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1720730_0

Disabilities in the Age of Genetics

To the Editor: ''The Problem With an Almost-Perfect Genetic World'' (Week in Review, Nov. 20) discusses the concern that advances in prenatal screening for Down syndrome and other conditions will lead to a decrease of services and care for people born with disabilities. But testing for Down syndrome during pregnancy and the accompanying expansion of choice should lessen the isolation of people with disabilities. The world is a much more welcoming place for children who are wanted. With testing, families will be expecting these children to arrive as they are, they will have been given a head start in working through their concerns, and other people will come to understand that the children were wanted -- chosen in spite of test results, even if the choice is different from what theirs would be. Remove the part of the disability that conjures up fear of the unknown and uncontrollable, and you've removed a large part of what makes up prejudice. ''That could happen to us'' becomes ''I wonder what we would do?'' And respect for difference and different choices replaces fear. Suzanne Hoffman Levin New York, Nov. 20, 2005

1720389_4

The Capitalist Manifesto

of whether high-output industrial economies replaced low-growth agrarian systems. Repressive forces, from skinheads to Nazis and Maoists, may spring more from evil in the human psyche than from any economic indicator. Friedman's thesis is now being tested in China, home of the world's most impressive economic growth. If he's right, China will rapidly become more open, gentle and democratic. Let's hope he's right. Though ''The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth'' may not quite succeed in showing an iron law of growth and liberalization, Friedman is surely correct when he contends that economic expansion must remain the world's goal, at least for the next few generations. Growth, he notes, has already placed mankind on a course toward the elimination of destitution. Despite the popular misconception of worsening developing-world misery, the fraction of people in poverty is in steady decline. Thirty years ago 20 percent of the planet lived on $1 or less a day; today, even adjusting for inflation, only 5 percent does, despite a much larger global population. Probably one reason democracy is taking hold is that living standards are rising, putting men and women in a position to demand liberty. And with democracy spreading and rising wages giving ever more people a stake in the global economic system, it could be expected that war would decline. It has. Even taking Iraq into account, a study by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, at the University of Maryland, found that the extent and intensity of combat in the world is only about half what it was 15 years ago. Friedman concludes his book by turning to psychology, which shows that people's assumptions about whether their lives will improve are at least as important as whether their lives are good in the present. Right now, American living standards and household income are the highest they have ever been; but because middle-class income has been stagnant for more than two decades, while the wealthy hoard society's gains, many Americans have negative expectations. ''America's greatest need today is to restore the reality. . . that our people are moving ahead,'' Friedman writes. How? He recommends lower government spending (freeing money for private investment), repealing upper-income tax cuts (to shrink thefederal deficit), higher Social Security retirement ages, choice-based Medicare and big improvements in the educational system (educated workers are more productive, which accelerates growth). Friedman doesn't worry that we will run out

1720774_0

Disabled Children And Compassion

To the Editor: The writer of a Nov. 20 letter says, ''Discipline problems will only get worse as long as advocates for special education students demand that all disabled children be put into regular classrooms.'' She then asks, ''What do we want to teach children, and what skills do we want them to learn?'' We should want to teach our children tolerance and acceptance. We should want our children to learn to live alongside others who may have learning or physical challenges, or both, but who also may have so much to teach them in the way of courage and compassion. These are worth as much as or more than math skills and history facts. Barbara Mann Setauket The writer is a special education teacher.

1720717_2

Rural Water Worries Persist After Chinese Chemical Spill

water supply,'' Mr. Du told the New China News Agency, ''and we have been executing a detailed plan regarding resumption of water supply.'' The pollution slick started on Nov. 13 after a petrochemical plant explosion spilled 100 tons of deadly benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River. The factory is located in Jilin City, more than 200 miles upstream from Harbin, and the dangerous slick began steadily moving downstream. But factory executives and Jilin officials initially denied any pollution problems and waited for nearly a week to inform neighboring Heilongjiang Province, where Harbin is located. Officials in Harbin also initially failed to inform residents of the pollution threat, announcing instead that the water system would be shut down for routine repairs. But that notice set off rising panic and wild rumors, including growing speculation that the local government had detected signs of an earthquake. Harbin officials responded with a new announcement confirming the chemical spill. Environmental monitoring posts around Harbin found that pollution levels in Songhua had dropped almost to normal on Saturday as the slick moved past the city. But it is unclear whether the government plans extensive testing and cleanup efforts for the wells that supply the villages beside the river. Ms. Liu said the main well in Sifantai was about 100 yards from the Songhua. Several villagers said they were worried about contamination. ''We're concerned that we are so close to the river,'' said Tao Yunzhi, who lives in the village. ''The polluted water gets in the well.'' Ms. Liu said the local water had become cloudy in recent weeks and she could not tell whether it had changed, or become contaminated, as the pollution flowed by. On Friday, village officials finally turned off the faucets from the wells, but people continued drinking well water stored in pots and cisterns. ''No one was sending any water to us,'' Ms. Tao said. ''We watched on television all the city people getting water delivered to their doors. Who cares about us village people?'' Earthquake Kills at Least 14 BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Agence France-Presse) -- At least 14 people died, hundreds more were injured and thousands of houses collapsed Saturday when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck near Jiujiang, a popular tourist destination in east China, officials said. The quake, which hit at 8:49 a.m., was felt in cities hundreds of miles away, according to the China National Seismic Observation Network.

1720441_11

Waiting for Havana

Americans remember -- or fantasize about. ''Americans are wrong if they think that once Castro is gone, everything will be as it was before,'' says Lissa Ree Weinmann, the director of the Cuba Project at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York. ''Cubans have changed'' -- many Cubans today only know life under Castro -- ''and many of them will not accept any kind of American domination.'' There does not seem to be a chance of any immediate loosening of the restrictions, says Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who is a leader in the battle to lift the embargo. But he says that if a vote in Congress were taken secretly, the ban on travel and trade would most likely fall. Cuban experts cite a range of American organizations, from the American Society of Travel Agents to food exporters across the South, which support free travel and trade. Lifting the embargo will take as much as a decade, estimates Antonio R. Zamora, a Miami lawyer with the New York firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed who has published at least three studies on United States-Cuba relations. ''The embargo is trade, buying and selling, and it is banking, credit cards, investment,'' he says. There are also knotty property issues, he says, referring to the American-owned companies and industries expropriated by Cuba when Fidel Castro took over. Those issues will take years to resolve, but he is convinced that the travel ban will come down first. When that happens, Mr. Zamora, a Cuban exile who fought at the Bay of Pigs, foresees a huge surge in travel to the island. ''Cuba is like having a place as beautiful as Hawaii,'' he says, ''only 90 miles from the United States.'' ''It has a very strong singular culture,'' Mr. Schrager says, ''unlike other islands, like Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, that seem like atolls next to it. Cuba is a real country with a distinct personality. It's exotic and timeless. Whether it's music or some other reason, it captures our fancy. ''And politics aside, Castro, he's the last great world leader on the world stage. He is the last one left, and to me that adds to the legend.'' Getting There With a few exceptions, the United States government does not allow Americans to travel to Cuba, just 90 miles from Key West. Among those permitted to travel under

1720632_7

Who's in the Corner Office?

still do not see corporate jobs as the best match for their skills. Instead, many turn to law, consulting or hedge-fund management. These fields tend to value skills at which the students have long excelled -- skills that can often be measured objectively. Minorities have done better in some of these professions than in corporate America. The pay in these fields also tends to be higher for younger employees, and a career rise can happen quickly. ''The most able students interested in business are increasingly finding their way into entrepreneurial activity, into financial services, into high tech and into consulting,'' Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard's president, said. ''Joining large organizations is no longer the major choice for students interested in business.'' Frederick W. Smith, C.E.O. of FedEx, attended Yale in the mid-60's and recalls being surrounded by sons of coal and steel executives. In recent years, he has spoken with Yale's president, Richard Levin, about encouraging students to join corporations. Students ''are more interested in Wall Street rather than in manufacturing, transportation and so forth,'' Mr. Smith said. ''They're much more interested in government. They are much more interested in the media.'' Not only are they interested in government, but running for office often requires wealth that is common among Ivy League students and alumni. Many candidates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their campaigns, and sometimes much more. Voters now seem to care less about a candidate's background -- economic, religious or otherwise -- and more about his positions, said Brandice Canes-Wrone, a politics professor at Princeton. The best example may be the willingness of evangelical Protestants to vote for conservative Catholics. But the rise of wealthy politicians from elite schools makes the point, too. There are almost as many millionaires in the Senate as nonmillionaires, according to Roll Call, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill. Since 1988, 9 of the 10 major-party nominees for president have held a degree from Harvard or Yale, the only exception being Bob Dole. In the previous 24 years, only 1 of the 12 nominees went to Harvard or Yale. That was Gerald R. Ford, who received a law degree from Yale. ''By traditional measures, we have an elected and appointed elite that is more representative of the American public,'' said Larry J. Sabato, of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. ''Yet in many ways they're less representative.'' Of course, it

1717694_0

China Is Bright Spot in Dark Report on the World's Diminishing Forests

Widespread tree planting in China has slowed the rate at which the earth's forested area is dwindling, but the clearing of tropical forests, much of it in areas never previously cut, continues to grow, according to a new United Nations report. The study was published yesterday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome, and is online at fao.org/forestry. ''While good progress is being made in many places, unfortunately forest resources are still being lost or degraded at an alarmingly high rate,'' said Hosny El-Lakany, assistant director-general of forestry for the food and agriculture agency. The slowing rate of forest loss is encouraging, some forest experts say, but several biologists contend that most acreage gained by plantation forestry contains a fraction of the plant and animal diversity destroyed with virgin forests. Forest cover has generally been expanding in North America, Europe and China and diminishing in the tropics. The report said that worldwide just over 50,000 square miles of forest -- an area a bit smaller than New York State -- had been cleared or logged annually since 2000. Nearly half of that annual loss affected tracts with no evidence of previous significant human use, the report said. In the report, which compared forest trends over the last five years with those through the 1990's, South America passed Africa in net annual loss of forests (the difference between areas added as plantations and lost through cutting or burning). Much recent clearing in South America has occurred in the southern Amazon basin, where jungle is rapidly being converted to pasture and farmland, especially soybean fields, the report said. Asia has seen an extraordinary turnaround in a decade: it lost about 3,000 square miles of forest a year in the 90's but gained nearly 4,000 annually since 2000, said Mette Loyche Wilkie of the F.A.O. But almost all of that change has occurred because of China's new forest policy, she said. Tropical forests elsewhere in Asia are still being cleared at a rising pace, the report said. Several independent forest experts said the study was a valuable rough estimate of global trends, but cautioned that it was generated using data provided by countries with widely varying track records in monitoring deforestation. ''The F.A.O. is doing the best it can given what the governments are providing,'' said Mila Alvarez, who tracks forest trends for World Resources Institute and Global Forest

1715607_0

Effective Tactics Against Bullying

To the Editor: As laudable as it is for schools to offer anti-bullying workshops to students (''Confronting Bullies Who Wound With Words,'' Oct. 16), significant research has documented the three essential components of effective bully prevention in schools. Evidence-based programs, like those approved by the Departments of Education and Juvenile Justice, provide education on bullying and its consequences for students, teachers and families, and focus on the critical role of bystanders in the ''bully-victim'' interaction. They also include school policies and procedures for reporting, and identify consequences for the behavior. Effective bully prevention requires that schools engage in a concerted and consistent effort to develop a positive social culture that supports all children. Brave (Bully Reduction Anti-Violence Education), an evidence-based program of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, has assisted schools in such efforts for seven years. Sadly, bullying -- whether social, emotional or physical -- is part of virtually all students' educational experience. As concerned parents and citizens, shouldn't we provide schools with the information and funding necessary to make effective, comprehensive bully prevention an educational guarantee as well? Rona Novick New Hyde Park The writer is director of clinical services, Alliance for School Mental Health, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

1715236_22

A Doctor for The Future

had developed the chimera technology would ask the F.D.A. for permission to test it on humans in the fall. ''I really thought we would start treatment in six months,'' he says now. ''I believed it would happen.'' What happened instead was that two months after the conference, in September 1999, an 18-year-old Arizonan named Jesse Gelsinger died during a gene-therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania. Gelsinger was not a Crigler-Najjar patient, and the trial in question used viruses, not chimeraplasts, but the field came to a complete halt for several years and has still not recovered. The company that was to conduct the Crigler-Najjar trials was sold to a French firm, and the scientists who had brought hope to Morton's patients moved on to other things. The disappointment changed the lens on Morton's view of medicine. It made him look not at what science might someday be but rather at what was already possible. It solidified his conviction that genetics is not a separate realm but a part of everyday care. He had been waiting for the start of genomic medicine. When his gene-therapy trials fell through, he realized that genomic medicine was what he was already practicing. + Crigler-Najjar patients, he knew, would benefit from liver transplants, but transplants are invasive and expensive, and he had been delaying the procedure for a number of children, hoping to stall until gene therapy was available. He stopped stalling, and four of his patients have had those transplants since then. Similarly, he concluded that the best available hope for GA1 patients was diagnosing their disease at birth, before they are nursed or given protein-rich formula. So he turned new attention to the subject of newborn testing. To that end, he hired Erik Puffenberger, who has a Ph.D. in human genetics. Puffenberger now oversees the hundreds of thousands of dollars of instrumentation at the clinic -- a single room that is as well equipped as most university labs. There is the mass spectrometer that Morton started with 17 years ago. (Although the original has been replaced with a newer model.) There is also a gene sequencer, an amino-acid analyzer and a gas chromatograph, which allows scientists to separate and identify organic acids in a sample of blood or urine. Morton began screening newborns before he even opened the clinic, starting by collecting urine-soaked diapers from local midwives and testing them for GA1

1715153_1

If at First You Don't Succeed Enough

like to see, school officials say. To make their offspring look even more appealing, some parents are not sending transcripts from that ''first'' ninth grade to colleges, an omission that raises ethical issues. Their hope is that admissions officers won't see the stutter, says Marcia Rubinstien, an educational consultant in West Hartford, Conn., who advocates honesty. ''Five or 10 years ago, students didn't repeat unless there was something broke that needed to be fixed, a presiding academic deficit, an illness or some disturbance in the family pattern,'' says Gregg Maloberti, dean of admissions at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. In 2001, only a single student out of 150 incoming freshmen there was repeating the year; last fall 15 did it. This year, the school admitted 11 freshman repeaters. Mike Hirschfeld, admissions director at St. Paul's, has seen a noticeable increase. ''Parents want their kids to be successful, and if they believe repeating will enhance their chances, they will absolutely consider it,'' he says. In the past five years, a third of the graduates of St. Paul's received at least one offer from an Ivy League school. Of course, other factors influence the decision, like fears that public high schools aren't giving their children the best education. Families also want to make sure their children are mature enough to take advantage of the advanced curriculum at these private schools, and to succeed when the bar is so high. The practice leaves some college gatekeepers in an ethical quandary. While supporting the idea of giving students time to do better, administrators fret about the equity of a strategy available only to the ambitious affluent, those who can pay $25,000 to $35,000 a year. ''The ones who can do this are only the ones who can afford to do this,'' says Jim Bock, dean of admissions and financial aid at Swarthmore College. ''Where does that leave the rest of the people?'' For moderate-income families seeking a similar advantage, and those in public schools, the answer is probably nowhere. At New Trier, a rigorous public high school on Chicago's affluent North Shore, repeating a grade to shore up a solid transcript is out of the question. ''The answer is unequivocally no, never has happened and I would not support it,'' says Hank Bangser, the superintendent. Some private schools aren't going along either. At Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., officials say they were amazed

1715162_1

One Good Career Deserves Another

survey by the University of Phoenix, whose emphasis is adult education programs, 58 percent of workers have changed their careers (not just their jobs) and more than half of those have done so more than once. These ''recareerists'' are transforming education -- leading to all manner of continuing education classes, online universities, certificates and graduate degrees designed to qualify workers to do something completely new. Adults age 25 and older now account for more than a third of those enrolled at degree-granting institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Their presence will continue to make itself felt. Enrollment is projected to increase 13 percent among 25- to 29-year-olds and 23 percent among 30- to 34-year-olds by 2014. This constant recalibration of a working life can be fulfilling, providing constant opportunity for personal and financial growth. But it can also be full of land mines, as Ms. Panisch learned. Each opportunity for choice is an opportunity to choose either well or poorly. There are many stories of transformation, but there are also stories of regret, poor planning and bad luck. Some educators warn that visions of a career transformation can be naïve. Doors close over time. Prospects are limited by lack of experience. ''The notion of the unbounded career,'' says Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, ''is pure myth.'' Anna Ivey, a career counselor who specializes in law and business school, advises her clients to talk to people already doing the job about the market and the downside -- tedium, layoff rates, financial instability -- as well as the attractions. ''You have to have positive and well-researched reasons for making the change,'' says Ms. Ivey. (She is a career changer herself, having been a lawyer and dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School; she didn't like the hours or inflexibility.) ''Make sure you are not just fleeing your old job,'' she says. ''It's very easy to romanticize other jobs and other careers if you're stewing away at your desk and plotting your escape.'' It was that need to flee that led Ms. Panisch, now 50 and living in Connecticut, to take her early misstep. Sports television had been her goal since high school. With an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and a master's in journalism from Northwestern, she spent a few years at a PBS station before finding

1714037_4

But Will It Stop Cancer?

