Fossett declared dead

hFossett declared dead

CHICAGO — Steve Fossett, the multimillionaire aviation and sailing record holder who has been missing since taking off alone in a single-engine plane from a private Nevada airstrip in early September, was declared legally dead Friday by an Illinois court. He was 63. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Malak ruled that there was sufficient evidence to declare Fossett dead after he heard testimony from Fossett’s wife, Peggy, as well as an expert on search and rescue operations. Fossett’s wife first petitioned the court Nov. 27 to declare Fossett dead — a step toward resolving the legal status of Fossett’s estate, which was described in court papers as “vast, surpassing eight figures in liquid assets, various entities and real estate.” Steve Fossett, who amassed his fortune trading options in the Chicago commodities market, gained his greatest renown for his historic balloon and airplane flights: He was the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world and was the first pilot to circle the globe solo in an aircraft without stopping or refueling.

Conviction in wildfires

LOS ANGELES — A homeless man was convicted Friday in federal court of starting a 2006 wildfire that burned more than 163,000 acres in California’s Los Padres National Forest. The jury also convicted Steven Emory Butcher, 49, of starting the smaller Ellis Fire in the same forest four years earlier. Butcher was found guilty of two felony counts of starting fires and of one count each of allowing a fire to escape his control, violating restrictions by building a fire on federal forest land and smoking in a federal forest, all misdemeanors.

Sugar dust cloud blamed
for explosion at refinery

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — An explosion at a sugar refinery that killed nine people was caused by a cloud of sugar dust that ignited beneath the plant’s silos, investigators said Friday. Crews recovered the body of the last worker reported missing from a debris-littered break room late Thursday, bringing the death toll to nine, Port Wentworth Fire Chief Greg Long said. Eight workers died in the blast and another died of burns at a hospital. Investigators traced the Feb. 7 explosion to a basement area beneath the Imperial Sugar plant’s storage silos where refined sugar was loaded onto conveyor belts and transported to the packaging area. The area was equipped with large fans to suck dust particles out of the air, but investigators still found enough sugar dust there to fuel the blast, said Phil Durham of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Privacy laws slow probe
in slaying of psychologist

NEW YORK — The investigation into the ferocious stabbing of a Manhattan psychologist has been slowed because detectives are barred by privacy laws from reviewing the slain therapist’s patient records without a court order, police said Friday. The killer slashed 56-year-old Kathryn Faughey 15 times with a meat cleaver and a 9-inch knife in her office Tuesday evening. A psychiatrist who worked in the building, Dr. Kent Shinbach, came to Faughey’s rescue and was badly injured. Detectives were trying to determine whether the killer was a patient of Faughey or Shinbach, but have been unable to access medical records because of state and federal privacy laws. The killer told the office doorman he was there to see Shinbach, but the psychiatrist didn’t recognize him.

Homemade bomb kills 1

MEXICO CITY — A homemade bomb exploded about 50 yards from Mexico City police headquarters Friday, killing one man and injuring a young woman, police said. The explosion broke windows and damaged cars in the immediate vicinity, part of a popular tourist area. Blocks away, high-rise buildings shook along the capital city’s central Reforma avenue. Police officers dressed in riot gear swarmed and cordoned off the area. A man was killed in the explosion and two other people were injured, Police Chief Joel Ortega said. Police are investigating whether the man killed was responsible for the bomb or if he picked up the package from the sidewalk, he added.

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