MAN WHO ADMITTED TO SPYING GETS 12-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former Army paralegal who pleaded guilty to spying and testified against two old college friends was sentenced today to 12 years and seven months in prison.James Michael Clark, 50, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit espionage. He testified in October against Teresa Squillacote and Kurt Stand.
Stand, 43, and Squillacote, 40, were found guilty of conspiracy, attempted espionage and illegally obtaining national defense documents. The married couple face up to life in prison at their Jan. 8 sentencing.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton sentenced Clark to the low end of a plea bargain that could have given him nearly 16 years in prison.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Clark sent documents, notes and pictures to an East German intelligence official. He sent more than a dozen secret documents and at least one top secret document to his contact, according to court documents. Authorities did not release details about what sort of secrets the documents contained.
MENTAL PATIENT KILLS DOCTOR IN FLORIDA PSYCHIATRIC WARD
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A psychiatric patient with an automatic handgun shot and killed his doctor in a hospital ward.
Dr. Christina Gabriele Smith, 39, was shot twice in the chest Thursday near a nurses' station in the psychiatric ward at Parkway Regional Medical Center, authorities said.
She died less than an hour later at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
James Reed, who was leading a Narcotics Anonymous meeting down the hall, was shot in the upper leg. He was treated at Jackson and released.
The shooting suspect, whom police did not identify, was questioned at the hospital and expected to be taken to the Miami-Dade County Jail.
$250,000 IN WATCHES STOLEN FROM GLORIA ESTEFAN'S HOME
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- About $250,000 in antique watches were stolen from the home of Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio while they were on vacation.
While police didn't specify what was stolen, WSVN-TV reported the watches were taken from a locked bedroom closet.
There was no apparent sign of forced entry to the couple's palatial gated estate on Miami's Star Island, police said Thursday. Nor was there evidence the closet had been broken into, WSVN said.
PILOT, TV REPORTER SURVIVE NEW JERSEY HELICOPTER CRASH
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A pilot and reporter aboard a television news helicopter that crashed into the Passaic River managed to escape with cuts and bruises, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were trying to determine what caused WNBC-TV's helicopter to plunge into the river Thursday, police said.
Pilot Terry Hawes, 38, of Pennsauken, and the reporter, Kai Simonsen, 28, of Morris Plains, were hospitalized in stable condition with cuts and bruises, hospital officials said.
PLASTIC TOY CHESTS RECALLED BECAUSE OF POTENTIAL DANGERS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iris U.S.A. Inc. is recalling about 100,000 plastic toy chests because young children could become trapped inside the chests and suffocate, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.
The chests, originally marketed to store toys, do not have a lid-support device, the agency said Thursday. Children could become trapped in the chests, which have latches to secure the lids and lack adequate ventilation when the lid is closed.
The CPSC and Iris are not aware of any injuries involving the chests.
The clear, plastic chests have either red or blue lids and were sold under three model numbers: WT-80, WT-120 and WT-175.
Retail and department stores such as Target have sold the chests nationwide since January 1996 for about $25.
Consumers should keep children away from the chests and stop using them for toy storage. Consumers in households with young children can return the chests to the stores where they purchased them for a refund.
DRUG FIRMS ORDERED TO PAY $64.3 MILLION IN D.C. LAWSUIT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A judge has ordered the world's largest drug companies to pay $64.3 million to the District of Columbia and 10 states to settle a lawsuit charging they conspired to destroy competition between retailers and health maintenance organizations.
D.C. Superior Court Senior Judge Leonard Braman ruled Thursday in a class-action suit, originally filed in 1996 by a district resident who claimed drug companies sold their products to HMOs for lower prices than they charged retail pharmacies.
The suit alleged that the companies engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy in violation of the various state antitrust and consumer fraud statutes. As a result, they alleged, consumers were deprived of lower prices they would have paid if retail stores had been able to compete with HMOs and mail-order pharmacies.
ASTHMA PATIENTS WARNED OF DANGERS OF SINGULAIR DRUG
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Asthma patients who take the drug Singulair should be watched carefully by their doctors for signs of a rare but serious complication called Churg-Strauss syndrome, drug-maker Merck & Co. advises.
Churg-Strauss syndrome is a tissue disorder that sometimes strikes adult asthma patients and, if untreated, can destroy organs.
Merck said Thursday it has received fewer than 20 reports of Singulair patients developing symptoms of Churg-Strauss out of 600,000 people worldwide who have tried the drug.
Merck has written 165,000 doctors and pharmacists to alert them to signs of the condition, including flu-like symptoms, rash, tingling or numbness of the arms and legs or severe sinusitis. Some asthmatics experience worsening lung symptoms as pulmonary blood vessels become inflamed.