The Tennessean du lieu suivant : Nashville, Tennessee • Page 2

1 IWi THE TENHESSfcAH (Looks keep Chinese student WORLD IN MINUTES lrom attending university COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY ZOE CABANISS Yang Hongwei seemed to have everything going for him in his bid to enter university sky-high marks, solid references and a strong char- Ticket sales on upswing for Vanderbilt basketball An expected plummet in Vanderbilt basketball season ticket sales may wind up just a minimal decline by the regular season home opener with Wofford Nov. 27. Ticket manager Lucy Jones says an advertising campaign and tonight's free Midnight Madness program at Memorial Gym produced a rush this week. On 2C. -acter.

But he fell down in only one category iooks. ine i0-year-old physics whiz has a birth defect that has left him cross-eyed, with a mis shapen, almost mangled, face. As a result, Chi- nese universities have refused to accept him. jsV CBBSD- v. p.

i xvieanwnue, the Henan Machinery Training School has offered to accept Yang after hearing about his case. "He has very good marks. We dont care about his appearance," a spokesman said. Yang is considering the offer. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED Following the collapse of the ruling coalition and failure to agree an austerity budget for 1996, Austria's Parliament voted unanimously yesterday to dis Radnor fund-raiser tonight A celebration tonight for Radnor Lake State Natural Area is planned as a fund-raiser and a warning.

Development is encroaching on the area and more money is needed to buy land to protect it, said Becky Meagher, -board member of Friends of Radnor Lake. Radnor is the most heavily used state natural area in Tennessee with 900,000 visitors a year, according to Mike Carlton, park manager. On IB. MS i NY hlAS solve itself and hold early elections in Decem- Der. joerg Haiaer, tne ngnt-winger wno has I most to gain from the debacle, called both rul-I ing parties losers that had failed the nation, and I polls put his Freedom Party almost level with the Social Democrats and People's Party.

He has struck a chord with the disenchanted with against corruption and immigration. CASTRO VISITS URAGUAY Cuban lead- er Fidel Castro arrived yesterday in Montevi Oeaning secrets revealed Clean your whole house in under two hours? Sounds suspicious, you say. But meet Joy Sacra-mone Ms. Clean to those who know her and her daughter Laureen Hadley, who say 20 minutes a room is all it takes. They operate Joy of Cleaning a service with more than 130 homes and offices to clean each week and know how to get the job done fast Some trade secrets: Be sure you have all the equipment you need, clean one room at a time, use newspapers and glass cleaner or just plain water to get windows squeaky clean.

On ID. AP deo, Uruguay, for a two-day visit that has stirred from human rights groups and the country's armed forces. Castro was invited by President Julio Sanguinetti, but the military blames Cuba for spreading a leftist ideology that sparked a bloody war with urban guerrillas in the 1960's and early 1970s, and armed forces leaders boycotted Castro's arrival. Human rights groups also called for rallies to protest the visit MONET MADNESS Art lovers are back-to-back at the crowded Monet exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago Thursday. Scalpers and ticket brokers are getting more than six times face value for passes to the show of 159 works that has drawn enthusiasts from across the country.

ItiWtiiTiTtlflliMWM Oakland brush fire repeats TWA has arena to call own Europeans to meet President Clinton will meet with the presidents of the Czech and Slovak republics Satur- day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He will be in Cedar Rapids for the dedication of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. Czech President Vaclav Havel and Slovak President Michal Kovac will attend and meet privately with Clinton, who will be in the Midwest for two days before returning to Washington. i Like most of its competitors, Trans World Airlines will have a sports arena to call its own when the new downtown domed stadium opens this fall. The St Louis Rams announced in early September that the $260 million stadium will be dubbed the Trans World Dome.

TWA will pay the Rams $1.3 million a year for 20 years for the honor. Throughout the country, ballparks and arenas already bear the names of airlines, as well as other corporations. On IE. CONSUMER PRICES UP Consumer prices edged up 0.1 in September while retail sales showed modest but broad strength, the Labor Department reported yesterday. The 0.1 increase in the Consumer Price Index matched minuscule advances in June and August and fell below July's 0.2 gain.

Inflation is growing at a 2.8 annual rate. On IE. A brush fire broke out yesterday in the Oakland, hills, injuring one person and burning three homes near the scene of the 1991 firestorm that killed 25 people and destroyed almost 3,000 dwellings. The flames were contained about half an hour after the fire began, but firefighters had evacuated residents as a plume of white smoke spread over the area. They returned two hours later.

