Convict weds hours before execution

WASHINGTON: Death row inmate Joseph O'Dell got married only hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection in a Greenville prison in Virginia, a penitentiary spokesman said. O'Dell married Lori Urs yesterday -- a paralegal who has passionately defended the convicted rapist and murderer -- in a 17-minute ceremony after one pm (2230 Ist). The newlyweds then enjoyed a one-hour ``non-contact visit,'' prison spokesman David Botkins said, adding there were neither flowers nor alcoholic drinks for the couple.

Shortly after the ceremony, Virginia Governor George Allen refused to pardon O'Dell, sentenced to death in 1986 for the rape and murder of a virginia secretary. ``I am aware of the pleas for clemency from people for whom I have the highest respect, including His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and other religious and governmental officials,'' the governor said.

AIDS hotline

CAIRO: Egypt has broken a taboo in Arabic nations, which often regard Aids as the just punishment for sexual promiscuity, by becoming the first country to establish a hotline providing information on the deadly disease. Every day the hotline registers some 40 callers, inquiring whether the disease can be contracted through a handshake, kissing or oral sex. Egypt officially has 581 Aids cases. Of these 541 are HiV positive with 40 having contracted the disease, according to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) co-worker and co-founder of the hotline, Dr Merwat El Genedi. However the unofficial estimates are at least 5,000. According to UN figures, some 10,800 people in the Middle East and North Africa have died from the disease. Of the 200,000 registered cases in the region every 20th is a woman.

Birth bills

PIERRE (South Dakota): A 61-year-old man has paid a hospital bill for charges dating back to his own birth in 1935, a hospital spokeswoman has said. Jerry Henricksen, a businessman from Spokane, Washington, showed up last Friday at Saint Mary's hospital in Pierre and paid the long-standing $70 bill plus 61 years of interest -- a total of $238.30. Henricksen told surprised hospital officials that he was sorting through his late mother's affairs when he came across the bill for his birth.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.