
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995                   TAG: 9504110148
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PROVIDENCE, R.I.                                LENGTH: Short

R.I. SENATOR HAS PARKINSON'S

U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell is not saying whether he plans to run for re-election next year after disclosing that he has Parkinson's disease.

The 76-year-old Rhode Island Democrat told The Providence Sunday Journal the diagnosis ``has not changed my decision'' not to commit to either retirement or an effort to win another six-year term. ``Obviously it's one of the factors that I would have to consider,'' Pell said.

Bill Bryant, his spokesman, said Monday that the senator was on a 10-day trip to Africa and had nothing to add to the newspaper's account.

Pell's doctor said the disease, which attacks the nervous system but not usually the mental faculties, is ``very mild'' in Pell so far.

- Associated Press

by CNB