Sunday September 24, 2006

The Final Word: “Past is Prologue Edition”

(The media experiment in which we conjoin the headline and last paragraph of each bylined article in the A-section of today's New York Times.)

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Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat:

More recently, the Council on Global Terrorism, an independent research group of respected terrorism experts, assigned a grade of "D+" to United States efforts over the past five years to combat Islamic extremism. The council concluded that "there is every sign that radicalization in the Muslim world is spreading rather than shrinking."

Islamists Calm Somali Capital With Restraint:

There is so much of it to do. Huge swaths of the capital have been reduced to ruins, with an arch left here, half a crumbling wall left there. In many places, Mogadishu looks like an ancient city that has been deserted for centuries, just riddled with holes.

Lung Patients See a New Era of Transplants:

As more data comes in, the rules may need to be adjusted, Dr. Orens said. "We're trying to capture just the right patients at just the right time."

As Children Suffer, Parents Agonize Over Spinach:

"I keep thinking we will at some point go home and it'll all be like it was," said Mr. Krause, 52. "But we don't know yet what the long-term effects are. He will be monitored probably for the rest of his life. It'll never be the same."

For N.F.L., Crowd Noise Has Become a Headache:

Diehl was called for three false-start penalties last year in Seattle. He knows that the crowd today will be loud, hoping to disrupt the Giants' best-laid plans.

McCareins Is a Wide Receiver Often Caught in the Middle: "If I don't do well or there's something that doesn't happen the way I want it, like the situation with Jerricho or whatever, it's over and done with," McCareins said. "I'm not going to beat myself up or pout or spend any energy being angry at the coaches or the decision makers. You move on and you do the best with what's put in front of you. That's what I try to do."

Rumsfeld Also Plays Hardball on Squash Courts:

Mr. Rumsfeld, he said, just laughed. Pentagon aides say that they do not recall Mr. Rumsfeld boasting about being better than Mr. Mubarak.

Other News

Bomb Near Group of Iraqi Women Kills at Least 35:

In Baghdad, the Iraqi military said American and Iraqi troops captured a leader of one of the most vicious Sunni terrorist groups, Ansar al-Sunna, during a raid early Saturday morning in the restive town of Miqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad. The raid captured Muntasir Hammoudi Alaiwi and two other insurgents, said Brigadier Qassim al-Mussawi. The group took credit for the December 2004 bombing of an Army mess tent in Mosul that killed 18 Americans and four others.

Officials Wary of Electronic Voting Machines:

Warren Stewart, legislative director for VoteTrustUSA, an advocacy group that has criticized electronic voting, said that after poll workers are trained to use the machines in the days before an election, many counties send the machines home with the workers. "That seems like pretty unfettered access to me," Mr. Stewart said.

So Small a Town, So Many Patent Suits:

"As we were going through our victory discussion, a big truck pulls up and there goes the copier and fax machines out the door," Mr. Wilmington said. "It disappeared just as quickly as it was set up. I'm sure the week following, there was someone coming in to do it all over again."

'The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million,' by Daniel Mendelsohn: Giving Death a Face:

It is one story, and yes, "the Holocaust is so big." But Daniel Mendelsohn has invented a unique way of making it, once again, all too real.

The Ballad of Big Mike:

One year later, Michael Oher was a first-team freshman All-American, the starting left tackle of the Ole Miss Rebels and the most awesome force on a football field that a lot of college line coaches had ever seen. He was on a collision course with the second-highest-paid job in the N.F.L. He could read and write and now blended so well socially into rich white Memphis that rich white Memphis almost forgot he was black. Drowned in nurture, his I.Q. test score had risen between 20 and 30 points. And his new parents, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, were so pleased with the results of their experiment that they began to figure out how best to go back into the inner city and do it all over again.

Sofia Coppola's Paris:

After writing down the peculiar hours of the vintage shop, Sofia headed to the Jardin du Luxembourg. "My father was so taken with this place that he built a little fountain in Napa based on the fountain here," she said, as she walked down the wide gravel path that leads to the heart of the garden. She motioned to a bench. "This place has always been emotional for me." Right before she was about to get married to Spike Jonze (now her ex-husband), and before her first movie, "The Virgin Suicides," was shown in Cannes, the stress had got to her: "I just sat here and cried." She would come here while filming "Marie Antoinette" when she had serious things on her mind. "The beauty of this garden would always reassure me," she said. "Paris has a way of restoring your faith."

International

Bolivia Reaches for a Slice of the Coast That Got Away:

"This is about part of us," said Mauricia Yapura, an attendant at the museum for 10 years, "a part that Chile took away."

Putin Rejects Europe's Fears on Company:

President Putin also announced he signed on Friday two memorandums of understanding for potential contracts representing more than $10 billion in transactions. One, between the Russian transportation ministry and the French construction giant Vinci, concerns plans for a highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The other, between the Russian and French Transportation Ministries, provides for possible cooperation on transportation and infrastructure in Russia.

In Raid, Greek Police Recover 700-Year-Old Stolen Icon:

They said their investigation had included telephone surveillance after the Romanian placed a call to a senior prelate last week demanding 1.2 million euros, about $1.5 million, for the icon.

British Army Defends Itself Against Criticism From Officers:

The police said some 20,000 people joined the protest, but organizers put the figure at 60,000.

NASA Chief Heads to China to Discuss Space Cooperation:

Mr. Sabathier and other experts said the composition of Mr. Griffin's team, including the head of NASA's human space flight program and Ms. Lucid, whose five trips to space included a long stay aboard the Russian Mir space station, suggests that some type of cooperation in space may be under consideration.

Top Democrat in Hong Kong Will Not Run:

Mrs. Chan's decision not to run leaves democracy advocates in disarray, with no clear candidate. Election rules here require a candidate to be nominated by at least 100 members of the election committee.

National Report

100 Years Later, a Painful Episode Is Observed at Last:

Ms. Bearden said that while she was working on her family genealogy, she began to learn more about Mr. Walker from her father: "Dad would always start out saying, 'Papa didn't take no mess.' "

A Boat Racing on Biodiesel, but Running Low on Money:

"We're getting there, mate," he said. "It's been a long, hard journey, and it continues to be a long, hard journey. But we're making it happen the best we can."

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