June 1, 2005

W Mark Felt, No. 2 man at FBI in 1972, acknowledges in Vanity Fair magazine that he was 'Deep Throat,' mysterious figure who helped Washington Post unravel Watergate scandal and presidency of Richard M Nixon; was long a prime suspect to Nixon himself; Post confirms that Felt was official who encouraged its reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, to follow trail from break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Watergate complex to highest levels of Nixon administration; Woodward and Bernstein initially decline to confirm Vanity Fair article, believing they promised Felt unconditional confidentiality until his death; Post, which has tightly guarded secret, suddenly finds itself scrambling to deal with monthly magazine's scoop of final footnote to biggest story in its history; photos (L)

Bush Still Unwilling To Yield Bolton Data At a news conference in the Rose Garden, President Bush indicated he would continue to withhold data on John R. Bolton that Democrats want to see before voting on his nomination to be envoy to the United Nations. The papers include the names of American individuals and companies involved in China and other countries covered by export restrictions, according to officials who have been briefed on the papers. PAGE A10 Staying Down on the Farm The number of farms run by women has more than doubled since 1978. The concentration is especially high in the Northeast, where small farms survive through farmers' markets. DINING, PAGE F1 Prison Religion Law Upheld The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a new federal law requiring prisons to meet inmates' religious needs is a permissible accommodation of religion. PAGE A14

Supreme Court decision to throw out Arthur Andersen's conviction on obstruction of justice charge in Enron Corp scandal rekindles debate over whether firm should have been indicted; several lawyers say that prosecuting Andersen was viewed as controversial, but that it was not unjustified either in 2002 or in hindsight; firm's collapse caused lot of pain for its employees, most of whom had nothing to do with any of questionable audits; chronology of Andersen's collapse (M)

Supreme Court, with brief, pointed and unanimous opinion, overturns Arthur Andersen's conviction for shredding Enron accounting documents as that company was collapsing in one of nation's biggest corporate scandals; holds that Judge Melinda Harmon's instructions to jury failed to require necessary proof that Andersen knew its actions were wrong; decision represents little more than Pyrrhic victory for Andersen, which lost its clients after being indicted on obstruction of justice charges and has no chance of returning as viable enterprise; firm has shrunk from 28,000 employees in United States to skeleton crew of 200, who are attending to final details of closing down partnership; legal experts say that Supreme Cuort did not ultimately settle question of whether Andersen had acted with criminal intent when it allowed many of Enron's accounting papers to be be destroyed; but but that it made clear that prosecutors went too far by pressing Harmon to set such a low hurdled for jury to reach guilty verdict; Chief Justice William H Rehnquist writes opinion for court; photo (M)

The federal murder case of two retired detectives, Louis J. Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, has been something of a circus from the start. It has managed to amass some of the wildest charges of police corruption in the city's history and a rogue's gallery reaching from the underworld to the top shelf of the New York City bar. But yesterday the case outdid itself, as the family of a slain gangster threatened to sue the police, saying the department had failed to protect him from two murderers who wore badges.