NATION & WORLD | Girl describes being kept in basement

Girl describes being kept in basement

TOLEDO

A 14-year-old girl in Ohio who escaped a basement where she says she was chained and handcuffed by two relatives says they also touched her sexually.

The girl testified Tuesday in a Toledo courtroom against the two who are father and son. Timothy Ciboro and his 28-year-old son, Esten Ciboro, have pleaded not guilty to the charges that include rape and kidnapping.

The men are serving as their own attorneys and questioned the girl after she described being kept in the basement as punishment.

Prosecutors say the girl suffered physical and mental abuse before she escaped last summer.

Some states eyeing school bus seat belts

OLYMPIA, WASH.

A bill that would require school buses to have seat belts is being considered by lawmakers in Washington, one of more than a dozen states where school seat-belt measures is on the legislative agenda this year.

The Senate Transportation Committee had a public hearing Tuesday for Senate Bill 5054. It would mandate that all public and private school buses purchased after the bill takes effect have a safety belt for each rider.

California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas have variations of a seat-belt law for school buses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Cease-fire deal is endorsed at talks

ASTANA, Kazakhstan

Russia, Iran and Turkey presented a united front at the conclusion of two days of talks in Kazakhstan between the Syrian government and the armed opposition, pledging support for the country’s shaky cease-fire and a joint mechanism to ensure compliance.

They did not specify how that would work, and continued differences among the warring sides as well as rebel infighting back home threatened to scuttle the deal.

Russia and Iran, President Bashar Assad’s main supporters, and Turkey, the rebels’ chief backer, said they will use their “influence” to strengthen the truce, which has been in place since Dec. 30.

6 die in chopper crash

CAMPO FELICE, Italy

A helicopter ferrying an injured skier off the slopes slammed into a mountainside in central Italy on Tuesday, killing all six people aboard in a new tragedy to hit a region already hobbled by a series of earthquakes, paralyzing snowfall and a deadly avalanche.

Some of the dead had recently been helping out with the recovery effort from the nearby Jan. 18 avalanche, colleagues said.

The helicopter smashed to pieces in the snow upon impact, with only the tail propellers and rear section still intact.

Meanwhile, hopes faded Tuesday that any more survivors of the devastating avalanche that buried an Italian resort hotel would be found after the death toll more than doubled to 17, with 12 people still unaccounted for.

Wildlife officials kill cougars eating pets

SALEM, Ore.

In a scenario that could come from a B movie, normally timid mountain lions are forced by heavy snows into a remote community, where they feast on pets and chickens. It’s happening in Oregon.

Cougars prowling through La Pine have killed two pets and at least 12 chickens, stoking fear in the town in the piney woods of Oregon east of the Cascade Range.

On Saturday, Deschutes County deputies shot and killed a cougar that was hiding under a porch after attacking a dog. On Monday, state and federal wildlife officials killed three more of the cougars whose paw prints showed they had come right up to houses, on decks and in backyards.

Associated Press