took into account alcohol consumption -- which has been associated with a slightly increased breast cancer risk -- the exercise effect went away. ''If you are going to exercise, there are other good reasons,'' Dr. Henderson says. ''But protection from breast cancer is not one of them.'' Dr. McTiernan has a different view. Instead of continuing to ask if there is a correlation between exercise and breast cancer, she said, she has been asking, ''What are the biochemical changes that occur with exercise and could they affect a woman's risk?'' In Dr. McTiernan's studies, she randomly assigned overweight postmenopausal women to exercise for an hour a day, six days a week, or not to exercise. And she kept track of the levels of sex hormones -- estrogens and androgens -- in their blood. After menopause, women's estrogens and androgens are mostly synthesized by an enzyme in body fat. The more fat a woman has, the more hormones she makes. Exercise can reduce fat levels, and so it may reduce hormone levels and thereby lower breast cancer risk. The results of the study were as Dr. McTiernan might have predicted: women who lost fat had lower hormone levels and those who did not lose fat did not. On average, the exercisers lost about three pounds of fat over the yearlong study; the more fat they lost, the more their hormone levels dropped. Nearly a third lost at least 2 percent of their fat -- about 4 pounds for a typical woman in the study, who weighed 180 pounds at the start and whose body was 47 percent fat. That modest loss in fat was accompanied by a 10 percent drop in estrogen levels, nearly twice what would have been expected if they had lost the same amount of weight with diet alone, Dr. McTiernan said. That is enough of a hormone drop to be associated with a decreased breast cancer risk, she added. Such studies, of course, do not prove that exercise prevents breast cancer. But, Dr. McTiernan said, finding biochemical changes that are consistent with a protective effect at least gives some plausibility to the findings from the population studies. ''It makes us more confident that exercise is working,'' she said. While the link between breast cancer and exercise sprang from observation, the notion that exercise and colon cancer might be related came out of the blue. And epidemiologists and

1714121_0

Top Methodist Court Backs Conservatives on Gay Issues

In a pair of decisions that bolstered conservatives, the highest court of the United Methodist Church defrocked an openly lesbian minister yesterday and reinstated a pastor who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation. The nine-member court, the Judicial Council, also ruled in two other cases that church law superseded local resolutions that were more inclusive toward gay men and lesbians. The series of decisions come at a time when disputes over the role of gay men and women in the clergy, and whether to bless same-sex unions, are roiling the mainline churches. The rulings served to reaffirm the Methodists' traditional stance against the ordination of ''self-avowed, practicing homosexuals.'' In the best-known of the cases decided yesterday, the Judicial Council removed from the ministry Irene Elizabeth Stroud, who told her Philadelphia congregation in 2003 that she was a lesbian in a long-term relationship with another woman. But church experts said the most significant decision could prove to be the little-known case of the Rev. Edward Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in South Hill, Va. Mr. Johnson's decision to keep an openly gay man from joining his congregation was upheld by the Judicial Council as the rightful exercise of his pastoral discretion. He had been suspended for a year without pay by fellow ministers in Virginia, but the Judicial Council ordered his regional leaders to find a new appointment for him. The church has declared in the past that there are no bars to the participation of gay men and women as lay people, but it also gives pastors discretion over their congregations. Stephen Drachler, a spokesman for the United Methodist Church, noted that gay men and lesbians were active members of thousands of Methodist churches across the country. But, speaking from a semiannual conference of bishops in North Carolina, he acknowledged of the ruling in the Johnson case: ''The bishops are looking at this very carefully as far as what impact this may or may not have going forward. What sort of precedent does this create? What role does it create for bishops over their pastors? No one has answers to that yet.'' Some Methodists had voiced concerns that the debate over gay men and women could rupture their church, the country's third-largest denomination, and cause conservatives to leave. The rulings will most likely assuage conservatives, church

1714010_1

OBSERVATORY

removal of trees), debris on the ground and bare soil (which would be exposed by logging operations). Using the technique to study the top five timber-producing states in Brazil, the researchers report in the journal Science that 4,700 to 7,600 square miles of forest were selectively logged each year from 1999 to 2002. Those numbers effectively doubled the amount of forest in those states that had been destroyed or damaged. The research also found that logging occurred in some conservation areas that are meant to be off limits to timber harvesting. Tsunami Protection Reduced Here's another reason to be concerned about the state of the world's forests: They can help protect against damage from tsunamis. An international team of researchers reports in Science that coastal mangrove forests in southern India served as buffers in the Dec. 26 tsunami. Villages that were just inland of the forests were spared and in some cases completely undamaged, while those with nothing between them and the ocean were obliterated. The researchers note that in areas where the tsunami hit hardest, nothing protected towns and villages from destruction. But the study area, the Cuddalore District in Tamil Nadu state in India's southern tip, was spared the worst waves. In addition to mangroves, the area features plantations of casuarina trees (often known as she-oaks) that are harvested for fuel. The researchers noted that these trees afforded some protection: in the southern part of the study area, five villages within the plantations survived with partial damage. Even the plantations survived, except the first 5 or 10 rows of trees. Mangrove forests around the world are being destroyed as coastal settlement and other human activity expands. The researchers note that in the five countries most affected by the tsunami, mangrove forests have been reduced by about one-fourth over the last two decades. They suggest that conserving existing mangrove forests and replanting others will help reduce the loss of life from similar future disasters. A Telescope's First Image One of the largest telescopes ever built has achieved ''first light,'' producing images for the first time. The Large Binocular Telescope, a project of the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy and other institutions, is being installed on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona. When finished, it will consist of two 27.5-foot-diameter mirrors, which because of their arrangement will have resolving power equivalent to a

1714058_0

Cuba Accused of Illegal Campaign Gifts in Brazil

During Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's successful presidential campaign in 2002, his Workers' Party received up to $3 million in illegal campaign contributions from the government of Cuba, according to the cover story in the current issue of Brazil's leading weekly newsmagazine. The report, which the party and the Cuban government have denied, has reignited the wide-ranging corruption scandal that has paralyzed Mr. da Silva's government for nearly six months. After a month of muted complaints that conveyed a sense that the worst was over, opposition leaders have reacted to the report with threats of a new, politically exhausting investigation and even impeachment proceedings. ''This is a serious occurrence in every respect,'' Senator Tasso Jereisatti, a leader of the center-left Brazilian Social Democratic Party, said in an interview with the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, noting that Brazilian law forbids campaign donations from foreign sources. ''If it is proven, the president is going to have no alternative. He will not have the conditions to be able to govern; he'll have to give up his job.'' The report, in the magazine Veja, did not say how the money, said to be cash in American dollars, was transported from Cuba to Brazil. But it quotes two party functionaries, both former aides to Antônio Palocci, then a senior member of Mr. da Silva's campaign team and now the finance minister, as saying the money was delivered by a Cuban diplomat, hidden in cases of Johnny Walker whiskey and flown to Mr. da Silva's campaign headquarters. ''I took a plane from Brasília bound for São Paulo with three cases of liquor,'' Vladimir Poleto, who identified himself as the courier for one shipment of money, was quoted as saying in the magazine account. ''Afterward, I learned that there was money in one of the cases.'' Mr. da Silva, who has maintained all along that he was unaware that a multimillion-dollar slush fund was being used to buy the support of members of Congress and to pay his media adviser's bills off the books, has not yet commented directly on the accusation. But the president of the Workers' Party, Ricardo Berzoini, dismissed the Veja report as false and politically motivated. ''It's completely baseless,'' he said. ''Veja is acting like a front of attack on the government and not as a journalistic publication.'' The government of Cuba, which funneled money to selected guerrilla groups and left-wing

1714118_2

What Is Organic? Powerful Players Want a Say; A Struggle Over Standards In a Fast-Growing Food Category

an industry lobbying group that proposed the amendment and spent several months pushing for its adoption, says that the measure will encourage the continued growth of organic food. Some advocacy groups, however, say the amendment will weaken federal organic food standards, first established under a 1990 law. Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, calls the initiative a ''sneak attack engineered by the likes of Kraft, Dean Foods and Smucker's.'' One of the lobbyists for Altria, Kraft's majority owner, Abigail Blunt -- the wife of Representative Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, who recently became interim House majority leader after Tom DeLay of Texas resigned from the post -- has been working on the issue, the company says. Dean Foods' subsidiary Horizon Organic and the J. M. Smucker Company, the owner of Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic juices, said they supported the work by the Organic Trade Association, which represents both large and small companies in the business, but did no lobbying on their own. The amendment injects Congress directly into the debate over whether certain artificial ingredients and industrial chemicals should be allowed in products labeled organic. In a lawsuit ruled upon in January, Arthur Harvey, an organic blueberry farmer, argued that no synthetics at all should be in food bearing the ''U.S.D.A. Organic'' seal. A federal judge agreed, sending shivers down the spine of many organic food manufacturers. Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, said that the amendment was intended to protect the industry from the Harvey ruling and will not change the status quo. If applied, the judge's ruling would have forced many manufacturers to stop using the U.S.D.A. Organic seal and instead relabel products to state, for instance, ''cookies made with organic flour'' or ''frozen lasagna made with organic tomatoes.'' Many in the organic industry say they are willing to allow some use of synthetics in organic food. Since 2002, the National Organic Standards Board, a 15-member panel of advisers appointed by the Agriculture Department, has served as the gatekeeper for such substances. In that time, 38 have been approved, many of them relatively harmless ingredients like baking powder, pectin, ascorbic acid and carbon dioxide. But Joseph Mendelson, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, a liberal advocacy group, says that the proposed legislation will open the door to a range of other chemicals and artificial materials, including a large category

1718488_0

Childhood Deaths in Japan Bring New Look at Flu Drug

The Food and Drug Administration is looking into reports of deaths and abnormal behavior among children in Japan who took the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, which is being stockpiled by governments around the world for use in a possible flu pandemic. The agency said that given the available information, it could not conclude that Tamiflu had caused the deaths and other problems. It plans to continue monitor possible complications from the drug for up to two years. Roche, the company that sells Tamiflu, said that the reports of these problems were rare given that millions of people had used the drug, and that the problems might have been caused by the flu itself. The issue of Tamiflu's safety in children will be discussed today by an advisory committee to the F.D.A. at a meeting in Gaithersburg, Md. Such a safety review is required one year after a drug receives a patent extension offered to companies that test the safety and effectiveness of their medicines in children. Seven other drugs will also be discussed at the meeting, but most of the time will be devoted to Tamiflu, also called oseltamivir. While the discussion is not directly related to planning for a pandemic, the F.D.A. said that a better understanding of the safety of Tamiflu for children would be useful in such a situation. Tamiflu was approved in 1999 in the United States and late in 2000 in Japan. In documents prepared for the meeting, F.D.A. reviewers said 12 children, ages 1 to 16, had died after taking the drug, all of them in Japan. In one document, the reviewers commented on the death of six children ages 2 to 4 who had apparently been healthy before getting the flu. ''It is concerning that six young patients died suddenly within one to two days after initiation of oseltamivir therapy,'' the reviewers wrote. The documents also said there had been 32 instances of ''neuropsychiatric events,'' 31 of them in Japan, including delirium, abnormal behavior and hallucination. Two boys, one 12 and one 13, jumped from the second-story windows of their homes after receiving two doses of Tamiflu. Those boys survived, but Japanese news reports have told of two teenagers taking Tamiflu whose death may be attributable to suicide. And an 8-year-old boy had a frightening hallucination and rushed out of his house into the street three hours after his first dose. There have also

1718394_0

Red Update Alert: Poseidon Goes Belly Up Again

Re-creations of 70's schlock, from ''Starsky & Hutch'' to ''The Dukes of Hazzard,'' all seem to obey the second law of movie dynamics: remakes drift to a state of inert uniformity known as entropy. NBC's three-hour ''Poseidon Adventure,'' to be shown Sunday night, may be the exception that proves the rule. It is not quite as deliciously awful as the original 1972 disaster movie, but it comes pretty close. Pauline Kael once described ''The Poseidon Adventure'' as a ''waterlogged 'Grand Hotel.' '' The TV version is closer to a massacre on ''The Love Boat.'' Not a single cruise director is spared. The writers wisely chose to update the plot, which was based on a novel by Paul Gallico. Instead of a freak weather disaster, Islamic terrorists disguised as kitchen workers take over the luxury cruise ship and blow it up with explosives hidden inside beer kegs. (These terrorists are much better prepared than the pirates who tried to board a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia earlier this month with a grenade launcher.) Modern audiences have short attention spans and need a movie to kick off with a little violence. The terrorist twist allows the film to open with a scene of a Special Forces team raiding an enemy safe house in Jordan and opening fire on the conspirators -- always a bracing way to start. The terrorists are slaughtered (''all targets are reduced,'' one agent says to another), but not before their leader manages to destroy evidence of the secret plot to blow up the S.S. Poseidon. The cast of characters has been updated as well, though, oddly, not to reflect multiculturalism. There are no black or Hispanic heroes. Only feminism gets a tip of the cap: one of the smarter, tougher survivors is Rachel (Alexa Hamilton), a successful entrepreneur who booked the cruise to improve relations with her whiny husband, Richard (goes without saying: Steve Guttenberg). But she also chooses to share the cabin suite with their two children, putting a damper on candle-lit reconciliation. Richard, a failed novelist, seeks adulterous consolation in the arms of the ship masseuse, Shoshanna (Nathalie Boltt). Ernest Borgnine played Detective Lt. Mike Rogo in the original. In the post-Sept. 11 version, Rogo (Adam Baldwin) is a gruff, buff officer in the Department of Homeland Security who is assigned to the Poseidon as an undercover sea marshal. Rogo is a man of

1718471_0

Disability Law, Moving Backward

The federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, known as the I.D.E.A., has greatly improved the lives of disabled schoolchildren across the United States. Before the original legislation was passed in 1975, children who were institutionalized with serious emotional problems could sometimes be found strapped to their desks and screaming at the top of their lungs. In the public schools, otherwise bright and capable children with undiagnosed learning disabilities were regularly shunted into corners and ignored. The worst horror stories are behind us, thanks to I.D.E.A., which requires schools to give disabled children a fair and appropriate public education. There is still much to be done, and the financial burden can strain some school systems, particularly small ones. But the Supreme Court erred this week when it weakened the part of the law that allows parents to challenge the educational plan that the districts are required to make for each child. The court ruling was the result of a controversy over whether the family or the school district should bear the burden of proof in determining whether a school had failed to provide an appropriate education. Some states argued, sensibly, that the school districts should bear the burden of proof, given their greater resources and public responsibility. But in a case involving a district in Maryland, where state law is silent on the issue, the Supreme Court ruled that the parents, as ''the party seeking relief,'' should have that burden. The court's ruling ignores the clear advantages that school districts almost always have over parents who challenge their decisions. The districts have the money, and many have lawyers and rosters of experts on their payrolls. But many of the families cannot afford legal representation at all. With less pressure to justify themselves, the schools can simply stand pat -- even when their educational plans have proved disastrous for the disabled children in question. This was clearly not the outcome that Congress intended when it passed this landmark law, and deliberately expanded the rights of disabled children and their parents. Editorial

1716894_1

Two Views From the Top

towers that remain in the Adirondacks, saying they should come down in the interest of wilderness protection. With some questioning their very existence and others pressing for their preservation, the towers have become the latest land-use controversy in the Adirondack Park, a six-million-acre patchwork of public and private lands roughly the size of Vermont. ''There are philosophical arguments and legal arguments, and all of them mesh together and create a real quandary as to what to do with these,'' said Joe Martens, president of the Open Space Institute, a land conservation group. In the last decade, local groups have adopted more than a dozen fire towers on public land in the park. Members have raised money and volunteered time for restoration work, from installing new stair treads and strengthening anchor bolts to replacing broken glass with plexiglass. The groups have cleaned up overgrown trails and printed educational brochures. The efforts have attracted both local residents with fond memories of the observers and fleece-clad hikers who appreciate the views the towers afford. Bill Frenette, 78, falls into both categories. A native of nearby Tupper Lake and its official historian, Mr. Frenette is also a Forty-Sixer, a name for someone who has climbed the 46 major Adirondack peaks. ''The towers provide a stimulus for people to climb,'' said Mr. Frenette, a member of the board of Friends of Mount Arab, which has spent about $11,000 toward the tower's restoration here. ''You get up on top, and the lakes and mountains you see in the viewshed are just mind-blowing.'' On a recent afternoon, puffy clouds hung low on the horizon, but the air was clear. From the base of the tower, the view was impressive. But from the cab at the top, it was sublime -- taking in the snow-covered summit of Whiteface Mountain, the gentler landscape of the St. Lawrence Valley and a string of lakes that gleamed like lapis beads amid the pewter of bare trees. Friends of Mount Arab fixed up a cabin next to the 35-foot tower, one of many that were built to house the observers and sometimes their families. And in the summer months, the group even pays a graduate student to be an interpreter for the hundreds of hikers who come through each week. ''Everyone realized that these towers could still have a real public purpose even though they weren't being used for fire protection,'' said

1716857_0

News Summary

INTERNATIONAL A3-8 First Woman Elected President in Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former World Bank official, defeated the soccer star George Weah in Liberia's presidential elections, becoming the first woman elected head of state in modern African history. A1 Seeking a Fair Trial in China Inadequate reforms in China's legal system, which has a conviction rate of 99.7 percent, have raised questions about whether it is possible for a criminal defendant in China to get a fair trial. A1 12 Arrested in Jordan Attacks The Jordanian authorities arrested 12 people in connection with the suicide bombings at three hotels that killed 57 people. A8 Some Arabs in Jordan blame Israel for the bombings, a view representative of the extent to which Israel weighs on the regional psyche, many social and political analysts say. A1 Germany Settles on Leadership Germany's two major political parties sealed an agreement to govern the country together, under Angela Merkel, who would become the country's first female chancellor. A3 North Korea Talks Stall The United States and North Korea sparred over financial penalties and whether to negotiate a nuclear freeze or focus on full disarmament, as six-nation nuclear talks ended. A6 Rice Addresses Sunnis in Iraq Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited a Sunni stronghold in Iraq and then met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, urging disaffected Sunnis to reject the insurgency. A8 Vatican Looks at Gay Priest Ban A Vatican document would ban new priests who ''present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies'' but not exclude candidates who overcame any gay tendencies roughly four years before their final ordination, an Italian newspaper reported. A3 NATIONAL A9-12; 16 Bush Forcefully Defends Justifications for Iraq War President Bush lashed out at Democrats who have accused him of misleading the nation about the threat from Iraq's weapons programs, calling their criticism ''deeply irresponsible'' and suggesting that they are undermining the war effort. A1 Episcopal Leaders Warn of Rift Conservative leaders of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. intensified their warnings about the possibility of a schism in the church if it fails to renounce its support for the ordination of gay clergy members, the blessing of same-sex unions, and what they say is the church's rejection of scriptural tradition. A9 A Close Vote to Limit Rights Four Democrats who had voted previously to prohibit abusive treatment of detainees in American custody provided the margin of victory for a Republican-backed measure that would deny

