Boris Yeltsin, 76

Yeltsin died Monday at 76, a Kremlin official announced. The Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified medical source as saying that he died of heart failure.

Like Peter the Great, the 18th-century czar he once mentioned as his model, Yeltsin was no towering democrat. In launching a war against the breakaway southern region of Chechnya in 1994, he was responsible for the violent deaths of more Russian citizens than any Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin. As president, he tolerated -- even authorized -- the excesses of a system in some ways as corrupt and morally adrift as the one it replaced.

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Employers are checking online personal information

This news is for people who are posting personal information online and discussing
their problems in their work in their blogs.

Want a job? Clean up your Web act
By Tim Ferguson, Special to CNET News.com

Employers are increasingly checking out online personal information about candidates when making recruitment decisions.

Net reputations built up through online activities--such as blogging, posting videos to YouTube, or using social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.com--can have a significant effect when applying for a job, according to a report from business social network Viadeo.

According to the research, released March 28, one in five employers finds information about candidates on the Internet, and 59 percent of those said it influences recruitment decisions.

A fourth of human resources decision makers said they had rejected candidates based on personal information found online. Most people, however, remain unaware of the effect their Net reputation can have on their job prospects.

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Diabetic Mr. Universe Tussled with the Police

Diabetic Mr. Universe suspected to be drunk, tussled withh the police

A reigning Mr. Universe was charged Tuesday with resisting arrest and assault on a police officer after a scuffle at a Redwood City movie theater in which police mistakenly thought the diabetic bodybuilder was drunk as he was slipping into insulin shock.

Doug Burns faces up to a year in county jail if convicted in an incident that has drawn sharp criticism from some diabetes experts who believe officers overreacted to a medical situation.

"Doug is the consummate gentleman," said Jeff Hitchcock, founder of Children With Diabetes, an educational support group that helps families of children with diabetes. "The treatment he received by the police is outrageous."

A Redwood City Police Department spokesman defended the officers.

"It's unfortunate that this event occurred, but I think the officers acted properly in the circumstances that they were faced with," police Capt. Chris Cesena said. "Our personnel were not given enough time to assess Mr. Burn's personal condition."

Officers were called to Century 20 theater in downtown Redwood City at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday after a security guard, believing the disoriented Burns was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, escorted him outside, police said. When two officers arrived, the powerfully built Burns, 43, allegedly pushed one and then assumed a "fighting stance," police said.

One officer used pepper spray in an attempt to subdue Burns but with no effect. Both officers then wrestled Burns to the ground and needed three more officers, who arrived as backup, to handcuff him, police said. During the scuffle, Burns suffered small cuts to his nose and forehead, while one officer received a small cut to his finger and another officer suffered an arm injury and was placed on medical leave, Cesena said.

Burns, a Redwood City father of three, is the 2006-07 Natural Mr. Universe, the winner of a competition that stresses bodybuilding without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He often speaks publicly about his diabetes to raise awareness of the disease.

He disputed the police version of the incident, saying: "That story is completely out of line."

Burns, diagnosed with diabetes at age 7, said he realized his blood sugar was low shortly after entering the theater. Burns tried to make his way to the snack counter on the second floor but began losing his vision. Burns said he wasn't able to stand properly as a security guard escorted him down the theater escalator.

"The last recollection I have is leaning against the security guard as he's bringing me out and perspiring a lot," Burns said. "To say that I confronted them in a fighting stance? I couldn't even stand up. I couldn't see."

Burns said he remembers nothing outside the theater, and the first time he recalls seeing police officers was as they stood over him while a paramedic treated him.

Prosecutors decided to file the misdemeanor charges against Burns based on the police reports, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. He pointed to a case several years ago in which the district attorney's office charged a man in a fatal car crash but later dropped the charges after medical evidence showed he had been in a diabetic coma at the time.

"As we read the police reports, we're not seeing a similar thing here," Wagstaffe said. "If (Burns) ultimately presents us with information to that effect -- that he was unconscious of what had occurred -- then we will consider it."

Diabetics suffering from low blood sugar levels -- or hypoglycemia -- often become confused and experience blurry or double vision, nervousness, irritability or even aggression, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

"They closely mimic drunkenness," Hitchcock said. "The presumption that someone is drunk when they are behaving that way is a bad assumption."

They can become desperate in their movements as they attempt to get sugar-rich foods while their body is simultaneously shutting down, said Dr. Joseph Prendergast, a veteran Redwood City endocrinologist.

"People get very anxious because they are seeking some help," Prendergast said. "It happens to wives, it happens to kids who have known dad for years, and it also happens at snack food counters in theaters."

Cesena said the officers had no way of knowing Burns was diabetic or slipping into insulin shock until after he was arrested. They did not notice whether Burns had a MedicAlert bracelet or any other indication he was diabetic, he said. Burns said he was not sure whether he had his MedicAlert bracelet on at the time.

After Burns was cuffed, police called medics to treat him for the pepper spray, and he told them he was diabetic and suffering from low blood sugar, Cesena said. Burns was taken to San Mateo Medical Center for treatment. He was cited on the misdemeanors and was released without being booked into jail, police said.

He is scheduled to be arraigned May 2, and prosecutors will not seek to have bail set in the case, Wagstaffe said.

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