Ramseys reach settlement with tabloid

Ramseys reachsettlement with tabloid
BOULDER, Colo. -- John and Patsy Ramsey have settled a lawsuit against a supermarket tabloid over stories that suggested their teen-age son molested and killed his sister.
Terms of the settlement with the Globe were not disclosed, the Daily Camera newspaper of Boulder reported today.
The Ramseys filed the $35 million lawsuit in Atlanta last May against Globe International Inc., saying the false November 1998 headlines and stories subjected Burke Ramsey, now 14, to public hatred, contempt and ridicule and permanently damaged his reputation.
Six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in her family's home Dec. 26, 1996. No one has been arrested.
Court clerks said the amount and terms of the settlement were sealed under a confidentiality agreement.
Simpson asks courtto overturn judgment
LOS ANGELES -- O.J. Simpson has reportedly asked the California Supreme Court to overturn a $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment against him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.
Simpson alleges in documents filed in Los Angeles that he was denied his constitutional right to a fair trial, the former football star's friend, Henry Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times.
A message left after business hours Wednesday for Simpson attorney Daniel P. Leonard was not immediately returned.
Simpson raised the same issues in his failed state court appeal, contending he was not allowed to confront some of his accusers at civil trial, including former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, according to Johnson.
A civil jury found Simpson liable for the June 12, 1994, slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Jurors ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the victims' families. Simpson was acquitted in criminal court.
Study: Mammogramsbest to detect cancer
WASHINGTON -- No new breast cancer detection systems, including highly touted digital mammograms, so far have proven better than old-fashioned mammograms, a congressional advisory panel said today.
But because mammograms aren't perfect, the report by the Institute of Medicine urged more study of technologies, such as MRI, that might one day help catch cancer more effectively in certain women.
For now, "mammography is still the best way we have," said Dr. Janet Baum, a Harvard Medical School radiologist who co-authored the report.
Consequently, access to mammograms for uninsured women must be increased, the report said.
A program by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that gives free mammograms to the uninsured so far reaches only 15 percent of eligible women but strives to help 70 percent, the institute said. Additionally, a new federal law ensures Medicaid payment for women whose cancer is detected in the CDC program, but states haven't yet adopted that change, the report said.
Disarmament talks
DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish Republican Army announced today it intends to resume talks with Northern Ireland's disarmament commissioners, raising hopes that a stalled peace process could soon move forward.
The announcement set no date for the renewed dialogue. The IRA, which was supposed to disarm gradually under terms of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, has yet to scrap any weapons. The outlawed group's lead negotiator last met the disarmament commission 13 months ago.
Today's apparent shift in a statement to Irish media came hours before the British and Irish prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, at Hillsborough, Northern Ireland, had scheduled a fresh round of negotiations with local parties that support the 1998 accord.
Amended tax return
NEW YORK -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he will amend the tax return of one of his nonprofit groups to reflect money paid to a staffer with whom he had an affair, The New York Times reported today.
The name of the woman, Karin Stanford, was not included on the 1999 tax return filed by the Citizenship Education Fund. Other staff members' names also were omitted. Jackson called the omissions inadvertent.
"There is no evidence, none, of illegality or impropriety," Jackson told the Times.
Jackson has been under scrutiny since his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition acknowledged in January it paid $35,000 in severance pay to Stanford, with whom Jackson had a child.