July 3, 2001

There was the solitary figure of Pete Sampras, with a bag slung over his shoulder and flip-flops on his feet, cutting through a courtyard outside the locker room, where several players milled about. Not one of them approached Sampras. He simply slipped out the door, climbed into the empty back seat of a white courtesy van and disappeared around an ivy-covered wall. Almost a year ago, he was surrounded like a bonfire, circled by adoring fans, his shy parents and his future wife before departing with his 13th major championship and seventh Wimbledon title as added company.

By last September, life was getting rough for Donald A. English. An unemployed single father, Mr. English was almost out of cash. His family was threatened with eviction. Collection agencies were at the door. His credit cards were mostly tapped out.

In November 1988, Andrei Sakharov, the Russian physicist, political dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner, came to the United States after he was released from years of house arrest. One of his first stops was an Italianate building on East 63rd Street that is home to the New York Academy of Sciences. There, at an emotional reception in the academy's travertine marble halls, Sakharov thanked the academy for leading the fight for his freedom. It was a proud moment in the history of the academy, which, since its founding in 1817, has claimed Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein as members. Today many people are wondering about the future of the academy, an association of scientists, engineers and doctors that has 28,000 members worldwide and is known for its scholarly publications and ground-breaking conferences on subjects like AIDS and women in science, as well as for human rights campaigns for foreign scientists.

Mideast Truce Shaken A tenuous cease-fire was strained to the breaking point when Palestinians killed an Israeli and set off bombs in retaliation for the deaths of three West Bank militants. PAGE A8

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation has published a series of articles in its official newspaper to pressure the postal administration to back off in a dispute over foreign express delivery companies. The postal service argues that it alone has the right to deliver letters and parcels in China. But the ministry, which licenses companies such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and DHL Worldwide Express, thinks the law allows foreign operations. The dispute will ultimately be settled by China's State Council, or cabinet. Craig Smith (NYT)