National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 20, 2000

Medicine ingredient is called perilous

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- An ingredient in dozens of popular over-the-counter diet and cold medicines may be the cause of several hundred hemorrhagic strokes suffered annually by people under 50, government scientists said Thursday.

Manufacturers insist concern over the decades-old ingredient -- called phenylpropanolamine and found in products including Dexatrim and Triaminic -- is overblown. They argue there is no proof the drug causes hemorrhagic strokes, or bleeding in the brain.

But the Food and Drug Administration's scientific advisers voted Thursday that phenylpropanolamine cannot be classified as safe, a classification critical to drugs' ability to sell without a prescription.

The risk for the average dieter or cold sufferer in using PPA is very small, say the FDA and Yale University researchers who studied the issue. Hemorrhagic strokes in young people are rare, although 6-billion PPA doses are sold in this country annually.

Ex-Chicago police official indicted in theft ring

CHICAGO -- Chicago's former chief of detectives was indicted Thursday on charges of masterminding a theft ring that stole $4.85-million in jewels across the nation.

William Hanhardt, 71, who retired in 1986 after 33 years on the force, and three of the others indicted pleaded innocent. Hanhardt was released on $200,000 bail.

Texas prosecutor orders DNA reviews in 400 cases

AUSTIN, Texas -- For nearly 16 years, Carlos Lavernia, a Cuban refugee, has languished in a Texas prison since being found guilty of a 1983 rape that he swore he did not commit.

Last week, a state judge ruled that Lavernia was innocent of the crime, based on DNA evidence, and Ronnie Earle, the Travis County district attorney, has started re-examining more than 400 convictions to see if other miscarriages of justice could be corrected through DNA testing. Similar reviews have been announced in San Diego and Riverside, Calif.

Serial killer of 13 pleads guilty in Washington

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A man pleaded guilty Thursday to killing 13 people dating back a quarter century.

Robert L. Yates Jr., a 48-year-old father of five, will be sentenced next week to spend the rest of his life in prison. He still could face the death penalty if he is convicted of two Tacoma-area slayings and an additional murder in Spokane County.

Yates pleaded guilty to 10 Spokane-area slayings from 1996 to 1998, the murders of a young man and woman in southern Washington in 1975 and the murder of a woman in the state's northeastern corner in 1988.

Also Thursday . . .

HAWAIIAN SHARK ATTACK: A California tourist was bitten by a shark in the back and thigh as she snorkeled a half-mile off the island of Maui. Henrietta Musselwhite, 56, of Geyserville, Calif., was in stable condition.

MOB GRAVEYARD: The remains of a woman believed to be those of a high-ranking mobster's girlfriend who disappeared in 1981 were dug up in Quincy, Mass., near the former home of gang leader James "Whitey" Bulger. The body was believed to be that of Debra Davis, 27, who disappeared Sept. 17, 1981.

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