Psychological Tests

Saudi Arabia's former oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani best describes his country's contribution to Middle East peace. While addressing a Georgetown University audience in November, Yamani suggested that U.S. reliance on gulf oil was in the interest of the U.S. and Western Europe in order to keep Israel accountable on human rights violations and flexible in making land for peace concessions. He said that this formula would minimize the risk of another OPEC oil embargo.

Former Torrance Police Officer Roland Sabara, who resigned after his January arrest for accosting a woman in Lancaster, was ordered to state prison Wednesday for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation before his sentencing on a battery and false imprisonment conviction. Lancaster Superior Court Judge Haig Kehiayan set Aug. 28 as the sentencing date for the 35-year-old Lancaster resident. In a five-page letter to the judge, Sabara said he remembered little of the Jan.

As the trial of suspected serial arsonist John L. Orr approaches, his attorney has moved to quash two key pieces of evidence: Orr's fingerprint, found on a fire-setting device, and the Glendale fire captain's unpublished novel. Douglas McCann said he also plans to seek an independent psychiatric review to find whether his client, Glendale's chief arson investigator, possesses an arsonist's mental and emotional profile.

The retired judge investigating allegations of brutality by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies hired a psychologist Wednesday to assist him in the probe. Retired Superior Court Judge James G. Kolts said that Fred Loya Jr. will prepare a psychological evaluation of recruitment and training practices of the Sheriff's Department. Loya, who will be paid $75 an hour, is a former assistant professor of psychology at UCLA.

Patients walk into Peter Breggin's office and lay their diagnoses on the couch: They're depressed. They're anxious. They're sure they have a measurable, palpable illness, with shape, substance, gravity, consistency. "A little boy came in with his parents and I asked him: 'Do you know why you're here?' " Breggin says. " 'Yes. I'm here because you're the doctor who doesn't believe I should take Ritalin for my ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder).'

Following the recent arrests of two Los Angeles County foster mothers--one of whom allegedly killed the toddler she cared for--the head of the county's child welfare agency is proposing that all potential foster parents undergo psychological testing and receive mandatory training in child care.

A confidential report recommends that Sheryl Lynn Massip be confined to a psychiatric institution for at least 6 months to evaluate whether she has recovered from a psychotic illness that contributed to the killing of her infant son, officials said Monday. The report, completed last week by county health officials, will help Superior Court Judge Robert R.

A judge ordered an Orange woman, charged with torturing and abusing her 10-year-old nephew, to undergo psychiatric testing after her lawyer contended Friday that she is incapable of standing trial. * The action came after Cynthia Medina pleaded not guilty to the charges against her in the county's first child-torture case. Criminal proceedings against the 31-year-old woman in Municipal Court in Santa Ana will be halted until the questions of her mental capability are resolved in Superior Court.

An incendiary device used to ignite a fire in Santa Barbara that claimed one life and more than 500 homes has been shipped to a laboratory for fingerprint testing, but investigators said Friday they are not "even close" to finding the arsonist responsible for the most destructive Southern California blaze in at least three decades. "We don't have a person or a car we can focus on right now," said Thomas E. Buckley, a U.S.

The long-playing, woe-filled ballad of Beach Boy Brian Wilson's return from mental illness and substance abuse took a bizarre turn on Monday as Wilson's cousin filed a court petition claiming that the rock singer has been "brainwashed" by a former psychologist who has taken control of Wilson's recording enterprises.