Nation digest 10/08/02

Nursing home charged in deaths averts trial

XENIA, Ohio -- A nursing home operator agreed Monday to pay a $60,000 fine and quit as manager of an Ohio home, averting a manslaughter trial in the case of four residents who died after a nitrogen tank was mistakenly hooked up to the oxygen system.

On the day the trial was to begin, Integrated Health Services reached an agreement under which it will enter a three-year program requiring changes in the operation of its nursing homes. If the company completes the program, it will not have a conviction on its record.

If the case had gone to trial, the maximum penalty would have been a $60,000 fine.

WorldCom exec pleads guilty in deal

NEW YORK -- A former WorldCom executive pleaded guilty Monday to securities fraud and conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with investigators against his bosses in one of the biggest cases of crooked corporate accounting in U.S. history.

Buford Yates said in federal court that he was instructed by supervisors to misreport expenses.

Yates, 46, served as WorldCom's director of general accounting. Prosecutors say he carried out orders by chief financial officer Scott Sullivan to hide $3.8 billion in expenses in order to make WorldCom appear profitable.

Yates faces 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Number of WTC missing, dead falls below 2,800

NEW YORK -- The number of people listed as victims of last year's World Trade Center attack has dropped below 2,800, a city spokeswoman said Monday after three people were found to be alive and one duplication was eliminated.

The revised list left the victim count at 2,797. The official toll had been 2,801 since Sept. 6, the day the city released a list of names to be read at last month's anniversary ceremony at ground zero.

The toll does not include the hijackers who died at the trade center.

Investigators found that Maria Bengochea, 46, of Manhattan, and Germaan Castillo Garcia, 36, of Brooklyn, were erroneously reported missing, according to Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner. Another name, Nickola Lampley, was removed after a reporter tracked her down after her name was read aloud at the anniversary ceremony.

Fire kills five people in house for the elderly

MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A fire broke out at an unlicensed rooming house for the elderly before dawn Monday, killing five.

Six people were hospitalized, one in critical condition. The others were in fair condition.

Mount Township fire chief Benny Zappa said it appears that the fire started in a bedroom of the home, where 12 senior citizens and the building manager lived.

"They got three people in one bedroom. It's unreal," he said. "I don't know if they had fire drills. They shouldn't have to operate that way."

Philly man charged in cleaver attack on wife

PHILADELPHIA -- A man was charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking his wife with a meat cleaver, police said.

Police found Roberta McCullough, 61, in a pool of blood in her North Philadelphia apartment early Sunday with injuries to her face, head, hands and arm.

Her husband, Michael McCullough, 44, was outside the home when they arrived, said Sgt. Michael Dougherty. Dougherty said McCullough told police: "I think I killed my wife."

After 14 hours of surgery, Roberta McCullough was in critical but stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital late Sunday, officials said.

-- From wire reports