NEWS

Norplant maker agrees to settle claims The manufacturer ofNorplant have agreed to offer cash settlements to more than 36,000women who charged that severe side effects from the contraceptivedevice were downplayed. American Home Products Corp. said todaythat its Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories subsidiary will settle the claimsof women who said they suffered nausea, irregular menstrual bleeding,headaches and depression after using Norplant. "Settling these caseswas purely a business decision," Joseph M. Mahady, president ofWyeth-Ayerst, North America, said in a prepared statement. TheDallas Morning News reported today that American Home could end uppaying more than $50 million to end five years of litigation overNorplant. The settlement offers $1,500 to each woman who filed suitbefore March 1, the newspaper said. Breakthrough reported in Mideasttalks With a Palestinian official reporting a breakthrough on anIsraeli withdrawal from the West Bank, the top Palestinian negotiatormet with his Israeli counterpart a final time today before leavingfor a briefing with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Thenegotiator, Saeb Erekat, was originally scheduled to meet Albright inWashington today. Instead, he met with his counterpart, Gilead Sher,in Israel. He now plans to see Albright on Friday. The talks cameas a Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, saidan agreement had been reached on a timetable for Israel's withdrawalfrom the West Bank. Web site told to stop posting Ford news FordMotor Co. won a temporary restraining order against the producer ofan Internet site that the automaker says illegally reveals companysecrets. A federal court in Detroit told Robert Lane to stoppublishing confidential documents provided by Ford employees. Fordplans to seek a permanent ban on Lane's site (www.blueovalnews.com)at a hearing Monday. Lane said he is trying to arm consumers withup- to-date information - including confidential environmental tests,reports on assembly glitches and photos of future products - so theycan make informed decisions about Ford purchases. Lane was orderedto tell the court within 10 days which Ford documents he has and whogave them to him. He also must stop displaying the automaker'strademark blue oval insignia on his site. Dry heat makes fightingfires tough Thousands of firefighters are battling blazes across theWest, where lightning, wind, 100-degree heat and low humidity havefueled the flames as vacationers head to the forests for late-summercamping. About 300 wildfires, mostly caused by lightning, wereraging in California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Idaho. The blazeshave burned at least 40,000 acres of brush and trees and are blamedfor at least one death. Most of the blazes have been in NorthernCalifornia, where National Weather Service forecasts for hot and dryweather worried firefighters. Man held in stabbings on Amtrak trainA man stabbed and wounded two conductors and a passenger aboard anAmtrak train outside Cleveland early today, police said. A suspectwas arrested when a passenger, in a crowd leaving the stopped train,told police, "That's him. That's him." The man stabbed oneconductor, then started slashing at people within his reach, woundingthe two other victims, Olmsted Township police Chief DennisMcCafferty said. The three victims were hospitalized, as was a womanwho complained of chest pains. The suspect was treated for a cut onone hand. Aaron Hall, 41, was arraigned on charges of attemptedmurder and held on $1 million bond pending a preliminary hearingTuesday. He didn't enter a plea.