1719236_0

Disabled Children And Discipline

To the Editor: You report that Kristi Visser, a high school sophomore, was transferred to a private school after complaining to her parents that the teacher was spending most of the day disciplining children who would not behave (''Transfer Students: Shifting to Private Schools,'' Oct. 30). Discipline problems will only get worse as long as advocates for special education students demand that all disabled children be put into regular classrooms. This is happening even if these students cannot listen or follow directions, and regardless of their effect on other children in the classroom. Should the development of social skills be considered so important in educational settings? The time spent in school has to be well spent. What is the purpose of an educational system that does not recognize this fact? What do we want to teach children, and what skills do we want them to learn? Jane Goldblatt East Northport

1719136_0

What Britain Can Tell France About Rioters

AFTER months of unease, a humdrum incident in a hardscrabble part of town turns suddenly sour. Pretty soon, the police and the poor are locked in street fighting. Gasoline bombs fly. Cars burn. This was Brixton in south London in 1981 -- not much different from the suburbs of Paris in 2005. Twenty-four years ago, riots in the mainly black district of Brixton were regarded as a turning point in Europe's struggle to absorb its former colonial subjects, just as this month's French riots may become a moment of decision about how France treats its own immigrants and their descendants. But if there is a lesson the British would gladly teach the French, it is that riots can only begin a revolution in race relations; a quarter-century from now, the issues may still be unresolved. After Brixton, Britain adopted policies that in some ways echoed America's response to its own urban racial disturbances. They encouraged Britons to embrace ethnic diversity, although they fell short of American-style affirmative action, which Britons see as illegal discrimination. Two and a half decades later, the results are still ambiguous, and today Britain is slipping into a new debate -- over whether identity politics is a good idea at all. Maybe, some people are saying, immigrants should be stripped of their distinct ethnic identities, rather than made to feel more comfortable in them. That sounds remarkably like the way the French already think. In Brixton in 1981, as in the suburbs of Paris today, young black people resented routine police searches; discrimination and unemployment had left ethnic minorities with a profound sense of grievance. There, too, said Jenny Bourne, a researcher at the not-for-profit Institute of Race Relations, it was the children and grandchildren of a first generation of immigrants who were ''rebelling against the fact that they had nothing in society.'' There, too, a political elite seemed dumfounded when rage erupted into violence. More than 300 people were injured and 83 buildings and 23 vehicles were damaged over the course of several nights. These days, Britain has the look -- far more than many European nations -- of a land that has come to accept its ethnic diversity. Black and Asian journalists anchor and report the television news. Parliament has a sprinkling of nonwhite lawmakers. The 30,000-plus Metropolitan Police in London, once virtually all white, has slowly become 7 percent nonwhite. ''No country in

1719143_4

Brazil Weighs Costs and Benefits of Alliance With China

at the eastern edge of the Amazon, as part of a venture with a Brazilian company. In a separate project, a Brazilian company is already building another steel mill near Belém to meet the demand that is anticipated from the Chinese and American markets. The iron ore for those projects comes from Carajas, south of here, which has the world's largest reserves. Copper to supply China and other markets is being extracted from the area, and building a copper smelter nearby is being discussed. ''Everything in the Amazon that is electricity-intensive has a big Chinese component and is getting strong official support, even though the main beneficiary will clearly be China, rather than Brazil,'' said Mr. Pinto, who wrote the book ''Hydroelectric Projects in the Amazon.'' ''Not only are the Chinese going to be investing a minimal amount themselves, but they will also be shifting the resulting pollution problems to the Amazon.'' Mr. da Silva's government, mired in a corruption scandal that threatens his chances of being re-elected next year, is so eager to move ahead on the dam that in July it persuaded Congress to authorize the project, ignoring a requirement to confer with communities that would be affected. Opponents are challenging that action in the courts. ''Even though the Brazilian constitution says that we are supposed to be consulted, no one came to talk with us,'' said Manuel Juruna, the leader of the main community here. ''We want them to know that for all of the indigenous peoples of the Xingu, this project can only destroy our traditional way of life by driving away fish, drying up our hunting areas and bringing in its place nothing but hardship and suffering.'' In Brazil's industrialized south, little mention has been made of the dam's connection to Mr. da Silva's broader strategy of strengthening economic and political ties with China. That policy is coming under increasing criticism, especially in São Paulo, the nation's business capital, on the grounds that Brazil's national interests are being sacrificed. Correction: November 23, 2005, Wednesday Because of an editing error, an article on Sunday about the major role of Chinese companies in the industrial development of Brazil's eastern Amazon region omitted the full name and background of an author who was quoted as saying the main beneficiary will be China. He is Lúcio Flávio Pinto, editor of Amazon Agenda, the leading newsletter that covers the region.

1719138_1

The Problem With an Almost-Perfect Genetic World

inclusion. ''We're trying to make a place for ourselves in society at a time when science is trying to remove at least some of us,'' said Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People With Disabilities, who suffers from bipolar disorder. ''For me, it's very scary.'' Some bioethicists envision a dystopia where parents who choose to forgo genetic testing are shunned, or their children are denied insurance. Parents and people with disabilities fear they may simply be more lonely. And less money may be devoted to cures and education. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, for instance, does not endorse prenatal testing, which the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends offering during pregnancy. ''If you can terminate pregnancies with a condition, who is going to put research dollars into it?'' said Nancy Press, a professor of medical anthropology at Oregon Health and Science University. Indeed, the $15 million spent on the new test for Down by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development might have gone instead toward much-needed research on the biochemistry of people living with the condition, said Michael Bérubé, co-director of the disabilities studies program at Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Bérubé, whose 14-year-old son has Down syndrome, worries that if fewer children are born with the condition, hard-won advances like including them in mainstream schools may lose support. ''The more people who think the condition is grounds for termination of a pregnancy, the more likely it will be that you'll wind up with a society that doesn't welcome those people once they're here,'' he said. ''It turns into a vicious cycle.'' Anthony Shriver, founder of Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities form friendships, said smaller numbers will mean even greater social isolation for the people his group serves. ''Loneliness is one of the most significant challenges they face,'' Mr. Shriver said. ''And it would only become more acute as they became a smaller segment of the population.'' Beyond the impact on the disabled, disabilities activists say, the implications of prenatal testing for diversity and democracy require more attention than they have so far received. Lisa Hedley, whose 10-year-old daughter has dwarfism, said the condition is usually not detected prenatally. It is so rare that it has traditionally not been considered worth the expense of the genetic test. Soon, though, pregnant women may be offered a gene-chip technology that can perform

1719246_0

Special Education And Minorities

IN the debate over the achievement gap between white and minority children in Connecticut, the overrepresentation of black and Hispanic children in special education classes is among the most sensitive subjects. In communities throughout the state, minority children are carrying around labels, like emotionally disturbed and intellectually disabled (formerly called mentally retarded), that do not accurately describe them, special education experts said. They said the students are being placed in special education because educators are misinterpreting behavior problems and misunderstanding cultural differences. The issue has forced some school districts to change the way they spend money on special education, pushed the state to increase monitoring of special education placement, and prompted administrators to train educators from districts where the numbers are particularly skewed on how to deal with racial and ethnic differences in the classroom. ''It's one of what I would call Connecticut's dirty little secrets in education,'' said John Brittain, a civil rights lawyer who worked on the landmark Connecticut education case, Sheff v. O'Neill, that addressed segregation in public schools. Since the state began tracking the disproportions in 2002, the disparities in special education placement among different racial and ethnic groups have decreased in many school districts. But data compiled by the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems, an organization funded by the federal government, showed that the overall disproportion in the state grew worse from 1999 to 2004. No one race should have a disproportionate number of disabled children, said Dr. Nancy Cappello, an education consultant for the State Department of Education. ''You would expect it to be proportionate to the demographics of the community,'' she said. ''There should be no overrepresentation.'' Experts who have studied the issue in Connecticut and throughout the country said disabilities are often misdiagnosed in minority children, especially boys. Children who are placed in special education for the wrong reasons face stigmas that are difficult to overcome, psychologists said. ''The child begins to see himself that way,'' said Dr. Jocelyn Mackey, an assistant professor of psychology at Southern Connecticut State University who has worked as a school psychologist in numerous Connecticut schools. The issue of overrepresentation of black and Hispanic children has received particular scrutiny in some of the state's cities, but it also exists in smaller towns. This year, two municipalities, Norwalk and Windham, faced sanctions because their policies and procedures for placing children in special education did not pass

1719234_4

Some Signs of Easier Re-entry After Breaks to Rear Children

her maternity leave in 2003. She took a series of projects for more than two years as she looked for permanent employment. The consulting work kept her skills sharp and bolstered her list of contacts. She interviewed for several jobs and accepted an offer in October. ''Had I just been home with my baby, I would have had a finite set of skills applicable in fewer work environments,'' Ms. Greene said. ''It helped me broaden the areas I could work in and gave me current projects I could talk about.'' Returning workers and career consultants say that perhaps even more dangerous than letting résumés get dusty is to let contacts grow stale. Even though parents may have no energy amid late-night feedings, play dates, bake sales, doctor appointments, Spanish classes, soccer, music and ballet, it is vital to keep in touch with colleagues who eventually may be in a position to hire. Volunteer experience, they say, must be strategic to be a résumé builder -- for example, leading big fund-raising campaigns rather than ladling soup at a homeless shelter. ''The prohibition on gaps is pretty great,'' said Barbara Ehrenreich, author of ''Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.'' ''You have to be getting an education or making money for somebody all along every minute.'' In researching the book, Ms. Ehrenreich presented an employment gap caused by child-rearing. Returning to the work force, she said, ''was certainly fine in the blue-collar world, but there was total blank silence in the white-collar world.'' After hiring a résumé writer, career coaches and an image makeover consultant, she was still unable to find a job she would have wanted. Job seekers' situations could improve by the end of the decade, when baby boomers start retiring and the growth of the labor force and population slow. At the same time, the projected number of jobs will increase, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of course, that does not take into account technological changes or a shifting of jobs overseas. Though employers are aware of this, few are ready to change, said Tierney Remick, global managing director for consumer retail practice at the executive recruiters Korn/Ferry International. ''I don't believe companies are planning for it,'' Ms. Remick said. ''They know it's coming. They've read about it.'' Joe Lovato, associate director for global diversity at Procter & Gamble, said consumer goods

1719188_0

Pentagon to Raise Importance Of 'Stability' Efforts in War

The Pentagon's leadership, recognizing that it was caught off guard by difficulties in pacifying Iraq after the invasion, is poised to approve a sweeping directive that will elevate what it calls ''stability operations'' to a core military mission comparable to full-scale combat. The new order could significantly influence how the military is structured, as well as the specialties it emphasizes and the equipment it buys. The directive has been the subject of intense negotiations in the Pentagon policy office and throughout the military; the deliberations included the State Department and other civilian agencies, as the order aims to push the entire government to work in greater unison to plan and carry out postcombat operations. The directive also envisions sending abroad more civilian officials, including State Department personnel, to help the military establish the peace and rebuild after combat. The newest draft of the document, delivered in recent days to the acting deputy secretary of defense, Gordon R. England, for final approval, states, ''Stability operations are a core U.S. military mission that the Department of Defense shall be prepared to conduct and support.'' The stability operations carried out by the Department of Defense ''shall be given priority comparable to combat operations and be explicitly addressed and integrated across all D.O.D. activities,'' the draft says. Although the American military is now virtually in a class of its own when it comes to conventional combat, the wars in Afghanistan and in particular Iraq prove that winning the peace is just as important -- and sometimes more difficult. Congress has criticized the Bush administration, and the Pentagon, for not devising effective plans to stabilize and rebuild Iraq after the swift capture of Baghdad. Many lawmakers have accused the administration of utterly failing to coordinate its postcombat efforts across the executive branch. Even in Afghanistan, where reconstruction and democratization is progressing more successfully, the effort is stymied by the lack of government personnel from departments other than the Pentagon to work in developing the economy, building public service infrastructure, battling the narcotics trade and developing democratic political institutions. Although the military is stretched by its current missions, the number of Americans in uniform is vastly larger than the civilian force in the State Department and other agencies assigned to reconstruction tasks. Beyond that, military personnel can be ordered to yearlong tours in war zones, unlike civil and foreign service personnel, who have greater choice over

1719898_2

Roosevelt in Brazil, With Ticks, Termites and Malted Milk

that ranges from the personal to the literally earth-shaking. Part of it describes Roosevelt's tender feelings for his son Kermit, who accompanied him on the journey. Part of it describes the tectonic shifts that separated South America from Africa and created the continent-long spine that is the Andes mountain range. ''The River of Doubt'' is full of interesting information. It describes the evolution of the Amazon from huge inland lake to a river so vast that the island at its mouth, Marajó, is nearly the size of Switzerland. And it explains why so little of the Amazon region had been accurately mapped before the Roosevelt expedition. Col. Cândido Rondon, a famously intrepid Brazilian whose story widens the book's scope, led both the initial trip and the Roosevelt trip to the region. The colonel's tactics were as tough as the Roosevelt group's were useless. Ms. Millard explains how a speaking tour for Roosevelt evolved into such a major undertaking. As originally planned, it was to involve 800-pound steel-hulled motorboats, but no thought was given to how these boats could be carried through the jungle. Supplied with all the olive oil, mustard and malted milk they might need, the travelers soon realized that they would have to rethink their modus operandi. They were also unprepared for a rainy climate where, as Roosevelt wrote, ''everything became mouldy, except what became rusty.'' Although the book frames its rain forest descriptions in terms of what Roosevelt might have seen, this device is slightly contrived. They easily come to life on their own. Ms. Millard's research ranged from examining rusted surgical tools to interviewing indigenous Cinta Larga Indians, and her attention to detail pays off. She fills the book with vivid evocations (for example, ''the screams, crashes, clangs and cries of the long Amazon night'') and notable arcana, like the facts that hawk moths have six-inch tongues or that 10 percent of the animal biomass in the rain forest consists of ants. Most importantly, she conveys the fierce ingenuity required for any life form to survive. ''Though frequently impossible for a casual observer to discern,'' she writes, ''every inch of space was alive -- from the black, teeming soil under Roosevelt's boots to the top of the canopy far above his head -- and everything was connected.'' This book describes the strategic trade-offs made by trees racing to the top of the jungle canopy; the adaptive

1720003_0

Not Interested In Finishing Corzine's Term, Codey Says

Just a day after polls showed him with an overwhelming approval rating among New Jersey voters, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey announced on Wednesday that he had withdrawn his name from consideration to succeed Jon S. Corzine, the governor-elect, in the United States Senate. The announcement ends months of speculation about his political future and will undoubtedly lead to a new round of conjecture about whom Mr. Corzine will appoint to the seat. Since Mr. Codey agreed not to challenge Mr. Corzine earlier this year for the Democratic nomination for governor, the most popular Corzine victory picture among politicians and lobbyists had his predecessor in the governor's office becoming his successor in Washington. But asserting that he had no interest in living the peripatetic life of a United States senator, Mr. Codey said that he instead looked forward to working with Mr. Corzine as president of the State Senate, a post he has continued to hold while serving as acting governor and will continue to hold come January. Although Mr. Codey, 59, repeatedly said that he was intrigued by the possibility of becoming a senator, he also expressed reservations about the job's effect on his wife, Mary Jo, and their two sons. Ultimately, he said, those concerns won out. ''I have been consistent from Day 1 in what I've said about this issue: Going to Washington is not something I'm interested in doing,'' said Mr. Codey, who made the announcement during a news conference at a food bank here. ''It's not something that works for my family, and it's not something that works for me.'' However, he did not rule out running for another office in the future. Advisers with Mr. Corzine's transition team did not respond to requests for comment about Mr. Codey's decision or the governor-elect's next move. Many Democrats believe that with Mr. Codey's announcement, United States Representative Robert Menendez of Hudson County has solidified his position as the front-runner to succeed Mr. Corzine. Mr. Menendez's closest rival is considered to be Representative Robert E. Andrews of Camden County. Several other politicians, including Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of Monmouth County, have also expressed interest in filling the seat. While Mr. Menendez is well known, he carries some political baggage. Besides being dogged by questions about his personal life, Mr. Menendez is the leader of Hudson County's Democratic political machine, several of whose officials have been jailed in

1719984_4

The Long Wait for the Chance to Empty Pockets and Shed Shoes

relatives, Jim and Jeanie Kaercher, who own a trout farm in Dexter, Mich., approach screening in Detroit with only the essential carry-ons. No sippee cup for their 3-year-old son. No toys for their 7-year-old daughter. Fashion compromises were negotiated at home, Ms. Kaercher said. ''If they have lights on their shoes, they have to take them off.'' If the screening process seems no faster, it does seem at least less confrontational these days -- less like being pulled over by a police officer, for the agency preaches kindness to its workers. Lauren Alcarese, who manages a 50-worker team that moves around to the baggage or passenger screening areas that are busiest at O'Hare, reads Eastern philosophy in her off-hours and has learned to be stoic about angry fliers. ''It's O.K. to accept it and allow people to blow off,'' she said. ''I've had passengers who were abusive to the point of having to call the police. And I found out they'd just lost a father.'' Richard Larson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and queuing expert, said sour handlers can increase anxiety among those in line, making the wait seem even longer. Traveling recently, he said, ''they seem to be much more friendly now.'' At O'Hare, in addition to widening screening lanes, the agency's local industrial engineer, Bill Stover, a retired Air Force logistics officer, is making changes aimed at speeding the lines. Separate paths for workers to ferry the empty gray trays out front, instead of squeezing by passengers, help. Areas where passengers were wanded with hand-held metal detectors have been shrunk. That provides more space for tables so more passengers can unload and load at once, speeding the line. And new screening machines for checked baggage, being installed downstairs with baggage handling equipment instead of in the front lobby of the terminal, can handle bags three to four times as fast, Mr. Stover said. During Thanksgiving week 2004, there were some long, long lines. Some passengers waited 81 minutes in Oklahoma City, 66 minutes at Los Angeles International Airport and 61 minutes in Fort Lauderdale, according to the agency's Web site. The agency would not provide 2003 data. The 2004 results show that passenger experiences vary. The 81-minute wait in Oklahoma City, the longest there on the Wednesday before the holiday, was more than five times the next-worst daily wait there during the week, 16 minutes

