Chlorine leak in W.Va. under control

Chlorine leak in W.Va. under control

NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va.

Authorities say a chlorine leak in West Virginia that sent at least two people to a hospital is under control.

Media reports say the leak was detected Saturday when emergency authorities said a chemical cloud from the Axiall Corp. plant headed south. Marshall County emergency officials say two people were taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries.

The U.S. Coast Guard says a portion of the Ohio River was closed near Proctor, W.Va. It says the release of liquid chlorine was reported from a rail car at the plant. It says an unknown amount of the product was released into the ground and air, creating a plume traveling downriver.

The leak caused W.Va. 2 to be shut down in the area and the evacuation of the Kent neighborhood.

Man confesses in killings of two nuns

DURANT, Miss.

A man suspected in the slayings of two nuns found dead in their Mississippi home confessed to the killings, a sheriff said Saturday, in the latest twist to a crime that has horrified people in the small communities where the women served.

Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Miss., was arrested and charged in the deaths of Sister Margaret Held and Sister Paula Merrill, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain said late Friday. Both women were 68.

Willie March, the sheriff of Holmes County where the killings occurred, said Saturday he had been briefed by police from the town where the killings occurred and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation officials who took part in Sanders’ interrogation.

Sanders confessed in the interrogation to the killings and gave no reason for the crimes, March said.

Prisoner jumps to his death after sentencing at court

STEUBENVILLE

Authorities say a man took his own life at an eastern Ohio courthouse moments after he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Jefferson County prosecutor Jane Hanlin says 42-year-old Jason Binkiewicz was being led out of the courtroom by a deputy Friday when he got away and threw himself over the building’s third floor banister. He was then pronounced dead.

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla says the deputy grabbed the handcuffed man’s clothing as he jumped, but could have gone over, too, if he held on.

Binkiewicz was sentenced for attempted murder and felony assault after he was found guilty in July of shooting a man in the face.

Abdalla says the attorney general’s office and Steubenville police will investigate Binkiewicz’s death.

Cops: Son beat parents to death

WEST DEPTFORD, N.J.

Authorities say a man fatally beat his parents with his hands and an object inside the family’s New Jersey home.

But a motive for the attack in West Deptford, a suburb of Philadelphia, remains under investigation.

County prosecutors say a relative found 58-year-old Edward Coles Jr. and his 55-year-old wife, Rosemarie, around 11:30 a.m. Friday. The relative had gone to the home because he couldn’t reach the couple by phone.

The couple’s 28-year-old son, Ryan, was in the home when police arrived. He was taken to a hospital on Friday for an evaluation and was moved to jail Saturday.

Ryan Coles faces murder and weapons charges. His bail was set at $1 million.

It wasn’t known Saturday if he’s retained an attorney.

Autopsies determined the couple died from blunt head trauma.

Associated Press