Wednesday October 18, 2006

The Final Word: “Every Inch A King 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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Iraq Removes Leaders of Special Police:

In all, 19 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Tuesday, Reuters reported, including the shooting deaths of 4 college students and a gynecologist in Basra in southern Iraq. Authorities found 30 bodies across Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry official said.

$5.4 Billion Bid Wins Complexes in New York Deal:

"I knew they wouldn't give it to us," said Arthur Kellebrew, 44, who grew up in Stuyvesant Town and now has a family of his own. "It seems like now all they want is money. It affects the whole city, because middle class housing — you can't find it any more."

For Real Estate Deal Maker, a Residential Venture: Last year, Mr. Speyer teamed up with two pension funds, the New York City Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement System, in the $1.72 billion deal for the former Pan Am Building.

Ex-House Clerk May Be a Key in Foley's Case:

It is 72 miles, but a world away, from downtown Washington, where visitors travel across roads called Fogg Mountain, Fish Hawk Pass and Points of View Lane.

Labor Leader Accused of Taking $2.2 Million:

Mr. McLaughlin could often be seen at street rallies, speaking in a strong, often bellowing voice to members of various unions involved in labor disputes, including curators at the Museum of Modern Art, secretaries at Barnard College, and janitors and doormen for the city's office towers.

Not Coming Soon to a Lot Near You: Chinese Cars:

"The hard part," he said, standing beside a short row of car frames that needed his attention, "is to get the gaps just right."

A Republican With Unfortunate Timing Believes His Time Is Now:

"I knew this race was uphill right when I started, but I'm satisfied that I've run as hard and well as I could," Mr. Faso said. "You wish for certain things, and if you try hard enough, sometimes they work out. And sometimes they don't. That's life, right?"

Geriatrics Lags in Age of High-Tech Medicine:

"When patients are diagnosed correctly and care is managed accordingly, we see great improvements," she continued. "Sometimes we don't cure them; we just make them feel better. But that's a good thing."

Glorious Food? English Schoolchildren Think Not:

But here in Rotherham, Andreas Petrou insists that no amount of explaining will convince him that a French fry sandwich is not a decent meal. If confronted with the school food, he said, he will do what all his friends do: gather as much bread as he can, "put half an inch of butter on each slice," and call it lunch.

Other News

Alarm Bells for G.O.P. in a Battleground State:

James Reed, 50, a self-described independent voter from Ashtabula, said in a follow-up interview that Mr. Taft, who is not running for re-election, "has sold us down the road as far as jobs are concerned." Mr. Reed, a disabled chemical plant worker, said trade restrictions were needed to prevent American jobs from being shipped overseas, a view shared by 69 percent of Ohioans surveyed.

Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman:

Mr. Foggo's lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall, declined to comment.

Blair Criticizes Veils as 'Mark of Separation':

But Mr. Blair said Tuesday: "If we walk away before the job is done from either of those two countries, we will leave a situation in which the very people we are fighting everywhere, including the extremism in our own country, are heartened and emboldened, and we can't afford that to happen. So we have got to see that job through."

Merck Wins U.S. Approval for a New Diabetes Drug:

Tony Butler, an industry analyst at Lehman Brothers, said he expected that Januvia would have sales of $271 million next year, rising to $1.1 billion by 2010. Mr. Butler said sales of the Januvia-metformin combination pill would be $500 million more in 2010.

Man Is Convicted of Two Counts of Murder in L.I. Drunken Driving Case:

Mr. Heidgen, an insurance salesman in Manhattan, stood motionless. His mother, Margot Aponte, of Valley Stream, made no audible sound from her seat in the first row of the courtroom as the verdicts were read. As he was led away in handcuffs, Mr. Heidgen turned toward her and winked once before passing through the courtroom exit. He was scheduled to be sentenced next month.

N.L.C.S. Game 5 - Cardinals 4, Mets 2: Mets Return Home Down and Needing Some Offense:

The Mets did not score any more either, and not even an at-bat by Cliff Floyd, their injured left fielder, could inspire them. He pinch-hit in the ninth and grounded out. The game ended a minute later, and when the clubhouse opened to reporters afterward, most of the team was scarfing dinner in the kitchen. Then, the lights went out. The Mets must wait another day to see whether the same is said for their season.

Shakespeare in 2 Houses, Bloody and Plain:

Still, Mr. Falls's "Extreme Makeover" edition of "King Lear" leaves us with a harrowing awareness of the contagion of violence, even if it does not inspire floods of tears. It depicts in raw detail the chaos let loose upon the world when power is divorced from justice, and men and women are able to indulge their basest instincts in a moral and political vacuum.

International

Council Seat Still Undecided After 22 Ballots:

"You can draw one conclusion from the results," Mr. Bolton said with evident satisfaction, "that is, that Venezuela is not going to win."

Tally Narrower in Presidential Ballot in Ecuador:

The contest could signal a return to political instability in Ecuador, which has had seven presidents in the last decade.

Abbas Threatens to Dismiss Hamas Government:

In the nearby town of Nablus, soldiers fired on a wanted militant in a car, killing him and another person in the vehicle, according to the military and Palestinians.

Rice to Urge Radiation Inspections to Thwart North Korea:

In Seoul, South Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Chun Yung-woo, said the statement contained "no surprises," and was just "the usual rhetoric that they have been using," according to Agence France-Presse.

Sudanese Soldiers Flee War to Find a Limbo in Chad:

"We wish the U.N. would come and take over," said Waleed Mugammed, a 23-year-old private from Khartoum. "I don't want to go back to Darfur."

National Report

A 300 Millionth American. Don't Ask Who.:

Strictly speaking, of course, the 300 millionth American arrived long ago. According to Carl Haub, a senior demographer with the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau, since 1790 as many as 550 million people have lived in the United States.

Appeals Court Upholds Terrorist Label for a Jewish Group:

The law provides that the assets of groups designated as terrorist organizations can be frozen or seized; the groups' representatives may be barred from the United States; and providing money or other support to the groups can be a crime.

Investigation Is Just Politics, Lawmaker Says:

Mr. Weldon spoke favorably about Itera in a floor speech in 2002, traveled to Russia that year to visit the company's offices and attended the opening of its American headquarters, in Jacksonville, in 2003. When he led a Congressional delegation to Eastern Europe in 2002, Itera paid for his daughter to join him on the trip.

Suit Seeks Data on Immigration Profiling of Arabs:

All those 25 countries except North Korea have Muslim or Arab majorities, and the 80,000 men who registered were overwhelmingly Arabs and Muslims. Using that database, the committee says, would mean unfairly enforcing immigration laws amid just one community and violate the laws against profiling.

Bush Signs New Rules to Prosecute Terror Suspects:

The ruling prompted Mr. Bush to acknowledge the existence of the secret C.I.A. program. Last month, he announced he was moving 14 high-level terrorism detainees out of C.I.A. custody and to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. He called on Congress to pass a bill setting up military commissions and establishing new standards for interrogation so the C.I.A. program could go forward.

California Letter Investigated for Warning to Immigrants:

"I think Latino voters are astute enough not to be intimidated," said John Trasviña, the interim president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles. "And they've seen the same tactics used against them in the recent past as well as the farther ago past. And they won't take it."

Ex-F.D.A. Chief Pleads Guilty in Stock Case:

Mrs. Crawford's brother, William W. Walker III of Birmingham, Ala., said his sister had told him "if they had to do it over again, they'd put everything in a blind trust."

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