1717972_0

New Jersey Sets Bear Hunt For Six Days in December

New Jersey will hold a six-day hunt next month to reduce the state's bear population after an increase this year in complaints about problem bears. Bradley M. Campbell, the commissioner of the state's Department of Environmental Protection, said a culling is necessary because ''communities are fearful for their safety and the safety of their families.'' He said the state received nearly 1,000 complaints so far this year about bears, which he said was up ''significantly'' from all of last year, when 756 damage and nuisance complaints were filed. Two bears were killed in August in Sussex County in northwest New Jersey after one broke into a house and another broke into a shed. And, in another case this year, a camper was awakened by a bear but he was able to scare it away. The state's Fish and Game Council, an independent panel whose members are appointed by the governor, approved a hunt earlier this year, but only Mr. Campbell can schedule the bear hunt. Last year, Mr. Campbell blocked a hunt, saying the state would be better off exploring other management tools such as contraception and public awareness campaigns. The State Supreme Court sided with Mr. Campbell and ruled that a hunt could not be held until a comprehensive plan was approved. Now, with the plan approved, the 4,000 hunters who have applied for permits will have a chance to kill black bears with shotguns from Dec. 5 to Dec. 10, provided they pass a safety course. Mr. Campbell noted that the hunt could be called off early if state biologists determined that too many bears have been killed. Though bears have been sighted in all of New Jersey's 21 counties, the hunt will be limited to a 1,600-square-mile area in the northwestern part of the state north of Interstate 78 and west of Interstate 287. In 2003, 328 bears were killed in the state's first bear hunt in 33 years. Last year, Mr. Campbell called a hunt unnecessary, saying the bear population was about 1,600, though several independent studies estimated that the number was closer to 3,200. Earlier this year Mr. Campbell said the bear population was estimated to be between 2,000 to 3,000. Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, an animal rights group based in Darien, Conn., said she was disappointed by Mr. Campbell's decision, especially because Governor-elect Jon S. Corzine opposed a hunt. She said

1717975_0

America's Future Is Stuck Overseas

ACCORDING to a recent survey, more foreign graduate students enrolled in American universities this year than last, but their numbers remain far lower than they were in 2002. That international graduate student enrollment is no longer declining is welcome news. But it should not distract us from the obstacles the United States still faces in attracting top talent to its shores. Foreign graduate students, particularly those who study science or engineering, are a boon to the American economy and education system. They are critical to the United States' technological leadership in the world economy: according to a study by Keith Maskus, an economist at the University of Colorado, for every 100 international students who receive science or engineering Ph.D.'s from American universities, the nation gains 62 future patent applications. International students have founded many of America's most innovative companies, including Sun Microsystems and Intel. Moreover, without international students, certain science and engineering programs could not be offered at many American universities, because the foreign students populate classes and serve as teaching assistants. They also go on to supply faculty for those programs. About one-third of America's engineering professors are foreign-born. Although it's easy to blame tightened post-9/11 visa policies for stagnating or declining international student enrollment figures, other factors have contributed to this unfortunate trend. Among them are fierce competition for students with Britain, Japan and other countries; improvements in the economies and universities of China and India, the countries that send the largest number of students here; the cost of an American education; and a perception that the United States is not interested in attracting international students. Finally, and perhaps most avoidably, the United States makes it exceedingly difficult for our foreign-born science and engineering doctorates to stay in the country, where they might work in our private sector, conduct research in our labs or teach at our universities. It can take two years or more to gain permanent residency, and there are significant backlogs in applications for employment-based green cards. The good news is that relatively small changes in current policies can redress these problems. The recent Senate-passed budget bill is a step in the right direction: it expands the number of employment-based green cards and temporary visas available to highly skilled foreigners. But the Bush administration should build on that by offering employers the option of paying a fee to expedite the processing of their employees' applications,

1717988_0

Yellowstone Grizzly May Lose Endangered Status

The Yellowstone grizzly bear, one of the first and most controversial animals to be protected by the Endangered Species Act, is fully recovered, and it is time to remove the stringent safeguards it has had for three decades, federal officials said Tuesday. The number of bears in the wild landscape that has Yellowstone National Park at its core has risen to more than 600 from a low of 200 to 300 in the 1970's. ''This has been a very long process,'' Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said after the department announced it would publish a proposed delisting of the animal in the Federal Register on Thursday. ''People involved in the effort felt strongly the time had come to acknowledge recovery of the bear.'' The Interior Department plans to issue a decision after a 90-day public comment period. If delisting occurs, it will probably happen no sooner than mid-2006, the agency said. The job of managing an unlisted bear would fall to state wildlife agencies and the National Park Service. It is considered very likely that the states would allow the animal to be hunted. Federal grizzly bear biologists in Montana say that years of research shows that the bear population around Yellowstone is robust. ''It's probably one of the most studied mammals in the world,'' said Chuck Schwartz, head of the federal Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team in Bozeman, Mont., which has primary responsibility for studying the Yellowstone bear. Conservation groups are divided. The delisting is supported by the National Wildlife Federation, the nation's largest conservation group. ''We have reached all of the recovery targets and exceeded them for a number of years,'' said Thomas M. France, head of the group's Northern Rockies office in Missoula, Mont. One of the main goals in the recovery plan required that there be a minimum of 15 sows, or female bears, with cubs each year to assure successful reproduction. ''We're now seeing more than 40 sows with cubs,'' Mr. France said. Other conservation groups, however, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, oppose delisting. While the number of bears is healthy, they say, some of the bears' critical food sources, like the white bark pine nut, are in steep decline, which could force the bear to leave the park in search of food. And removing protection, they say, would not allow the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to halt development

1717961_1

Catholic Bishops Approve Proposals on Lay Workers

a set of recommendations to guide dioceses in dealing with the rise of lay workers in the church. The lay people do much of what priests did a generation ago, like running youth ministries and organizing prayer services. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, chairman of the subcommittee on the lay ministry, said the increased involvement of lay people began after the Second Vatican Council in 1965. But church experts said the recommendations were a response to the dwindling number of priests in the United States. In fact, the report noted that the ''number of paid lay parish ministers has increased 53 percent since 1990.'' Of them, 64 percent are women, it said. ''The dirty little secret that neither the Vatican or feminists have recognized is that women are already running the church,'' said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in California. ''They're the ones passing on the faith to the next generation, and that will have a profound impact.'' The bishops also debated new translations of the liturgy from Latin to English. Many bishops said the new translations, which were ordered by the Vatican, were awkward. Some clergy members said the translations could further alienate parishioners after the sexual abuse scandals. In a vote Monday on some sample passages, 57 percent of the bishops favored keeping the 1970 English translation and 43 percent backed the new proposals. A two-thirds vote is required for approval of the final version. Church experts said they expected the bishops to discuss in private session the continuing impact of the abuse scandals. Dioceses have paid more than $1 billion in settlements. The Vatican plans to issue a document, or instruction, on gay men in the priesthood in the coming weeks. Catholic conservatives have said the move would prevent potential pedophiles from entering the priesthood. But other Catholics have countered that celibacy, not sexual orientation, is the issue and that barring gay men could further shrink the clergy. A delegation from the Vatican is now visiting the 229 seminaries in the United States and examining the education and vetting system for new priests, including questions about sexual orientation. Correction: November 17, 2005, Thursday An article yesterday about the approval of proposals dealing with lay workers by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops misstated the percentage of lay ministers who are women. It is 80 percent, not 64 percent.

1715909_0

MEMO PAD

GREEN LIGHT FOR SECURITY CARD -- Private security companies should be introducing so-called Registered Traveler checkpoint-expediting systems within six months at as many as 40 of the largest domestic airports, according to Steven Brill, the founder of the only company that is currently operating such a system. Mr. Brill's company, Verified Identity Pass Inc., created a biometrics-based security and identification card called Clear, which enables travelers who register their fingerprints and iris scans and are then cleared by the Transportation Security Administration to pass through airport checkpoints without being submitted to secondary security inspections like pat-downs. The Clear card costs $79.95 a year. Since July, the Brill company has been operating a pilot program at Orlando International Airport, where it has been processing as many as 580 passengers daily, most of them frequent business travelers, Mr. Brill said. The security agency said tests at airports showed that the program, as operated by private companies, would work. ''We are committed to the development of a Registered Traveler program that will enhance aviation security, ease travel for passengers and permit the T.S.A. to better focus security resources based on risk,'' Kip Hawley, the new head of the agency, said last Thursday in testimony in Congress. NORTHWEST FLIGHT DELAYS -- After Northwest Airlines mechanics went on strike Aug. 19 and the airline hired replacement workers, Northwest said that its flight schedule would continue operating with no appreciable increase in delays. Monthly statistics by the United States Transportation Department show otherwise. In September, Northwest -- now in bankruptcy proceedings -- finished last among the top 20 domestic airlines in percentage of flights arriving on time (74.8 percent, compared with 85.4 percent in September 2004). BUSINESS JET SHOW -- Relocated to Orlando, Fla., after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August, the annual convention and trade show of the National Business Aviation Association opens tomorrow. This year, the convention will feature a record 1,113 exhibitors at the Orange County Convention Center, with 110 corporate jets on display at nearby Orlando Executive Airport. Last year in Las Vegas, the show attracted 1,084 exhibitors and 87 business jets, and more than 31,000 people attended. INTERNATIONAL FARE SALES -- Business travel slows during the year-end holidays, when airlines often introduce fare sales on international routes. But the discounting on business-class fares -- though with lots of restrictions -- is especially robust this year, as airlines compete for premium

1715980_1

FRENCH OFFICIALS TRY TO EASE FEAR AS CRISIS SWELLS

been objects of scorn to the rioting youths, are often inexperienced and ill-equipped, according to a recent report from the National Commission on Ethics in the Security Services. The report said that a lack of training led to behavior that was at best clumsy and at worst racist in those neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. [Page A6.] France was slow to react to the spreading violence set off by the accidental deaths of two youths on Oct. 27, in part because the initial nights of unrest did not seem particularly unusual in a country where an average of more than 80 cars a day were set on fire this year even before the violence. On Monday, a man from suburban Stains died after being beaten Friday by a gang of rioters. The government at first seemed distracted by internal political squabbles as the arson and attacks on the police gathered momentum last week and hopscotched across the nation. It then appeared paralyzed as the violence spiraled into the worst civil unrest that France has faced in nearly 40 years. President Jacques Chirac did not speak publicly about the violence until Sunday night, the 11th day of the evolving crisis. Even as Mr. Villepin spoke Monday, the turmoil continued, with youths setting fire to buses and cars. He struggled to balance his tough line by acknowledging the social maladies underlying the unrest. ''There are bands of youths, some very young, who are in a state of social, family and educational breakdown,'' he said, choosing his words with characteristic care. ''They are in a destructive mind-set.'' Europe, meanwhile, watched the unfolding crisis with alarm. Copycat attacks on a few cars were reported in Brussels and Berlin, and Muslim sites on the Internet began carrying inflammatory messages. ''Everybody is concerned about what is happening,'' Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said at a news conference in London. ''You should never be complacent about these things.'' Britain, Germany, Australia and Japan advised their citizens to take extra care in visiting France, echoing earlier warnings by the United States and Russia. French officials have labored to convince tourists that France is safe. Indeed, for all the televised images of burning cars and chaotic streets, central Paris and even its suburbs show no obvious signs of crisis. The highway to Charles de Gaulle Airport, which passes by some of the hardest-hit suburbs, was flowing normally on

1721262_1

Learning-Disabled Students Blossom in Blended Classes

might be the only one and I was wrong.'' It is hard to tell. Class work is so individualized, students can be reading books on a dozen levels at once. And though one of his teachers, Denise West, is certified in special education, she circulates around the room, helping general education students, too. ''The extra help Jed gets is invisible,'' says his mother. Indeed, even after two days at P.S. 75, it was hard for me to pick out many of the special ed students. This collaborative team teaching model -- pairing a general ed and special ed teacher in a classroom that is up to 40 percent special ed children -- is considered one of the best hopes for mainstreaming more handicapped children. In New York City, about 12,500 special ed students -- nearly 10 per cent of the special ed population -- now attend these classes. Those who've seen it done right swear by it. Last year, at another school, Johanny Lopez taught a ''self contained'' class of a dozen learning- and emotionally disabled second and third graders. ''Their bad behaviors fed off each other,'' she says. This year, at P.S. 75, Ms. Lopez is team teaching in a first grade of 22, 8 of them special ed. ''I love it,'' she says, ''It's a lot more hopeful for children.'' But the collaborative model is also a lot more work. The fifth grade team of Mayra Fernandez and Daisy Miranda arrive an hour early each morning to choreograph who will lead which lesson and what support the other will provide. Ms. Lopez and her teaching partner, Chante Martindale spent a recent Saturday afternoon planning the coming week. It takes the proper mix of students -- one child with too serious an emotional problem can undo a class. And teachers must provide extra enrichment for bright general ed students so they stay challenged and their parents stay cooperative. A recent independent study of the city's special education system praised the expansion of this model under Chancellor Joel I. Klein, but found that too often, the classes are poorly run, resisted by parents of general ed students, and become ''dumping grounds'' for the lowest tracked children. In a column on that report, I mentioned troubles at a P.S. 75 kindergarten last year and soon after got an angry email from the principal, Robert O'Brien. While Mr. O'Brien acknowledged problems, he

1721317_4

A Warning Of Trade Suits Over Farming

farmers. The United States paid $26.8 billion in corn subsidies the last five years, the most for any single American farm program. ''If there were ever a time for another country to go after our corn program, this is it,'' said Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a research organization based in Washington that has criticized farm subsidies. ''It is exactly the kind of conditions that prompted Brazil to go after our cotton program.'' Eleven corn exporters, including Argentina, Ecuador and South Africa, could have legitimate cases as well, the Oxfam report concluded. And in the case of rice, Mexico, India and Thailand are among 13 countries that could file cases against the United States. Without a formal suit, Mexico has struggled to prevent rice from the United States from being sold at what it says are unfair prices that are damaging Mexican producers. A World Trade Organization panel ruled on Tuesday that Mexico unfairly imposed antidumping tariffs on American rice in 2002. While the European Union also has programs laden with heavy subsidy payments for farmers of traditional crops like sugar, it is at least as vulnerable for programs designed to encourage the processing of fruits and vegetables into finished products, trade experts said. The European Union provides millions of euros in such subsidies. So far, no formal challenges on major crops have been filed since the Brazilian won its cases in 2004 and this year. Pedro de Camargo Neto, a former lead farm trade negotiator for Brazil, who led his country's cotton and sugar cases, said he is surprised other countries have not capitalized on the Brazilian precedents. Fear of retaliation could be part of the reason, Mr. Camargo said in a telephone interview. ''Governments are afraid to challenge the Empire.'' In one case, Walter Bastian, the United States deputy assistant secretary of commerce, met with Uruguayan officials in August and persuaded them to wait until after the Hong Kong meetings to file a rice complaint. Most countries see trade negotiations as a faster road to agricultural reform than litigation, which is costly and can drag on for years. But the failure of the Doha talks will probably lead more developing countries to use the W.T.O.'s dispute settlement process, said Gawain Kripke, senior policy adviser for Oxfam. ''This hasn't been in their toolbox in the past,'' he said. ''Brazil has shown that these cases are winnable.''

1721294_0

British Review Of Energy To Include Atomic Power

Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Tuesday that Britain may reverse its current reluctance to build new nuclear power plants, despite opposition from environmental groups. Mr. Blair's announcement reflected a nascent European debate that could presage a significant shift in energy policies. Finland in particular has already broken ranks with the opposition to nuclear power that has seized much of the Continent since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. And while France derives around 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, countries like Germany and Britain may be poised to re-evaluate their previous pledges to phase out nuclear power by the early 2020's. Mr. Blair said Britain would make its decision by next summer. As Mr. Blair spoke at an employers' meeting here, he was disrupted by two men wearing fluorescent yellow jackets over dark business suits who clambered into the steel rafters of the auditorium to start a protest by the environmental group Greenpeace. They carried banners saying ''Nuclear: wrong answer'' and scattered similar messages on ticker tape onto the crowd below. Greenpeace said the protest was the beginning of a ''fight back against a new nuclear era'' by preventing Mr. Blair from speaking. The protesters refused to abandon their perches, insisting that they wished to make a 10-minute speech to participants in the annual meeting of the Confederation of British Industry, a leading employers' group. '''I'm not prepared to accept that,'' said Digby Jones, the head of the Confederation. ''I don't give in to ultimatums.'' Mr. Blair, regarded as an undeclared supporter of nuclear power, was forced to address business leaders in a cramped side room, surrounded by reporters and photographers. ''This is going to be a surreal occasion,'' Mr. Blair said. ''I'm going to give this speech if it's the last thing I do.'' ''Like most tough issues, what we actually need is an open and democratic debate, not one conducted by protests and demonstrations to stop people having the freedom to express their views,'' he said. The two protesters, identified by Greenpeace as Huw Williams and Nyls Verhauelt, had apparently infiltrated the building with unauthorized identification passes, the organizers said. They were later arrested. Their action recalled other demonstrations in recent years by people supporting hunting and fathers' rights who breached security systems at the House of Commons and Buckingham Palace. Mr. Blair's speech had been widely expected as the trigger for a new energy debate only

1721279_2

Cull of the Wild

across the spongy landscape in hip boots, I rarely walked more than a few yards without flushing a nesting duck, loon, swan, shorebird, sparrow or tern. They come here from regions as far-flung as the Philippines, Amazonia, New Zealand, tropical Africa and Tierra del Fuego. That includes places where the deadly flu has already been found -- like Java, where the slender songbird known as the yellow wagtail winters, or Vietnam and China, whose coastlines are important staging grounds for migrant shorebirds. If and when the virulent flu enters Alaska in the bodies of Asian migratory birds and spreads among the breeding population, it will then be carried heaven knows where. While the large-scale risk to humans is still theoretical, H5N1 has already proven deadly to many species of wild birds. In May, a single outbreak in China killed up to a tenth of the world's bar-headed geese, and last month a United Nations task force identified three dozen species of rare Eurasian birds at particular risk from the flu. Here in North America, where emerging diseases like West Nile virus are already exacting a heavy toll on some birds, the damage from this new pathogen could be even greater. The task force also correctly noted that we shouldn't scapegoat migratory birds for a problem of our own making. H5N1 is a product of intensive poultry production, especially in regions like Southeast Asia with scanty farm hygiene and large live-bird markets, which create a hothouse environment for influenza viruses and a transmission route to people. The biggest risk to this country comes not from a bird crossing the Bering Strait, but from an infected human boarding a jet. Will that realization stop officials and the public here from eventually making the kind of counterproductive demands we've already heard in Asia, for the mass culling of migratory birds or the destruction of wetlands and other habitats? Or will it draw attention to measures that cut to the root cause of this problem, like better monitoring and oversight of global poultry production, and curbing the worldwide (and often illegal) trade in wild birds, a step the European Union has already taken? As the sound of the swans faded, I could only hope -- for the sake of the birds, and ourselves -- that we choose the latter course. Op-Ed Contributor Scott Weidensaul is the author, most recently, of ''Return to Wild America.''

