Nation briefs 11/29/02

Zsa Zsa Gabor said to be in coma after accident

LOS ANGELES -- Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was hospitalized and in a coma Thursday after a car she was riding in struck a light pole on Sunset Boulevard, a family spokesman said.

Gabor suffered multiple broken bones, cuts and bruises in Wednesday's accident and was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Gerd Birkmann, a spokesman for her husband, Frederic von Anhalt. She was listed in serious condition, said hospital spokeswoman Leslie Porras.

"The worst injuries are to her head," Birkmann said from Germany.

Gabor, 85, was a passenger in the front seat of a car driven by her hairdresser when the accident occurred Wednesday evening, said von Anhalt, who was reached at Cedars-Sinai early Thursday. He would not comment on the extent of her injuries, but said she remained unconscious.

Software maker buys Napster's assets

SAN FRANCISCO -- Software maker Roxio bought the remaining intellectual property assets of the now defunct song-swap company Napster for just over $5 million in cash Wednesday.

The deal went through immediately following a Delaware bankruptcy court's approval.

Santa Clara-based Roxio, which specializes in CD-burning software, snapped up Napster's patents and brand name for the cash, plus $300,000 in warrants for shares of Roxio common stock.

Roxio is not assuming any of Napster's liabilities. And Napster's remaining hardware -- servers, routers, computers -- remains part of the company's bankruptcy proceeding and will be auctioned off Dec. 11.

Napster was once the high-flying start-up of college student Shawn Fanning. He originally launched the service as a way to connect like-minded music fans so they could share songs for free over the Internet.

The free service worked like a charm and lured in heavy investing from German media company Bertelsmann. But the music industry saw Napster as theft and convinced a federal court judge to force the service offline.

Formerly conjoined twins to remain in L.A. to heal

LOS ANGELES -- The return home of twin girls formerly connected at the head has been delayed, but they could be back in their native Guatemala by Christmas, doctors say.

Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Quiej Alvarez, who are 16 months old, were expected to leave Los Angeles late last month, but medical complications have delayed their departure.

The latest setback came Wednesday, when doctors at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital announced that Maria de Jesus' scalp hadn't healed fully.

Doctors also have learned that Maria Teresa is partially deaf in one ear, probably as a consequence of the 23-hour surgery to separate the sisters.

This week, doctors reported that the twins are thriving and continue to improve with physical therapy.

-- From wire reports