■ United States
Senator to manage anger
State Senator Ada Smith was ordered on Friday to enroll in an anger-management class and fined US$250 after a judge found that she threw a cup of coffee at a member of her staff this spring. Smith, 61, a Democrat from Queens who is running for re-election this year, was found guilty of one count of harassment by Judge William Carter of Albany City Court after a nonjury trial. She did not take the stand in her own defense. In March, one of Smith's aides, Jennifer Jackson, told the police that the senator had thrown coffee in her eyes and pulled her hair after a brief conversation about the senator's efforts to lose weight. Smith denied the accusation, telling reporters that she doesn't drink coffee.
■ United States
Jackson's ranch fire put out
Flanked by water-dropping helicopters, about 100 firefighters fully contained a 16-hectare blaze on Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The blaze came within 800m of the main residence on Friday, but there were no injuries and Jackson's menagerie of animals were also unhurt, said Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Captain Keith Cullom. "It's pretty much been knocked down," said Cullom. Jackson, 47, was not at the house. He has been living in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Bahrain since being acquitted of child molestation charges in California in June last year. The ranch's amusement park rides were within the burned area, Cullom said, but no structures caught fire.
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