1716645_0

Agitprop to Arcadian: Gently Turning a Kaleidoscope of Visions

The fall exhibitions are on view at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, filling galleries on its first, second and third floors. There is a site-specific installation, four photography exhibitions, a video project and two group shows, one focused on cultural identity and the other on abstract painting, and numerous smaller projects scattered throughout the building. The center is at 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Street, Long Island City, Queens. Information: (718) 784-2084. Ari Marcopoulos Through Jan. 23 Ari Marcopoulos, a photographic chronicler of youth culture, has traveled with the Beastie Boys and professional snowboarders. With this show of large color prints laminated to rigid panels, he focuses mainly on his family: two preteenage children and his wife in their woodsy, bohemian home in Sonoma, Calif. There are also some wintry coastal seascapes shot in Japan. The casual, fragmentary style calls to mind the diaristic, snapshot aesthetic of Nan Goldin, but without the provocative nudity, domestic violence or substance abuse. Mr. Marcopoulos's subjects are lovely to look at, but his photographs, though professionally accomplished, are insufficiently revealing as narrative images and too stylistically conventional to be exciting as art. KEN JOHNSON P.S. 1 EXHIBITION REVIEWS

1716693_2

Target of Critics, Chirac Says He'll Discuss French Unrest After Order Prevails

of integrating second-generation immigrants who now feel excluded from society. The debate is also focusing on accusations that an overly aggressive police presence in the country's immigrant-heavy housing projects helped set off the unrest. French television broadcast dramatic videotape of two police officers, surrounded by colleagues, beating and kicking a 19-year-old man in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve on Monday night. Eight police officers were suspended pending investigations into the incident. The Interior Ministry said a medical statement showed that the had man suffered ''superficial bruises on his forehead and his feet.'' The videotape raised concerns that it could lead to a reaction by angry youths. Michel Gaudin, France's national police chief, said Thursday that the government would maintain a ''dense'' police presence in areas where violence might be expected, with 12,000 officers on the streets through the weekend. The police said they had arrested five people who had called for more violence in Paris. But the level of urban violence has dropped dramatically since Tuesday, when the emergency measures were announced. Five of the 25 regional departments that the government permitted to impose curfews under the state of emergency have done so, including towns on the French Riviera along the Mediterranean coast and in the northern city of Amiens. While the violence had already begun to subside before the state of emergency, many people believe it has had a damping effect. Only 482 vehicles were burned Wednesday night by rioters, down from 617 the night before. There were fewer clashes with the police, Mr. Gaudin said. In all, the past two weeks of nightly unrest in France destroyed nearly 7,000 vehicles and the French insurers' federation said the damage would cost the industry about $235 million. More than 2,000 people were arrested and 260 adults have been jailed. Another 400 minors have been sentenced to detention centers or given other penalties. The country's combative interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, whom many people blamed for having fueled the violence with his tough talk and hard line, appeared to have emerged stronger for having confronted the frustrated second-generation immigrant youths who carried out the attacks. In a poll published by Le Figaro newspaper, 56 percent of French said they approved of the way he had handled the crisis. Meanwhile, scattered car fires were set again in several major Belgian cities on Wednesday night, the fourth consecutive night of copycat violence there.

1716767_0

Corrections

An article in Thursday Styles yesterday about the stress many e-mail users experience because of the flood of messages they receive misstated the volume of e-mail traffic measured by a research firm, the Radicati Group. From 2000 to 2005, the group says, messages have exploded to 135.6 billion daily from 5.1 billion. (The figures are not in the millions.)

1716712_0

Enlisting Cellphone Signals to Fight Road Gridlock

Some states prohibit drivers from talking on hand-held cellphones lest they become distracted, slow down traffic, or worse, cause an accident. Others are finding that cellphones and driving may not be so bad together. Several state transportation agencies, including those in Maryland and Virginia, are starting to test technology that allows them to monitor traffic by tracking cellphone signals and mapping them against road grids. The technology underlines how readily cellphones can become tracking devices for private companies, law enforcement and government agencies -- a development that deeply troubles privacy advocates. These new traffic systems can monitor several hundred thousand cellphones at once. The phones need only be turned on, not necessarily be in use. And advanced software now makes it possible to discern whether a signal is coming from, say, a moving car or a pedestrian. State officials say that the systems will monitor large clusters of phones, not individual ones, and that the benefits could be substantial. By providing a constantly updated picture of traffic flow across thousands of miles of highways, they maintain, cellphone tracking can help transportation agencies spot congestion and divert drivers with radio alerts or updated electronic road signs. Next month, Maryland, with the help of the University of Baltimore, plans to begin tests for a cellular tracking system in the Baltimore area. Virginia also plans to test a system around the Norfolk beltway. Missouri says it is about to sign a deal that will allow it to monitor traffic movements over 5,500 square miles of state roadways. Similar mapping technology is in use in London, Tel Aviv and Antwerp, Belgium. ''The potential is incredible,'' said Phil Tarnoff, director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology at the University of Maryland. He said the monitoring technology could possibly help reduce congestion in some areas by 50 percent. But he and others involved in the emerging technology said there were critical hurdles. Chief among them, Mr. Tarnoff said, is getting the cellular carriers, which have been distracted with mergers and customer service problems, to collect and share the cellphone data. The carriers already collect an enormous amount of data; they can tell, for example, whether a cellphone user is roaming out of their network. But separating the data to show the speed at which cellphones are being passed from one cell tower to another is still a challenge. To get the data, the monitoring companies

1721005_2

Does Stress Cause Cancer? Probably Not, Research Finds

nobody else does, either,'' said Barbara Andersen, a psychology professor at Ohio State University who studies stress reduction in cancer patients. ''If somebody suggested that they know, I would question them.'' Polly Newcomb, the head of the cancer prevention program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, decided to ask whether stress caused breast cancer, because women seemed convinced that it did. The issue came up in her epidemiologic studies of what might be causing cancer. She used trained interviewers to ask women with cancer and healthy women who served as controls about their medical histories, their environments and the medicines they were taking. Then the interviewers asked the women if they had anything to add. Repeatedly, the women with cancer would turn to their interviewers and say, ''Why didn't you ask me about what really caused my cancer?'' What really caused it, they would say, was stress. It was plausible, Dr. Newcomb reasoned. After all, stress could alter the functioning of the immune system, in turn altering susceptibility to cancer. So Dr. Newcomb incorporated standard questions about stressful life events into her continuing study of nearly 1,000 women. Had family members or friends died? Had they gotten married or divorced? Had they lost a job or had they retired? Had their financial status changed? Were there stressful events not on the list that they would like to add? The women did not know why the questions, incorporated as part of a longer interview, were being asked. And the interviewers did not know which women had had cancer. But the results were clear: there was no association between stressful events in the previous five years and a diagnosis of breast cancer. Other studies had the same result. Still, not everyone was convinced. Critics told Dr. Newcomb and her colleague, Dr. Felicia Roberts, that they had measured stressors, not stress. And Dr. Newcomb had to agree that they had a point. She chose stressful life events as a surrogate for experienced stress, but it is not easy to measure the actual physiological stress that people experience and then follow them to see if they got cancer. Barrie Cassileth, chief of the integrative medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, suggested that there was another way to ask the question. ''These are what we call natural experiments in the real world,'' Dr. Cassileth said. ''Look at situations of extreme stress

1721013_5

Hard to Pronounce, Infinitely Harder to Cure

drug companies interested in financially supporting research to find a treatment and cure. ''Instead, the funding for LAM research and the responsibility of generating greater public awareness of the disease fall upon those diagnosed with LAM, their families, friends and acquaintances. It is a tremendous challenge for us as we try to hold ourselves together, to create hope where there is little, and to keep our work and family lives intact.'' Ms. Farber concedes that ''no one knows the pace at which my disease will progress.'' But, she added: ''What is certain is that I no longer have years ahead to apply my academic and professional training to alleviate the suffering of others. I can no longer count on being able to contribute to my family or my country before joining the majority of women with LAM who are on disability, unable to work, dependent on the state for their costly medical care and basic income.'' Still, Ms. Farber has found something to be grateful for: ''I am lucky to be living in one of the world's most advanced academic medical centers. I am lucky to have health insurance. Also, I am lucky to be married to a loving, dedicated and well-educated husband able to gracefully and effectively navigate the medical system. ''Few people with rare diseases have the resources that I do. So now, while I am still physically able, I commit myself to addressing barriers to finding treatments for those diagnosed with rare diseases like LAM.'' It is a fight she cannot walk away from. For More Information The LAM Foundation, devoted to raising funds for research, also provides physician referrals, support and education for patients and families. The foundation, based in Cincinnati, can be reached at (513) 777-6889. Its Web address is lam.uc.edu. PERSONAL HEALTH Correction: December 13, 2005, Tuesday The Personal Health column in Science Times on Nov. 29, about the rare lung disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM, included outdated information on medical advice and treatment. While the symptoms may be more noticeable in pregnant women, there is no firm evidence that pregnancy makes the disease worse, as doctors believed in the 1990's, and advice to women considering pregnancy is now given case by case. Nor are postmenopausal women with a diagnosis of LAM routinely advised to have their ovaries removed or to begin hormone supplements; some recent evidence suggests that estrogen therapy may worsen the disease.

1721169_0

Metro Briefing | New Jersey: Trenton: Groups File Papers To Stop Bear Hunt

Two animal rights groups, the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance and the Bear Education and Resource Group, yesterday asked the state Superior Court to block next week's scheduled black bear hunt. Kevin Barber, a lawyer representing the groups, said the justification for the hunt was not based upon proper scientific research. If the court permits the six-day hunt, set to begin on Dec. 5, it will be New Jersey's second in 35 years. Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, would not comment on the lawsuit. John Holl (NYT)

1721009_0

Research Finds Twins to Be the Slower Siblings

Researchers in Scotland have found that twins have substantially lower I.Q.'s than their singleton siblings, based on a sampling of more than 10,000 Scottish children born in the 1950's. The study, published online Nov. 18 in BMJ, the British Medical Journal, concludes that at least part of the explanation lies in the reduced prenatal growth and shorter gestation typical of twins. The researchers identified a representative sample of children born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and attending primary school there in 1962. The children were routinely given written tests of mental skills at the ages of 7 and 9, and the researchers then extracted age-standardized I.Q.'s from the results of those tests. There were 9,832 singletons and 236 twins in the study, from 8,160 families. As had been expected, the twins were born smaller and earlier in gestation, and they tended to be small even for their gestational age. The researchers found that twins at age 7 had I.Q.'s an average of 6.6 points lower than those of their singleton brothers and sisters, and that by age 9 their average I.Q. was 6.9 points lower. Sex, the number of siblings, the mother's age and the father's social class did not explain the difference. However, when the researchers adjusted for birth weight and gestational age, the differences in I.Q. were reduced substantially. The authors acknowledge that their study is based on children born more than 50 years ago and that a study of children born more recently might produce different results. Nevertheless, they write, even among children born more recently, ''it seems very likely that there will still be differences in cognition between twins and singletons because of the shorter gestations and impaired fetal growth that affect some twins.'' VITAL SIGNS: PATTERNS

1717383_0

Modern Mishmash At the Wadsworth

THE best thing about ''Drawn From Memory,'' the new contemporary exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, is that it is installed adjacent to the museum's ill-frequented rooms of Chinese tomb statutory, Greek and Roman vases and Egyptian bric-a-brac, thus affording encounters with some first-rate antiquities. But the exhibition, on its own merits, is yet another flat-footed sampler of works in the collection, with some recent gifts, acquisitions and other odds and ends thrown in. It is so long since the Wadsworth initiated a serious, theme-based contemporary exhibition that I am beginning to wonder whether the curators have washed their hands of living artists. The most frustrating aspect to all this is that the Wadsworth has a proud tradition of supporting emerging talent. The museum was the first in the United States to promote the work of Salvador Dali, Joan Miró and Joseph Cornell, and the historical survey exhibition, ''Dali, Picasso and the Surrealist Vision,'' set up near ''Drawn From Memory,'' contains several examples of works by these artists. Lately, however, the contemporary exhibition program here seems to have gone awry. The matrix series, which is still running, continues to bring young, lively artists to Hartford, but there is no overall sense that this sprawling behemoth of a museum is all that eager to pre-empt the most important new creative matters. Financing is probably an issue, I know, but there is no point employing curators if they can never show us what they can do. On the other hand, you could make the argument that such a mission is better served by more dynamic, noncollecting contemporary art institutions across the state, like Real Art Ways in Hartford, or the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, and that the Wadsworth is better off concentrating on collecting. This is fair enough, but if the acquisitions in ''Drawn From Memory'' are any guide as to what the museum is collecting, then we are in trouble. Collecting contemporary art for posterity is not simply about amassing works by artists who are in the news, or that belong to blue-chip galleries. It is about buying what you consider to be the best available examples of a recognized artist's work, while at the same time slowly enlarging and deepening specific areas of collection interest. Some artworks in ''Drawn From Memory'' meet this standard, but inspection of the wall labels reveals they are mostly

1717015_0

Despite Attack, Piracy Against Cruises Is Said to Be Rare

The cruise industry is calling the violent attack on a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia on Nov. 5 an aberration. Pirates on two boats reportedly fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Seabourn Spirit, a luxury liner carrying 151 passengers, as it rounded the Horn of Africa last Saturday on its way from Alexandria, Egypt, to Mombasa in Kenya. With the Spirit about 100 miles off the coast, the pirates struck at dawn, injuring one crew member but no passengers, and failing to board. The International Maritime Bureau recommends that ships stay at least 150 miles away from Somalia's coast. Though Somalia is not a typical port of call for cruises, a number pass by the country each year traveling through the Red Sea from Egypt toward the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean. The ship docked in the Seychelles after the attack, then was expected to continue with the rest of its itinerary to Singapore. J. Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, said the incident was the first time a cruise ship in the membership was attacked by pirates. ''By definition it is a one-off incident and hopefully one that will not be replicated,'' he said. Mr. Crye said the industry had long had security procedures to protect passengers if attacked. He declined to comment on specific countermeasures. ''If I were to talk about what the countermeasures are, we could compromise some of the security plans in effect,'' he said. Since March 15, there have been 28 attacks against vessels off the southern and eastern coast of Somalia. After the attack on the Spirit, the National Union of Marine, Aviation and Shipping Transport Officers, based in London, called for more protection for ships sailing by Somalia. MICHELLE HIGGINS ADVISORY: TRAVEL NOTES

1719358_0

Internal Federal Memo Casts Doubts on Hudson Cleanup

A federal conservation official has raised serious doubts about the recently approved plan to scrape hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of hazardous chemicals from the bottom of the Hudson River, and raised the possibility that the long-delayed cleanup may never be completed. The official, a coastal resources expert in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a confidential memo that General Electric intends to leave substantial amounts of contaminants in the river, capping them with additional material rather than removing them. But the cap could be washed away in a storm, releasing the remaining PCB's beneath, the memo said. The official also said G.E.'s plan -- one of the largest industrial cleanups ever attempted -- would not do enough to rebuild the natural habitat destroyed by the cleanup, but would leave nature to take its course, an approach that would reduce the chances that the river bottom would ever recover. The memo questioned the plan's chance of success, saying that the ''long-term recovery of the system may be delayed, projected time frame to achieve reduction in PCB's may be extended and residual injury to natural resources may increase.'' G.E., which has not yet seen the memo, reached a binding agreement last month with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to go ahead with the cleanup. Strong opposition from another federal agency is itself not enough to derail the project, but it is likely to intensify the opposition of community groups and environmental organizations that have fought for decades to force G.E. to accept responsibility for cleaning up the environmental mess created by its factories on the Hudson. The memo was sent to the E.P.A. in October, but it has not been made public. A copy was given to The New York Times by Riverkeeper, an environmental organization that has questioned the effectiveness of G.E.'s cleanup plan. The apparent rift within the federal government suggests that an issue that had been simmering for years -- and seemed to be resolved last month -- may yet have more chapters to play out. The binding agreement requires G.E. to dredge 43 miles of the Hudson River stretching from Hudson Falls to Troy, N.Y., a $700 million project that could be undertaken in two phases over six years, if there are no interruptions. G.E. resisted the cleanup for nearly three decades after PCB's, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were discovered in the river, contending that

1719369_0

Endangering Yellowstone's Grizzlies

The recovery of the grizzly bear population in the greater Yellowstone region is a triumph of human restraint. Thirty years ago, after a long period of mismanagement, the bears were listed as a threatened species. Now, their numbers have risen from perhaps as few as 200 to perhaps as many as 600. That has led the Interior Department to consider removing them from the endangered species list -- a proposal that has split the conservation world. The National Wildlife Federation, for instance, believes that the original goals of protecting the bears have been met. But other groups -- including the Natural Resources Defense Council -- believe the bears should still be protected. We agree. If grizzlies are removed from the endangered species list, they will come under the protection of a management plan developed by the three states that surround Yellowstone. Given those states' historic hostility to large predators, the fact that the plan calls for a resumption of hunting is worrisome. But much more important is the danger that it might open up a good deal of the grizzlies' already-diminished range to commercial exploitation. The fate of the grizzlies should remind us all how effective the Endangered Species Act really is and why it is worth safeguarding it from legislative assault. But it should also remind us that there is still no effective legal protection for animals that have recovered in numbers but are still threatened by the pressure of human activity. Editorial

1719329_0

AUTOS ON MONDAY/Technology; New Twists in Bodybuilding Put Curves in All the Right Places