BEATEN MAN DIES Hawaii's Miguel Gonzales, 32, who was beaten into a coma, allegedly by his anger management counselor, died after his family agreed a hospital could disconnect life support. Gonzales had been unconscious since Monday night, when authorities say he was beaten by Charles Mahuka, a leader of an anger management class that Gonzales was ordered to attend for assaulting his girlfriend. Say goodbye to Old Spice A male cologne scientifically proven to attract women is now available, researchers reported in Seattle this week. The odorless, clear alcohol-based liquid contains a chemical copy of "the natural substance given off by healthy virile men in their 20s that makes them so attractive to women," said researcher Winnifred Cutler, president of the Athena Institute for Women's Wellness in Haverford, Pa. The secret ingredient a so-called pheromone, a natural substance found in sweat that elicits changes in sexual behavior.

Attraction has its price about $100 for a six-month supply. A female cologne designed to attract men is has been available for several years for about the same price. TheTennesseani fn I rttirv Lim tn NasMe Banner Present find out If you've won! Lottary Category Code 521 Dial 5T1. then antsr category cod Informstlon. Complete detaMt available every day the A section.

4 "1 Will IWHSS I promise pales as lawsuits filed against maker fNoilanfs ed by levonorgestrel levels more than twice what they would be If the women were taking a progestin-only birth control pill. It's sort of a hormone overdose. It affects each woman differently. "One of the problems Is that women don't all come in the same package," Lucas said. This one-size-doesn't-fitall concept Norplant is based on doesn't work because women's physiology, weight and health are highly individual." Bressman suspects the growing patient dissatisfaction is fed, in part, by the lawsuits.

"Part of it is the medical legal climate in this country," he said. "The interesting thing about Norplant is it has been used in other countries for years without a major medical legal problem. The safety profile has been quite good." Wyeth-Ayerst stands by its product which the company says has sold 2.5 million units worldwide. "We stand behind its safety and efficacy and will continue to contest" the litigation, said spokeswom pany, a division of American Home Products faces numerous class-action lawsuits filed across the nation. The women's main The side effects are intolerable, even life-threatening, and the implants are sometimes difficult to remove.

The deluge of lawsuits was enough for Mealey Publications of Wayne, a company that tracks litigation, to initiate a twice-monthly newsletter on Norplant lawsuits. Memphis attorney Louis Lucas said his firm, one of many handling cases, has approximately 1,400 clients in several states pursuing action against Wyeth-Ayerst. He claims some have had life-changing side effects. "We have 18-year-olds who have had total hysterectomies, and all kinds of problems in between," Lucas said. This is a case of absolute liability for a defective product" The hysterectomies, he said, are the result of "blood tumors" prompt have had a period every 28 days," she said.

For other women some very vocal the reality of Norplant resembles Cherry Price's nightmare. The 20-year-old Nashville woman has a history of psychiatric problems, including major depression. About three weeks after giving birth in July 1993 to a baby she eventually gave up for adoption she had Norplant inserted. She didn't want to get pregnant again. Price said she was told by the doctor who inserted the Norplant that the contraceptive would make her "feel pregnant" But it was the nonstop bleeding that she couldn't tolerate.

She also believes the drug aggravated the depression, which dates back to her teens. "It's like an abortion in your arm," she said of Norplant Legal problems galore No one is feeling women's ire with Norplant more than Wyeth-Ay-erst The Philadelphia-based com- an Audrey Ashby. Norplant now Doctors say about 80 of women who get Norplant will have breakthrough menstrual bleeding the first year. Typically, the side effects lessen with time. Usually, the breakthrough bleeding Is not a large quantity of blood, and not enough to cause iron deficiencies.

"It's bothersome, annoying. They have to worry about whether they need to put a pad on or not" San-didge, of Centennial Medical Center, said. And sometimes, it's the other side effects, particularly weight gain and headaches, that prompt removal. 1 Because of these total effects, many predict Norplant will eventually lose its commercial appeal. Dr.

Michael Sullivan, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Sumrrit Medical Center, believes Norplant Is a safe and effective contraceptive. Vet that may not be enough to maintain its market viability. explains, lies with the way some medical practitioners dispensed Norplant Not enough emphasis was put on the potential side effects. For some woman the majority, perhaps Norplant has lived up to its promise. It's 99 effective in preventing pregnancy, and the side effects are generally manageable.

Ellen McDonald, 33, of Nashville is one of the estimated 1 million U.S. women who have used Norplant The office manager for Bressman, she was first in line to get the implant when he offered it to patients in 1991. "My five years is next year, April 1996," McDonald said. "I have had no problems. Never any headaches.

