and handcuffs after one of his victims managed to escape from it in January.

Grand jury transcripts released Monday say Kelly Swoboda kept handwritten surveillance notes on about 20 women. He rated the women and marked whether they were alone.

Officers confronted the 49-year-old Swoboda near a high school last month after getting reports of a suspicious van following students. He died in an exchange of gunfire, and the grand jurors met to decide whether the shooting was legally justified. They determined it was.

Associated Press