Malik Hasan

Health care executive Malik M. Hasan has prospered by driving hard bargains with doctors and hospital executives. Now he will have to do more of the same as the chairman-designate of the company to be formed through the merger of WellPoint Health Networks and Health Systems International. The success of the proposed $1.8-billion deal, announced Monday, will depend partly on the new company's ability to find an estimated $200 million in cost savings annually.

FT. HOOD, Texas - Capital murder trials are rare in the military's criminal justice system, but they are familiar territory for the judge who will handle the trial of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a shooting rampage at this base in central Texas. The judge is Col. Tara Abbey Osborn, and she once served at Ft. Hood, the sprawling facility known as "the Great Place. " Osborn has presided over "numerous serious felony trials, one capital trial and other non-capital homicide trials," a base spokesman said.

Health Net and QualMed say their proposed merger would give them two strong assets for battle in President Clinton's new health care arena: combined revenue of $1.7 billion and a broad geographic reach in the West. But the success of the $725-million merger, expected to go through by year-end, may well ride on another factor: how these two health maintenance organizations meld their sharply contrasting management styles and personnel.

HOUSTON - A military judge ruled Thursday that an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas will stand trial in three months. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 42, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in connection with the rampage at the sprawling central Texas Army base, the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation. After repeated delays, lawyers for both sides recently indicated that they were prepared to begin trial in April, but the judge decided to take more time before seating a jury.

Health Net and Qual Med say their proposed merger will give them two strong assets to battle in President Clinton's new health-care arena: combined revenues of $1.7 billion, and the geographical reach in every state from California to Colorado. But the success of the $725-million stock merger, expected to go through by year end, may well ride on another factor: How these two health maintenance organizations (HMOs) meld their sharply contrasting management styles and personnel.

Dr. Malik M. Hasan, an HMO chieftain who infuriated the state's physicians with his cost-cutting demands and became a symbol of greed to industry critics, stepped down Friday as chief executive of Foundation Health Systems. Foundation, one of the nation's largest managed-care companies, said Hasan had decided to retire and that he would be replaced by Jay M. Gellert, an investment banker and close associate of Hasan's.

HOUSTON - A military judge ruled Thursday that an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas will stand trial in three months. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 42, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in connection with the rampage at the sprawling central Texas Army base, the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation. After repeated delays, lawyers for both sides recently indicated that they were prepared to begin trial in April, but the judge decided to take more time before seating a jury.

FT. HOOD, Texas - Capital murder trials are rare in the military's criminal justice system, but they are familiar territory for the judge who will handle the trial of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a shooting rampage at this base in central Texas. The judge is Col. Tara Abbey Osborn, and she once served at Ft. Hood, the sprawling facility known as "the Great Place. " Osborn has presided over "numerous serious felony trials, one capital trial and other non-capital homicide trials," a base spokesman said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today announced the start of a sweeping Pentagon review of events leading up to the Ft. Hood rampage, a probe that will examine whether military officials could have taken more aggressive preemptive action against the accused killer and, if so, why they didn't, officials said today. Gates at a news briefing said he was appointing a pair of retired Defense officials to lead the probe, former Army Secretary Togo West and former Navy chief Vernon Clark.

A U.S. military judge set a March 2012 court-martial date for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas military base. At an arraignment Wednesday that lasted about 15 minutes, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan declined to enter a plea before Ft. Hood Chief Circuit Judge Col. Gregory Gross. Gross granted a request by Hasan's lawyers to defer the plea to a later date. Gross set March 5, 2012, as the start of Hasan's court-martial. He could face the death penalty if unanimously convicted by a 12-member jury of U.S. soldiers.

HOUSTON - A military judge Wednesday ruled that an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas would still face a possible death sentence at court-martial, potentially barring a guilty plea. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 42, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in connection with the rampage at the Army base, the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation. His lawyers had asked the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, to remove the death penalty in the case, setting the stage for a possible guilty plea.

The military judge supervising the trial of accused Ft. Hood shooter Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was removed from the case Monday, with the military's highest appeals court ruling that his "duel of wills" with Hasan over the defendant's beard gave the appearance of bias. Hasan, 42, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than two dozen others at Ft. Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan, who is Muslim, says that he grew the beard for religious reasons and that it is protected under freedom of religious expression.

A U.S. military judge set a March 2012 court-martial date for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas military base. At an arraignment Wednesday that lasted about 15 minutes, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan declined to enter a plea before Ft. Hood Chief Circuit Judge Col. Gregory Gross. Gross granted a request by Hasan's lawyers to defer the plea to a later date. Gross set March 5, 2012, as the start of Hasan's court-martial. He could face the death penalty if unanimously convicted by a 12-member jury of U.S. soldiers.

The investigating officer in the mass shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas, last year has recommended that an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 face a court-martial and the death penalty. Col. James L. Pohl, who presided at a military hearing for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, recommended that the American-born Muslim be court-martialed on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Citing "an aggravating factor," he recommended that any conviction carry a death sentence, the Army said in a statement.

Stiff with pain from lingering bullet wounds in his leg and back, Army Staff Sgt. Paul Martin rose slowly to his feet on the witness stand Thursday and pointed across the military courtroom. "Yes, sir, that's him," Martin said, nodding toward Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, huddled in a wheelchair beneath a blanket and watch cap. Martin said it was Hasan, firing methodically from two handguns, who shot him twice Nov. 5. And it was Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, who fired again and again at soldiers inside a medical processing building as they tried to flee, Martin testified.

Alma Nemelka said her nephew was the first to die. He was standing at the rear of the Soldier Readiness Center at Ft. Hood, Texas, when an Army officer burst in shouting, " Allahu akbar! " Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19 and soon to be deployed to the Middle East, was shot in the head. On Tuesday, the man accused of killing Nemelka and 12 others, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of the Army Medical Corps, will appear for his first broad military hearing into the November attack. Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim and Army psychiatrist, was shot during the incident and is paralyzed from the waist down.

The military judge supervising the trial of accused Ft. Hood shooter Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was removed from the case Monday, with the military's highest appeals court ruling that his "duel of wills" with Hasan over the defendant's beard gave the appearance of bias. Hasan, 42, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding more than two dozen others at Ft. Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan, who is Muslim, says that he grew the beard for religious reasons and that it is protected under freedom of religious expression.

HOUSTON - A military judge Wednesday ruled that an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas would still face a possible death sentence at court-martial, potentially barring a guilty plea. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 42, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in connection with the rampage at the Army base, the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation. His lawyers had asked the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, to remove the death penalty in the case, setting the stage for a possible guilty plea.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down. He waits in a small Texas county jail and has not been seen publicly in the six months since he was shot and charged with killing 13 people and wounding nearly three dozen others at the nearby Ft. Hood Army post. He is about to surface again. Early next month military attorneys will meet for a preliminary hearing on whether the 40-year-old Muslim who became an Army psychiatrist should be court-martialed and perhaps sentenced to die for the Nov. 5 assault.

Between five and eight Army officers are expected to face discipline for failing to take action against the accused Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, over a series of behavioral and professional problems in the years leading up to the November rampage. Had corrective action been taken, Hasan's career might have been cut short before the Nov. 5 spree at the Texas Army base that left 13 people dead, an official familiar with results of a Pentagon review said Thursday. In addition, the review concludes that the Defense Department does not adequately share information about personnel internally.