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Brain swelling halts surgery to separate girls

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 8, 2007

CLEVELAND

Surgeons trying to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins halted the operation because of swelling in the brain of the larger, stronger girl, but the doctors and parents said Thursday that they would try again. The parents of Tatiana and Anastasia Dogaru said in a statement released by the hospital that the girls were doing fine. The blond twins, born in Italy to Romanian parents, were awake and alert. After a section of bone was removed Wednesday, doctors discovered that Anastasia's brain tissue was swollen and her blood pressure lower than usual. When medications to reduce the swelling were ineffective, doctors closed the opening without starting the first operation to separate them. The top of Tatiana's head is attached to the back of Anastasia's, and they have never been able to look directly at each other.

NEW YORK

Shootings claim 7 lives in 24 hours

A rash of shootings killed seven people within 24 hours. Three men, ages 16, 18 and 21, were gunned down while gathered on a stoop shortly before midnight Wednesday in Brooklyn, police said. Police responding to a 911 call about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday discovered in a Brooklyn bedroom the bodies of a man and a woman killed in an apparent murder-suicide. A shooting in Manhattan about 4 a.m. Thursday killed two men, ages 18 and 28, in what officials said was a possible dispute over drugs.

Elsewhere

Albany, N.Y.: New York has the right to deny drivers' licenses to people who can't prove they are in the country legally, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.

Pittsburgh: A man cleared of rape after 19 years in prison has sued city police, saying they used a suggestive photo lineup and fabricated evidence to wrongly convict him.

[Last modified June 8, 2007, 08:21:01]