THE styling features most likely to raise the pulse and lower the resistance of a car buyer -- shapely fenders, a rakish roofline and curves the neighbors will envy -- are easy for designers to sketch, but all too often, impossible for factories to produce. Car and truck bodies are shaped by many factors, including the practical need to carry loads (a box is ideal) and the fuel-economy benefit of an aerodynamic form (which favors a rounded profile). But another limit to a vehicle's shapeliness is the ability to manufacture its exterior panels with the contours and creases envisioned by designers. Metal will bend only so far before it tears or cracks; alternatives like fiberglass are more forgiving, but carry the stigma of being ''plastic.'' New technologies for bending sheets of steel and aluminum, and for lowering the cost of lightweight materials like carbon-fiber composites, are making it possible for automakers to produce vehicles more faithful to the lines originally drawn by the styling studio. One example of how the new production methods are dressing up showroom models can be seen in the 2006 Pontiac Solstice, a stylish roadster that accurately reproduces the form of the design study that General Motors unveiled at the 2002 Detroit auto show. Building the car's complex body curves would not have been possible using conventional metal-forming methods. The hood, trunk lid, doors and rear fenders of the Solstice -- a total of six outer and four inner panels -- are stamped by the Amino Corporation at a plant near St. Thomas, Ontario, using a process called sheet hydroforming. The technology is a variation of a method automakers have been using for a decade to shape the rectangular tubes used in vehicle frames. Typically, body panels for mass-production vehicles are made by pressing a steel sheet, known as a blank, between two matched dies, the way a cook squeezes ground beef between cupped hands to mold a hamburger patty. With hydroforming, only one die is used. The blank is clamped at its outer edge by a device called a binder. Beneath the blank is a large container of water. To form the Solstice's panels, the die -- called a punch because that's what it does -- is pressed against the blank by a 3,400-ton press. As the blank is drawn through the grasp of the binder, the water below causes the metal to conform to

1719326_0

Life in Balance, Featuring Plates, Hoops and Ladders

Men climb high up tall poles and jump between them to the sound of drums. A woman in a shining gray python-colored body stocking balances a lamp as she twists upside down on a pedestal, her body bending like cooling taffy so that it is hard to see where her limbs begin and end. Paper umbrellas twirl effortlessly, held by a pair of upturned, kneading feet; plates spin three at a time atop long, slender sticks; and a man juggles balls at the top of a three-man pyramid, effortlessly dropping down to the ground afterwards to screams from the audience. The Golden Dragon Acrobats have arrived. From the central Chinese city of Xian, the troupe consists of jugglers, contortionists and prize-winning acrobats, some still in their teens. A good deal of imagination has gone into devising colorful ways to use their skills and take advantage of their apparent total lack of fear as they form human totems and balance on perilous-looking stacks of ladders that lean like the Tower of Pisa when it is time for the performers to return to earth. In one act, men and women circled and crossed the stage grasping the innards of fast-moving neon-bright hoops that spun them every which way, sometimes with a squishy look that drew giggles from the children in the audience at the New Victory Theater. ''How did they do that?'' a small boy asked his mother, so intrigued by the mechanics of it all that he nearly didn't make it out for an intermission brownie at the theater's concession stand. Those who did may have regretted it, staring up at the stomach-churning Tower of Chairs act, in which a blithe young man hopped higher and higher as attendants brought him more and more chairs on which to balance, upside down, so high up that his feet could have touched the top of the proscenium arch. ''One more?'' he asked the audience, holding up a single finger. Yells of encouragement welled up from observers of all ages, faces upturned, until he balanced on one hand atop an eighth chair, legs opening into a 180-degree split and turning slowly as he balanced on the tilted back of the top chair. That exchange with the audience was charming, as were the performers' matter-of-fact trots off stage after seemingly defying death. Watch out, ''Nutcracker.'' Performances continue through Jan. 1 at the New Victory Theater,

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INSIDE

High in China's Mountains, Capturing the Fleeting Present Cameras distributed by the Nature Conservancy in remote southern China have led to an unusual exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History of photographs by villagers, recording their changing lives. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 Bush Presses Case in Brazil President Bush, in Brazil, issued tough remarks apparently aimed at Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, calling for Latin America to choose between competing visions of the future. PAGE A6 Marine Dies in Border Fight A marine was killed in an ambush during a sweep along the Iraqi-Syrian border. He was the first American to die in the operation, which is meant to combat infiltration by insurgents. PAGE A8 Hard Drug Choices for Elderly Drug companies say people who choose a new Medicare prescription program may lose free medications they are receiving now. PAGE C1 Thou Shalt Not Pollute With increasing vigor, conservative evangelical groups are campaigning for laws to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming. PAGE A18 Dance History in Jeopardy The Dance Notation Bureau, which documents and preserves choreography, laid off most of its staff because of fiscal trouble. THE ARTS, PAGE E1

1715715_0

Gene Therapy in a Bottle of Mouthwash

Brush your teeth and rinse with gene therapy. That could be the future of oral health care as envisioned by Colgate-Palmolive and Introgen Therapeutics, an Austin, Tex., biotechnology company. The companies announced an alliance Friday to incorporate gene therapy -- an exotic, experimental and so far largely unsuccessful form of medicine -- into mouthwashes, gels and similar products to treat and prevent oral cancers. Colgate is buying about 3.6 million shares of Introgen, or a 9.7 percent stake. Colgate will pay $20 million, or $5.54 a share, the same as Introgen's closing price on Thursday. On Friday, Introgen shares climbed 8 percent, to $5.96. Gene therapy involves putting genes into cells in the body, often to replace native genes that are malfunctioning. The technique has rarely worked in the 15 years it has been tried, largely because of the difficulty of getting enough functioning genes into cells. Introgen's method puts so-called tumor suppressor genes into cancerous cells to stop the growth of tumors. The company's most advanced drug, which is in late-stage clinical trials, is a treatment for head and neck cancer that it hopes will be the first gene therapy approved in the United States. In that treatment, viruses containing the desired gene are injected directly into tumors. Working with Colgate, Introgen will try to put the tumor suppressor genes into an oral product to treat leukoplakia, a precancerous condition characterized by lesions on the cheeks, gums or tongue. In some cases the lesions turn cancerous, usually after many years. Dr. Robert E. Sobol, Introgen's senior vice president for medical and scientific affairs, said an initial product would probably be a prescription drug that would require approval by the Food and Drug Administration. But he said he hoped eventually the product could be sold over the counter. The company is already in early stages of human testing of a mouthwash containing a tumor-suppressor gene. The mouth is ''just such an easy place to apply these therapies,'' said Dr. Sobol, explaining that it was easy to reach and see the damaged cells. Nevertheless, getting enough genes into cells in the mouth could still be difficult. Introgen puts its gene into a disarmed cold virus, called an adenovirus, which infects cells and carries in the gene. While Dr. Sobol said the technique was safe, an adenovirus was used in a gene therapy experiment that killed a teenager at the University of

1717537_2

If Books Are on Google, Who Gains and Who Loses?

considerable expenses needed to print, distribute and sell a book to the small literate public. But by the beginning of the 18th century, printing was becoming less expensive, international and provincial publishers were offering competition, literacy increased and authors grew in public stature. So over the next half-century, British laws limited the control of the Stationers and expanded the rights of authors, while also putting time limits on all forms of control, creating what became the public domain. Then came another wave of technological change: the industrial revolution. And similar controversies erupted. Inventions were once relatively immune from copying because of the craft they required; execution could seem more difficult than coming up with the idea. Once manufacturing was mechanized, though, the idea itself could become vulnerable, leading to both increased governmental control and increased industrial espionage. Britain prohibited the export of machinery while the fledgling United States welcomed insiders with information from there. Now, just as increasing trade and decreasing costs led to the breakdown of the Stationers' monopoly in the 18th century and to an increase in industrial espionage in the 19th, the Internet's near elimination of costs for the transmission and sifting of digital media has led to another wave of copiers and protectors, along with accusations of theft and heated debates over file-sharing, copy-protection and licensing. But during the last decade the debates have had a different character. The self-described ''progressive'' side has challenged copyright enforcement and even argued for its radical diminishment. This attempt to minimize existing controls, though, is imagined not as a triumph for authors (as was initially the case in the 18th century) or as a triumph for profiteers or national ambitions (as in the industrial espionage of the 19th), but as a form of liberation. In many such arguments, lines are starkly drawn and echo older ideological battles: idealism confronts materialism, socialism confronts capitalism, communal values confront individualism. Challengers of copyright and patent legislation often portray themselves as liberators, bravely opposing a greedy global corporate culture that tries to claim each bit of intellectual property for itself the way imperialist explorers tried to plant the motherland's flag on every unclaimed piece of land. Meanwhile, advocates of tighter control over copyright see things very differently, viewing this attack as an assault on the rights of inventors and writers, undermining those who invest their time and labor to answer human needs and desires.

1717530_0

The Ghost in the CD; Sony BMG Stirs A Debate Over Software Used To Guard Content

The latest album from Johnny and Donnie Van Zant, ''Get Right With the Man,'' delivers ''anthems with the sort of conviction that will inevitably inspire raised fists and chorus sing-a-longs,'' says Amazon.com's official music reviewer. Fists are raised all right, but not in the way the Van Zants would have hoped. After years of battling users of free peer-to-peer file-sharing networks (and the software companies that support them), the recording industry now identifies ''casual piracy'' -- the simple copying and sharing of CD's with friends -- as the biggest threat to its bottom line. And in one company's haste to stop consumers from ripping and burning CD's, a hornet's nest has been stirred. By the end of last week, that company, Sony BMG, which had embedded aggressive copy-protection software on the Van Zant CD and at least 19 others, suspended the use of that software after security companies classified it as malicious. At least two Internet-borne worms were discovered attempting to take advantage of the program, which the CD's transferred to computers that played them. And the company was facing lawsuits accusing it of fraud and computer tampering in its efforts at digital rights management, or D.R.M. ''Look, what we do is write music; we make music,'' said Donnie Van Zant, who like most artists had no had no idea what sort of security features, if any, his label would place on the album. ''I really don't even know what D.R.M. means, to be honest with you.'' The entertainment industry has complained that in the digital world, wanton piracy can bleed revenues. Along with lawsuits and legislative lobbying, infusing digital media with tricked-out code to limit how, when and by whom it is used is one way copyright holders have sought to keep control of their products. It is not foolproof (for every lock, a pick), and tight controls are not what customers want. But it is something they might tolerate -- so long as it does not go too far. ''I think they've set the whole D.R.M. thing back at least a year or two,'' Todd Chanko, a television and entertainment industry analyst with Jupiter Research in New York, said of the Sony BMG situation. One angry ''customer reviewer'' of Van Zant's album put it another way on Amazon.com: ''Boycott Sony! It looks like it's now safer to download pirated copies than to buy CD's!'' For its part, Sony

1717491_0

She Helps Disabled Children Get Into the Game

NAME -- Youth Challenge. FOUNDED -- In 1976 by Mary Sue Tanis in Fairview Park, Ohio (outside Cleveland). MISSION -- To promote interaction between children with physical disabilities and teenage volunteers through one-on-one sports and other recreational activities. CONSTITUENCY -- About 100 disabled children ages 4 to 18; about 400 teenage volunteers. FINANCING -- The $450,000 annual budget comes from private donations, grants, foundations and fund-raisers. THE STORY -- As a student at the University of Colorado in the 70's, Ms. Tanis worked with disabled Vietnam veterans through sports rehab. She felt a kinship with the men because her brother had served in Vietnam. After graduation, she came home on a mission. ''My brother came back in one piece,'' she said. '' So I thought, I'm going to work with disabled children in Ohio.'' Ms. Tanis went to her town's recreation department and got permission to use a pavilion and playground in a park. Then she went about finding children. ''I actually went door to door,'' she said. Next, she recruited volunteers from high schools. Youth Challenge began in 1976 as a two-day-a-week summer program, with 12 children and 12 volunteers. ''We played duck duck goose, and when it rained we'd go bowling,'' she said. Soon, churches and schools offered facilities. By 1983, the program had found a home in an old school. Now year-round and open four days a week, Youth Challenge has 100 children and 400 volunteers, offering swimming, horseback riding, hockey, basketball, tennis, sailing, skiing, golf -- even yoga. Some alumni have played in national tennis competitions and in the National Basketball Association's wheelchair division. The role of the volunteers cannot be underestimated, she said. ''The friendships that are formed, the sharing and caring, it's a critical part of what we do.'' Physical limitations aside, Ms. Tanis said, disabled children are like all other children. ''These kids might have braces on their legs and they might not be able to talk, but everyone has fun together.'' Not all the news is good. The program's home was torn down, and it is now in temporary quarters. At the top of Ms. Tanis's wish list: $2 million for a new home. Next August, Youth Challenge will celebrate its 30th anniversary. ''We're having a huge homecoming,'' she said. ''I'll be able to say thank you to everyone, because without them this never would've grown to so many lives touched, so

1716388_1

France Prepares to Deport Foreigners Guilty of Rioting

some here legally, had been found guilty of rioting since the unrest began outside Paris on Oct. 27. ''I have asked the prefects to deport them from our national territory without delay, including those who have residency visas,'' he said. Human rights groups objected, saying such ''collective expulsion'' was both illegal and needlessly provocative. It does not go beyond existing French law, however, according to an immigration lawyer, Stéphane Halimi. Foreigners convicted of a crime are subject to losing their residence permits, and they are often deported after serving their sentences in French jails. ''If he can prove that these people constitute a grave threat to public order, he can certainly do it,'' Mr. Halimi said. Nevertheless, Mr. Sarkozy's unyielding tone dramatized yet again the deep gulf between the rioters -- most of whom are teenagers of North African or West African origin -- and mainstream French society. Many of these young people were born in France and are thus French citizens. But some older immigrants never obtained citizenship because they were ineligible or, in a few cases, because it was easier to find informal work without it. Mr. Sarkozy has come under heavy criticism for using inflammatory language in referring to the rioters. While his call for expulsions may bruise more feelings, other people will view it as a welcome sign that the authorities are finally responding to the chaos that has convulsed their country. An opinion poll published Wednesday in Le Parisien found that 73 percent of those surveyed approved of the curfews, which were first enforced Tuesday in Amiens, in northern France. Officials said it was too soon to say whether the emergency measures had caused the waning of the lawlessness. The more likely explanation, Interior Ministry officials said, is the heavy police presence in suburban areas, where the unrest has been concentrated. The police arrested 280 people on Tuesday, bringing the total number of arrests to 1,830. Among the cities authorized to impose curfews are Marseille, Dijon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nancy, Rouen, Avignon and the entire Île-de-France region, which includes Paris and its suburbs. Most will not immediately impose a curfew, according to France-Inter Radio. The images of burning cars have rattled European leaders, and some are starting to question the French government's tactics. ''There is justified criticism against French society, and that should not be met by the type of expressions that Sarkozy, for example, uses,''

1716325_1

Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail?

(talk to you later) and express general wonderment at how life was ever lived before the in-box was invented. But now that it has become an essential form of communication -- with traffic exploding from 5.1 million messages in 2000 to 135.6 million messages in 2005, according to the Radicati Group, a technology and market research firm in Palo Alto, Calif. -- e-mail is causing as much distress as delight. And it's driving an increasing number of employers, bosses and workers to find ways to control or curtail the load. ''You have to be smart about how you use e-mail,'' said David Strom, editor in chief of Tom's Hardware Guide, a technology review Web site. ''Otherwise you let it ruin your life.'' There is no doubt that e-mail has become a fast, efficient and almost indispensable workplace tool. But it has also bred its own varieties of stress, from the panic that ensues after sending a compromising message to the wrong person to the unease that festers when a message goes unacknowledged. The rampant office practice of ''cc-ing'' colleagues and bosses (carbon copying, to use the term of the ancients) has also heightened anxieties by forcing an ever-widening circle of people to respond immediately. Even vacation is no longer an automatic escape valve, not with the lure of laptops and Internet cafes. The popularity of wireless connections and hand-held devices like BlackBerries has only deepened the e-mail deluge. And then there is the scourge of spam, which still manages to stay one step ahead of the most aggressive filters. Perhaps e-mail's biggest source of stress, though, is the overstuffed in-box. Many employees, both bosses and subordinates, commonly receive 150 e-mail messages a day, consultants say, and some high-powered clients can be peppered with 50 an hour. ''You plow through e-mail and feel accomplished, and then you log on the next time and see the little number on the left side of the screen that tells you you have 200 e-mails in your box,'' said Anna Marta Sala, 40, who is president and owner of AMS Artists, which provides management and services for musicians. And because e-mail is the quickest form of communication, it's often perceived as demanding a quick response. ''My shoulders are up around my ears with the pressure to respond immediately,'' Ms. Sala said. It's a complaint that Julie Morgenstern, a time management expert and best-selling author whose

1716417_1

British Journal Faults Rival Over New Drug

cancer. It is approved for use only in more advanced cancers that have spread beyond the lymph nodes. That interest intensified last month, when The New England Journal published two preliminary studies concluding that the drug seemed to be extremely effective, accompanied by a glowing editorial. Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor of the journal, defended the decision to publish yesterday and said that the results were ''highly likely to stand up with time.'' Dr. Horton said The Lancet decided to publish its own editorial after the British health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, publicly demanded that the National Health Service provide the drug to a patient who had sued to be given the medicine. In France, pressure to release Herceptin was so intense that regulators bypassed normal channels to make it more widely available to breast cancer patients this year. Many doctors who have used Herceptin defended the fast-track process. ''I understand the importance of caution, but the results of these studies were so impressive to doctors who take care of women with breast cancer that we believe the studies should change the standard of care,'' said Dr. Ed. Romond, an oncologist at the University of Kentucky who was a prinicipal investigator for one of The New England Journal's articles. At a cost of about $45,000 for a full treatment course, governments have been hard pressed to pay for Herceptin. But Dr. Horton said the current debate was simply about whether the drug worked and was safe. Herceptin began attracting intense notice earlier this year, when researchers at a meeting of the American Cancer Society presented some promising early data on the use of Herceptin to treat early breast cancer. Two articles, with further interim data, were published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Oct. 20th. But some scientists have long had misgivings about the data, or at least about the drug's golden image -- especially in light of its price tag. Last week in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Victor Montori of McMaster University in Toronto pointed out that when trials are stopped early, the preliminary analyses can show ''implausibly large treatment effects'' and urged ''skepticism'' in viewing the data. Correction: November 15, 2005, Tuesday An article in Business Day on Thursday about expressions of caution on the new cancer drug Herceptin misstated the location of McMaster University, where a researcher urged ''skepticism'' in viewing data about

