Nation Briefs

San Francisco: Auction of documents by Malcolm X called off

An auction house on Tuesday called off the sale of an extensive collection of speeches, journals and notes attributed to the late civil rights leader Malcolm X.

Butterfields will not go ahead with the planned sale March 20 in San Francisco because it received a letter from an attorney for several of Malcolm X’s six daughters and the estate of his wife, Betty Shabazz, that raised questions about the chain of ownership of the documents, said Butterfields spokesman Levi Morgan.

The family attorney, Joseph Fleming, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. He said earlier the documents were sold at a Florida self-storage center and claimed they were the family’s property.

Butterfields has said it cannot reveal who the owner of the collection is, only that it is not a family member. Morgan said the possible problems with ownership occurred before the auction by the storage center.

California: ‘Angel of Death’ pleads guilty to 6 murders

A respiratory therapist who called himself the “Angel of Death” struck a deal to avoid the death penalty Tuesday, pleading guilty to murdering six elderly patients with drug injections.

He also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder a seventh patient.

Efren Saldivar, 32, agreed to seven consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. He will be sentenced on April 17.

Saldivar killed the six patients in 1996 and 1997 while working at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, injecting them with a muscle relaxant that stopped their breathing.

He told police in 1998 that he might have contributed to “anywhere from 100 to 200” deaths and actively killed up to 50 patients by giving drugs or withholding treatment. He spent nine years as a hospital worker.

Chicago: Study touts eye drops for treating lazy eye

Eye drops are just as effective as eye patches for treating “lazy eye” and are less likely to be shunned by children, a study shows.

Lazy eye is a condition in which the brain favors one eye over the other. It is the most common cause of visual impairment in children, with symptoms including crossed eyes, farsightedness and nearsightedness.

Standard treatment has been eye patches worn over the unaffected eye to stimulate better vision in the “lazy” eye. The same thing happens with atropine drops, which temporarily blur vision in the unaffected eye.

But parents often have difficulty getting children to wear eye patches because of discomfort and teasing. The study found children and parents preferred atropine drops and were more likely to use them than patches.

Denver: Zoo fined $700 for bear’s death

The Denver Zoo, criticized by animal rights activists for its decision not to separate two Asiatic black bears that fought often, paid a $700 federal fine for failing to protect one bear, which was fatally mauled by the other.

A female bear named Sherpa died Oct. 10 after an attack by a larger male bear left her with a crushed throat, a mangled leg and internal injuries.

The zoo was fined Feb. 27 after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said Tuesday.

Under the terms of a settlement, the facility did not admit or deny that it violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by not separating the bears.

A federal veterinarian inspecting the zoo found records of more than 36 fights in the preceding 10 months. USDA veterinary medical officer Ruth Nelson said the records show evidence of a serious case of incompatibility.