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• Alberto Serrato, 57, pleaded not guilty Friday to an arson charge in connection with one of the smaller fires, a 105-acre fire in suburban Oceanside that started Wednesday and is fully contained.
• Tanya Sierra, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County district attorney's office, said witnesses saw Serrato adding dead brush onto smoldering bushes, which flamed up. He has not been connected to any other fire, Sierra said.
• Oceanside police Lt. Sean Marshand said Serrato is believed to have added fuel to the fire but not to have started it.
• ___

• BANGKOK (AP) -- A Lao air force plane carrying about 20 people, including the country's defense minister and other senior officials, crashed on Saturday, Thailand's Foreign Ministry said.
• There was no immediate word on casualties, said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee.
• The plane took off from the capital, Vientiane, early Saturday morning and crashed in the northeastern province of Xiangkhoung, about 470 kilometers (290 miles) away.
• The aircraft was carrying Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also a deputy prime minister, and several other high-ranking officials, including the governor of Vientiane, the capital. They were heading to an official ceremony for the Ministry of Defense, said Sek, who was informed of the crash by authorities in neighboring Laos.
• He did not immediately have any other details, and there was no official statement on the crash from authorities in Laos, which is ruled by a secretive Communist Party.
• ___

• DENVER (AP) -- Nick Auden didn't live to see the legislation, but the case of the Denver melanoma patient who died while seeking access to an experimental drug helped inspire a first-of-its kind law in Colorado.
• The "Right To Try" law allows terminally ill patients to obtain experimental drugs

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