Local

» The state placed a Waipahu High School teacher and track coach on paid leave Thursday after he was charged with three counts of third-degree sexual assault for allegedly molesting one of his female runners. The lawyer for defendant Erik Y. Tamura, 37, said he is innocent.

» The Federal Transit Administration gave Honolulu approval Monday to begin construction of the 20-mile, $5.27 billion rail transit line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.

» Hotel room revenue statewide was up 12.7 percent in 2011 over the prior year, and the $2.87 billion total was the highest since 2007, a report released Tuesday said.

» A Horizon Lines container ship, responding to a Coast Guard alert, rescued three Canadians Wednesday whose sailboat became disabled about 280 miles northeast of Hilo.

» A military jury found Marine Sgt. Benjamin Johns not guilty Thursday of charges of hazing Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, who committed suicide last year in Afghanistan after being disciplined for falling asleep on guard duty.

» Hawaii will receive an estimated $71 million as part of a $25 billion joint federal-state settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers over foreclosure abuses and fraud, officials said Thursday.

» Brisk winds Tuesday fanned a Kailua-Kona brush fire that prompted the evacuation of dozens of residents, and might have caused several boats on Maui and East Honolulu to break free of their moorings and contributed to a fallen tree branch that injured two elderly visitors at the International Market Place in Waikiki.

» Honolulu police officers and others paid their respects to fallen officer Garret Davis at a funeral Tuesday and a department procession Wednesday past HPD headquarters. Davis, 28, was killed Jan. 21 in a freeway crash while helping a motorist.

Mainland

» Days after a judge ruled against him in a child custody hearing, a father and his two young sons were killed Sunday when police said he blew up a house with all three inside — a tragic ending to a bizarre case that began more than two years ago when the man’s wife went mysteriously missing in Utah.» Washington state lawmakers voted to approve gay marriage Wednesday, setting the stage for the state to become the seventh in the country to allow same-sex couples to wed. The action came a day after a federal appeals court declared California’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional

» Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum swept Republican presidential nomination contests in three states Tuesday, slowing the charge of front-runner Mitt Romney

World

» Greece’s future in the eurozone came under renewed threat last week as popular protests again turned violent and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts. The country’s crucial international bailout remained in limbo.

» After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have reached an enormous freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years — a pristine body of water that could hold life from the distant past and clues to the search for life on other planets.