Woman dies after being bit
ten 1,625 times by ants
1 SARASOTA, Fla. — An 87
year-old nursing home patient
with Alzheimer’s disease died a
day after she was bitten 1,625
times by ants as she lay in her
bed, authorities said Thursday.
The Sarasota County medical
examiner’s office is investigating
the case of Mary L. Morales Gay,
who died last Friday at the Quali
ty Health Care Center in North
Port.
The official cause of death was
awaiting toxicology tests, but Gay
was bitten by either fire ants or
red ants on her chest, upper arm,
abdomen and back, Wilson
Broussard, deputy chief medical
examiner, said Thursday.
Loraine Baeringer, administra
tive assistant at the home, had no
comment. Pat Glynn of the state
Agency for Health Care Adminis
tration said the home has had sat
isfactory ratings.
State regulators and the Depart
ment of Children and Families are
also investigating.
Gay had been co-owner of a
trucking company. Her son, Edgar
W. Gay of Sarasota, declined com
ment.
In 1998, hundreds of fire ants
killed a 66-year-old nursing home
resident in Jackson, Miss. Health
officials found no evidence of
negligence.
Fire ants, which travel in
colonies of hundreds and even
thousands, usually avoid homes,
but dry weather and heat can
drive them indoors. They pack a
burning sting and attack when
threatened.
ABC jumps from third to first
in television season
2 NEW YORK — Led by the
game show sensation “Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire,” ABC
became the first network to
bounce from third place to first in
the television ratings in a single
season.
“Millionaire” supplanted
NBC’s “ER” as the most popular
program on television in the
1999-2000 season, even though it
didn’t join ABC’s regular lineup
until January.
The TV industry considered
Wednesday the end of the season,
with the long summer rerun sea
son beginning Thursday.
ABC had an average of 14.27
million viewers in prime-time
this year, a 20 percent increase
over last year. CBS, last year’s top
network, averaged 12.42 million
viewers, down 6 percent. NBC’s
12.34 million average was down 4
percent from last year.
Fox had the biggest decline of
the four major networks. Its aver
age prime-time audience of 8.97
million was down 17 percent
from the year before, according to
Nielsen Media Research.
On the strength of professional
wrestling, UPN saw a 36 percent
increase to 3.92 million prime
time viewers. The WB network,
suffering from the fickleness of
teen-age viewers, was down 22
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percent to 3.64 million viewers.
Although “Millionaire” clearly
turned everyone’s expectations
upside down, ABC executives
tried to downplay the notion that
their schedule had little depth.
Lack of fire managers faulted
in burn gone awry
3 FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Too
many fire managers were gone
from Grand Canyon National Park
while the park was conducting a
prescribed burn that eventually
became a wildfire, according to
investigators.
Because fire managers were
sent to a fire that destroyed hun
dreds of homes in Los Alamos,
N.M., and another large fire near
Globe, Ariz., those who stayed be
hind at the canyon were forced to
take on so many roles it diverted
their attention, according to a Na
tional Park Service report ob
tained by the Arizona Daily Sun.
The plan for the prescribed
bum also failed to say what ac
tions officials at the scene should
take if the fire grew out of control.
The fire set in late April blew
out of control earlier this month
and had charred 13,350 acres and
forced the closure of the North
Rim before it was fully contained
Sunday. Officials spent $6 million
to fight it.
The team found no violations
of park policy or fault with the
way the park service conducted
the controlled burn.
Researchers identify virus
that killed 106 in Asia
4 WASHINGTON — A virus
that killed 106 people in out
breaks during 1998 and 1999 in
Malaysia and Singapore has been
identified as a new viral species
capable of infecting both animals
and humans.
A study appearing Friday in the
journal Science said the virus has
been named Nipah and re
searchers said it is closely related
to another new virus called Hen
dra.
Together, the two viruses repre
• sent a new genus within the fami
ly of viruses known as Paramyx
oviridae, said co-author Dr.
William J. Bellini of the Centers
for Disease Control and Preven
tion in Atlanta.
Unlike other members of the
virus family, which generally in
fect only one type of animal, Ni
pah and Hendra are capable of in
fecting a variety of animals —■
dogs, cats, pigs, bats, horses and
humans. Most animals recover
from the virus, but it is lethal to
about 40 percent of human pa
tients, causing severe encephali
tis, said Bellini.
Researchers said the virus can
be spread to humans from the
urine and mucus of infected ani
mals. It causes respiratory symp
toms in pigs and the animals can
expel the virus in their cough.
Bellini said that tropical fruit bats
appear to be unharmed by the
virus, but they are carriers and
may possibly spread it.
29 freed U.N. peacekeepers
return to Sierra Leone
5 FREETOWN, Sierra Leone —
Freed U.N. peacekeepers com
plained Thursday of harsh treat
ment at the hands of their rebel
captors and said injured peace
keepers still being held are not be
ing given medical attention.
The 29 U.N. peacekeepers, who
were freed earlier this week on
the border with neighboring
Liberia, were flown back to Sierra
Leone on Thursday to rejoin their
units. Some 260 peacekeepers are
still being held by the rebels.
The freed peacekeepers, all
from Zambia, said their captive
colleagues are not receiving prop
er medical treatment at the rebel
camps and villages in eastern
Sierra Leone.
One peacekeeper, who de
clined to give his name, said the
injured were becoming weaker by
the day due to a lack of care.
U.N. officials have put the
number of wounded at 30 to 40.
The freed peacekeepers said they
could not give any figures because
the captives are being held in sev
eral different places.
When the peacekeepers were
captured, a group of 50 was
crammed into a 15-seat bus and
driven to a tiny village where they
were kept for three weeks, the sol
diers said.
Peacekeepers released earlier
have spoken of being tied up, and
receiving as little as one banana or
one mango a day for food.
Man parachutes from jet
after hijacking
6 MANILA, Philippines — A
crying man tried to hijack a
Philippine Airlines jet carrying
291 people Thursday, then
robbed everyone and jumped out
of the plane wearing a parachute.
The hijacker moved from bath
room to bathroom toward the
front of the Airbus 330, complain
ing of a stomachache, finally
reaching the cockpit, where he
announced the hijacking minutes
before the scheduled landing,
passengers said.
Armed with a grenade and a
pistol, the man ordered the pilot
of PAL Flight PR812 to return to
Davao City in the southern Philip
pines. The pilot responded that
he did not have enough fuel,
Manila airport general manager
Antonio Gana said. Davao City is
about 600 miles from the capital,
Manila.
At one point, the weeping and
distraught hijacker fired a shot in
side the cockpit, perhaps acciden
tally, said Emmanuel Generoso,
one of the three pilots aboard, as
tired-looking passengers streamed
off the plane behind him.
“He was very tense,” Generoso
said. “I don’t think there’s any po
litical implications there. He had
family problems, he needed the
money, so that’s what happened.”
The plane was depressurized to
permit the hijacker to jump with
a homemade parachute while it
circled 28 miles from Manila at
6,000 feet, PAL spokesman Rolan
do Estabillo said. Police searched
the hilly area after he jumped.
The Associated Press