1720911_2

The Getty's Italian Job

very likely to have been pillaged. By adopting a concrete date before which the object had to be known, the Getty has distanced itself from the illicit market, and the distance will increase with time. The pre-1995 publication rule is vital because dealers have often invented fake pedigrees for the works they sell. The Getty's present acquisitions policy is owed to Ms. True, its former curator of Greek and Roman antiquities. The Getty policy is arguably the strongest of any major American museum, and as far as we know it has not been violated. Other museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and several major university collections (Princeton and Harvard among them) instead follow the policy adopted by the Association of Art Museum Directors, which allows the purchase of undocumented antiquities if the museum believes acquisition is justified. The problem here is that objects newly on the market with no known history are almost certain to have been recently pillaged. If dealers revealed the origins of such works they could not possibly be sold. Photographs seized in a 1995 police raid on the warehouse of one dealer, Giacomo Medici -- who has already been convicted -- show Italian soil still clinging to vases now in American collections, including the Metropolitan (which appears now to be negotiating the return of pillaged works to Italy). Most archaeologists, of course, would prefer an acquisitions policy that is even stronger than the Getty's -- one that would require proof that the object was documented much earlier than 1995. Some advocate the symbolic date of 1970, when the Unesco convention on illicit trade in cultural property was approved. A more rigorous choice would be the date of the relevant legislation protecting antiquities in the country of origin (in the case of Italy, June 1, 1939). Either way, choosing a date is essential. The pillaging of the human past is a problem the world over, hardly limited to the Mediterranean. To reduce it, all countries that have antiquities at risk should police their historical sites effectively and create programs that teach citizens the value and community importance of local remains. The international trade can also be discouraged by import bans. The Unesco convention allows the United States to sign bilateral agreements with countries where pillaging is rampant, banning entire categories of objects at risk. Nine such agreements are now

1719501_1

The Power of the Bump

of airline contracts, which clearly describe a carrier's obligation when a flight is oversold, and a growing sense among customers that the vouchers (particularly those for ''free flights'' that are often as hard to redeem as frequent-flier miles) are not worth the paper they are printed on. ''It's one of the few times that consumers have the upper hand,'' Mr. Perkins said. Count Sue Bradford-Moore, a tax preparer from San Jose, Calif., among the disenchanted fliers. ''Those certificates are impossible to use,'' she said. ''It is like a casino that hands out certificates for free drinks and meals. How many people are actually going to do something with them?'' Neither the airlines nor their trade group, the Air Transport Association, report the number of certificates issued or used. But it is clear more vouchers are being doled out. For the first nine months of this year, 460,974 passengers volunteered to give up their seats, and 36,882 passengers were denied boarding outright and given cash compensation because their flights were overbooked, according to the Transportation Department. That comes to 90 passengers per million being bumped against their will, up from 85 per million in the same 2004 period. Why turn down the vouchers? They expire after one year, for one thing, so some people never get around to using them. But Ms. Bradford-Moore said she believed that some airlines were also making it increasingly difficult to redeem them. She recently tried to use one, only to find that she could not do so on the airline's Web site. She was required to reserve her ticket by phone, she was told. She then had to pay a $10 surcharge, and, she said, ''I felt as if I wasn't getting access to the lowest fare by booking offline.'' Other passengers share her frustration. When Mary Staley tried to redeem a $150 voucher for a flight from Detroit to Chicago, she found that the only way to do it was by phone, which added a $5 surcharge. Ms. Staley, a technology specialist at Michigan State University's extension campus in Cheboygan, Mich., was not allowed to combine the certificate with a $25 certificate she had received as compensation for delayed luggage. She said airlines were eager to offer passengers these vouchers, but helping them to redeem them ''is not a priority.'' The redemption rules can be so confusing that even airline employees do not fully

1719632_0

Seeing the Forest

To the Editor: In ''China Is Bright Spot in Dark Report on the World's Diminishing Forests'' (Nov. 15), China is credited with a huge turnaround in its deforestation trends. This is attributed to its new forest policy. Whatever this new forest policy is, it seems to be saving only the trees on China's home soil. The article ''Loggers, Scorning the Law, Ravage the Amazon Jungle'' (Oct. 16) reveals that China is the recipient of 14 percent of Brazil's shipments of Amazon lumber, and that number is growing rapidly. To add more fuel to the fire (pun intended), last week's article also points out that the United Nations has found that the South Amazon has been the center of some of the worst deforestation in the world. Is China's bright spot really a beacon of hope or just an optical illusion? Dan Carmeli Ithaca, N.Y.

1719498_0

Ocean Explorer Becomes One With the Sharks

There have been many men inside sharks through the ages, but only one has wanted to be there, and his name is Cousteau. The familiar name carries with it a well-established sense of seawater, science and showmanship. But this Cousteau is Fabien, the 38-year-old grandson of Jacques and an ocean explorer in his own right. Fabien Cousteau is studying the behavior of great white sharks. They have gotten an unfair reputation as soulless killers, he said in an interview. Reading stories about shark attacks, he said, ''It struck me about how much misinformation about sharks is out there.'' With a new documentary that will be shown on CBS later this year, he's out to show that they are, well, not exactly cuddly, but not evil either. One problem with monitoring sharks, he said, is that it is so hard to observe them without affecting their behavior. The shark cages, the bait -- it all adds up, he said, to footage of gaping mouths and churning water foamed with blood. The idea for a shark submarine came to him, he said, from the adventures of Tintin, a comic strip character created by a Belgian artist. In ''Red Rackham's Treasure,'' Tintin explores the sea in a shark-shaped sub. ''I was 7 years old when I read it,'' said Mr. Cousteau, who was born in Paris but lives in New York. He named his submersible Troy, for another animal-shaped vehicle with invaders inside. Piloting the 14-foot craft was not a joy. ''Troy is definitely not for the claustrophobic!'' he wrote in an e-mail message after the interview. He compared the experience to ''being in a womb.'' The interior is filled with water, and he uses a rebreather. He carried six hours of air on each dive, but would usually become uncomfortably chilled after a couple of hours. Mr. Cousteau's gamble paid off, he said, when the groups of sharks he approached off the coasts of Mexico allowed him to cruise along with them. ''The sharks were willing to be around us,'' he said. He found that some -- perhaps not the brightest of the bunch -- were apparently fooled by the swimming fake. ''The fact that it even remotely worked, remotely resembled a swimming shark, was really neat,'' he said. JOHN SCHWARTZ FINDINGS

1714546_1

Yes, Immigration May Lift Wages

the Gains From Immigration: Theory and Evidence From the U.S.,'' Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano of the University of Bologna and Giovanni Peri of the University of California, Davis estimate that immigration in the 1990's increased the average wage of American-born workers by 2.7 percent. (The paper is available at www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gperi.) Although it still relies on a highly stylized model of the economy, their paper adds two complexities that bring it closer to reality. First, the two economists assume that businesses can make additional capital investments to take advantage of the expanded supply of workers. Companies may open new restaurants or stores, add new factory lines or build more houses. In their model, as in the real world, ''investment adjusts not to keep fixed the amount of capital but to keep fixed the return to capital,'' Professor Peri said. As long as businesses can profitably add new production, they hire more workers, and wages do not necessarily go down. Instead, he said, ''more workers means more business.'' As businesses expand, hiring foreign-born workers to do one job may also require hiring more native-born workers with complementary skills. Immigrant engineers, for instance, may create demand for native-born patent lawyers and marketing executives. That is the paper's second refinement. It assumes that immigrants do not always compete for the same jobs as American-born workers. The two groups are not ''perfect substitutes,'' even when they have similar education and the same occupation. A Chinese cook is not the same as a Texas barbecue chef. Immigrants often bring different skills to the American labor force, and concentrate on different occupations from natives. Among high school dropouts, the paper notes, the ''foreign-born are highly overrepresented in professions like tailors (54 percent were foreign-born in 2000) and plaster-stucco masons (44 percent were foreign-born in 2000).'' By contrast, American-born workers make up more than 99 percent of all crane operators and sewer-pipe cleaners. The same is true at the highest educational levels, where foreign-born college graduates make up 44 percent of all medical scientists but only 4 percent of lawyers. (Immigrants tend to be concentrated at the highest and lowest levels of income and education.) Immigrants do, of course, compete to some extent with native-born workers. The question is how much. To measure wage competition, the economists looked at how much an increase in the number of foreign-born workers affects the wages of other foreign-born workers versus American-born

1714523_1

Chirac Appeals for Calm as Violent Protests Shake Paris's Suburbs

reported. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has seized control of the government's response from his rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in what appears to be an effort to assuage anger in the country's North African population over Mr. Sarkozy's blunt authoritative style. Mr. Sarkozy, who had raised temperatures with tough remarks this week, did not speak Wednesday at the government's weekly question-and-answer session before the legislature. Burning cars as a form of protest is not unusual in the largely immigrant, working-class neighborhoods. Unemployment rates there are 30 percent or more, while the national rate is 10 percent. More than 20,000 cars have been set ablaze in France so far this year, according to a government report cited by the newspaper Le Figaro. The periodic violence highlights France's failure to integrate immigrants into the country's broader society, a problem that has grown in urgency as the unemployment rate climbs. Most of the country's immigrants are housed in government-subsidized apartments on the outskirts of industrial cities. They benefit from generous welfare programs, but the government's failure to provide jobs has created a sense of disenfranchisement among the young. A highly observant form of Islam has grown popular among the mostly Muslim population. But the spread of violence over six nights has particularly alarmed the government, which is already preoccupied by a contest between Mr. Villepin and Mr. Sarkozy to become the governing center-right party's presidential candidate in 2007. Mr. Sarkozy has made zero tolerance of crime part of his tough law-and-order platform. ''If it continues, people will start to look for who to blame,'' said Dominique Reynié, a professor of French political life at the National Foundation of Political Sciences, referring to the violence. According to an account by Mr. Sarkozy, the incident last week began when a group of youths in Clichy-sous-Bois were returning home after playing soccer and the police received a report that someone had broken into a nearby construction site. The police arrived, gave chase and took six youths into custody. Mr. Sarkozy said police logs showed that the police and their detainees arrived at the local police station at 6 p.m., while a power failure caused when the two other youths made contact with the transformer did not occur until 12 minutes later. He said one youth who had survived the transformer episode confirmed that the police were not chasing him and his friends at the time.

1716272_0

World Briefing | Americas: Cuba: Overwhelming U.N. Vote Against U.S. Blockade

For the 14th consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly against the United States commercial embargo of Cuba. The vote on the resolution, which is nonbinding, was 182 to 4 -- the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau -- with one abstention, Micronesia. The Cuban foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque said the 44-year-old embargo was being enforced with more ''viciousness and brutality'' than ever before because of ''the helpless, imperial haughtiness of President Bush, which has taken him farther than anyone else in this madness.'' Ronald Godard, a deputy United States ambassador, told the General Assembly that ''if the people of Cuba are jobless, hungry or lack medical care, as Fidel Castro admits, it is because of his economic mismanagement, not the embargo.'' Warren Hoge (NYT)

1716117_0

An Organic Cash Cow

ALEXIS GERSTEN, a Long Island dentist, never thought about what she poured over her cereal until her son turned 1. ''Having a new milk drinker, I sort of wanted to start him off on the right foot,'' she said. Ms. Gersten worried about what synthetic growth hormones, pesticides and antibiotics might do to her child and to the environment. She was concerned about the health of the cows and the survival of local farmers. So she became one of the new mothers who are making milk the fastest growing slice of the organic market. ''Some of my friends who don't really think about feeding their children organic food will feed them organic milk,'' she said. Milk represents all that is wholesome. Add the word organic, and the purity of milk's image only increases. But a carton of organic milk does not come without complications. It is expensive. Some brands are processed so that an unopened carton can last for months. And an organic seal does not necessarily mean the cows are grazing on pasture or that the milk is local. Organic milk accounts for more than 3 percent of all milk sold in the United States. But with an annual growth rate of 23 percent in an era when overall milk consumption is dropping by 8 percent a year, organic milk has made the nation's $10.2 billion-a-year dairy industry take notice. Horizon Organic, which controls 55 percent of the market, is selling $16 million worth of organic milk a month. It is owned by Dean Foods, the nation's largest dairy producer. Groupe Danone, the French dairy giant, owns Stonyfield Farm. Large grocers, including Whole Foods Market and Safeway, have organic house brands. Wal-Mart even sells it. ''It's being held back only by supply now,'' said George Siemon, chief executive of Organic Valley. A Wisconsin dairy cooperative that Mr. Siemon began in 1988, it is the second-largest seller of organic milk in the country. Milk is considered a gateway to organic food. Along with produce it is one of the first organic products a consumer will buy, according to the Hartman Group, a research firm in Bellevue, Wash. The ethos of organic milk -- one that its cartons reinforce -- conjures lush pastures dotted with grazing animals, their milk production driven by nothing more than nature's hand and a helpful family farmer. But choosing organic milk doesn't guarantee much beyond this:

1716196_0

The Rioting That Roils France

To the Editor: Re ''French Officials Try to Ease Fear as Crisis Swells'' (front page, Nov. 8): Having spent many years smugly criticizing Israel's struggle to respond to the Palestinian intifada and, more recently, the reaction of the American authorities to Hurricane Katrina, the French government is quickly learning that civil unrest and racial tensions are features of its own society, too. With talk of curfews and ''cleaning out'' neighborhoods swirling around, one hopes that the French authorities and the wider European Union hold themselves to the same high standards that they demand from others. Daniel Wolf Teaneck, N.J., Nov. 8, 2005

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How to Look at China

one of the deepest gorges in the world. With its thunderous rushing waters cutting through mountains, it is certainly one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I visited there with my camera, but I also visited with some local villagers with my notebook. These farmers are angry that plans are being made to dam the Yangtze River, flood Tiger Leaping Gorge and force the relocation of thousands of farmers and villagers. And they are getting vocal, learning about their legal options and pressing local officials to reconsider how the dam will be built. Getting political is not a hobby for these farmers. It is a necessity. And similar dramas of necessity are being played out all over the Chinese countryside today by villagers who know that they are not fully participating in China's economic growth, but are being told that if they want to, they must accept dams or factories that will destroy their environment. They don't like this deal, but China's rigid political system leaves these farmers, who are still the majority in China today, with few legal options for fighting it. That helps explain why China's official media reported that in 1993 some 10,000 incidents of social unrest took place in China. Last year there were 74,000. This is the political lens to watch China through today. How China's ruling Communist Party manages the environmental, social, economic and political tensions converging on such places as Tiger Leaping Gorge -- not Tiananmen Square -- will be the most important story determining China's near-term political stability. Listen to China's deputy minister of the environment, Pan Yue, in his stunning March 7 interview with Der Spiegel: ''Our raw materials are scarce, we don't have enough land, and our population is constantly growing. Currently, there are 1.3 billion people living in China; that's twice as many as 50 years ago. In 2020, there will be 1.5 billion people in China. Cities are growing, but desert areas are expanding at the same time; habitable and usable land has been halved over the past 50 years. [China's G.D.P. miracle] will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace. Half of the water in our seven largest rivers is completely useless. One-third of the urban population is breathing polluted air. ''We are convinced that a prospering economy automatically goes hand in hand with political stability. And I think that's a major

1714806_3

Italy's Top Spy Names Freelance Agent as Source of Forged Niger-Iraq Uranium Documents

and the committee chairman, Enzo Bianco. Committee members said they were shown documents defending General Pollari, including a copy of a classified letter from Robert S. Muller III, the director of the F.B.I., dated July 20, which praised Italy's cooperation with the bureau. In Washington, an official at the bureau confirmed the substance of the letter, whose contents were first reported Tuesday in the leftist newspaper L'Unità. The letter stated that Italy's cooperation proved the bureau's theory that the false documents were produced and disseminated by one or more people for personal profit, and ruled out the possibility that the Italian service had intended to influence American policy, the newspaper said. As a result, the letter said, according to both the F.B.I. official and L'Unità, the bureau had closed its investigation into the origin of the documents. The F.B.I. official declined to be identified by name. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Italy's military intelligence service sent reports to the United States and Britain claiming that Iraq was actively trying to acquire uranium, according to current and former intelligence officials. Senator Brutti told reporters on Thursday that indeed Sismi had provided information about Iraq's desire to acquire uranium from Niger as early as the 1990's, but that it had never said the information was credible. Thursday's hearing followed a three-part series in La Repubblica, which said General Pollari had knowingly provided the United States and Britain with forged documents. The newspaper, a staunch opponent of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, also reported that General Pollari had acted at the behest of Mr. Berlusconi, who was said to be eager to help President Bush in the search for weapons in Iraq. Mr. Berlusconi has denied such accounts. La Repubblica said General Pollari had held a meeting on Sept. 9, 2002, with Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser. Mr. Hadley, now the national security adviser, has said that he met General Pollari on that date, but that they did not discuss the Niger-Iraq issue. ''Nobody participating in that meeting or asked about that meeting has any recollection of a discussion of natural uranium, or any recollection of any documents being passed,'' Mr. Hadley told a briefing on Wednesday in Washington. ''And that's also my recollection.'' At the time, Mr. Hadley took responsibility for including the faulty information in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address. THE LEAK INQUIRY: INTELLIGENCE

