Artificial heart recipient goes back on ventilator

Artificial heart recipientgoes back on ventilator
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The world's second recipient of a self-contained artificial heart is back on a ventilator, hospital officials said Friday.
Tom Christerson, 70, of Central City, Ky., received the softball-sized pump at Jewish Hospital on Sept. 13. Robert Tools, 59, of Franklin, Ky., became the first recipient at the same hospital July 2.
"Mr. Christerson has actually needed much less time on ventilator support than did Mr. Tools, but this week he has needed the ventilator to rest his body for its ongoing recovery." Dr. Laman Gray Jr. said. "We anticipate removing him from ventilator support in the next few days."
Tools continues to take trips outside the hospital. "Bob is doing just great," Dr. Robert Dowling said.
Both men received the AbioCor, a plastic and titanium device powered through the skin by an external battery pack.
A third patient received the device, made by Danvers, Mass.-based AbioMed, on Sept. 26 in Houston.
Record cocaine seizure
WASHINGTON -- The Coast Guard seized more cocaine in fiscal year 2001 than ever before, recording 138,334 pounds taken from ships in U.S. waters and abroad.
Some of the increase is attributed to the record capture of 13 tons of cocaine off the coast of Central America in May, Coast Guard officials said Friday.
The government's fiscal year begins and ends Oct. 1.
In fiscal year 2000, the Coast Guard seized 132,480 pounds of cocaine.
"Much of the success is due to international cooperation, information sharing and targeted operations," said Edward Jurith, White House drug policy director.
Judge OKs evidencein O.J. Simpson case
MIAMI -- The only piece of physical evidence in the O.J. Simpson road-rage case -- his thumbprint on another driver's eyeglasses -- can be used against him, a judge ruled Friday.
Simpson's attorney had argued that the evidence should be excluded because defense lawyers weren't given a chance to examine or perform lab tests on Jeffrey Pattinson's glasses.
Pattinson alleges he and Simpson came face to face last December after Simpson rolled through a stop sign across Pattinson's path. Pattinson alleges Simpson got out of his sport utility vehicle, reached into Pattinson's vehicle and grabbed his glasses, scratching his face while doing so.
Jury selection was to begin Tuesday for Simpson, who faces charges of felony auto burglary and misdemeanor battery.
The trial comes seven years after Simpson was charged with killing his ex-wife and her friend. A criminal jury acquitted him, but a civil jury found him liable in the slayings.
Serbs mark uprisingthat ousted Milosevic
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Hundreds of demonstrators who a year ago stormed the parliament to topple Slobodan Milosevic returned Friday, marching peacefully to demand faster democratic reforms and improved living standards.
The march marked the tumultuous day of Oct. 5, 2000, when protesters swallowed rounds of tear gas fired by Belgrade police before forcing the officers to give up their guns.
Participants had a clear message to the new authorities: Serbs are bitter over the slow pace of democratic reforms and miserable living standards on the first anniversary of the popular revolt that ended Milosevic's decade-long rule.
"Last October, we conquered freedom by breaking with the past. ... I am sure that we will never again live in a non-democratic society," Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica told reporters at a briefing coinciding with the anniversary.
Clinton to be focusof research project
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Bill Clinton will be the focus of a joint university research project highlighting the 42nd president's life with hundreds of behind-the-scenes interviews.
The Clinton History Project, announced Friday by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and the University of Virginia, will be conducted by scholars and recorded on audio and videotape for use at the universities, on the Internet and at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, scheduled to open in 2004.
Jeannie Whayne, director of the Arkansas Center, said she envisions a collection of accounts from people discussing Clinton's childhood, family life, his years in college, his tenure from 1973-76 as a law professor and his political life.
Scholars did not expect interviewers to discuss Monica Lewinsky, Kenneth Starr or others who figured into the criticism of Clinton's personal life.