MIDWEST

PARENTS OF TEEN SLAIN BY HAMAS AWARDED $156 MILLION

CHICAGO – Three Islamic charities and an alleged fund-raiser for the Palestinian Arab terrorist group Hamas were ordered yesterday to pay $156 million to the parents of an American teenager killed by terrorists outside Jerusalem.

A federal jury deliberated for one day before awarding $52 million in damages to the parents of David Boim, shot down at a bus stop eight years ago. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys then tripled the damages.

But it is uncertain whether the family can collect much money from the defendants, some of whom have had their assets frozen by the government.

Joyce and Stanley Boim, parents of the slain teenager, showed no emotion as the jurors announced the verdict. Their attorneys smiled broadly.

“I finally have justice for David,” said Joyce Boim, who had sat in the courtroom reading from the Book of Psalms in Hebrew while awaiting the verdict.

Before the trial started, the judge had found the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and alleged Hamas fund-raiser Mohammed Salah liable in Boim’s death. The jury found that the Quranic Literacy Institute of suburban Oak Lawn, Ill., a group that translates Islamic religious texts, was also responsible for the shooting. Salah and Holy Land are both currently under federal indictment on charges of stemming from their alleged support of Hamas.

– Associated Press

WEST

PRODUCER DICK CLARK SUFFERS STROKE

BURBANK, Calif. – “American Bandstand” icon Dick Clark was hospitalized this week after suffering a mild stroke.

Mr. Clark, who turned 75 on November 30, suffered the stroke this week, publicist Paul Shefrin said yesterday, declining to give any details. He would only say that Mr. Clark had been hospitalized in the Los Angeles area.

The entertainer, who went from hosting “American Bandstand” to game shows and producing awards ceremonies, is scheduled to host ABC’s “Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2005” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2005” on December 31. It will be his 33rd year welcoming in the new year.

“The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long so I’m hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in ringing in the new year once again,” Mr. Clark said in a statement yesterday.

Mr. Shefrin would only say Mr. Clark “is recuperating” and that there’s no cause for alarm. Mr. Clark disclosed last year that he has diabetes.

– Associated Press

THREE KILLED IN NASA VAN ACCIDENT

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. – A commuter van from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tumbled 200 feet off a twisting mountain road yesterday, killing three people and injuring seven, two critically, authorities said.

The van was carrying 10 people to the laboratory when it plunged off the Angeles Crest Highway in the Angeles National Forest about 6:30 a.m. and rolled down a mountainside about 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, officials said. Notified by a driver who saw the crash, two California Highway Patrol officers at a nearby movie shoot scrambled down to the vehicle and called for rescue workers who ripped the van apart to get to the injured passengers. One person was hurled from the van and died at the scene. Two others died inside the van, where other victims were left hanging from windows or trapped under a collapsed roof for as long as an hour, authorities said.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

TROOPS PEPPER RUMSFELD WITH TOUGH QUESTIONS

In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday in Kuwait about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

“You go to war with the Army you have,” Mr. Rumsfeld replied, “not the Army you might want or wish to have.”

Specialist Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Mr. Rumsfeld. He hesitated and asked Mr. Wilson to repeat his question.

“We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north,” Mr. Wilson, 31, of Ringgold, Ga., concluded after asking again. His unit is about to drive north into Iraq for a one-year tour of duty. Mr. Wilson clearly touched on a problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon for more than a year. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the Army was sparing no expense or effort to acquire as many Humvees and other vehicles with extra armor as it can. What is more, he said, armor is not the savior some think it is. “You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up,” he said. The same applies to the much smaller Humvee utility vehicles that, without extra armor, are highly vulnerable to the insurgents’ weapon of choice in Iraq, the improvised explosive device that is a roadside threat to Army convoys and patrols.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

NEW BREAST CANCER DRUG SHOWS FAR BETTER RESULTS

SAN ANTONIO – A newer drug prevented far more breast cancers from recurring in older women than the old standby tamoxifen and with far fewer side effects, doctors said yesterday, citing a new study.

Cancer specialists said Arimidex is likely to become the first-choice treatment for most women who have had the disease, and they predicted a wider role for similar drugs of its type, called aromatase inhibitors. New research suggests Arimidex might be able to prevent 70% to 80% of the most common type of tumors that occur in women after menopause, compared with the 50% that tamoxifen is credited with warding off. Women with early-stage breast cancer who took Arimidex for five years were less likely to have cancer recur, develop in the other breast, or spread throughout their bodies than women who took tamoxifen.

“Arimidex is a more effective treatment. This is a better drug,” said Dr. Aman Buzdar, a specialist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He headed the American portion of the study, which involved about 6,000 women in 21 countries. Results were reported yesterday at a meeting in Texas.

– Associated Press