Rhode Island

Wind-whipped mill fire destroys 13 homes

A raging, wind-whipped fire that began Friday in an abandoned textile mill destroyed 13 homes and ignited buildings over a 10-block radius.

Winds up to 45 mph had hampered firefighters’ efforts to control the fire, which was brought under control more than four hours after it started.

Eleven people were being evaluated for injuries, including a firefighter. Three of those were admitted to a nearby hospital, but their conditions were not available.

The fire started in the Greenhalgh Mills complex in Pawtucket and spread at least five blocks east and five blocks south, setting fire to homes along the way while sparing others.

“The wind is killing us,” police Lt. John Clarkson said.

Washington, D.C.

U.S. asthma patients warned of Canada recall

Americans with asthma who imported certain medications from Canada may have gotten a version being recalled in that country because of a potentially serious defect, U.S. health officials said Friday.

GlaxoSmithKline recalled certain batches of three asthma medicines — Ventolin Diskus, Flovent Diskus and Serevent Diskus — in Canada Friday, because a device malfunction may lead to too little, or none, of the drug getting into the patient’s lungs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration emphasized that diskus products sold through legitimate pharmacies here are not subject to the recall. But patients who buy drugs from Canada could have received some of the possibly ineffective batches, the FDA said.

California

Detective admits not checking Peterson tip

A police detective acknowledged Friday that he didn’t follow up on a tip from a woman who claimed to have seen someone resembling Laci Peterson in a park on the day her husband says she disappeared.

Under cross-examination by attorneys for Scott Peterson, Detective Philip Owen said he didn’t pursue the tip because he didn’t think it was “going in the right direction.”

Peterson’s attorneys have suggested during the preliminary hearing, in its ninth day Friday, that detectives zeroed in on Laci Peterson’s husband as a suspect, and ignored other leads.

Owen said he didn’t feel the woman’s tip was credible because it conflicted with other information detectives had received.

Houston

Enron bankruptcy costs expected to hit $1 billion

Failed energy giant Enron say its legal, accounting and other professional costs since declaring bankruptcy may top $1 billion by the end of 2006.

“I don’t think there’s anything close,” Anthony Sabino, an energy and bankruptcy law expert at St. John’s University in New York, told The Associated Press on Friday. “This is phenomenal. It is unprecedented.”

Enron, whose filing led a wave of corporate scandals, has already exceeded $514 million in legal, professional and accounting fees, including billings from more than three dozen law firms and a handful of accounting and consulting firms since the corporation filed for reorganization on Dec. 2, 2001, according to the Texas Attorney General’s Office.