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THE grandad of university mass killer Cho Seung-Hui said last night: "Son of a bitch. He deserved to die. "It's better not to have such a child in the family." And he dismissed Cho - diagnosed with autism as an eight-year-old - as "a trouble-causer who has destroyed his mother's life". Kim Hyang-Sik, 81, spoke at his home in South Korea after seeing the video Cho made of himself holding a gun to his head. Student Cho, 23, shot dead 32 at Virginia Tech University before killing himself.

Asperger’s syndrome has been used as a defense with some success in cases of violence, experts say, suggesting it may arise when the fatal stabbing of a student at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School eventually goes to court. During an arraignment Friday in the death of 15-year-old James F. Alenson, the attorney for 16-year-old John Odgren said his client has Asperger’s, a mild form of autism that has helped win acquittals for defendants in 22 U.S. criminal cases since 2002, according to the Autism Society of America. The neurological disorder is characterized by average or above-average intelligence but difficulty developing social...

Nikki Bacharach, daughter of songwriter Burt Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson, committed suicide, Bacharach and Dickinson said in a statement Friday. Nikki Bacharach, 40, suffered from Asperger's Disorder, a form of autism. She killed herself Thursday night at her condo in Thousand Oaks, said Linda Dozoretz, a spokeswoman for the family. "She quietly and peacefully committed suicide to escape the ravages to her brain brought on by Asperger's," the statement said. Nikki Bacharach died of suffocation using a plastic bag and helium, said Mike Feiler of the Ventura County coroner's office. Born prematurely in 1966, Lea Nikki Bacharach studied geology...

We all know the basic alternatives that form the familiar "spectrum" of American politics and culture. If a young person is turned off by religion or attracted by the achievements of science, and he wants to embrace a secular outlook, he is told--by both sides of the debate--that his place is with the collectivists and social subjectivists of the left. On the other hand, if he admires the free market and wants America to have a bold, independent national defense, then he is told--again, by both sides--that his natural home is with the religious right. But what if all of...

  MSNBC.com Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born? Advances in prenatal genetic testing pose tough questionsCOMMENTARY By Arthur Caplan, Ph.D. MSNBC contributor Updated: 12:33 p.m. ET May 31, 2005 Who needs Bill Gates? No, I don’t mean who needs a gazillionaire corporate titan, a man whose company, Microsoft, took in billions of dollars last year by controlling nearly all the software used to run nearly every computer on the planet.No, I mean, literally, who needs him? If you could go back in time and stop the birth of the world’s most famous nerd, would you?You probably answered my...

Probe: Teach couldn't pass N.Y. exam so paid man $2 to take it BY LISA MUÑOZ, JONATHAN LEMIRE and JOE WILLIAMSDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Rubin Leitner, who is developmentally disabled, sits outside his Brooklyn home, saying Bronx teacher Wayne Brightly (below) paid him to take state exam. A Bronx teacher who repeatedly flunked his state certification exam paid a formerly homeless man with a developmental disorder $2 to take the test for him, authorities said yesterday. The illegal stand-in - who looks nothing like teacher Wayne Brightly - not only passed the high-stakes test, he scored so much better...

In January of 1991, economist Lawrence Summers took a leave from his Harvard professorship and moved to Washington to work for the World Bank. His job was to create economic plans for countries in need of aid. It was a weighty task, but Summers relished the challenge. Using the kind of provocative imagery for which he would become notorious, he once explained that countries without a strong central government and vigorous private sector were like "a cripple . . . with no legs, pushing himself around on a crude board with wheels, surviving only with begging and trying to look...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A graduate student convicted in the $2 million firebombing of scores of sport utility vehicles lost a bid Monday for a new trial. A federal judge rejected the motion by 24-year-old William Jensen Cottrell, the U.S. attorney's office said. Cottrell had claimed the court improperly barred his attorneys from presenting evidence that he suffered from a type of autism that made it difficult for him to understand the intentions of his alleged accomplices. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner sided with prosecutors, who argued that Cottrell's complaint was "irrelevant to the issues at trial." Cottrell, a...

LONDON (AFP) - Renaissance-era artistic genius Michelangelo might have had Asperger's syndrome, a milder form of autism which causes sufferers to have difficulties with social interaction, according to experts on the condition. A by-product of Asperger's -- also known as high-functioning autism -- can be a special talent in a particular area such as art, music or mathematics. The research by a British and Irish expert in autism, published in British publication the Journal of Medical Biography, argues that Michelangelo met a number of the criteria for Asperger's. "Michelangelo was aloof and a loner," said Dr Muhammad Arshad, a psychiatrist...

Last July, Steven Miller, a university librarian, came across an article about a set of neurological conditions he had never heard of called autistic spectrum disorders. By the time he finished reading, his face was wet with tears. "This is me," Mr. Miller remembers thinking in the months of eager research that followed. "To read about it and feel that I'm not the only one, that maybe it's O.K., maybe it's just a human difference, was extremely emotional. In a way it has changed everything, even though nothing has changed." Mr. Miller, 49, who excels at his job but finds...

I am SO ANGRY at Rush Limbaugh right now!! In his last segment he really bashed and basically made fun of people who have Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. He apparently has not done " his homework" on this one.He read from a article, but I didn't hear who had written it. My granddaughter and husband both suffer from Aspergers.It has been a very difficult journey for our daughter and son in law. Rush will get LOTS of angry emails concerning this!!!

Last July, Steven Miller, a university librarian, came across an article about a set of neurological conditions he had never heard of called autistic spectrum disorders. By the time he finished reading, his face was wet with tears. "This is me," Mr. Miller remembers thinking in the minutes and months of eager research that followed. "To read about it and feel that I'm not the only one, that maybe it's O.K., maybe it's just a human difference, was extremely emotional. In a way it has changed everything, even though nothing has changed." Mr. Miller, 49, who excels at his job...