First paragraph reads: "The hanging death of Chicago mystery writer Eugene Izzi has been ruled a suicide, despite friends' suggestions that he was killed. Mitra Kalekar, of the Cook County medical examiner's office, said on Wednesday that Izzi, 43, had been seeing a psychiatrist and taking an antidepressant . When found Dec. 7 hanging outside his high-rise office window, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying brass knuckles, $481, computer disks and chemical spray. Threatening messages were found."

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - January 17, 1997
In the Nation The hanging death of Chicago mystery writer Eugene Izzi has been ruled a suicide, despite friends' suggestions that he was killed. Mitra Kalekar, of the Cook County medical examiner's office, said on Wednesday that Izzi, 43, had been seeing a psychiatrist and taking an antidepressant . When found Dec. 7 hanging outside his high-rise office window, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying brass knuckles, $481, computer disks and chemical spray. Threatening messages were found.

Five more illegal immigrants have died trying to cross from Mexico to California in bitterly cold weather, bringing the death toll this week to 10, officials said yesterday. Dozens of illegal immigrants have recently surrendered to escape subfreezing temperatures.

Sam Sebastiani Jr., of the famous Sonoma Valley, Calif., wine family, has died after eating poisonous wild mushrooms, the first death in an outbreak that has hospitalized at least nine people recently. Sebastiani, 32, died Tuesday night, nine days after he ate the mushrooms while on an outing with friends near his Santa Rosa home.

Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday promised a careful review of a reopened San Francisco club that supplies marijuana to the sick. California voters approved a measure allowing the use of marijuana when recommended by a doctor. Under U.S. law, marijuana is still illegal.

In Greensboro, N.C., a juror's refusal to negotiate with others has complicated deliberations over whether ABC Inc. should pay $1.9 billion in punitive damages to Food Lion supermarkets for a hidden-camera report on sanitation. Jurors deliberated yesterday for a third day after having twice sent the judge a note saying they were stalemated.

A tip from Hillary Rodham Clinton led authorities yesterday to accuse a New York doctor of stealing more than $1 million from Medicare and Medicaid. A patient wrote Clinton, voicing suspicions about the doctor's billing practices, and authorities were alerted. Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, 41, of Atlantic Beach, allegedly billed Medicare and Medicaid for more than 13,000 medical procedures and tests he never performed.

Two Clinton administration officials announced their resignations yesterday. Ellen Haas, who cut fat in school lunches but generated controversy over government contracts, will step down as undersecretary of agriculture. The General Accounting Office last year criticized her hiring of a Democratic pollster to measure public opinion of the GOP welfare plan. Treasury Undersecretary Jeffrey R. Shafer, who played a key role in U.S. efforts to help Mexico out of its economic crisis, will become a managing director of Salomon Bros. and vice chairman of Salomon Bros. International Ltd.

In the World The British government, reopening a case that provoked riots in Northern Ireland, yesterday authorized a soldier to appeal his murder conviction. Pvt. Lee Clegg was convicted of killing 18-year-old Karen Reilly of Belfast, but was freed in July 1995 after serving less than four years of his life sentence. His parole sparked three nights of riots.

Worried about strange viruses and other health issues, the British government said yesterday that it would ban animal-to-human organ transplants until scientists knew more about their safety. It said it would pass laws if necessary to prevent human trials of such procedures, known as xenotransplants.

Switzerland's largest bank said yesterday that it had suspended its chief archivist for shredding old documents despite a government ban enacted to help search for Nazi victims' assets. Erwin Haggenmueller was suspended Tuesday, the day the Union Bank of Switzerland disclosed that the archival material had been destroyed. The bank said the documents were unrelated to the search for accounts of Nazi victims who tried to find safety for their assets outside Germany.

Near Algiers, a powerful bomb ripped through a crowded car market yesterday, killing at least 12 people and wounding about 100, some seriously, in the latest apparent attack by Muslim fundamentalists trying to overthrow the government. Medical sources said more than 100 wounded people had been taken to several hospitals.

A prominent Canadian businessman and environmentalist was appointed yesterday to coordinate reform of the United Nations. Maurice Strong, 67, will join Secretary-General Kofi Annan's staff and receive a salary of $1 a year, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Burmese ethnic groups demanded yesterday that the country's military regime scrap its ``sham'' constitutional convention and open talks that would include democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi. The groups also urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations trading group to postpone admitting Burma as a member until it makes reforms.

In Seoul, a U.S. soldier was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 15 years in jail yesterday for the September killing of a South Korean prostitute. Prosecutors had demanded that Pvt. Eric Munnich of Chicago be sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Lee Ki Sun, 44, in her boarding home near Seoul.
Edition: SF
Section: NATIONAL
Page: A04
Record Number: 9701180031
Copyright (c) 1997 The Philadelphia Inquirer
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NEWS IN BRIEF