Mistakes

Hospital leaders on Tuesday announced a nationwide campaign to reduce the number of fatal mistakes made by medical personnel--including steps such as putting an "X" on a patient's body where a surgeon is supposed to cut and using special colored labels on bottles of lethal drugs. President Clinton also ordered the federal health programs that cover senior citizens, the poor and the military to use the latest techniques available to avoid errors.

The elder son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said it was a "big mistake" that his family did not make sure entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte spoke at Coretta Scott King's funeral, according to a published report. Belafonte, who has strongly criticized President Bush, has said that he was invited to speak but that the invitation was rescinded at the insistence of the White House.

Many of the upscale home furnishings at Designers' Bloopers are custom pieces made for clients by local decorators . . . and most are mistakes. They are either too big, too small or the wrong fabric or finish. Over the years, this Westside store has become a regular stop for many budget-conscious shoppers in search of something unique, top quality and way below retail.

A Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a man early Wednesday when he reached into his rear pocket for what the officer thought was a weapon, but which actually was a glove, officials said. Chester Randolph, 36, was struck in the chest by a shotgun round and later pronounced dead at the California Medical Center, said Lt. William Hall of the department's officer-involved shooting investigation team.

Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said Wednesday night that President Reagan made grave mistakes in the Iran- contra affair, but, once recognized and corrected, "they should be put behind us." Mitchell, in the Democratic response to Reagan's address on the affair, said the President was right to acknowledge "that the buck stops with him." But he said the policy of selling arms to Iran for the release of U.S.

For all the agony and anger about energy in California, compounded now by the bankruptcy filing of Pacific Gas & Electric, deregulation and the transformation of the electric power industry is moving forward nationwide--and worldwide. Many electric companies elsewhere are thriving and being recommended by investment analysts even as the regulated utility division of PG&E Corp.

The outlawed Irish Republican Army said Friday that a British soldier's wife was shot and killed in the mistaken belief that she was a member of the British armed forces. Thursday night's slaying was the third IRA attack in two weeks but the first killing of a woman civilian in years of IRA attacks on British forces in West Germany. The IRA on Friday acknowledged the killing.

In the war of words that parallels NATO's bombing of targets in Serbia, the feelings of victimization and defiance projected by the Belgrade media are growing stronger by the day. NATO missteps this week have eased the task of those seeking to portray the Western alliance as the aggressor and the people of Serbia as the innocent victims of a wildly unjust bombing campaign.

A man says he broke into an apartment in Oconomowoc with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his neighbor was watching. "Now I feel stupid," said James Van Iveren, 39, who has been charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct in the case. "This really is nothing -- nothing but a mistake."

After mistakenly sending an 11-year-old girl from Los Angeles to Florida instead of to Detroit, America West Airlines has decided that it will no longer let children fly alone on flights that make en route stops. The Phoenix-based carrier said Thursday that starting Sept. 10, children between 5 and 11 who are flying without adult accompaniment will be booked only on nonstop flights. Children under 5 must be accompanied by an adult.