April 25, 2005

Bush administration abandons its hands-off approach to Iraqi politics; presses top Kurdish and Shiite politicians to end their stalemate over forming new government with personal appeals from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice Pres Dick Cheney; there is concern about spike in mayhem from emboldened insurgency as insurgents unleash devastating technique: twin double bombings at police academy in Tikrit and ice cream parlor in Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad that kills 21 and wounds scores more; in both attacks, second bomb detonates within minutes after first, killing and wounding policemen and bystanders rushing to care for victims of initial blasts; American and Iraqi officials are blaming delay in forming new government for rise in violence in recent weeks; impact of White House pressure on top Iraqi leaders is unclear; photo (M)

Randy Johnson, 41, is the oldest player on the Yankees' roster and he has experienced almost everything. Andy Phillips, the youngest Yankee at 28 years old, had experienced almost nothing before yesterday. Johnson pitched brilliantly at Yankee Stadium, leaving the Texas Rangers helpless more through guile than force. It is not how Johnson usually does it, but he got the results he expects.

Library of Congress announces discovery of nearly full hour of tapes of Thelonious Monk quartet with John Coltrane from November 29, 1957, benefit concert at Carnegie Hall recorded by Voice of America; tapes, which include sets by Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, Ray Charles with backing sextet, Zoot Sims Quartet with Chet Baker, and Sonny Rollins Trio, show Coltrane as fully-realized improviser, at beginning of decade-long sprint toward changing jazz completely; Larry Applebaum, studio engineer, supervisor and jazz specialist who discovered tapes, comments; photo (M)

Norman Mailer is about to announce sale of his archives to Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at University of Texas in Austin for $2.5 million; archives, stored in nearly 500 boxes weighing more than 20,000 pounds, includes notebooks, family photos, memorabilia and ephemera dating back to his childhood; Mailer, in e-mail, comments on what it feels like to be relinquishing his work and reasons collection is going to Texas; photos (M)

Google, which has built a huge business out of small ads related to what people are searching for on Internet, to begin testing changes in its advertising program that will give advertisers more control over where their ads are shown, how they pay for them and what they look like; most visible change will be expanded use of ads with graphics and animation to replace short text ads that have been Google's hallmark; advertisers seeking to build brand awareness will have option to pay Google simply to show ad on its Web sites to certain number of people, rather than paying only when user clicks on ad and is sent to advertiser's Web site (M)