Daredevil Baumgartner's assault verdict upheld

An Austrian court on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict for assault and battery against Felix Baumgartner,  who entered the record books last month with a daring freefall from the edge of space. Baumgartner, 43, was found guilty in April and fined 1,500 euros ($1,900) for hitting a Greek lorry driver after a road altercation near the Austrian city of Salzburg in September 2010. His lawyer claimed it was self-defence and appealed the verdict, which was rejected by the Salzburg court on Tuesday. The lorry driver insists Baumgartner threw the first punch. Nicknamed "Fearless Felix," Baumgartner, who has been doing the media rounds in the United States and Britain since his death-defying leap, was not in court on Tuesday. The Austrian, who lives in Switzerland, became the first man to break the sound barrier unaided when he plummeted more than 39 kilometres (24 miles) towards the Earth in a freefall watched live by millions around the globe. The jump on October 14 above New Mexico in the United States was the highest and fastest freefall ever recorded.