A drug widely used during heart surgery to control bleeding doubles the risk of kidney damage, forcing an estimated 10,000 patients onto dialysis each year, according to a study from a group calling for surgeons to abandon its use.Known as aprotinin, the drug also increases the risk of heart attack by 48%, heart failure by 109% and stroke by 181%, the study of about 4,400 patients reports today in the New England Journal of Medicine.The researchers added that the drug was not even needed in most cases because there were two generic drugs that cost a tenth as much and were nearly as good at stopping bleeding yet produced no increased risk."I wonder how we can ethically prescribe aprotinin when there are alternatives that are safer," said Dr Dennis T. To some, these wines are too powerful, too alcoholic, too much of everything. FACED WITH congressional bills setting timelines for the redeployment of combat troops from Iraq, the president and his dwindling band of supporters have been complaining bitterly about lawmakers' efforts to "micromanage" the war.Funny, you'd think they'd be relieved! It's about time someone in the U.S. Because the filibuster is at heart a conservative's weapon, and because Frist is essentially asking senators (regardless of their ideology) to relinquish some of their individual power, we're fearful that the centrists may yet prevail. On the other hand, they had little interest in "Herbie" or "Bewitched," which were taken from sources that had little resonance for them.It would take a sizable amount of space to deconstruct their likes and dislikes, but in short they think Brad Pitt is cool; Tom Cruise, not so much. WHAT'S YOUR favorite Oscar ritual?Mine begins about a month before the Academy Awards I put new batteries in the channel changer I lay in popcorn and red wine I check the TV listings.

COLUMBIA, S.C. and Iraqi troops is yielding results.The city's residents will now have to stay indoors after 10 p.m. Like most everything in Milan, the Etro outlet on Via Spartaco -- next to the company offices -- looks like a simple, spare storefront from the outside. He includes letters, poems, chapters of unattributed dialogue. Two chalkboards list seasonal offerings and what I think of as mini food festivals.

Darrell Issa (R-Vista) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton -- chairman and vice chairman of the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks and the government's response -- said bureaucracy had blocked implementation of many of the panel's recommendations to improve security and intelligence-gathering.Former President Clinton, blamed in an ABC docudrama for failing to pay sufficient attention to looming Al Qaeda threats, addressed a Jewish charitable organization at a Washington hotel. AOL's shopping guide also lists retailers.-- Steven Barrie-Anthony. Tom Watson shot a three-under 69 on a day when the average score was 10 strokes higher."Anybody can play well when the weather's right," said Watson, who won the first of his two Memorial titles that year while wearing a stocking cap and thermal underwear and sliding on thick gloves between shots.The elements might have been even worse for the 1990 tournament. You pretty much had to show up regularly on network television, in studio movies or on top-40 radio. Most were executed with shots in the head, and some were handcuffed and blindfolded, the official added.Gunmen in the troubled city of Baqubah, northeast of the capital, attacked a Shiite family, killing two women and two children and wounding 11 people.In Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, a car bomb outside a Shiite mosque killed three people and wounded 17, Reuters reported.Four Kurdish civilians were gunned down in the northern city of Kirkuk, where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens are vying for dominance.In the largely Sunni city of Tikrit, north of the capital, gunmen killed three Shiite bakery workers.A female interpreter was killed and another wounded as they left a British base in the southern city of Basra.Saif Rasheed of The Times' Baghdad Bureau and special correspondents in Baqubah, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra contributed to this report..

That's the Heartbreakers' arena-rock side, but it never got excessive.After all, arena rock wasn't a dirty word when Petty and his band came out of Florida nearly 30 years ago to revitalize the moribund mainstream-rock world with their urgent and idealistic mix of folky and heavy, and after all this time they're able to summon the urgency.The years have also brought an ever-increasing ease and comfort in their stage manner, which stems from their leader's eccentric mix of down-to-earth and slightly flamboyant. The Pak-Lite comes with a battery in place and is available in a variety of configurations, including a basic model with a standard battery and an on/off switch and a flashing model with a flash/off/high switch.Pak-Lite LED Flashlight is $12.99 to $29.99; (541) 660-0349, www.9voltlight.com.*Gear & Gadgets appears monthly.. And a research and development tax credit -- hugely popular in the business community -- is also part of the package.But so far, these and 43 other tax benefits have become ensnared in a partisan battle over a minimum-wage increase, which Democrats and some moderate Republicans want, and a sharp reduction in the estate tax, dear to the hearts of conservative Republicans.In July, Republicans thought they had scored a strategic coup when they stitched the minimum-wage increase and the estate tax cuts into a single bill that, they hoped, offered something for everybody to love. "We have noticed that the Sunnis haven't entered the city in the last five days. "We appreciate the concern expressed by CAR members about the status of their health coverage and regret that they were ill-advised by their association and insurance broker the past several months."The real estate group said its contract with Blue Shield had a guaranteed renewal provision. 17 municipal runoff election.Officials said the devices probably wouldn't be certified by state and federal authorities in time but said having the printouts would give voters more confidence that their choices were properly recorded.. John Ashcroft asserted that the president could order wiretapping on his own."The Constitution vests in the president inherent authority to conduct warrantless intelligence surveillance [electronic or otherwise] of foreign powers or their agents, and Congress cannot by statute extinguish that constitutional authority," Ashcroft said in a legal brief filed in September 2002.