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Thursday, April 4, 2002
National Briefs

Caller-Times wire services
   Risk of birth defects in children of cousins is lower than believed
   PHILADELPHIA - Children born to couples who are first or second cousins have a lower risk of birth defects than is commonly believed, but it can still be nearly twice as high as usual, according to a study released Wednesday.
   An unrelated couple has an approximately 3 percent to 4 percent risk of having a child with a birth defect, significant mental retardation or serious genetic disease, the researchers said. They found that close cousins face an additional risk of 1.7 percent to 2.8 percent.
   That is lower than many people, including family doctors, believed to be the case, said one of the researchers, Robin Bennett.
   "The common sense point of this is that there is a definite risk, but the risk is rather small," said another one of the researchers, Dr. Arno G. Motulsky, professor of medicine and genome sciences at the University of Washington.
   Marriage of first cousins is illegal in 30 states and is stigmatized in many Western cultures, but in some countries, up to 60 percent of the population is related by blood, and cousin marriages are preferred to unions of unrelated couples.
   ATLANTA
   Flight is diverted because _of screaming passenger
   A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Madrid, Spain, was diverted to Newfoundland after a passenger began screaming and had to be restrained.
   The plane landed in Newfoundland just before midnight on Tuesday, and the man was taken into custody by police in St. Johns, Newfoundland, said Delta spokeswoman Thonnia Lee. The man was not identified.
   Delta Flight 108, a 767 with 159 passengers aboard, was about six hours into the flight when the passenger began screaming and had to be restrained, she said.
   The flight resumed about 90 minutes later.
   ATLANTA
   Allegations force chairman _of honor society to resign
   The top official at the nation's largest college honor society has resigned amid allegations the group lets in unqualified students.
   The chairman of the board of Golden Key, Georgia State University president Carl Patton, stepped down this week after the criticism reached the widely read Chronicle of Higher Education.
   Patton was instrumental in dismissing Golden Key's founder, Jim Lewis, last summer. Critics said that Lewis ran the society like a profit-hungry business, opening its doors to anyone who paid and spending lavishly on the group's Atlanta headquarters and board meetings.
   A spokeswoman for Patton would not say why he resigned.
   WASHINGTON
   Snail mail still popular for _taxpayers filing returns
   Despite heavy electronic-filing promotion by the IRS and makers of tax software, most of this year's income tax returns will still be stamped and mailed the old-fashioned way.
   About 87 million of projected 132 million returns are expected to be filed on paper, underscoring the challenge faced by the Internal Revenue Service to become more computer-compatible and less buried in paper.
   CINCINNATI
   City agency will investigate _police brutality complaints
   A year after Cincinnati erupted in riots over the police shooting of a black man, the city agreed to restrictions on the use of force and announced plans Wednesday to establish an independent agency that would investigate police brutality complaints.
   The moves are intended to satisfy U.S. Justice Department concerns and settle a lawsuit accusing the police force of harassing blacks for the past 30 years. The settlement of the lawsuit still must be approved by the various parties by Tuesday to avoid a trial.
   The independent agency would have seven citizen members appointed by the mayor and City Council, and would have its own investigative staff.
   The new panel would investigate such things as shootings, deaths in custody and other major uses of force.

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