National briefs 6/13/02

Andersen jury can't give verdict, to keep talking

HOUSTON -- Jurors in Arthur Andersen LLP's obstruction of justice trial announced Wednesday that they were deadlocked, but the judge told them to continue their deliberations.

On the seventh day of deliberations, the jury said in a note to the judge: "We are not able to reach a unanimous decision." After about a 20-minute discussion with lawyers, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon reminded jurors of their duty to "deliver a verdict if you can do so without surrendering your conscientious conviction."

The judge sent the panel back to a hotel and told it to return today to resume deliberating.

Doctor: Valium affected shoe bomb plot suspect

BOSTON -- A man charged with trying to blow up a jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes was still feeling the effects of Valium when he was questioned after his arrest, a doctor testified Wednesday.

The testimony came during a hearing on a request from Richard C. Reid's lawyers to throw out a confession he allegedly made to FBI agents.

They argue Reid was under the influence of sedatives injected when he was overpowered by crew and passengers aboard the American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami before Christmas.

Defense asks to free suspect in 'bomb' plot

NEW YORK -- Court papers made public Wednesday seek the immediate release of a man accused of plotting to explode a radioactive device in the United States, saying he was being detained illegally.

Evidence linking Jose Padilla to "the alleged 'dirty bomb' plot is weak at best," wrote his attorney, Donna Newman. The defense petition also accuses the government of violating Padilla's constitutional rights.

The petition, filed Tuesday in federal court, was made public by Judge Michael Mukasey after sections referring to a grand jury investigation were blacked out.

Padilla was arrested May 8 in Chicago and secretly held in New York on a material witness warrant until Monday, when he was transferred to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

Gotti burial in Catholic cemetery approved

NEW YORK -- Notorious mob boss John Gotti will be interred in a Roman Catholic cemetery alongside his son, but his family was denied permission to hold a funeral Mass for the convicted killer.

Gotti, responsible for at least five murders during his bloody reign atop the Gambino crime family, will not receive a Mass of Christian burial, the Rev. Andrew Vaccari, chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn, said Wednesday.

Vaccari said in a one-sentence statement, "there can be a Mass for the dead sometime after the burial of John Gotti." Gotti died Monday at a Missouri prison hospital.

FDA OKs computerized diabetes monitors

WASHINGTON -- A pair of devices approved Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration will take a bit of the drudgery out of testing for blood sugar.

The agency approved two devices that combine sugar test meters with the handheld computers known as personal digital assistants. The devices will let diabetics more easily record blood sugar levels and track them, the agency said.

Approved were the FreeStyle Tracker Diabetes Management System, made by TheraSense Inc. of Alameda, Calif., and the Accu-Chek Advantage Module, made by Roche Diagnostics Corp. of Indianapolis, Ind.

-- From wire reports