Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Gotti uses wheelchairas cancer spreads
NEW YORK -- Convicted mob boss John Gotti is in the advanced stages of cancer and uses a wheelchair to move around, the Daily News reported today.
Gotti, 60, once the nation's most powerful gangster and head of New York's Gambino crime family, was sentenced to life in prison for racketeering and murder in 1992.
He was moved to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo. last September for treatment of throat cancer. Doctors at the prison hospital had removed a cancerous tumor from Gotti's neck in 1998.
One of Gotti's lawyers, Joseph Corozzo, told the newspaper Gotti's mind was clear but "he is suffering from cancer and it is in the advanced stage."
Corozzo said the mafia icon only used the wheelchair because hospital officials made him. He denied reports that Gotti has only two months to live.
Robertson clarifiesstatement on abortion
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Pat Robertson, a leader of the national anti-abortion movement, issued a statement expressing his strong opposition to forced abortions performed on women in China.
Robertson released the statement Tuesday to clarify remarks he made in an interview broadcast Monday night on CNN's "Wolf Blitzer Reports."
Robertson had said in the interview that Chinese leaders are "doing what they have to do" to control population growth, and that the United States should not interfere.
"If every family over there was allowed to have three or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable," Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, said in the interview.
In his statement Tuesday, Robertson said he regrets that his unrehearsed comments "were not spoken with sufficient clarity to communicate my lifelong opposition to voluntary and forced abortion as a means of population control."
Clinton gets office
NEW YORK -- The government has signed a lease for Bill Clinton's office in Harlem, ending a monthslong search that brought a storm of criticism to the former president.
The U.S. General Services Administration signed the 10-year lease Tuesday for the penthouse floor of the 14-story building at a cost of $261,450 per year. The lease for the 8,300-square-foot office on 125th Street comes to about $354,000 when electricity is added and tenant improvements are made.
Julia Payne, a spokeswoman for Clinton, said the former president is "very excited" about the lease signing. "He's looking forward to doing his post-presidential work and being a good neighbor in Harlem," Payne told The New York Times in today's editions.
Clinton decided to move to Harlem after facing a barrage of criticism over his first choice, a penthouse suite in midtown Manhattan overlooking Central Park. The office would have cost taxpayers about $800,000 per year.
Miss Israel to wearbulletproof dress
JERUSALEM -- Here she comes ... Miss Bulletproof.
Beauty meets the bulletproof vest in a gown designed for Miss Israel to wear at the Miss Universe pageant next month.
The top of the silk dress, embroidered with diamonds and pearls, is covered by an army-issue flak jacket adorned with diamonds for a so-called softer look.
The dress sends a message that everyday life should go on despite renewed violence, its designer said.
"I want people in Israel to continue to go out," said Galit Levi, a Tel Aviv fashion designer. "But be careful."
Levi also designed two prior Miss Universe dresses.
Report on herb
CHICAGO -- St. John's wort, the popular herbal remedy touted as a natural alternative to prescription antidepressants, is ineffective in treating major depression, according to a new study.
Dozens of previous studies, most conducted in Europe, have found some benefit from the herb, which has been used for thousands of years.
But authors of the new report say St. John's wort shouldn't even be recommended for those with mild depression without more research.
"We can say with confidence that it calls into serious question the effectiveness in moderate to major depression," said Dr. Richard Shelton, a psychiatry professor at Vanderbilt University and the lead author of the study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.