1720173_1

Survivors Pursue Effort to Save Stairway That Was 9/11 'Path to Freedom'

zero. But they also stand within the outline of the future Tower 2, an office building planned by Silverstein Properties. That is why a preservation effort has begun. Possibilities include moving the staircase elsewhere on the trade center site, making it an architectural feature attached to or enclosed by Tower 2, or -- far less likely -- redrawing the Tower 2 outline to avoid it. ''It's certainly a very significant remembrance of what happened that day,'' said Charles A. Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority, on a visit to the staircase last week with Ms. Bergeron and Ms. Clark. ''Somehow I would hope that it can be preserved somewhere in the site, if not within Building 2.'' The World Trade Center Survivors' Network hopes the stairs can stay rooted. ''There's a great power in their being where they were,'' said Gerry Bogacz, a founding member of the group. ''After the south tower collapsed, that was the only way anyone could get off the plaza.'' Peg Breen, the president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Frank E. Sanchis III, the senior vice president of the Municipal Art Society, have also asked that the staircase be permanently preserved in place. ''There will never be another original element of the World Trade Center complex in its original street-level location,'' they wrote to the site's developer, Larry A. Silverstein, on Nov. 10. Silverstein Properties had no comment. On Sept. 11, 2001, Ms. Clark and Ms. Bergeron separately made their way down more than 40 stories of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower, and found each other on the 23rd floor. As they reached a landing in a stairwell on the fourth or fifth floor, the south tower collapsed. There was a terrific noise, then a violent vibration. ''At that point,'' Ms. Bergeron said, ''I thought we were going to die.'' Ms. Clark looked up to see the stairwell itself twisting. Then the lights went out. ''You just closed your eyes and you prayed that it be over,'' she said, adding, ''And then it stopped and the lights came back on.'' Getting out of the tower proved hellish, too, through calf-high water, under dangling electrical wires, by a dim emergency light that faded to darkness. They felt their way along a row of lockers, until a firefighter opened a door. What greeted them outside was a dust cloud so opaque and white

1720107_7

In China, Wholesale Urban Flight; New City Centers Are Springing Up in What Was Yesterday's Farmland

eat. And if you miss the bus after work, you're stuck here.'' To make way for more new buildings, city officials must relocate tens of thousands of peasants and small farmers. In many cities, these mass relocations have led to violent clashes that have pitted residents against the government and powerful developers. As dilapidated as many homes are, residents often complain of being offered too little compensation, of being harassed, threatened and even forcibly relocated to distant places. A few months ago, in Shanghai, relocation crews near the trendy Xintiandi area were pelted with rocks and bricks by residents, according to a local resident. But here in Harbin, city officials say their task should be easier because they are creating a new city center in a less densely populated area. And today, thousands of workers can be seen on the former farm land, paving roads, hauling loads, erecting skyscrapers and planting trees. Nearby, the Shimao Riviera New City is rising, promising luxury residences, villas and a taste of Europe. City officials and developers have already dubbed Songbei, the ''Pudong of the North,'' after Shanghai's Pudong district, the financial center and economic powerhouse that has been rapidly developing over the last decade on the east side of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, directly across from the old Bund. Whether or not it thrives, Songbei rises in striking contrast to old Harbin, once an important stop on Russia's Trans-Siberian railway line heading east to Vladivostok. Today's move leaves the old city of Harbin bleak and gloomy. There is ornate Russian and European architecture throughout. But much of what was built after 1949 is stained and in disrepair. The more modern buildings have little character and were arranged helter-skelter. Songbei, on the other hand, is rising like a well-groomed suburb. But it is not without its critics. Some residents have quietly complained about the high cost of the municipal government building and about Shimao's seemingly sweetheart deal. Still, there is a sense of hope here in Harbin. Like other big cities in China, Harbin seems eager to split with the past and create a futuristic city. ''I'm happy,'' says 52-year-old Xue Ming Rong, a small farmer whose small home stands a few hundred yards from the Shimao Riviera site. ''They're going to reconstruct this area and build a Pudong here. It would be nice if I could see a Pudong in my lifetime.''

1718273_4

Closing of College Shadows Candidate for Governor

that she has tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to get a diploma for her studies. No school official has been available with explanations, and callers to the school are greeted by an answering machine. Ms. Gibson said her studies cost about $10,000, and that Decker officials helped get loans to pay that. ''I feel like they really took advantage of me,'' she said. ''They crushed my dreams.'' Mr. Johnson, the former admissions officer, described Decker as a high-pressure sales operation. He said his job was to oversee one of several Decker call centers staffed with salespeople calling potential students who had responded to television advertisements, and pressuring them to enroll. Students who enrolled were lodged in cheap hotels for a few weeks during the time in which they actually attended classes on campus, and then sent home to receive most of the rest of their Decker education online, Mr. Johnson said. He said that among the activities he witnessed were the creation of phony tax documents for students otherwise ineligible for federal loans. He said he came forward with files documenting his suspicions and showed them to his bosses, but was not given an opportunity to show them to Mr. Weld personally. He said he was then transferred to another Louisville campus. Mr. Johnson said that he provided documents to FBI agents, and recorded Decker officials for federal officials before they raided the Decker campus. His role could not be independently confirmed. The United States attorney's statement on Oct. 21 cautioned that ''no charges, complaints, or indictments have been issued against anyone and that a search warrant is merely an investigatory tool.'' The school's troubles had begun to escalate in June, when the federal Department of Education sent a team of officials to review its operations. On Sept. 30, the department sent Mr. Weld a letter disqualifying Decker from participation in federal student aid programs. It said that Decker had broken federal aid rules and that it owed $7.2 million to the government. Decker, it said, had failed to refund that amount in federal aid after students who received it withdrew from classes. Last month, Mr. Weld said that Decker had ''serious factual differences'' with some of the findings. The department suspended the eligibility of Decker students for aid including Pell Grants and Stafford loans. The college closed three weeks later. Two weeks after that, it agreed to enter bankruptcy proceedings.

1718279_0

Corrections

An article yesterday about the approval of proposals dealing with lay workers by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops misstated the percentage of lay ministers who are women. It is 80 percent, not 64 percent.

1686699_3

Speedy Growth In Career Schools Raises Questions

the Bronx and New Rochelle -- up from about 3,500 in 1999 -- is the growing number of second- and third-generation students. Much of the growth at such schools is dependent on attracting students eligible for financial aid. Among schools granting degrees, the commercial institutions received 17 percent of what New York State spent on tuition assistance grants in 2002, even though they educated just 6 percent of the undergraduates. Of 441 commercial schools in the state, 41 grant associate's or bachelor's degrees, up from 27 a decade ago. The commercial degree-granting schools are accredited by a variety of authorities, including the state, organizations that specialize in accrediting profit-making schools, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, one of the prestigious regional accrediting groups. New York State is an especially lucrative market. A needy New York student can receive $4,050 from a federal Pell Grant and $5,000 from the state Tuition Assistance Program, for a total of $9,050 in government scholarships each year. Some commercial schools set tuition close to that number. ''That is a pretty good recipe for making money,'' said Brian Pusser, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, who studies profit-making higher education. What students get in return is harder to measure. Despite the growth and the public money flowing to the schools, they remain a poorly understood corner of higher education. What is clear is that they often focus on groups that many colleges do not, like working adults or students who have not graduated from high school. They place less emphasis on professors with doctorates and more on teachers with practical experience. They offer a narrower range of courses that are more career-oriented, and they schedule classes at times convenient to working students. But the quality of education can vary. Gail O. Mellow, president of La Guardia Community College in Queens, said that after the Drake Business School, a commercial institution that did not grant degrees, closed last year, La Guardia tried to see if it could help some of the students. ''We found it impossible,'' she said. ''Even though some of these students were at the end of their sophomore year, their level of preparation was so low that they were not passing our basic placement tests.'' David C. Hart, who was Drake's chief executive for only a few months before it closed, said he was not surprised

1686741_3

Neuron Network Goes Awry, And Brain Becomes an IPod

perceive music. When sounds first enter the brain, they activate a region near the ears called the primary auditory cortex that starts processing sounds at their most basic level. The auditory cortex then passes on signals of its own to other regions, which can recognize more complex features of music, like rhythm, key changes and melody. Neuroscientists have been able to identify some of these regions with brain scans, and to compare the way people respond to musical and nonmusical sounds. Only a handful of brain scans have been made of people with musical hallucinations. Dr. Tim Griffiths, a neurologist at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, performed one of these studies on six elderly patients who developed musical hallucinations after becoming partly deaf. Dr. Griffiths used a scanning technique known as PET, which involves injecting radioactive markers into the bloodstream. Each time he scanned his subjects' brains, he asked them whether they had experienced musical hallucinations. If they had, he asked them to rate the intensity on a scale from one to seven. Dr. Griffiths discovered a network of regions in the brain that became more active as the hallucinations became more intense. ''What strikes me is that you see a very similar pattern in normal people who are listening to music,'' he said. The main difference is that musical hallucinations don't activate the primary auditory cortex, the first stop for sound in the brain. When Dr. Griffith's subjects hallucinated, they used only the parts of the brain that are responsible for turning simple sounds into complex music. These music-processing regions may be continually looking for signals in the brain that they can interpret, Dr. Griffiths suggested. When no sound is coming from the ears, the brain may still generate occasional, random impulses that the music-processing regions interpret as sound. They then try to match these impulses to memories of music, turning a few notes into a familiar melody. For most people, these spontaneous signals may produce nothing more than a song that is hard to get out of the head. But the constant stream of information coming in from the ears suppresses the false music. Dr. Griffith proposes that deafness cuts off this information stream. And in a few deaf people the music-seeking circuits go into overdrive. They hear music all the time, and not just the vague murmurs of a stuck tune. It becomes as

1686698_0

INSIDE

Hip Deep in a Hurricane's Wake Cleanup after Hurricane Dennis could take months in the Florida Panhandle, officials said, though the area appeared to have been spared major damage. In Lithia Springs, Ga., above, heavy rain inundated a car dealership; in St. Marks, Fla., far to the east of the hurricane's center, the water was every bit as deep. PAGE A13 Women and Anglican Bishops Leaders of the Church of England voted 41 to 6 to begin legal moves toward the ordination of women as bishops. The action could further split the 38 churches in the global Anglican Communion, pitting many Anglicans in the developing world against those in Europe and the United States. PAGE A3 Futile M.T.A. Security Effort Negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Army over an ambitious and innovative plan to work together on security measures for New York City's transit system ended in ruins as a result of unrelated firings. PAGE B1 Twist in Bias Attack Case A companion of the black youth who was severely beaten last month in what the police called a hate-crime attack by whites in Howard Beach, Queens, has been arrested on charges of taking part in a gunpoint robbery aboard a subway train in Brooklyn. PAGE B1 A Safer Space Shuttle The space shuttle Discovery is set to lift off tomorrow, in the first mission since the loss of the Columbia. To prevent similar disasters, NASA has installed dozens of safety features. SCIENCE TIMES, PAGES F1,F4-5 Music No One Else Can Hear No, it's not an iPod. It's a medical condition called ''musical hallucination'' and scientists suspect that it is the result of malfunctioning brain networks that normally allow us to perceive music. PAGE F1

1686775_0

Hands-Free Cellphone Devices Don't Aid Road Safety, Study Concludes

A study of Australian drivers found that those using cellphones were four times as likely to be involved in a serious crash regardless of whether they used hands-free devices like earpieces or speaker phones that have been perceived as making talking while driving safer. The study, which is to appear in The British Medical Journal today, is the first of its kind to use actual crash data and cellphone records to show a link between talking on the phone and being seriously injured in an accident. It is also the first to conclude definitively outside of a laboratory setting that holding a phone to the ear or talking through a hands-free device pose the same risks. Because cellphone records are not considered public information, a similar study has not been conducted in the United States. The most up-to-date research by the federal government has relied either on volunteers who were videotaped while driving or on experiments in which a driver was monitored by researchers in a laboratory. The new study examined the cellphone records of 744 drivers who had accidents in Perth, Australia, where drivers are required to use hands-free devices. Researchers estimated the time of the crash and looked at whether the driver used a cellphone in the minutes leading up to the accident. They then examined similar time intervals in the days before the crash to calculate the increased risk of using the cellphone. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit research group in Virginia, sent researchers to three hospitals in Perth during a two-year period from 2002 to 2004 to interview crash victims. The researchers asked several questions, including whether the driver had a hands-free device in the car and how often the device was used. To avoid having drivers incriminate themselves, the researchers did not ask if a hands-free apparatus was in use at the time of the crash. Rather, they asked drivers how often they used such a device and factored that into determining the devices' effectiveness. ''There is no safety advantage associated with switching to the types of hands-free devices that are commonly in use,'' the study concludes. With several states restricting the use of cellphones in cars, the findings raise questions about how useful those laws are. Currently, New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia require drivers to use a hands-free device. Beginning Oct. 1, Connecticut will also make holding

1686771_1

Bear Stearns Sets Aside $100 Million as Investigations Loom

The filing said that an S.E.C. enforcement action could result in fines or other sanctions. Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, also subpoenaed the company, requesting documents related to $16 million of the debt obligations purchased by a Bear Stearns client, according to the filing. It is unclear whether the two agencies are investigating the same transactions. The debt instruments are pools of corporate credit from a number of companies that are divided into three or more layers to reflect varying levels of risk. This fast-growing but arcane market came under the spotlight in May, when a downgrade of General Motors' debt roiled the credit markets, causing losses on the debt instruments. A spokeswoman for Bear Stearns said the company did not comment on regulatory investigations. The firm is cooperating with all the investigations, it said in its government filing. The filing came after the stock market closed. Earlier, shares of Bear Stearns fell 43 cents, to $106.78. Bear Stearns restated its earnings for the three months ended May 31, reducing net income to $298.1 million, from $365.1 million, on earnings of $2.09 a share, down from $2.56 a share. The investment bank reported pretax profit margins of 24.7 percent for the quarter, down from the 29.7 percent reported in the quarter a year earlier. According to the filling, without the $100 million litigation reserve, the pretax profit margin would have been 29.8 percent. The S.E.C., along with the United States attorney's office in Manhattan, NASD, the New York Stock Exchange, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have been investigating whether Bear Stearns helped clients make improper trades in mutual funds, including late trading and market timing. Last month, the S.E.C.'s commissioners voted to bring an enforcement action against the firm over its role in helping clients, including hedge funds, make rapid trades that some industry experts say hurt the returns of long-term shareholders. The firm is expected to be near a settlement. Still, negotiations with the S.E.C. have been drawn out and there has been strong internal resistance within Bear Stearns against settling for what was considered too high a penalty, according to people inside the firm. In a June filing, Bear Stearns said it ''believes it has strong defenses to the potential claims and intends to continue to engage in discussions'' with the S.E.C. over a possible resolution.

1686653_0

English Church Advances Bid For Women As Bishops

In a move that could further divide the global Anglican Church, the leaders of the Church of England voted Monday to begin the legal moves toward ordaining women as bishops. The decision, which is likely to take up to four years to carry out, would bring the Church of England into line with the Episcopal Church in the United States and 13 others among the 38 member churches of the Anglican Communion. The Church of England made the decision at its general synod in York, where the House of Bishops voted 41 to 6 in favor of ''the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women in the episcopate.'' The idea was proposed by Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark, who said there were ''good ecclesiological and theological reasons why women should now be able to be ordained bishop.'' ''There are many hurdles ahead, and we will gradually discover whether there is sufficient consensus in our church,'' Bishop Butler said. In terms of church politics, the ordination of women as bishops would allow women into the center of decision making, because bishops wield significant power over individual parishes and ordain priests. Bishop Geoffrey Rowel of Gibraltar in Europe, who has urged a delay in the process of ordaining women as bishops, called bishops ''the knots in the net'' of the church. Coming after Anglican divisions over an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in the Episcopal Church in the United States, the decision seems certain to widen the theological fissures among the world's 77 million Anglicans. Particularly, the debate pits Anglicans in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world against many of those in Europe and the United States. But it also sets some bishops in England against others. ''There continues to be serious disagreement within the Church of England,'' said Bishop John Hind of Chichester, an opponent of making women bishops. ''It reveals deeper disagreements about how we do theology and agree doctrine.'' Bishop Rowel said: ''We are in danger of dividing the Church of England. We can't afford the easy luxury of decision. We have to work for unity in the church.'' The Church of England has permitted the ordination of women as priests since 1994, but that decision prompted an exodus of hundreds of conservative priests. Some bishops opposed to the ordaining of women said there would be an even greater migration

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Caged in a Beijing Theme Park, Yearning for Something More

and the other young performers spend so much of their time. Dressed like a Las Vegas version of a Hindu princess and insistently, rather hilariously bellowing for a bandage, she makes for a gaudy and curiously poignant spectacle. By the time she finally finds her Band-Aid, the credits have rolled and the dressing rooms have emptied out of the other performers, leaving her to tend to the first of many such wounds. Loosely constructed, ''The World'' drifts along pleasantly for much of its two-and-a-half-hour running time. Mr. Jia has a terrific eye and an almost sculptural sense of film space (especially in close quarters), and he brings texture and density to even the most nondescript rooms. And while he's too in love with the film's overarching metaphor, he nonetheless gracefully incorporates the theme park into the everyday lives of its workers. In one scene, we pass by a miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa with the nonchalance of an Italian citizen; in another scene, the pyramids of Egypt, complete with drifts of sand and a masticating camel, make a suitably dramatic backdrop to a fight between friends. Something of a story gradually emerges, built on incident, mood and the amorphous desires of the film's characters. Tao befriends a Russian woman whose melancholic smile, crumpled family photograph and horribly bruised shoulders speak volumes about her plight. The scenes of the two women trying to communicate despite their language differences at times veer dangerously close to melodramatic excess, in particular when the Russian starts to drunkenly serenade Tao, but Mr. Jia manages, for the most part, to keep sentimentality at bay. In the end, what makes Tao herself a figure of great pathos isn't that she understands the other woman's tragedy; it's that because, locked inside this false world, Tao does not and, suggests Mr. Jia, cannot see her. In a sense this miniaturized world creates a prison for the filmmaker, as well. Mr. Jia isn't just enamored with his metaphor; he's mesmerized by it. As he wanders around the amusement park, repeatedly cutting away to the phony Eiffel Tower jutting into the China sky, the pyramids and even the Manhattan skyline, he increasingly comes across less like a filmmaker who knows what he's after and more like a besotted tourist. Even when he occasionally takes us outside the park, for a glimpse of the whirring Beijing street life, with its teeming humanity

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World Briefing | Africa: Somalia: Pirates Seize Tsunami Aid Ship

Armed men commandeered a ship carrying United Nations food aid to northeastern Somalia, the World Food Program said. The pirates forced their way on board the Semlow off the Somali coast, took the ship's 10 crew members hostage and took possession of 850 metric tons of rice that had been donated by Japan and Germany for tsunami victims in Somalia. ''It is against international humanitarian law to hinder the passage of humanitarian assistance, and there is no justification for hijacking,'' the food agency said in a statement. Marc Lacey (NYT)