Nation briefs 7/17/06

FEMA: No handouts for next hurricane victims

NEW ORLEANS -- People displaced by future hurricanes will probably not get the $2,000 federal handout that went to Hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuees last year, a top official in the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday. The elimination of that post-hurricane financial aid is one of many changes in the agency's tactics this year, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, who was named FEMA deputy director in April, said in an interview. He wouldn't give specifics on the elimination of the $2,000 payment or what might replace it. The details of the changes -- including streamlined ways of handling evacuations, transportation, shelters and debris removal -- will be explained in a letter this week from Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security, to the governors of the 12 coastal states vulnerable to Atlantic hurricanes, Johnson said.

Small plane crashes into Ore. neighborhood

HILLSBORO, Ore. -- A vintage British fighter jet crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near the Hillsboro Airport during an air show Sunday afternoon, exploding, destroying a home and killing the pilot.Fire officials said no residents or others on the ground were hurt. The 1951 jet was taking off to return to California when it went down, said Connie King, a spokeswoman for the Hillsboro Fire Department. The jet slammed into a house at 4:28 p.m. and destroyed it, she said. No one was home at the time, she said. The pilot's name was not immediately released. Another house with people inside sustained "significant damage," but no one was hurt, King said. The plane "was doing a loop and couldn't pull out in time," Kory Hauser, a witness, told the (Salem) Statesman Journal. "It clipped about three houses and went down."

Doctor suspected in building collapse dies

NEW YORK -- The doctor suspected of blowing up his town house rather than allowing his ex-wife to benefit from its sale has died, nearly a week after suffering critical injuries in the blast, a hospital spokeswoman said Sunday. Dr. Nicholas Bartha, 66, died late Saturday, said Mary Halston, an administrator at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Police had been unable to speak to Bartha about the July 10 explosion because he was in a medically induced coma. Authorities have said they were investigating whether he might have caused it rather than sell the town house as part of a divorce judgment favoring his ex-wife. Investigators have confirmed that someone tampered with a gas line leading into the home's basement, allowing vapors to flow for hours until it caused the building to blow up. The physician, who lived and worked in the four-story landmark on Manhattan's upscale Upper East Side, was the lone occupant during the blast. It leveled the building and left the block covered in bricks, broken glass and splintered wood. At least 14 other people were injured, including 10 firefighters, authorities said.

-- From wire reports