May 1, 2005

Seven months before Sept. 11, 2001, the State Department issued a human rights report on Uzbekistan. It was a litany of horrors. The police repeatedly tortured prisoners, State Department officials wrote, noting that the most common techniques were ''beating, often with blunt weapons, and asphyxiation with a gas mask.'' Separately, international human rights groups had reported that torture in Uzbek jails included boiling of body parts, using electroshock on genitals and plucking off fingernails and toenails with pliers. Two prisoners were boiled to death, the groups reported. The February 2001 State Department report stated bluntly, ''Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with limited civil rights.''

Riverdale, bucolic section of Bronx, is cauldron of controversy about development; some residents fear accelerating pace of construction, particularly for tall apartment buildings, threatens neighborhood; developers face resistance from civic organization, government officials and residents; race zoning changes that will limit new construction to eight stories in parts of area; map; photos (M)

The residents here, among the wealthiest in the nation, pay top dollar to live in this quiet slip of a place, happily trading convenience for woodsy acreage and maple-lined streets. The quaint old post office, straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, is the only commercial building in town, and the Fourth of July parade is the liveliest event of the year. So when Verizon Wireless proposed building a 150-foot cellular transmission tower atop one of the highest hills in town, local officials said no, thinking local zoning laws would dictate where the tower could be placed.

For the first three innings of Chien Ming Wang's major league debut yesterday, a 4-3 victory over Toronto, it looked as if he might do the unthinkable. Wang, the Taiwanese right-hander whom the Yankees called up Wednesday to replace the injured Jaret Wright, pitched three perfect innings. Whispers of a no-hitter raced across Yankee Stadium.

Security concerns outlined last month by the New York Police Department have set off a serious reassessment of plans for the World Trade Center site. People involved in the rebuilding effort say that the revisions that need to be made to the site's most prominent feature, the Freedom Tower, could delay the start of construction from several months to a year. As a result, the lead developer at the site, Larry Silverstein, has proposed seeking public financing -- possibly hundreds of millions of dollars -- to pay for addressing the Police Department's security concerns. Such a development would be a significant shift for a project that has relied largely on private insurance money.