No irregular bleeding." She recalled that her biggest adjustment was in the first year, when she stopped having menstrual periods altogether. "For someone who was always regular, that took some getting used to. By the second year, that had straightened out And since then, I ally release the synthetic "hormone levonorgestrel, which prevents pregnancy. It would be the ultimate in convenience. Women no longer had to remember to take birth control pills every day or deal with the interruptions of condoms or diaphragms.

Norplant looked so attractive that some Tennessee legislators proposed it as a potential solution to welfare dependency, suggesting that women on welfare receive a $500 bonus If they got the implants. the complications that are being reported were known from the moment Norplant became available," said Dr. Phillip Bress-man, a Nashville obstetrician-gynecologist "It's in the literature the company provides. From the beginning, I have been doing informed patient consent with all those complications listed. It's all put in front of a patient and they have to sign before it's put ia" Part of the problem, Bressman Iiivestigation prompts freeze in Probate Court Jury still deliberating Middlebrooks' fate 3 Tit 1 independent judgments.

The three defendants admitted to police that they tortured Majors after he or one of his friends disturbed items in a makeshift "flea market" that the trio had set up beside Gallatin Road. Donald Middlebrooks said that both he and Brewington stabbed Majors in the heart Prosecutors attempted to rebut Smalldon with testimony by Dr. Willis Marshall, a Bowling Green, psychiatrist who once worked at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute and said he saw no connection between Middlebrooks' mental condition and the slaying of Kerrick Majors. Assistant District Attorney General John Zimmermann told the jury in his closing argument yesterday that the crime was racially motivated. He reminded the jury of racial slurs that Kerrick Majors' friends said Middlebrooks and Brewington used.

Majors was black; Middlebrooks and Brewington are white. of potentially excessive or unwarranted fees," Haynes said in her order. "The court is of the opinion that additional review of this case is needed prior to the disbursement of any more funds." Additionally, Haynes signed 16 other documents vacating, or nullifying, various Probate Court orders. Most involved the awarding of fees in cases of incompetents or minors, but Haynes declined to say who had originally signed the Probate Court orders, when, how much money was involved, or to whom the fees were awarded. Investigators spent six hours this week searching Everett's office and poring over Probate Court files in the old grand jury room of the courthouse.

A computer consultant from Metro's Judicial Information System helped investigators gain access to files in the computer next to the judge's desk. Agents from the Davidson County district attorney's office, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service also began looking through case files in the Probate Court clerk's office. Everett learned several weeks ago that state and federal Investigators were looking into allegations of corruption in his court Staff writers Sheila Wissner and Jim East contributed to this report the slaying of Kerrick Majors was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death." Donald Middlebrooks; his wife, Tammy Middlebrooks; and Robert Roger Brewlngton Jr. were all convicted of murdering Majors, but prosecutors could not seek the death penalty against Tammy Middlebrooks and Brewington, since they were juveniles ages 17 and 16, respectively when the crime was committed. Middlebrooks lawyers presented testimony Thursday from three of Middlebrooks' relatives, who described the neglect and sexual abuse he experienced as a child in rural Texas.

I Dr. Jeffrey Smalldon, an Ohio psychologist hired by the defense, testified that Middlebrooks is legal- ly sane but has a "personality dis-Order" serious enough that it may 'have affected his ability to make gation." Previously, she said, attorneys were appointed to handle such cases and charged attorneys' rates. With the founding of SCS, Jackson said, her clients "have actually gotten care instead of just legal services for the same amount of money." SCS filed articles of organization with the state last Oct 31, naming Jackson and Vickie S. Hall co-founders. The company's services to minors and incompetent individuals ranged from handling financial matters to delivering groceries.

The company charges $40 an hour, Jackson said. Hall was out of town and could not be reached for comment Haynes ordered SCS to file an Interim accounting on each of the 58 cases within 10 days. She also ordered those cases transferred from Probate Court to the Chancery Court of Ellen Hobbs Lyle. "It is questionable whether the best interest of the disabled person or minor is being served by the continued conservatorship of Senior Care Services due to the payment AP TEMPTING FATE? A part of a Seattle radio station's Friday the 13th promotion, Kim Helton and Ryan Miller exchange vows while standing under a ladder yesterday. Between the couple are Helton's son, Christopher, and the Rev.

Sharon Curtis. The stunt took place in a warehouse that's serving as a Halloween haunted house. i.