Brothers And Sisters

If Ellen Quarry had her way, there would be a law that puts a warning on boxing rings like the ones on packs of cigarettes: This may be hazardous to your health. Quarry doesn't need the qualifier. Her husband, Mike Quarry, died Sunday. He was 55, a boxer who, on June 6, 1972, in Las Vegas, fought Bob Foster for the light-heavyweight championship of the world. Featured that night was a heavyweight fight, Muhammad Ali against Quarry's brother, Jerry.

The fight began over a large silver cross and turned deadly after an act of brotherly devotion. Agustin Contreras, 17, described by teachers and police as a good student who was not involved in gangs, was shot to death at Venice High School as he tried to protect his younger brother Alejo from gang members bent on stealing the cross from around the 16-year-old's neck.

Sheila Tehrani dropped 48.2 pounds in four hours the other day. That brought her down to a comparatively svelte 387 pounds, the first time in years that she's weighed less than 400. The instant weight loss happened because surgeon Carson Liu sliced off loose belly skin that had draped to Tehrani's knees in the wake of her losing 144.2 pounds over the last 14 months.

Despite the turnover mandated by term limits, one name has remained a constant in California's Capitol: Calderon. Every year since 1983, a brother from this Montebello family -- first Charles, then Tom and now Ron -- has served in the Legislature, each rising to a leadership position. This year, Ron hopes to shift from the Assembly to the state Senate, and Charles aims to be elected to his seat, which Tom held before Ron.

She might have spent her life peddling secondhand clothes on muddy streets along the hyacinth-choked shores of Lake Victoria. She might have been given away in an arranged marriage. Or she might have died already, like one of her sisters. Instead, she earned a college degree and a management job at a large hotel in the capital city, a rarity for a woman in her mid-20s. Determined to improve her life, she put off marriage and children. Unlike many Kenyan women, Susan Wauna has had choices.

Tennis star Serena Williams addressed the man who killed her half sister Thursday, as he was sentenced to 15 years in state prison in the woman's 2003 shooting death. Robert Edward Maxfield, 25, a reputed Southside Crips gang member, pleaded no contest in a Compton courthouse to the voluntary manslaughter of Yetunde Price, 31. The sentencing marked the end of a marathon prosecution that spanned 2 1/2 years, and featured two trials that ended in hung juries.

A Buena Park woman who hired a hit man to kill her brother so she could inherit the family business was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A jury convicted Deborah Perna, 49, of first-degree murder in October for arranging the 2002 killing of her 44-year-old brother, David Montemayor, who she believed was stealing from the business and about to take over with the retirement of their father.

A Buena Park woman was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the kidnapping and death of her brother, whom she believed was stealing from the family business he was about to take over, prosecutors said. Deborah Perna, 49, faces the possibility of life in state prison without parole when she is sentenced Dec. 9. "It is hard to believe anyone would be as callous as to want her own flesh and blood murdered for money," Senior Deputy District Atty. Dan Wagner said in a statement.

The younger brother was slender and serious, a former bodyguard for Saddam Hussein who became a Muslim fundamentalist, grew his beard and prayed five times a day. The older brother was a used-car salesman who was fond of telling off-color jokes and making regular trips to a Baghdad hotel for drinks. The brothers, Ali and Khalid Mashhandani, grew up together in a poor suburb of Mosul, a cluster of small, stone houses with wooden and metal roofs along the Euphrates River.

There's a reason the Felicity Huffman character on ABC's hit show "Desperate Housewives" has resonated with viewers, no doubt a good many of them parents. She's the one who went from high-powered career woman to stay-at-home mom with four kids, three of them out-of-control boys who do nothing but argue, fight and generally wreak havoc wherever they go. The incessant sound of their children's bickering can drive many real-life parents to play a game of "Can you top this?"